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 | | October 5, 2018 - Polara Description |
 | | September 13, 2018 - Polara Ron and I set out to go to West Sacramento for the biennial CHP retirees' event. Just as we pull into a stop for lunch Ron's car overheated and was dumping coolant. We initially thought it was a loose hose and tightened all the hoses (some a lot)... |
 | | September 8, 2018 - Polara I had family from out of town that hadn't seen the car yet so I put the valve cover back on temporarily and took the car up to my brother's house. That was about all it was good for, by the time I got home is was smoking real bad with the valve cover leaking oil. |
 | | September 3, 2018 - Polara For the last eight years (for me, even more for Ron) we have been trying to figure out the origins of the junction block installed on these cars by CHP. In a chance phone call Ron was about locating a block for a project not even CHP related... |
 | | August 11, 2018 - Polara I originally thought I was going to have to figure out how to get two cars to the show but the Barracuda wasn't ready so that wasn't an issue. Nice local show, handful of cars in the Emergency Vehicle class, got the one trophy (again)... |
 | | August 10, 2018 - Polara Recently I heard the local CHP office had a new PIO so I checked in and left a card. He later contacted me and wanted to see the car. I pulled it out so he could see it better than in the garage. I needed to get it out anyway as I was going to hit our local cruise night... |
 | | July 23, 2018 - Polara I recently located some door trim that is in better condition than what is one the car, just need to paint them and install them. |
 | | June 23, 2018 - Polara While I was at the Fresno Office I was told about the annual open house in Mojave, after a little debating I chose to go. I left early so the first part of the drive was cool and heat wasn't an issue... |
 | | June 5, 2018 - Polara Last year I was asked about bringing the car to the open house for the new CHP office in Fresno, well they are finally done and the event scheduled for tomorrow. The drive went well with no noticeable issues... |
 | | June 3, 2018 - Polara I was a little concerned that the fuel pump push rod was worn off again so I pulled it to inspect. There was no noticeable ware just a little polished. It was put back together. |
 | | June 2, 2018 - Polara Last year I took the car to a chili cook off that was a fund raiser put on by fire and law enforcement. Last year this was on the same weekend as another event and I was able to minimize the miles, not an issue as it was a good cause. |
 | | May 12, 2018 - Polara Ron needed to do some work on his car and my garage was the best choice for it. Once we were done with Ron's car we moved to swapping the cracked exhaust manifold out on my car. |
 | | February 17, 2018 - Polara On a positive note we took our cars to a memorial for a retired officer that passed away. He rode with us in some of the local parades. It was primarily a family event but was still well worth the trip. |
 | | January 16, 2018 - Polara This one caught me off guard when it showed up on eBay, no hesitation, hit the Buy It Now. The original box was inside another box, good thing as the original had water damage... |
 | | December 11, 2017 - Polara A while back I took a driveway picture with both the other Polara and the 70 Dodge truck in it. I felt it was time to update that picture... |
 | | December 2, 2017 - Polara Ron herd about my drive and want a piece of the action, so he dusted off his car and came by. This was more a "local" drive and only about 60 miles. We did stop once for token pictures, didn't bother to unwrap the cars... |
 | | November 24, 2017 - Polara I had the day off and have been wanting to get pictures of the car at this particular location. The spot is at the CA-1 and US-101 junction in Gaviota, I liked the way the ramps were in the background. .. |
 | | October 28, 2017 - Polara The Fall Fling Mopar show in Van Nuys has always been a fun show, the fall show is casual with no judging. Rolled in early and parked the cars then went to check out the swap meet. In the swap meet I found another 2bbl carburetor core for the Barracuda... |
 | | October 21, 2017 - Polara My mother asked if I'd chauffeur a friend of hers son and his date to their dance. Her son likes old cars and is considering law enforcement as a career, they enjoyed the ride. |
 | | October 7, 2017 - Polara Morning of the show we got up ate and made our way to the show, once in line I finish cleaning the car. We get the cars parked and finish setting them up when we see another CHP 69 Polara in line, it is a recent acquisition by someone we recently met... |
 | | October 6, 2017 - Polara A week later and we are about to repeat the run hopefully with better results. Once again we head out and top off with gas and roll. The drive went great, two hours later we are back at the scene, no construction and the car is running fine... |
 | | October 5, 2017 - Polara The new pushrod came in and it was installed, we put back the previous pump with the less spring pressure. Once again tested with everything working fine... |
