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Post by 77granfury on May 2, 2022 13:12:44 GMT -5
I love watching your build unfold...great pics and commentary. Keep up the great work! I think I screwed up the "quote" button as it's an old quote, or clicked on the wrong post - CYNOT! Just meant to say: Thank you! You know that we'll visit you when (if???) we make it to Joliet/Chicago! I'll let you know the details closer to the date and hope you have time! Let's put it this way, at the moment I wouldn't trust the Bluesmobile to make it even to Detroit without blowing rubber fuel lines, coolant hoses, our rad should be renamed "street Titanic" as we must have hit an iceberg somewhere along the way with it judging by the green liquid trail we leave behind and maybe the decade old 245/60-15 tires should be retired and replaced with 4 taller 235/70-15. We have almost 2 months to address the issues, that's basically a lot of time and 5 paycheques :-) We are optimistic! |
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Post by 77granfury on May 2, 2022 13:27:06 GMT -5
Just a quick post to say "goodbye" to Winter 2021/22 for once and for all. Entering the month of May means for us in the Great White North: NO MORE SNOW for at least 7 months! Here's a little quiz for you, especially if you live somewhere further South in the US: What is a "SNOWMOBILE" (also called a "Snomo")?
A snowed-in Blumo. (It did seem funny at first...)  Happy Monday to you all! |
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Post by Steam McQueen on May 4, 2022 11:30:53 GMT -5
I still love the look of our amber lights. Very cool. And I assume they do not attract mosquitoes  .   |
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Post by 77granfury on May 5, 2022 22:28:56 GMT -5
I still love the look of our amber lights. Very cool. And I assume they do not attract mosquitoes . Nope, but Lil' Elwood attracts female mosquitoes... We care more about "rollers"... Remember, the official excuse for these Chinese LED lights is that we currently don't have any marker lights/blinkers in the front - AT ALL. So we need to sport our "Fast and Furious" Halo lights until we finally come up with a solution. ....but then you see the current Dodge Challenger in your rearview mirror with those lights on, and suddenly it all makes sense and looks a bit like an essential Dodge-thing... |
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Post by 77granfury on May 8, 2022 16:49:59 GMT -5
Today we're not only celebrating MOTHER'S DAY, but also our FIRST ANNIVERSARY with our Bluesmobile! This is worth an Anniversary Post!
Last year, May 8th was a Saturday, the day before Mother's Day, and the day we picked up the shiny "golden fawn" coloured Grand Fury. My wife had just successfully passed her G-License test - she was now certified to drive all by herself - and this combined with the upcoming Mother's Day might have given her a bit of a wrong idea... I know that because she excessively used the words "own" and "SUV" in the days before, especially around payday and in general when I was around. So "Lil' Elwood" and me thought we'll give her an early Mother's Day morning scare - and parked the new purchase carefully on the front lawn as soon as she fell asleep. We picked up a huge pink ribbon, kids window paint at the dollar store and started immediately to write our best wishes for Mother's Day on the windows. Once done - because we're really nice guys - we loaded the passenger seat with an electric heated massager sort of thing and a similar device where she can put her feet in. With heated Norwegian stones. Because that's what the commercial made me believe every woman needs. We went to bed excited for her reaction. What could possibly go wrong?  A 1974-77 C-Body Dodge or Plymouth, THE BEST Mother's Day gift?  Well, to my surprise...the whole plan backfired. B A D L Y.I'm not going into detail, but there were tears, I heard somebody yell "Take that ugly yellow banana off the front lawn!!!!", the day was ruined and she didn't even bother to open the passenger door to find her ACTUAL gift. I had the car within 3.4 seconds back in the driveway, ribbon in the trunk and all paint scrubbed off the windows... she felt "embarrassed in front of the whole neighborhood". The commercial was wrong. She didn't care about heated Norwegian rocks OR ME that moment, nor actually in the next 72 hours - or even more.... :-) At this point we decided NOT to buy her a Mopar Magazine with focus on formal C-Bodies in golden fawn or similar yellow-ish/tan colours to make up for the failed attempt to make her day special. It should take weeks - actually MONTHS - before she made peace with the Bluesmobile and even sat in it a few times.
