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

7 minute(s) of a 137 minute read

You've seen our initial assessment, you've seen us rip the interior out, you've seen the beast start for the first time in 15 years, and you've seen it drive under its own power into our shop. 

Now you get to see drum brakes the size of some VW wheels. 

When we arrived this morning, this is how she sat:

This was the first time I actually had the chance to take a look under it, so I was impressed with the condition of the [massive] frame. Yeah, yeah, the floors are kinda rusty. We'll get there eventually.

Now, as mentioned in the video that I'll be posting shortly, we're at a cross roads on what to do about wheels/tires and a rear end. The rear end that is in it seems to be ok, but we have word that the rear drums are a nightmare to get off, even with the special tool needed - that we don't have. We also don't have tires to put on the old steelies. That is one of the most major expenses.

We do have the option of using the steelies and whitewall tires off of Tommy's dad's '57 Chevy, though (given that we can find him 2 Cragars at a swap meet. The rear end we were hoping to use (to avoid the rear brake drum issue) was from an older Ford truck, with the same bolt pattern, but it's 59 inches wide. The stock one is 55 inches. So we'd have some poke from that rear end, and adding the needed adapters for the Chevy's bolt pattern would put us too far out. Another option we had was a 53 inch width rear end with the same bolt pattern as stock, but we'd have to use the adapters for the Chevy wheels again which would put the rear wheels close to the same, and the fronts farther out. 

So we're back around to thinking we'll use the stock rear end, figure out how to get those drums off the rear so we can do brakes, and use the adapters to use the '57s wheels and tires. So after the wheel adapters, and finding Tommy's dad a couple of new wheels, we'll be out around $200.

Now I feel confused. I think I got all of that right.

'57 Chevy steelies - they'd be black before going on the Imperial.

And the car in question. A 427 is going in pretty soon.

Now on to the work.

Cut the junk exhaust off

And brakes.. I told you they were huge. The driver's side was a pain to get off.

Accumulation of parts

Since the bolts to the wheel cylinder were a pain to get to, we just decided to take the whole backing plate off.

After which we determined that the brake lines that we ordered were boxed wrong. Oh, well, that's part of it.

Paint for the backing plate

Wheel cylinder back on

Some more assembly, and they were like new.

Now that you might see our financial dilemma for the project (hey, it's a real dilemma, people!), think about donating. Hopefully we've proved that we're not spending your money to smoke dope or buy lottery tickets. We're raising this thing back from the dead. 

Here's the link to donate. We're about $130-150 away from wheels and tires. http://*******/cEZyf

Thanks everyone!

Sorry, video coming probably tomorrow. Has internet issues. 

I should have been more clear in my post - the wheel cylinders and brake shoes were new. That's what some of the donation money went to. Everything else got some cleaning via the bench grinder, and the backing plate got cleaned up in about 15 minutes and sprayed on both sides with some high temp engine enamel.

1-23-2012

We thought about that, but the original steelies are 15s, and the whitewalls on the Chevy steelies are 14s. The old F150 steelies we have on there are just so darn ugly, and the tires are huge. The look we're going for is too subtle in the wheel and tire department to accommodate big honkin' trunk tires. 

Another problem is that whitewall tires are so expensive. We could make our own, but we'd have to find the same brand raised white letter tires. 4 tires with those specifications are going to be hard to come by for anywhere close to $200. Unless you guys can prove us wrong (and we hope you can!). Like we've said before - this is extreme budget status. We're determined to keep this project total under $1,000. We're doing pretty good so far. It's running and has front brakes for $100.