- 2
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Kevin Mueller
Приєднався 20 січ 2015
Restoring a Junkyard Christine Clone, 1958 Plymouth Belvedere
This is a five year restoration of a junkyard car. It was as rusty as anything you ever saw and we took extraordinary care to completely de-rust and rustproof the resulting movie-car clone. The text below goes into much greater detail if interested. Otherwise, just enjoy the show!
History:
This 1958 Plymouth saw her first restoration attempt abandoned long ago. When I found her she had 1972 newspapers still taped in place and many pounds of lead melted into the rusty fender caps, there were two sets of replacement rocker panels screwed in place, the first of which was also rusted away. We reused the second. I suspected that the owner may have passed away part way through the work and the family kept it garaged and untouched for the next 27 years. Changing circumstances eventually led to the car being junked.
I happened by just in time, she was sitting low to the ground along with some other new arrivals. My first thought was to buy the side trim off the car as I knew it was quite valuable. My second thought was a little more bold.
Whatever you want, I thought, it's not enough! When Jim Swaine said $700 dollars, I nearly fell over. My dad and I raced to the nearest bank. I had them deliver it to my parents summer home, 50 miles away. The driver stopped at the first gas station and the first customer to walk past correctly identified her by name.
I trailered her back to Illinois where I began to confront the cars desperate condition. I ended up storing it for a decade myself. The motor was stuck but I rebuilt the 2-barrel and replaced the plugs and wires and after freeing her up, she actually ran. The Powerflight had to be driven about 10 miles in first gear before it would warm up enough to shift into second so I located a Torqueflight at the late Eldon Millers junkyard in Viola Wi. He charged me $35 since he was winding down the business. That one was unsalvageable but I never told him that, I just asked to buy a second some months later and had it rebuilt by Randy Foltz in Rockford. Pfeiffers in Freeport Illinois rebuilt the engine .040 over and I had many parts chromed and powdercoated. I installed NOS springs and torsion bars and did all the alignment and other mechanical details before restarting the long stalled restoration. She was remarkably complete, but needed bumper wings which I located online when that was still possible.
I have made many changes including Hazard Flashers and a custom re-created wiring harness, which was altered to correct the oddball turn signals. These cars used the same side for both left and right turn indications and the other side, with a red lens, for the high beam indicator. That's just nuts! I salvaged another green lens and drilled a hole for an LED high beam indicator in the common aluminum part. I rolled the odometer of the authentic eBay sourced Fury speedo into the correct position to allow her to pick up where she left off and relocated the mirror, welding the dash hole shut.
Kevin McCracken did all the heavy lifting as seen in the video. He converted western '57 Plymouth front fenders using NOS '58 headlight panels and buckets and went well beyond the four NOS patch panels seen in the rear quarters. The car took two 4x8 foot sheets of original gauge steel to save. I ground all the welds. I also did the gas tank conversion and hereby dedicate the result to Virgil Exners exceptional crew, the plan had been to hide the filler from the '57 Forward Look cars onward, but budgetary issues pushed that back until the 1960 model year. The K-Car filler I used works perfectly with no spillage during refueling. She has a 20 gallon 1961 Chrysler tank which fits a little tight but works very well.
Upon learning what I had drug home I had fairly low expectations. The plan was just to fix it up and paint it. Somewhere along the way she began to blossom and I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved.
Thank you for your interest!
-KevFin
Kevin Mueller, Rockton, Illinois.
History:
This 1958 Plymouth saw her first restoration attempt abandoned long ago. When I found her she had 1972 newspapers still taped in place and many pounds of lead melted into the rusty fender caps, there were two sets of replacement rocker panels screwed in place, the first of which was also rusted away. We reused the second. I suspected that the owner may have passed away part way through the work and the family kept it garaged and untouched for the next 27 years. Changing circumstances eventually led to the car being junked.
I happened by just in time, she was sitting low to the ground along with some other new arrivals. My first thought was to buy the side trim off the car as I knew it was quite valuable. My second thought was a little more bold.
Whatever you want, I thought, it's not enough! When Jim Swaine said $700 dollars, I nearly fell over. My dad and I raced to the nearest bank. I had them deliver it to my parents summer home, 50 miles away. The driver stopped at the first gas station and the first customer to walk past correctly identified her by name.
I trailered her back to Illinois where I began to confront the cars desperate condition. I ended up storing it for a decade myself. The motor was stuck but I rebuilt the 2-barrel and replaced the plugs and wires and after freeing her up, she actually ran. The Powerflight had to be driven about 10 miles in first gear before it would warm up enough to shift into second so I located a Torqueflight at the late Eldon Millers junkyard in Viola Wi. He charged me $35 since he was winding down the business. That one was unsalvageable but I never told him that, I just asked to buy a second some months later and had it rebuilt by Randy Foltz in Rockford. Pfeiffers in Freeport Illinois rebuilt the engine .040 over and I had many parts chromed and powdercoated. I installed NOS springs and torsion bars and did all the alignment and other mechanical details before restarting the long stalled restoration. She was remarkably complete, but needed bumper wings which I located online when that was still possible.