FAST FORWARD to 2022 This year, we took it easy on the "wife-gifts" - not because we're not good at it (cough...), but it seems that "back to basics" is a thing now. "Flowers - Home cooked breakfast - Home made cards by the kids" is the best combination - and doesn't break the bank, either. We had another lady to care about. And she needed shoes. TALLER shoes. The 245/60-15s were NOT what she should've been wearing, it was just what I had for her at the time. To surprise her, we scored on an almost brand-new set of BF Goodrich Radial T/As in 235/70-15 shoes - which is the correct Bluesmobile size I believe - for under $100! We showed her the shoes, she was silent. COMFORTABLY silent. No yelling, no tears, just SWEET silence... :-) And then as our little Mother's Day's excursion (as usual, without females.... god, we will pay for that!), we had the pleasure of meeting Markinblues in Toronto! He's not only one of the nicest guys we've ever met, he's also very knowledgeable and hooked us up with a huge speaker for an upcoming...Bluesmobile related...project and the holy grail of all front bumpers...the movie correct '74 in near perfect shape! Huge THANK YOU to him!  I hope you all have a great Mother's Day! |
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Post by 77granfury on May 11, 2022 13:41:56 GMT -5
PART 13: The Nose Job.We might have to re-phrase that, but I'm at a loss of words for the current type of surgery. The "nose" is the header panel. What is the "bumper"? (looking forward to start a thread on the rear end transformation and call it an "Ass Job" :-) Fact is: our Gran Fury bumper stuck out like a sore thumb and "Lil' Elwood" turned up the pressure on me to finally tackle the bumper swap. The Fury/Gran Fury bumper is shaped differently, AND it leaves a one inch gap between bumper and lights, we do NOT like that. The good news: any Monaco bumper will bolt right on to a Fury/Gran Fury. You don't need to mess around with bumper shock length, all 74-77 Furys/Gran Furys seem to use the same length bumper shock as the 74/75 etc non Royal, non hidden headlight Monacos. And: it's super easy to do, I had no idea. I took the grille off, 2 bolts from the top, 2 bolts from the bottom, done. Even in Canada where most screws and bolts are rusted in place. SOLID. The bad news: You change one thing, it leads to a new problem. The rubber/plastic bumper fillers in the bottom front of the fenders are too short to tuck under the new Monaco bumper now. Using a Monaco bumper filler might not work because of the body line in the fender....so we might have to "frankenstein" something up to "extend" the existing bumper filler a couple inches... We'll just let the pictures do the talking: BELOW: The look we were going for. 1974 Monaco bumper, no bumper horns. To the right: '75 bumper we would have settled for. No partitions. Slightly different shape. One piece grill. Hell, we would have "settled" for ANY Monaco bumper, had we known how much of a difference it really makes! ![]()  ![]() BEFORE: Clearly visible - the ugly gap between bumper and grille/lights. Let's say...we enjoyed the extra cooling for the time being...
 BELOW: with only the grille off, you already have unrestricted access to the upper bumper bolts. The lower 2 bolts are easily accessible from below.  BELOW: and...OFF with the old... if anyone needs some shiny Gran Fury parts ....cough.... BELOW: I needed a little help from my buddy Jack. Those bumpers weigh as much as half a modern complact car! Note: you can clearly see where the bumper horns were... BELOW: Then Quality Control showed up and gave me a hard time... BELOW: At least Quality Control knew how to install the grille correctly - and fast. BELOW: Done! It's unbelievable how much of a difference a front bumper makes - even if it's still dirty - but since it's the Bluesmobile, we embrace dirt.
 We were lucky to have started out with a 76/77 Royal Monaco bumper for parts and a nice 74 Monaco bumper. After removing the bumper horns from the 74 bumper, we salvaged some chrome bolts off the 76 bumper and plugged the bumper horn holes with them. Now there is no more excuse for not having a push bumper...but first we had to address a different issue:   ABOVE: the Gran Fury rubber bumper fillers are too short and don't tuck in under the bumper as they should. Trip to the junkyard turned to be a gold mine...
