85 LeBaron Conv't resto.

[Big_P]

I've made a few quick posts about this car but I have some time to kill this morning so I figure I'll make a longer one

Shortly after I broke up with my girlfriend, I scoured craigslist for another car. I have an 03 PT Cruiser but wanted to find a "rebound car" for myself. I had a Geo Tracker shortly that I used as a Jeep but got bored with it.

I answered an ad to a "85 Chrysler LeBaron convertible, 89k, not running. $600"

I went there to check it out and saw this:




So I thought:

Interior = good
Top = rough
Rust = meh

I had it towed home, put a rebuilt $36 starter in it, and she was good to go. I found out that it needed an ECU because the alternator wasn't charging. Couldn't find one locally, so I installed an external one.



Oh hey twins. The other one was my Dodge 600 turbo, also an 85, that succumbed to electrical problems.

But the top was just about mint so I swapped them. Actually not a big deal. It took me about 3 hours, and I only needed to call a friend over for about 10 minutes to hold the top in place while I bolted it down.






I've also never had a 'vert whose top closed so nice!

If anyone ever has a convertible whose top doesn't close evenly, (you know, have to pull on one side to get the top to lock) take the back seats out and make sure all the convertible top mechanism bolts are in place. There are 6 of them, 3 on each side. On both of my cars, some of them were loose. Once properly installed it went up and down very easily.

Fast forward to the end of last summer. I enjoyed this thing all summer long. Chicks digged it!

I managed to rear-end an Acura MDX. Thankfully I was the one that had damage, and it wasn't much at that. There was a small fold spot in the front bumper. But I wanted to get this thing painted so I took it off and sought out a new one.


You can kind of see the ding there. Call me picky.

I had the bumper from my now-parted 600 around, and figured they'd be the same.



No, they weren't. That'd look stupid.

After making forum threads, calling junkyards (even LKQ laughed at me!) I couldn't find a good front bumper. I was ready to pay hundreds for one. I found a brand new one on eBay for $86 shipped to my door. That's a deal.

I pulled the head off to delete the EGR that I'd been having problems with. Every bolt had to be drilled out because they all broke.




I plugged the side of the pipe that goes into the intake manifold too. Welded that bastard shut.

The head I installed was off an old car I had. I had it cut down .060" (for approximately 1 compression ratio increase).




Now it's paint time! The current doors were very rusty at the bottom, so I swapped 'em out with the black doors off my old 600. Swapped the lock cylinder, door panel, etc.

I bought new door pins to help solve the CREEEEEEAK I got when opening the doors. But sure enough it didn't help. The door pin kits came with oversize bushings, but there's really no way to drill out the pin hole in the door, even with a 90 degree drill.



Now it's looking more and more ghetto



Taped off and ready for paint. I should have her back tomorrow. She'll be a ruby red. I'm excited, this is the first time I've ever had a car painted!

[CoolV300C]

top looks good, cant wait to see it with new paint.

[Vigo]

Sweet!

Cant wait to see the paint.

That creaking noise usually comes from that spring plate thing that holds the door open.. you know, like new cars have a rod with detents, etc, these old things have that stupid spring plate and it's a ----- and i hate it. And that's probably your noise.

Ima check back tomorrow for those sweet pics you better post..

[Big_P]

Spring plate?

Like a door check? Where are they? I'm confused.



Paint will be done on Wednesday or Thursday. There will be pictures.

[Vigo]

IIRC if you look below the upper door hinge there is a spring plate thing on the door jamb side, and the door itself has this metal arm that reaches out and rubs against it. The springiness of the plate is what holds the door open when you open it. But if those surfaces are corroded or pitted or whatever it makes a horrible screeching sound when you open or close the door. Usually worse when you close it.

[Dodge Aries K]

Yeah, alot of my K's do that shaith. Use some oil or something and get them nice and full of slippery goodness. That usually shuts them the hell up.

[dj'sr/t]

Nice project can't wait to see more progress.

[Big_P]

Paint is done. I cant wait to get it.

[Big_P]

Back from the paint booth. It looks real good.

There was some spider cracking on the old paint on the driver's side door, but I sanded it pretty good and put some filler primer over it so it was smooth, but I guess not smooth enough and it looks kinda crappy in direct sunlight.

But, I'm happy with it and I can't wait to finish putting back all the chrome trim.

[Vigo]

dood. cool!

[moe44688]

That looks amazing. You should drop a turbo motor in that baby

[Dodge Aries K]

No turbo engine! TBI = reliable especially for Mr. Pete hahaha.

[moe44688]

^Thats understandable, its hard to be easy on a car with boost

May I suggest polishinng those rims, they would like very nice with all that chrome. Most people delete the chrome, I personaly like it on this specific year. I think I might paint all my chrome gloss black along with the rear veiw mirrors and the single hood vent and the body trim that goes all around the car, but mines a 85 GTS. I like the 2 doors more, but the 4 door will make a good sleeper

Keep us posted with more pics, I wuold like to see the car in the sun and with all chrome peices. Does it have mark cross int??

[turbovanman²]

Nice work Petey!

I thought you were marrying your ex?

[CoolV300C]

Lookin good. Nice color.

[Vigo]

Its a lot of work but those wheels WOULD look great polished on that car..

[moe44688]

Its not as much as people think, there are a few ways you can go about, snadblasting would be the best, or you can use scuff pad (forget the official name) then simply polish them up. The easiest way is the way my buddy does it, he has a spray that pretty much cleans up the rims with a wire brush after that you simply use polishing compound and your done. With a new paint job I think those rims look worse lol, the dirt really sticks.

[Vigo]

Well the real problem is you have to get through the factory clear which is actually pretty darn thick. A sandblasting cabinet will take a LONG time to get through it depending on the media.. In one direction it will take too long and in the other direction it will beat up the surface when it gets to the metal and make a little more work for you that way.

The 'easiest' way i know is to hit it with paint stripper sporadically over the course of days, otherwise you are gonna spend a lot of time staring at it watching the stripper do its work (nyuck nyuck). After you finally get to bare metal and get the surface polished you can re-clear it.

That's my basic understanding of it, ive never actually followed through after finding out how tedious it can be to get the factory clear off.

[Big_P]

Great idea adam. I bought some powerful wheel cleaner stuff hoping it'd cut most of the dirt off, but no, it appears as though it's just in the clearcoat.

I didn't know it'd be such a pain in the balls to sandblast them. That sucks. Maybe I can pick up a set of pumpers or something. I'd like to get a nice, shiny set of wheels to compliment the rest of the car.

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

Nice work Petey!

I thought you were marrying your ex?

Me? Nope! Never uttered those words to a woman

---------- Post added at 11:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

^Thats understandable, its hard to be easy on a car with boost

May I suggest polishinng those rims, they would like very nice with all that chrome. Most people delete the chrome, I personaly like it on this specific year. I think I might paint all my chrome gloss black along with the rear veiw mirrors and the single hood vent and the body trim that goes all around the car, but mines a 85 GTS. I like the 2 doors more, but the 4 door will make a good sleeper

Keep us posted with more pics, I wuold like to see the car in the sun and with all chrome peices. Does it have mark cross int??

I don't think it has a mark cross interior. I'm pretty sure it's vinyl but I had someone convince me 100% that the seats are leather. I still think they're vinyl though. I got all the chrome on and the car looks FANTASTIC. I'll upload some pics.

No turbos for me. I had a GTS too but it also got plagued by electrical problems, like some other TM's I've had.

[Big_P]

Perfect paint job? Nope. But worth the $550 all day long.