1966 Chrysler 300

in the Spring of 2020 me and my oldest son decided we wanted a "project car" to pass the time during the corona virus pandemic. after searching every day for months, we found our car in Alachua County Florida. We drove 2 hours to make sure this was this one.

There were a couple bubbles in the paint but other than that it was a "rust free" car as the seller put it. we agreed on a price and loaded it up to bring home

we brought it home knowing the engine would need a rebuild. it had a violent vibration and barely made it onto the trailer.

first things first, get the motor pulled and over to the machine shop to see how bad it is.

the engine is the original 383 B-Block, 512 closed chamber heads with a 4-barrel carb.

The crank was roached in it, journals were burnt. A new crank, mild cam, new lifters and springs, bowled the heads and new Edelbrock AVS 2 650cfm carb were installed. while the engine was out, it was time to tackle that engine bay.

this car must have been blowing oil for at least 20 years.

time to freshen it up a bit.

Paint was chosen, parts were painted.

lets get that engine back in.

things were going smooth, a little to smooth. time to fix those "small areas" of rust on this rust free car...

when I sanded off the paint I found an older restoration that looks to be early 80s, back before mig welding was a thing. and it wasn't good. talk about a swift kick in the nuts, this project car just got bigger...a lot bigger,

the more I dug into it, the worse it got. I decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right, but there was only one problem. this was a one year body style and they do not make replacement parts. that left me with option...make the panels myself

did I mention the part that I have 0 experience doing this. None, notta, zilch...but persistence paid off, along with my Uncle to guide me when I couldn't wrap my head around an issue. Hes been building cars in his backyard for years.

Quick update on the build, here's some pics of the progress..