BELOW: On the left the Gran Fury bumper filler, on the right the Royal Monaco....what a size difference! After taking over the metal bracket and stretching the filler a bit....:  On the right you can clearly see that the Royal Monaco bumper filler isn't straight on top, I assume the step is from where the filler was mounted to the Royal nose/header panel. For anyone that attempts to do the same thing with his Gran Fury, I think 1974/75 "correct header panel" Monacos would have had a nicer fitting filler without the step, we'll use some "filler on the filler" to hide the gap. Overall I'm impressed how this more than twice the size bumper filler with a completely different body contour could be stretched and bolted in place well enough to hide its heritage to the untrained eye... BELOW: It's not the correct way to do this, but it does the job. We'll "massage" it a little more. Next task on the list: the push bumper and more... Coming soon....
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Post by cynot on May 12, 2022 6:32:29 GMT -5
Good stuff!  |
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Post by 77granfury on May 30, 2022 18:18:15 GMT -5
PARTS HUNT - or: "How we went to find a few odds and ends and became hoarders..."Times are bad for car enthusiasts. Gas prices are at an all time high with no signs of a change in sight, most car manufacturers announced the end of the combustion engine and try to shove electric cars down our throats - but the worst is: scrap metal prices are at an all time high and most of the junkyards we "frequent" gladly crush anything on their lots that they can turn into a quick buck. Not many junkyards around here let me take my Lil' Elwood onto their lots - liability etc. - and I have only a handful of yards (ONE) where the owner is careless and reckless enough to let little kids face incredible dangers like broken glass, rusty metal, mold, sharp edges - just like on daddy's driveway - and just like all generations before experienced. Hell, each one of us has their own stories on what we played with at 4ft tall that involved fire, electricity, homemade weapons and explosives of all kinds - and we all live, although we never wore a neon-coloured helmet lit with 14 LEDs. Most of us even have all their fingers - and even better: stories to tell... Where was I? ...yes. The yard I take my son to was all STACKED with old military machinery, 50s Chevy trucks, 60s Cadillacs, 70s Trans Ams and 80s Cutlass Supremes, they've been sitting there for decades, overgrown with moss, weeds and trees. This year we were shocked to find ALL the classics CRUSHED! Piles of hubcaps from the 60s and 70s - CRUSHED! This place was like a museum, glad I took many pictures with my son last year, because it's gone for good. If this is a trend - and I bet it is - then the yards with old classics are soon cleaned out and gone forever. A few members here told me about an old junkyard West of Toronto that has hundreds if not thousands of cars from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, you can only go there in spring or fall or it'll be completely overgrown, and the place was amazing, prices were really good, we found quite a few Gran Furys and Royal Monacos and we had a great time, but then a buddy told me about a yard close to me that "used to be a junkyard, but the owner died in the 80s", his son had no interest and the guy that looks after the property might let us in "to take some pictures". We went there, it's a small house in a village, but once you get in and walk over a bridge up a hill into the forest, you're suddenly in a place where time stood still:  ![]()  ABOVE: Royal Monaco Wagon. Interior all there, but the missing floors let in animals.... ALSO ABOVE: One of the many Gran Furys, they seem to be more common than Royals/Monacos   ABOVE: Another Royal, but this could have been a Police car. Tags missing, so is the engine/transmission. Interior has Police door cards, rubber floor and black steering wheel, horn pad already gone.   ABOVE: As mentioned above, police door cards, black steering wheel, black rubber flooring... ABOVE: That's a '74 - tan interior! This could have become a movie car in 79/80....but it wasn't lucky.  ABOVE: A 1974 Monaco Brougham! Unfortunately a "Blues Brother" must have been here before us, it has the "Royal Fender Cut". 120mls speedo. No vinyl top, no AC.    ABOVE: more of the 74 Brougham. Door stickers, dashboard and - from the green Royal above, the radio block off plate that someone broke in half while removing the instruments. Also found the other block-off plate...   ABOVE: Then in a patch of way older cars (that means it's had a short life), we find a 1976 Gran Fury, original a black and white police car! PK41 on the tag - also E57? That means 360 2bbl???   ABOVE: 76 Gran Fury Police Package - it's in primer, but you see the spots that show the doors were white. Passenger mirror! We were looking for one! Blue interior, all door cards inside!   