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Post by cbodymopar on Apr 27, 2012 7:08:20 GMT -5
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Post by sigmfsk on Apr 27, 2012 16:26:17 GMT -5
There are some wild pictures there, cbody! Can you provide a summary of what the swap entailed? Sorry if I missed an update in an earlier thread. your friend in catching up, thanks, arthur
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Post by cbodymopar on Apr 28, 2012 10:52:27 GMT -5
I've been really busy with my business, so I haven't been on here for a while.
I started with a rust free 1976 Royal Monaco with 77,000 miles on it. Parts car was a 75 monaco that probably should have been restored, but needed more work than I wanted at the time and this sale came up so I used it. I swaped the front fenders, all four doors, the royal had electric windows and my buyer wanted everything possible to get it close to a 74 monaco bluesmobile. I swaped back bumper, taillights, gas door cover, and bench seat
I took the front bumper off of my 74 hardtop and swaped it out, and thats when the fun began. I found out that my royal had been wrecked and the frame wasn't as straight as I would have liked it to be, so I called my buyer, told him, and we decided to take the frame out of the 75 and swap it out. Of course, the 75 front brakes, calipers, and rotors were junk, so I had to swap them also.
also changed the trunk lock because the royal didn't have a key, just button in glove box.
lining everything up wasn't as fun as I was hoping it would be but I got it pretty good.
when I swaped doors, none of the outside handles worked on the 75 doors, so I had to take all panels off and get hardware off of another parts car I had.
also had to fix carburator because the needle decided to stick open and pour gas all over intake.
All in all, it was a blast doing this project. I'm thinkn hard about getting another royal and doing the same thing again. No one seems interested in my 74 hardtop, so I might make it a donor car.
there are pics of different steps during the process on the link above the picture in 1st post. they aren't in order, but kind of give you an idea of what I did.
the new owners have a new grill that I will install when i get there. they are going to put some new tires on it and cruise it around a bit to work out all the little bugs that may be in it for setting so long. I've had the royal for about 3 1/2 yrs and never drove it, just started it once in a while. After they are sure of road readiness, they are going to paint it to be a bluesmobile. I guess they've already got 3 or 4 shows lined up for the car, and they are going to be in some big parade in Dallas, I think 2nd car in line.
Later Richard
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Post by sigmfsk on Apr 28, 2012 12:12:18 GMT -5
That's a lot of good info there, cbody. > I swaped back bumper, taillights, gas door cover, and bench seat So you swapped a 75 non-Brougham fuel access door into a 76 Brougham. Did you have any troubles here? IIRC, MBMOPAR said that after he had his civilian Brougham painted, he went to installed the RCMP non-Brougham fuel access door, and found that it wouldn't simply bolt on. So they had to be extra careful to make the modifications need to get it all to work, as the body had already been painted. Is there a blumo-specific difference in the bumpers that made it worth swapping, or are they both the same part number, but the 75 was in better shape? Oh, now I see. It was a 1977 and had the black plastic end pieces: Nice transformation! When people ask what's involved with a front clip swap, we can refer them here. your friend in taking two cars, and making one blumo, arthur
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Post by cbodymopar on Apr 30, 2012 7:27:51 GMT -5
my bad, I got yr and mileage switched around its a 77 with 76,xxx miles on it.
fuel access door was simple swap, there was room for adjustment kind of like the 4 doors. Both access doors had exact same brackets and nuts to swap out. I'll try to find some time to post some pics. if my memory is correct, my 74 appears to have the same access door, but is only held on by 2 nuts/vs the 4. I'll try and verify that also.
most everything was a simple swap, except when It came to swaping frame. it created a lot of extra work I wasn't planning on. had to pull motor, tranny, radiator, exhaust, fuel lines, steering, e-brake cable, plus i had to do same thing to parts car, then the fun of putting back together.
Later Richard
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Post by Steam McQueen on Apr 30, 2012 13:56:46 GMT -5
had to pull motor, tranny, radiator, exhaust, fuel lines, steering, e-brake cable, plus i had to do same thing to parts car, then the fun of putting back together. Blumo builds seem to create many adventures . The end result here is some fine work indeed, Richard ! That's gonna be a sweet Blumo.
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Post by sigmfsk on Apr 30, 2012 16:26:03 GMT -5
...Both access doors had exact same brackets and nuts to swap out. I'll try to find some time to post some pics. if my memory is correct, my 74 appears to have the same access door, but is only held on by 2 nuts/vs the 4. I'll try and verify that also. blusmbl posted some good pics and info here: bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=details&action=display&thread=670that I tried to summarize with this pic: I wrote: > MBMOPAR said that after he had his civilian Brougham painted, he went > to installed the RCMP non-Brougham fuel access door, and found that it > wouldn't simply bolt on. I'm thinking now that the difference may not have been a brougham/non-brougham mounting difference, but a 1974 / 1975+ mounting difference. Maybe they went to put the 1974 fuel access door on his 1975+, and it could have just attached to the studs (that are present on all 1974-1977), but they wanted to also attach the 1974 door to the bolts that are only present on 1975-1977. They could have just attached it to the 2 studs, but they modified the 74 fuel access door to also fit the bolts on the 75+ car. Well, after reading about your exact same swap without needing any modifications, that's my theory. thanks, arthur
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Post by cbodymopar on Apr 30, 2012 17:25:47 GMT -5
Thanks Steam McQueen!
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Post by cbodymopar on Apr 30, 2012 17:28:44 GMT -5
I agree Arthur,
I remember seeing the difference and thinking the same thing
Later Richard
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Post by cbodymopar on Jun 25, 2012 11:00:26 GMT -5
finally got the car delivered! they are going to take it to the paint shop and suppose to keep me updated with pics
I'll post them as I get them
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Post by ti4438 on Jun 25, 2012 12:26:59 GMT -5
We'll be watching.
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Post by Ghostbluesman (Ghostsoldier) on Jul 13, 2012 23:33:05 GMT -5
Yep, we will. Rob
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Post by cbodymopar on Oct 25, 2012 7:21:37 GMT -5
got some updated pics I've added to the link above, heres one of them below.
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Post by ti4438 on Oct 25, 2012 14:12:11 GMT -5
Most excellant.
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Post by Steam McQueen on Oct 25, 2012 23:17:19 GMT -5
Lookin' good, man!
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