 | | September 30, 2017 - Polara The next morning a friend came over and we checked the fuel system for potential sources of heat as yesterday wasn’t that hot. Nothing was found so we did a flow test on the pump and it wasn’t good, off to the parts store we go... |
 | | September 29, 2017 - Polara I got the car all loaded up last night and was just waiting for Ron to show up. We had a 400 mile drive to Cameron Park for the Cops and Rodders show, once Ron arrived we headed out and topped off with gas... |
 | | September 26, 2017 - Polara The cage was sent out for powder coating and is now ready to put in the car. With some extra hands the upper panel was put in first with the four screws into the original holes, next the lower panel was put in place and the two bolted together... |
 | | September 16, 2017 - Polara The cage template and sample panels were taken to a metal fabricator where they made the two sections exact in every detail short of the mounting elements... |
 | | September 9, 2017 - Polara The needed paint was acquired and I brushed on the black in the areas behind the bezels, while at it I hit every bolt, clip or whatever on the backside with black or silver to make it look fresh... |
 | | September 3, 2017 - Polara I started the day off with removing the masking on the grill panel, happy with that I started masking off the chrome on the main grill housing. The headlight assemblies were completely masked off... |
 | | September 2, 2017 - Polara I had a list of items I needed to cleanup before the Ripon Emergency Vehicle Show in October, on that list was repainting the grill. The push bar needed to be removed prior to getting the grill out... |
 | | August 26, 2017 - Polara The Wheels ‘n Windmills show in Solvang is a semi local show for me and I wanted to take the car to it. The show has a limited entry to 300 cars, I got in at 278. I requested to be parked next to the CHP spot and they were able to do that... |
 | | August 21, 2017 - Polara One thing I discovered near the end of the restoration was that this car had a protective barrier (cage) and I have debated whether or not I was going to put one in. The problem was figuring out what it looked like and how it was built... |
 | | August 19, 2017 - Polara The local car show didn't happen last year and it was back on so I had the car there. The local CHP office had a Charger there. There was a couple other cars and a motorcycle in the class and at the end of the day I got the one trophy for the class. |
 | | August 18, 2017 - Polara Although there were far more cars than at the beginning of summer I cut the night early after a few laps. Still a few things I need to do before the show tomorrow. |
 | | August 14, 2017 - Polara The belts were left to dry for a day and put back in the car, the fronts took some work to get back in. I was able to push them in to the point where I could get a pit of needle nose on them and pull them through. What a difference the black belts and black floor make. |
 | | August 13, 2017 - Polara There were a couple things I needed to improve on the car that were not done at the time the car came together. First up were the seat belts were faded and needed to be dyed, the rear belts were not an issue to remove once the seat was removed... |
 | | July 30, 2017 - Polara This is a car town and one of the local business started up a morning cars and coffee so I dusted the car off and headed over. There as a nice variety of cars there and a lot more than was thought would be there. |
 | | July 14, 2017 - Polara The left rear door on this car has had issues of one sort or another, this time it was not being able to open it from the inside. I located a NOS latch assembly and installed it, now the outside doesn't work, I'll deal with it later. |
 | | July 4, 2017 - Polara In previous years I have ridden with Ron in the Newhall Fourth of July Parade, this year I planned on having my car there as well. I left early and met up with Ron and headed up to Newhall where we met up with the CHP at the Office... |
 | | June 30, 2017 - Polara Summer is here and the City kicks it off with a cruise, ten blocks are closed and all sorts of cars come out and cruise. It is fun to see all the cars and pull over and stop and talk with friends that are watching. |
 | | June 12, 2017 - Polara The day after the show is reserved just for going home, I often take the coast route but with multiple closures that wasn't an option. One of the CHP offices that was high on my list was Fresno s that is where this car came from... |
 | | June 11, 2017 - Polara The morning started off with arriving at the show to find a line for registration, that is a first, normally I get there and pull right up to the table. I resister in the Emergency class and roll in, I get the area to see a sign for Special Interest and Emergency... |
 | | June 10, 2017 - Polara I had all day set aside to make the drive up to Cupertino for the show tomorrow, I found out later that there was going to a group of car on display for a chili cook off. I knew I'd be getting there later than the rest and ended up being parked in the street which was fine... |