ABOVE: Ticket light, black steering wheel and front bench seat, 2bbl carb. Also above: another 74 that is so rusted out that nobody even took the header panel!   ABOVE: My preferred horn-ring-steering wheel donor: Cordobas! There were plenty, but 3 had the desired wheel: in black (gray?), tan and red.   ABOVE: A 1974 Fury HT Coupe and another Royal Monaco. Blue interior in nice cloth but/because doors were all locked. I could've posted hundreds more finds of a couple Plymouth GTX's, Gremlins and Pacers, SEVERAL 68/69 GTOs, an Edsel, 58 Century and Bonnevilles and countless 50s trucks, but these were basically the C-bodies we found in the last 3 weeks. In the second yard, cars were mostly untouched, and you feel like you just discovered the Nazi gold - but in the Brazilian rainforest - whilst mosquitos and ticks chew away on your skin... We'll go back to both yards as soon as we can. Two things:1. If someone needs something bad, I'm more than happy to grab it, just let me know. 2. What would you recommend taking - especially off the cop cars? Is there anything we should get other than a couple horn-ring steering wheels, the VIN tag, mirror and ticket light? Is it worth grabbing incomplete door-card sets? Headlight mounting brackets? Broken cigarette lighters? Actually one more thing:Go to your yard as long as you can. Every weekend counts. It'll all be gone the sooner or later - especially with the scrap prices being through the roof - and we'll never see anything like this again. Once they're gone, they're gone!
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Post by flcl64 on May 31, 2022 15:02:40 GMT -5
I really need that 74's clip, but of course; Canada. How much to to grab and ship?
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Post by tk826 on May 31, 2022 22:02:17 GMT -5
There used to be a many of those types of yards around here. All gone now.
Replaced by either a Starbucks, and/ or a Pre-fab housing subdivision.
For the few that do remain, the oldest thing you'll likely find is something from the late 90's. Shame.
Personally, I would grab anything you can find.
Any police style upper door panels, incomplete or not, I'd say are definitely worth it.
In fact, any police specific items are worth holding on to.
And of course any 140 speedos are like gold.
Another easy grab are the side marker light lenses. Two screws and they are out.
Also, any C-Body wagon should have the correct ceiling mounted rear-view mirror.
If you come across a decent headrest, I'd be in for that. Mine is developing a crack.
Probably a long shot, but also looking for a new snap strap that holds the drivers side door pocket closed.
* Something else came to mind.
Also looking for another front fender antenna mount.
This way I can keep the original as is, and have a second to spot weld a bent coat hanger onto.
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Post by Steam McQueen on Jun 2, 2022 8:32:02 GMT -5
ABOVE: Then in a patch of way older cars (that means it's had a short life), we find a 1976 Gran Fury, original a black and white police car! PK41 on the tag - also E57? That means 360 2bbl??? ABOVE: 76 Gran Fury Police Package - it's in primer, but you see the spots that show the doors were white. Passenger mirror! We were looking for one! Blue interior, all door cards inside! ^ Amazing. We have a pic of the day that very car was delivered ! In the top row (L-R) you see 3 cars then a gap, then count three more and it's the same car ...   Did you see any 1976 Valiant's ? That would be a rare find, an actual 1976 OPP Valiant. Thanks for the great pics and info. Yeh how about that E57 360, not even the 4-bbl, putting out a staggering 170 horsepower.  - www.allpar.com/threads/1976-police-pursuit-packages-and-the-plymouth-valiant-and-dodge-dart-police-cars.229151/ |
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Post by 77granfury on Jun 11, 2022 21:56:40 GMT -5
Sorry for the late replies! Just some quick answers as I'm working on an update... @ tk826 : THANK YOU! That's the kind of list I was hoping for. I went to the yard again today and grabbed a few things, sent you a PM as well. I basically have NO idea what is rare and hard to find, what's important to "hoard", and what's something you'll most likely never need to keep "in stock". Our Bluesmobile is my first Chrysler product, and I have absolutely no idea at the yards what to look for and what not. So...thank you! @ flcl64 : Pictures are deceiving - that "nose" is a LOT thinner than it looks on the picture, it's rusted so far that there are a LOT of little pinholes - and it's THIN. Believe me, most Bluesmobile related things are gone from the yards after over 4 decades of Blues Brothers fans buying up what they can, so the fact that this nose is still there - but everything else is gone - speaks for itself. Mind you, I'm not a picky guy when it comes to rare things like this, my nose was full of bondo and is everything but straight, but it's solid. On a positive side-note, shipping that nose would be cheap because it's a lot lighter than a regular one...ha ha... I'll send you better pictures next time I'm there, so you know what I mean. @ Steam McQueen : That's amazing. If this isn't a joke, then I'm just baffled! Seeing a picture of the car I just worked on today - when it was new! You know a lot about Police packages - when you look at the front seat of the Gran Fury - do you see 2 sway bars worth taking or not? I haven't measured mine yet, and from what I found online, they don't look close to rear sway bars, at least aftermarket ones. So...front sway bars, Police package? I posted the VIN tag in the post below. BTW, there are a few Vailants - but I didn't check for Police packages. I'll be back there in around 2 weeks... |
