Crazy? Probably....

Welcome to the blog!

In the spring of 2008 I completed a 1970 Big-Block Plymouth Duster project (chronicled here) after 5 long years of blood, sweat, and too much money spent. Funny thing was, a few months after giving birth, the "postpartum" blues set in and I felt the urge to have another one - another project, that is.

This one would be my wife's. I was kind of excited at the prospect. She had always been very supportive of the hobby and helpful but had never really been hands-on - you know, grease under the fingernails and all. Yeah, this would actually be her project and she would do the work with my help. Well, she set about looking for a suitable child using the Auto Trader. We already had an A-Body and B/E Body Mopars were likely beyond our budget. She had always wanted a convertible to tool around town in and lo and behold spotted a '69 Newport ragtop a few hours away at a reasonable price. She made the calls to the seller and set a day and time to meet and check it out.

The 'ol Newport turned out to be reasonably straight but pretty rough around the edges. Someone had done a color change and even went as far as spray painting the interior black.The carpet was wet, the top wouldn't go up, there was cancer where you'd expect, some side glass missing, and wiring hanging from the dash. Hmmmmm. We probably should have walked away. Most sane people would have. But being the masochistic glutton for punishment that I am who suffers from occasional lapses in good judgement, we laid down the cash and drove it away. Wife drove the good car and my son, Austin, rode shotgun with me. We zipped up our sweatshirts and drove the 3 1/2 hours home over a mountain pass. It drove fine and we made it without incident: a testament to good old Chrysler engineering. Love these old land yachts.

That was September 2008. After doing some minor work on it and discovering how truly rough this old girl was around the edges - and with the economy going south - we ended up parking it for a couple of years.

In the Spring of 2010 I thought I might try to sell it - but I didn't try very hard. Instead I got bit by that bug to do something with it again. My wife graciously relinquished the reigns of "her project" to me. It wouldn't be a full restoration but a restomod budget build - if there is such a thing anymore. At least, that's the plan. Egad! Here we go again.

Newport  comes out of borrowed storage for some sunlight

F*t bottomed girl

Ugh...!

We got the car out of borrowed storage and I began collecting some of the parts and pieces I knew it would need to look respectable again. I even found the glass I needed on Ebay, brand new. Yup, I was committed now in more ways than one.

The last hurdle was to get the Duster out of my small shop and safely tucked away to make room for this behemoth. And with that accomplished just weeks ago, here we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get some serious work done. My 13 year old son suffers from the same wrench turning madness as his old man. He'll be my partner in crime, of sorts, on this project. And, that's really cool.