1967 Belvedere II

This is my 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II. It was originally a 273 engine but was replaced with a 318 engine, 340 cam, 340 intake and 4bbl carb. It has an auto on the column and 8 ¾ Sure Grip. I purchased it from the second owner who bought it in 1969.

Here are some shots of the previous owner (PO) showing me the car when I looked at it late Sunday at the 2006 Chryslers at Carlisle show. I kept in touch with the owner and we finally agreed on a price and I got it in October 2006. Ed and I traveled down to Maryland for a cyclocross bike race where the guy met us. We took turns driving the car back to my house. We had no problems but it took a while to get used to the drum brakes!

The trunk was solid with only some surface rust. I cleaned it up, pounded out some dings, touched up the paint and bought a new trunk mat.

The left floor was rusty. I bought a new full-length floor and began cutting out the old floor with a 3” disc cutter and a little jigsaw.

I finished cutter out the front section of the floor. It was very tight in there with the brake pedal and dash in the way. The rear floor was bent when the PO ran over something. I fixed that and applied POR15 to the bare metal.

The new floor is set in place. Getting it to fit just right is the hardest part. The parking brake was removed. Three of the sides attach just like they did at the factory. The inside section gets butt-welded to the transmission tunnel.

The welding is don on the floor. It’s solid now! I ground the plug welds and the long butt weld on the transmission tunnel. The dents in the rear foot pan have been fixed. The floor was cleaned, sanded and painted with POR15 top and bottom. The parking brake cable was broken so I installed a new one as part of this project.

The rear of the quarter panels were rusted off along with the lower part of the trunk extensions. I used masking tape to mark off where to cut off the rusty quarter. I used the excess metal from the quarter panel patches to make the trunk extension. You can see where I marked for the recessed areas. After butt-welding the patch I smoothed the welds and applied POR15.

The quarter patch was trimmed and butt-welded. I welded a small section at a time to avoid warping. The repair came out great but I still had to deal with rust on the wheel arch and dogleg area.

The wheel arch was much worse than it looked. I had to cut out the entire lip and make a new one. The outer wheelhouse was rusted along that area so I had to make that too. In the lower right picture you can see dents and a nasty crease in the front of the quarter where the PO’s girlfriend hit something.

The dogleg patch has been welded in and the welds have been smoothed. Next up are the nasty dents in front of the wheel. Since I don’t have a stud welder to pull out dents I used a slide hammer and a nail. I welded the nail to the panel and pulled with the slide hammer. It worked well but the big crease had the metal stretched too far to be pulled out. I had to use the 3” disc cutter to slice the center of the crease and then pull it out.

I striped the paint and applied filler. I was under a lot of pressure because I wanted to have this ready for Mopar Rebellion’s Kick Off to Carlisle on Thursday night. These pictures are from Wednesday night!

The fender had a little rust too. It was more of the same. Cut out about a 4x4 inch section. I made a template using a manila folder and transferred that to the new metal. The patch fit perfectly.

The last of the filler has been applied and sanded. A heavy primer is applied and sanded to get everything straight. Once everything has been cleaned and cleaned again it’s time to apply epoxy primer and paint. There are only a few hours until the show. I still have to put the trunk together, install the rear bumper, replace the door hinge, install the new carpet, interior panels, seats and door. Sometime during all of this I was able to upholster the rear seat.

The gauge cluster was removed and all the contacts were cleaned. The light bulbs were replaced and the needles on the gauges were painted. The trim on the cluster and above the steering column were painted bright silver and cleared. Most of the chrome has been polished. The brake and parking brake foot pads were replaced with new ones. I made it to the Kick Off as most people were leaving.