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Post by 77granfury on Jun 11, 2022 23:31:57 GMT -5
Continuation of... PART 12: General Maintenance and some upgrades...While we were called back to work in person, there was suddenly a little less time on my hands to do what needed to be done to get the Bluesmobile safe for the upcoming trip (...not that I would have worked on the car during work hours while working from home...I just used my "breaks" wisely...) Most of the longer tasks had to wait for the weekend, and weekends were suddenly a lot shorter with all the "to-do" lists. Time management was now a priority, and efficient cuts had to be made: anything related to my wife was crossed off the weekends immediately. Junkyard visits were added - and it all worked out awesome. For now. 1. SHE NEEDED NEW SHOES... We knew that our 245/60-15s that we "borrowed" from a slumbering Trans Am project were only a temporary solution, we needed a taller tire. On one of these "late night kijiji searches" I found a set of 235/70-15 that the previous owner had on his '66 Corvette, but went with correct red-line tires (?) when he decided to sell. We scooped them up for not even 100 bucks - what a deal! They're like new and only 3 or 4 years old. For all of you that still pay too much for tire changes - I always go to Costco. It costs me $56 tax in to have 4 "used" tires installed, mounted/balanced and nitrogen filled, plus they recycle your old tires as well. Can't beat that!  ABOVE: Yes. The white letters are on the outside. AGAIN. But this time it's not my fault - "Lil' Elwood" wanted it this way. Taking him to the Pinty's Series Nascar race and getting him a Nascar tire for his room didn't help I guess... They'll get dirty soon, everything sticks to tire shine... 2. SHE'LL NEED AN "ASS-JOB" - GATHERING A FEW MORE ESSENTIALS...
BELOW: Remember this car? Last summer it was in Alberta on kijiji for parts...  I found the ad on facebook. I remembered the car, I bought my fender "Monaco" emblems and headlight mounting panels from the guy. But now...it's in Ontario! A guy from Windsor bought it off the guy in Alberta, mainly because he's a 2dr HT coupe guy and wants the doors. He seems like a great guy. I sent him an email as I need to "de-granfury-fy" the rear of our Blumo. He's cutting the tail panel out for me, because when I measured, not even the taillights have the same holes in the tail panel. I hoped to get away with welding on the "taillight eyebrows", but no, this isn't GM. 3. SHE NEEDED A WORTHY ANTENNA... Just back from another trip to the "abandoned-forest-junkyard". We wanted to grab an antenna mount for a member here and found one with a bent antenna on it. Of course we had no 5/16" wrench, so we took the whole thing home. I wasn't sure how I felt about welding coat hangers onto a spare mount, but since we had a bent antenna now, this happened:   ABOVE: Note that the '74 antenna is a LOT thicker than our '77 antenna. If you don't have a vice and a hammer, you have no chance... I'll work a bit on the angles and more details to make it a bit "rattier", but I think it looks good. 4. SHE NEEDED A ROOF MOUNTED MIRROR...AND MIRROR-MYTH-BUSTINGBELOW: We came across a few pre-74 C-bodies, and they all had roof mounted rearview mirrors. Not knowing if it'll even be close, I figured I'll give it a shot and bring one home...it's only 3 screws.   ABOVE: the mirror had a slightly different shape but was all in all the same width. My old mirror is the lower one. I was also able to re-use the 2 existing holes, the screws are exactly the same, and you don't really need the 3rd screw. I might shorten it and glue it up into that 3rd hole rather than risking to pierce through the roof...   ABOVE: I'll have to give it a clean/sand and some paint, and maybe I'll find a nice mirror glass as well. Also ABOVE: That's the 1970 Dodge Polara/Monaco the mirror is out of. There were lot's of discussions about where to get the mirror from, which cars had them, parts numbers for mirrors, for mounts, that only 74 wagons had them half way through the model year etc. but nothing really told me what fits - and what car to get it from that is not some sort of a unicorn. Let me shed some light into this, for all the Blumo owners that are in the same boat I was in until yesterday. -I can confirm that - from what I've seen - all fuselage c-body mirrors are ceiling mounted and about the same width as ours.