I have made many changes including Hazard Flashers and a custom re-created wiring harness, which was altered to correct the oddball turn signals. These cars used the same side for both left and right turn indications and the other side, with a red lens, for the high beam indicator. That's just nuts! I salvaged another green lens and drilled a hole for an LED high beam indicator in the common aluminum part. I rolled the odometer of the authentic eBay sourced Fury speedo into the correct position to allow her to pick up where she left off and relocated the mirror, welding the dash hole shut.
Kevin McCracken did all the heavy lifting as seen in the video. He converted western '57 Plymouth front fenders using NOS '58 headlight panels and buckets and went well beyond the four NOS patch panels seen in the rear quarters. The car took two 4x8 foot sheets of original gauge steel to save. I ground all the welds. I also did the gas tank conversion and hereby dedicate the result to Virgil Exners exceptional crew, the plan had been to hide the filler from the '57 Forward Look cars onward, but budgetary issues pushed that back until the 1960 model year. The K-Car filler I used works perfectly with no spillage during refueling. She has a 20 gallon 1961 Chrysler tank which fits a little tight but works very well.
Upon learning what I had drug home I had fairly low expectations. The plan was just to fix it up and paint it. Somewhere along the way she began to blossom and I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved.
Thank you for your interest!
-KevFin
Kevin Mueller, Rockton, Illinois.
Переглядів: 237 616
Outstanding job, hope you still have it.👍🏻
Yop, here you can see a Christine awaken...😊
I think a good ending to the music video would be Christine's Hood slamming shot like in the movie but not too hard you don't want to damage anything....
So awesome I really enjoyed watching her be reborn. What color is that red?
Cool video thank you 👍😊👍 great job 👍👍👍.
How much bondo
How did you do this? Price and time?
just awesome
150 mph on the speedometer though…
Nice job! This would be cool to go to the Drive-in and watch Christine on the big screen. I'd be afraid to park next to it😅
It looks great, wonderful job. I loved the movie Christine and the other movie The Car. I took my girlfriend to both and they scared the hell out of her. Thanks for bring Christine back🙂
Very nice. Why relocate the gas filler?
You sure did a hell of a great job. Christine is just beautiful 😍
I think Christine should be mandatory viewing screened free on the telly once a week❤
My sister had a black 1958 Belvedere years ago. I loved that car. It had the black and red interior, but someone had switched the bench seat for two, what we were told, Mustang bucket seats. They were blue vinyl. The back seat material had worn and so she had a Native American type blanket on the back seat custion I remember when she said she had to junk it because the rear end was going out. I was so young, I thought the trunk was going to fall off - as that's what is in the rear end of the car. She put it out in front of her house and within 2 hours she sold it. I miss that car.
living the dream! :)
Esplêndido !!!
When people Restore Cars it's great at the finish.They are like works of art but it takes alot to get to the finish product.
Awesome. I adore your work. Perfect. Five years…. That is a long period of time. I love it. 😊
😮❤
Save the Old Vintage Cars, they need to be saved! ❤❤❤😊😊😊
wooooooooooow
Ok show me
She’s pretty easy to restore… all you need to do is love her…. All right, show me!
Beautiful work. My favorite car ever…Christine
Thank you for restoring her she is a beautiful machine
Ok.........show me. Arnie Cunningham
Beautiful, 58 was a really good year.
Christine is a Fury…
great job beautiful🤩
Mr. B. Here ! This is a cool car 🚗🎸🎼🎵🔊🎶🔧🔨🧰⚒️🛠️ 🌭🍔🍺🍺
Ok... Show Me..
wow, thats beautiful, better then a E V
0:00 now laugh *BAD TO THE BONE RIFF*
Great job. Great editing with the music, too.
Awesome job and awesome car. Thanks.
I guess the radio didn't come on when you started it.. ....
The bondo company made a lot of money on this one .
👍👌👏 Unbeliiiievably fantastic! Congrats. Best regards luck and health.
Very nice!
No vaya a cobrar vida el carro !,,,,
Kids got good hands
Christine was a 1958 Plymouth Fury, not a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere, Just saying.
Wow, great work. 🙂
Cool as the tip of the ice man's tool !!! Fair play to all who crafted this ultra Awsome machine back from the dead. Much respect 👍👍
Beautiful job
Djficn
I just don't get why everyone wants a "2 stage" paint job, base coat and the clear coat. It stinks! Automotive enamel, or single stage is far superior simply because 2 stage always has an issue of the clear coat separating from the base coat. Pure garbage. We used Dupont Deluxe, RM AlfaCryl and back in the 50's and 60's GM had Magic Mirror. What I'm saying is that base coat-clear coat sucks, no fucking good.
Great job Amazed at how straight the body work is you sure you did this or did Christine restore herself 😆because we all know she can do that prefabrication probably took some time considering you can't find panels for these car
Great job did bodywork for 18 yrs did a 68 Roadrunner almost 20 yrs ago.🙂