 | | June 9, 2017 - Polara One of the things I knew I wanted to improve was the taillights, the more I looked at them the worse they got. I was able to locate an NOS left assembly but only an NOS right lens and bezel so I'd need to use the right housing. Before I started I needed to freshen up the black paint on the right bezel... |
 | | June 3, 2017 - Polara A little while ago I was asked to do the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Parade. With an early start I get to the staging area ahead of the CHP and get the car setup. A little while later they show up with a new Charger, after admiring each other's cars we hang out waiting for the parade to start... |
 | | May 23, 2017 - Polara I had a friend come over and take a look at it and see if we can come to a consensus on what might have caused this. We fist looked at the adjuster to see if it came undone for some reason and saw nothing other than moving the spring to a different hole |
 | | May 10, 2017 - Polara Today was all about thanking some of the vendors that helped me throughout the project. The first stop was Magneto Electric in Santa Maria, they rebuilt my Leece Neville Alternator and services the siren. From there I went over to Custom Colors... |
 | | May 8, 2017 - Polara We'll keep this short and simple, I wanted to get a couple more stars and got some bumper stickers while I was at it. |
 | | May 6, 2017 - Polara Out early to make the hour drive back for the show, just out of town we start getting the morning mist on the windshield not enough to need the wipers. It didn't take long for the mist to turn into rain, oh well we're in it now. For about half the drive it rained and cleared up about 10 miles from the show. |
 | | May 5, 2017 - Polara The Morro Bay show was one I chose to do and the night before they were having a cruise. The show is a little over n hour away and I chose to drive up there for the cruise and home after... |
 | | April 9, 2017 - Polara The day started off early with the drive to the show, already being registered allowed us to slide right in without waiting. Once again the car was placed and unwrapped. Not much more to add, talked with a bunch of people, had the car judged, got first place... |
 | | April 8, 2017 - Polara Well we didn't know what the weather was going to be like as it rained overnight, it was a little wet out but not enough to stop us from rolling, car backed out and we hit the road... |
 | | April 7, 2017 - Polara Because of the CHP event I was in the area through the weekend so I figured I take the car out and joint the organized cruise. I arrived at the park early and there were already some cars there so I backed it in and looked at the other cars... |
 | | April 5, 2017 - Polara The car was at the memorial rededication ceremony at the Newhall office for the four officers that lost their lives in 1970, although this event is 47 years old it resonates through law enforcement training to this day. |
 | | April 4, 2017 - Polara With multiple things happening this week with the car I chose to drive down early and put the car in my parents garage, just the week before it was cleared out enough to get the car in, so I thought... |
 | | April 2, 2017 - Polara When these cars were shipped to the CHP from Dodge there were a pair of trim in the trunk for the front doors. The idea was that when the cars were repainted the trim could be included. My car was not repainted at all so the trim was still there... |
 | | April 1, 2017 - Polara Not sure I'll be replacing this with another one but the reproduction oil filter just looks cool. Initially I was just going to just paint a filter white but was thinking I might be able to put some blue stripes or something... |
 | | March 26, 2017 - Polara One of the places I wanted to get out to for pictures was Jalama Beach and I needed to be there before noon. For one reason or another I didn't roll out as soon as I needed to and it is 20 miles out, the last 14 miles are a narrow winding road... |
 | | March 20, 2017 - Polara To finalize the CHP agreement to display the graphics I needed to submit some pictures of the car to headquarters. The weather was perfect for taking pictures, just enough clouds to soften the lighting. I took the car to one of my go to places for pictures... |
 | | March 18, 2017 - Polara Nothing major, there was a spot on the door frame that needed a little more sanding as there was a little orange peel that needed cleaning up. It was easier to just take the car by my body guys shop. |
 | | March 13, 2017 - Polara The new plates needed a month tag but I chose to get an early style tag and not use the one issued. The month tags were first used in 1976 and were red with hash marks in the background, recently the tags were changed to blue without the hash marks. |
 | | March 10, 2017 - Polara Now that the tank is back in I needed to get 23 gallons of gas back in the problem is that it is virtually impossible to pour gas out of a gas can into these cars as the bumper gets in the way. Initially I went to the parts store looking for a long flexible funnel but nothing... |