-I can also confirm that you don't need to drill holes, your existing screws/holes will hold the new mirror up.
I've seen several Polaras, Monacos, Newports, Furys and more with the exact mirror that I took off the car above. It should be rather common...meanwhile I was looking for a year now for an early 74 Station Wagon mirror when it could have been so easy! Now it just needs to pass "Lil' Elwood's Authenticity Inspection" and we're good to go...
5. VIN TAG UPDATE...We're staying honest, so the VIN tag needed an updating. While rocking the black and whites, and our VIN-tag tells everyone "KY4 golden fawn"? Not ok. We badly needed some "Police car feel" on the rad support. BELOW: Should this be considered as "sprucing up" or "updating" the recent paint change? Took the tag over to our rad support. On the picture in the right it's still in the PK41 coded car - anyone likes to decode? ![]()   We found the Police Gran Fury at the "abandoned-forest-junkyard" again and wanted to get a lot more parts, but all 4 doors are seized shut! (hinges?) We felt that smashing windows isn't the right solution and isn't going to help when removing door panels at all. Does anyone know a trick? Large pry bar on the b-pillar? The neighboring "Country Squire" roof-rack bar was solid, but bent on first try. We'll come back with some bigger tools. Updates on push bumper, junkyard visits and more will follow! |
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Post by tk826 on Jun 12, 2022 14:02:19 GMT -5
Interesting info on the mirror. I knew they were in other years and models, but now there are even more places to look. I'm using this style that sits a little farther forward: Mine came from a Barracuda. - The bent antenna looks good. It has a nice "replica movie prop" look to it. I'm thinking I'll now instead look for something a little thicker than a coat hanger. - On opening the doors... My guess is that if it were the door hinges sticking, and the closing latch was working correctly, the doors would move open... at least a little.
I'm rather guessing the linkage rods and/or connectors, from the handle, to the pivot point, and back to the latch, have deteriorated. Either the connection points have come apart and/or the rods have rusted and seized.
Likely the outside door handle is lifting up and springing back down, and nothing past that point is moving. The doors might even still open... From the Inside.
Tag decoding- Some spots of the image are hard to read (near the screws), but came up with this much:
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Post by 77granfury on Jun 12, 2022 14:06:15 GMT -5
PARTS-HUNT: Part 2 - follow upAbout 2 or 3 weeks ago Lil' Elwood and me discovered - what we call now - the "Abandoned-Forest-Yard" after a hint from a local friend. It's a former junkyard that has hundreds if not thousands of cars, totally overgrown by trees in the forest on top of a hill, literally NO CAR is newer than mid to late seventies - and the majority is from the late 30s to the late 60s/early 70s, and I mean, "Fuselage" - not "Formal". The original owner was a tow truck driver, died long ago in the early 90s, his son has no interest, and the guy that lives with his family on the huge property might be a car guy, but since it's a private property, he has no interest of crowds coming to take pictures, look for parts "and leave the hoods and doors open" or get injured and try to sue. The first time I was as polite as I can be, we chatted with his wife, played with his Golden Retriever (not the other way around) and after I told him about the Bluesmobile and he chatted with "Lil' Elwood", they had no problem to let us go - he showed us the way down the valley, across a river and up the hill into the forest where all the cars are. I've seen other amazing yards before, but this one is just unbelievable - everything seems untouched. I just have to post a couple unrelated pictures, to me this is like a museum.   ABOVE: ...down the valley, across a bridge, up the hill into a forest, and suddenly you start seeing cars everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It's like time stood still for 50 years or more!
