my neighbors 63 wagon

[moparchris]

Hey guys, I have been busy doing other things than working on my own cars. Like building a 900hp chevy for my friends boat, but thats another story. This story starts around 2002 or so. My neighbor and good friend Scott bought a 63 Dodge 330 sedan and shortly there after buys a matching wagon. Both cars are relatively clean with very minor rust. The wagon was supposed to be a driver/beater to occupy his need for speed while we restore the sedan and make it a max wedge clone. Well after 7 years it sat in his driveway and only moved 2 times to take it to Spring Fling in Van Nuys Ca to sell it. Well with no takers and after 6 years of bitching about the yard ornament, he decided it was time to get it up and running and driveable. Well he is an accomplished motorcycle racer and mechanic but has no car experience. So we took it down to my shop to get it running and fix the brakes. The master cylinder was bad and still was the single reservoir. He bought a 67 coronet tandem master for drum brakes. After a fitting fiasco we made lines and got it hooked up and attempted to bleed the system when the right rear bleeder wont tighten, it stripped out in the wheel cylinder. No biggy right? Wrong! I attempted to coax the early style splined drum off the axle and after an hour of beatings and heat I figured it would be easier to rip out the rear end and replace it with a later 8 3/4 out of a 65 b body. He had 2 of them at home and we picked one and took it to the shop. After a little paint we put it in and replaced the rear brakes and cylinders. Bled the system and finally we had brakes! So we put the wheels on and put it down. We had been running it off of a gas can because it would not run on the gas in the tank. So we started it and ran it to get it good and warm then hooked it back to the tank and it threw a fit and would barely run. After running it for a few minutes I decided to lap it around the block even if I had to push it. Upon returning it was running great so we decided to take it for a cruise. Well it ran and stopped great and aside from the square tires it drove great, even the am radio still worked!

 

[moparchris]

Some more pics

 

[moparchris]

Last ones...

 

[mcmopar]

Tritak and Morgan used to run a 383 wagon like that - in fact I have the mag article and will scan it in for you. I like those old behemoths. Cool looking cars. Amazingly that grille looks fantastic!

 

[Jim S.]

Tritak and Morgan used to run a 383 wagon like that - in fact I have the mag article and will scan it in for you. I like those old behemoths. Cool looking cars. Amazingly that grille looks fantastic!

That grill does scream "Mopar" doesn't it. Thank you Chris, for resurrecting it...........Jim

 

[ACME A12]

That grill does scream "Mopar" doesn't it. Thank you Chris, for resurrecting it...........Jim

Oh, it screams something alright...like Virgil Exner took recreational hallucinogenics...

Thanks for sharing, Chris! You'll have to show me the car in person the next time I'm out that way and our schedules mesh...

:jester:
ACME

 

[69hemibeep]

[quote="Jim S.":2v83iek7]That grill does scream "Mopar" doesn't it. Thank you Chris, for resurrecting it...........Jim

Oh, it screams something alright...like Virgil Exner took recreational hallucinogenics...

Thanks for sharing, Chris! You'll have to show me the car in person the next time I'm out that way and our schedules mesh...

:jester:
ACME[/quote:2v83iek7]
That's a face only a mother could love :jester:

 

[Basketcase]

I love the old wagons! and that grill does scream mopar. But the single bowl master is one of those "what were they thinking?"

 

[Big John]

I had a 330 sedan with a slant six. I repaired the floor with 'glass mat and fitted the dual master. I drove it for a couple years before it just got too rough.

My son was walking by the car (he was about 8 or 9) and one of the torsion bars snapped and the car kind fell down. Scared the crap out of the poor kid when the car made this big snap sound and lurched.

BTW, I have a puller for that rear drum just for those cars if anyone needs to borrow it.

