Resurrecting Grandpa's Dinosaur - a rebuild story. (1963 Chrysler Imperial) by topdawag_mc4

7 minute(s) of a 137 minute read

Another video update, with more to come tonight..

Also, with the donation we received from a forum member, we bought some parts! More on that to come, too.

Checking out the tires to see if we can get it rolled into the shop, and donated goods!

1-6-2012

Parts!

Ok, to prove that we're not just asking for your money to spend on pizzas and gasoline, we documented the parts that were bought with donation money.

Huge thanks to Lwize, who funded these parts!

1-7-2012

Distributors in! Tomorrow we'll hopefully see if this dinosaur will run!

1-8-2012

Ok, I guess I'm going to call this part 1 of a 2 part update. 2 parts because the latest video is still uploading 

So, thanks again to forum member Lwize, we made a lot of progress today. He donated to help us get the bare essentials needed to get this thing back on the road. Me and Tommy are what you would refer to as "poor," but we still like to enjoy automotive projects. You'll see what Lwize did for us in both parts of this update, and we'd love if you would like to do the same! You can go here to do so: http://*******/cEZyf Of course, if you still think we're just stealing your money, sit tight and you'll see what it is going to. 

We'll start with pictures.

This morning, this is what we were working with

Thanks to the donation mentioned above, we were able to purchase a distributor, distributor cap, rotor, and more. The distributor is what we were working with today. Our goal was to get the motor running

So off with the cap

Old

Marking the old for timing

We got distracted for a few minutes throwing aluminum cans to T.J.

Right, so the new distributor ready to go in

And... In with the new

At this point it was time for lunch. We checked the tranny fluid before we left.

It looked ok, but we still decided to pick some up after lunch since it would need a flush before any real driving. Also pictured, one of the most amazing liquids produced by man.

Now, the distributor was the reported cause of problems last time an attempt was made to get it running. So that was our first plan of action. We already made sure the motor would actually turn over, as seen in our first video. Next was to rig an alternate fuel source to the pump since the old tank has gaping holes in it.

Mini cell found

But we got distracted again

Anyway, Tommy fastened the hose to the fuel pump

And the cell found a new home on top of the 2 foot gap between grill and radiator

I should take this time to explain Mississippi weather. I know most forum members are not from the far southeast. Today it was in the 70s. 3 days ago it was in the 30s. Today it was not, so when clouds gathered overhead it rained, not snowed

When we got back to it about a half hour later, it was time to try to get it started. THIS THING TURNS OVER UNBELIEVABLY SLOW.

We ended up taking out the plugs and cleaning them

After that....

Well, you'll have to wait for the video. Blame my poor upload speed for the wait.

Broken down a little bit, but not sludge. Our worries were checking the dipstick and the oil level being way above full. That means either water or gas got in. Gas not as big of a deal, but obviously water would have been. Thankfully the oil level read right between the lines. All of the fluids will be flushed, of course, but for starting purposes we just went with what was in there.

I'm actually the guy behind the camera. We survive just fine, though.

Yep, two cycle oil. Just to get everything good and lubed up.

As you can probably tell in the video, we're missing on a cylinder or three, and that 413 is loud. We're really happy that all it took was a distributor, a spark plug cleaning, and 24V of power to get it going. We ran it again today for a while and played with the timing and it's running much smoother. Our next step as far as engine parts go are plugs and wires, though. Hopefully we'll be running on all 8 cylinders then.

There's also a pretty considerable vacuum leak, and of course we shredded a belt so there's that to add to expenses.

So, Lwize got the Dinosaur running! If anyone else cares to donate (here: http://*******/cEZyf), we can get some more needed parts and continue the project!

Next update should come mid next week. Thanks, guys.