  ABOVE: Rows and rows of Studebakers, Packards, Chevys and Dodges, lots of Pontiacs, Olds, Buicks and AMCs and even a few Nash's as well, but gladly we only found ONE Japanese car, a Subaru, a Peugeot (!) and a few Volkswagens...  ABOVE: Old Buicks look great on pictures, and old race cars, too. Full cage, driver's name painted on the door and wynns/STP stickers all over...
BELOW: I feel the moderators/admins won't like if my post has that much off-topic content: so let's look at some Chrysler products before we get to the Monacos...  BELOW: There are lots of Dodge trucks, and a 71 Road Runner - I've always loved the looks of them...or a 71 GTX with 440 six pack or 426 Hemi...  BELOW: Our beloved C-bodies! I didn't take many pictures of the 60s to early 70s cars, but those two 1966 Polaras were amongst many Fury's and even some top-of-the-line Monacos   There are a few rows of mid to late 70s cars as well as a not so organized area in the very back, and we found ONE 1974 Monaco - that actually WAS previously touched - the whole front end was cut off (Thank you, fellow Blues Brothers Royal Monaco driver!) - pictures in my last junkyard post, a few Royals and a few Gran Furys, one of which was an actual black/white police car, but the guy had already told us last time that he'll slowly get rid of the "newer" cars. Unfortunately it was true: BELOW: I remember the Gran Fury that was sitting here! It sure put up a fight, leaving it's rear bumper behind, ripped out of the subframe. It also left behind traces that
would have possibly been 400lbs of sheet metal and floors...![]()   BELOW: After the last post i got quite a few questions about the green Monaco and the white wagon, so I took some better pictures this time. The white Monaco wagon is rusted badly, hood and
most of the motor is missing, all 4 doors closed and can't be opened (for now lol). The driver's side sheet metal around the door handles is so thin that we almost ripped the driver's handle out while trying.
Interior is red vinyl and actually really nice, rodents haven't been in there (a lot) yet, seems to be a non-AC car, not many options, the cigarette lighter is missing (damn-it!) and the rearview mirror isn't stock.
First picture is from our last visit - and the green Monaco can be seen on the last picture just a row above to the right. I took the VIN tag, just in case, as it was loose.    BELOW: The green car. It's again a very low opted Royal, it didn't even have wood trim on the dash, (no, it's not a Police car - or is it?) but I admit it looks stunning and save-able - until you look closer:
 ![]() 
ABOVE: First picture is from last time as well, VIN tag is missing, hard to tell if it was an undercover car? I forgot to look up for the ticket light! Quarters and all 4 fender wells are crispy to say the least.
 
ABOVE: I can't see carpet nor a lighter. But the most basic radio I've ever seen - besides the block-off plate. Would these qualify as "police door panels" in spite of the wood - that is not on the dash?
 
ABOVE: found 2 hubcaps in the trunk, a torque converter, the gas tank and exhaust pieces. I should grab the coolant overflow and washer bottle. The only door that opens is the passenger door... The top half of this Monaco looks definitely mint...:-) unfortunately there's not too much left of the bottom. The seats are in quite remarkable shape given that the passenger door was open, probably for years. I really have to find out what's going on with c-bodies that try so hard to keep me out. ONE out of eight doors of the above 2 cars opened - and that's only because it already was open when I came. If I count the '76 Gran Fury Police car in, then we'd be looking at 1 out of 12 doors that I had access to. Again, if you know what this could be coming from, please let me know. The hinges rusted/seized? The door lock mechanism or rods gone? The Monaco gods trying to prevent me from getting parts? WHY?!? I know that this post wasn't all about Monacos or our Bluesmobile, but I hope it was interesting. I'll focus on the push bar and other little details soon, and I hope all works out in our favour - including the weather, then we'll be on our way to Chicago early July. Thank you for reading!
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