 

[Hoosier Bird]

I had a sedan like that but it had a 426 cross ram in it........I took it to the junk yard cause my wife got tired of looking at it out the back door....... :brickwall:

 

[ACME A12]

I had a sedan like that but it had a 426 cross ram in it........I took it to the junk yard cause my wife got tired of looking at it out the back door....... :brickwall:

I trust that it went to the scrap yard MINUS the 426...??? :toetap:
:jester:

 

[moparchris]

I had a 330 sedan with a slant six. I repaired the floor with 'glass mat and fitted the dual master. I drove it for a couple years before it just got too rough.

My son was walking by the car (he was about 8 or 9) and one of the torsion bars snapped and the car kind fell down. Scared the crap out of the poor kid when the car made this big snap sound and lurched.

BTW, I have a puller for that rear drum just for those cars if anyone needs to borrow it.

I too have a puller but I dont remember who had it last. I was not in the mood that night so we decided to move forward and just eliminate that setup all together. Its funny because his sedan was a leaning tower of power. When we first picked it up we took it around the block, it wouldn't even burnout when neutral dropped!

I kid him about how ugly those cars are and he is pretty sensitive about it but that doesnt stop me from endlessly ridiculing it for its butt ugly looks. Oh well somebody has to like em. ot: It has a poly 318 in it right now but I am trying to talk him into putting a big block in it. The 318 is a REAL pig :horse:

 

[moparchris]

[quote="Hoosier Bird":1tjcasvx]I had a sedan like that but it had a 426 cross ram in it........I took it to the junk yard cause my wife got tired of looking at it out the back door....... :brickwall:

I trust that it went to the scrap yard MINUS the 426...??? :toetap:
:jester:[/quote:1tjcasvx]


I got dibs on the crossram if you still have it :banana:

 

[Roadcuda]

I had a sedan like that but it had a 426 cross ram in it........I took it to the junk yard cause my wife got tired of looking at it out the back door....... :brickwall:

It's too bad you couldn't have at least kept that engine Gary! There are a few cars around here with the cross ram and they always have a crowd around them.

 

[Hoosier Bird]

Body, Dana 60, block, and at the time I thought stupid looking cross ram............and went to the junk yard...........next time I was at the junkyard it was all gone. By the way, walked by a 69 Satellite and a 70 cuda 440 all in tact and at the time I thought what a stupid looking pistol grip in that car............ :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall: :brickwall:

 

[Basketcase]

well at least someone got the crossram before it got scraped.

 

[ACME A12]

I've always wondered how some incredible finds ended up in the junkyard in the first place...now we know...

When I was a teenager over in Japan in the late seventies my buddies and I would comb through the local wrecking yards looking for muscle cars. We had just about every one of them on the island mapped out like a it was a military op...

The largest yard on the island was known for really churning the scrap iron so nothing lasted there. The next two largest yards were more like automotive treasure troves... One had a red '71 GTX. N96 car with a console auto and rear wing. ALL INTACT. Probably just became too tough for the PO to get it through the Japanese Inspection process (there is nothing even close to it here in the states...) and the poor guy just gave up. Today we would consider that car to be "nice driver condition"... Same yard had a carousel red '69 Ram Air III Judge. 4-spd with 4.33 gears. All there, but a little more beaten on & rustier than the X. It would however DEFINITELY be saved if found in that condition today. The other yard was up near Torii Station (Army Post). It had a beautiful B5 '69 383 4-spd Super Bee. N96 car also. Probably a similar situation to the X as just looking at it there were no obvious signs as to how or why it ended up there... I grabbed the hood scoops and put them on my Duster. Also grabbed the 4-spd out of it only to find out that it didn't fit... :huh: My initial introduction into the differences between A-Bodies and B-Bodies at the ripe old age of 16... That yard had a lot of misc. 60's & 70's MoPars and was the one that I always went to when I was just looking for odds & ends... Ah, those were the days...

:jester:

 

[Roadcuda]

I had a sedan like that but it had a 426 cross ram in it........I took it to the junk yard cause my wife got tired of looking at it out the back door....... :brickwall:

Here you go Gary. I saw these today, this one is on a 426, there were also a set on the '62 Chrysler next to this one, but on top of a 413.