 | | March 9, 2017 - Polara The original plates are heavily faded and probably should be painted, I chose to have a pair of reproduction plates made (ok maybe not quite legal, but I do have both my original plates). |
 | | March 5, 2017 - Polara Got my tank back from being repaired and the repair looks perfect. With the vent leaking it left gas stains across the tank so I took the opportunity to clean the tank. |
 | | February 27, 2017 - Polara Not much to report other than I ground down the topside to facilitate welding. |
 | | February 26, 2017 - Polara This car was equipped with a Cadillac recovery bottle as outlined in a CHP bulletin. Adding the overflow hose was the last item to make it functional. In the bulletin they show the hose going over the radiator so that is how it went in. |
 | | February 19, 2017 - Polara While I wait for my body guy I'm going to see if I can fix the door latch that doesn't want to work smoothly. The button plunger didn't seem to push the lever enough to release the door. The fix seemed easy enough, drill a hole at the point the button makes contact... |
 | | February 18, 2017 - Polara In talking with my body guy we determined that trimming the excessive metal back to the weld and seam sealing the edges and smoothing it to blend it in. In trimming the edges some spots ended up going through the panel... |
 | | February 15, 2017 - Polara To do this repair I needed to empty the trunk as the floor will likely be cut open. Everything is screwed to the floor through the mat so it all had to come out. |
 | | February 14, 2017 - Polara When I first started this car I was going to do a more basic driver one and not the higher quality one it turn into. With this I was doing some of my own bodywork and I was still learning... |
 | | February 13, 2017 - Polara Yesterday I only drained the tank low enough to get the level low below the vent and stop the leak. One of the reasons I waited to drain the tank was I needed more jugs to put the 23 gallons of gas in... |
 | | February 12, 2017 - Polara Our initially we thought the vent leak might be because I used 5/16" hose and not the correct 1/4" hose so I crawled under the car and swapped the hoses. With the hoses swapped I took the car out and topped the tank and went for a quick drive... |
 | | February 11, 2017 - Polara After almost six and a half years from seeing the car leave the family that sold the car saw it again. The day started early with a 3-1/2 hour drive that went flawlessly, once there we topped off with gas to get an idea what sort of mileage it was going to get... |
 | | February 7, 2017 - Polara Yup... |
 | | February 4, 2017 - Polara Now that my car is done Ron wanted to get the two cars out together. This time I headed out to an abandoned housing development. The structures have all be removed but the streets remain, so no issues with blocking one of them. |
 | | February 2, 2017 - Polara Just because I can't stop looking at it. |
 | | February 1, 2017 - Polara I thought I'd try but the effort was wasted, there is no getting at the bolts to the gun lock bracket. |
 | | January 31, 2017 - Polara The office visit went well and I'm now official and can put the graphics on the car. I wasted no time in getting the graphics on, soon as I got home I cleaned the doors and started my layout. I was working from a picture of Ron's car... |
 | | January 30, 2017 - Polara Tomorrow all should go well and I'll be putting the rest of the graphics on then. When the CHP put the car into service the date was noted on the end of the dash, this was in part for the warranty with Dodge... |
 | | January 29, 2017 - Polara I have an appointment in a couple days to finish the paperwork with the CHP but couldn't wait. I had made a template from Ron's car on the placement of the trunk decals and used it to locate mine. A little bit of soapy water was used to the application go smoother... |
 | | January 28, 2017 - Polara Ron came by again to have some more tuning on his car done, when they were done we took the cars up to the local college campus to get some pictures of the cars together. |
 | | January 18, 2017 - Polara Took the afternoon off with plans to take the car by the local CHP office to finish the paperwork to run the graphics, the PIO wasn't there so I'll need to return another day. |
 | | January 17, 2017 - Polara Spotlights are on and they work, for once something electrical works the first time. |
 | | January 16, 2017 - Polara Didn't have much time on the car this evening, put the emblems on the car along with the hub caps. |
 | | January 15, 2017 - Polara Now that the car is buffed out some of the final details can be done. The original emblems were cleaned up and repainted. The person at CHP that put the numbers on the car and a unique style to it... |
 | | January 14, 2017 - Polara I picked up the car and it looks incredible. Once home I continued to put the final finishing touches on the car. Original trim over the door openings was probably installed before the side panels but I didn't want to pull the seat to get the side panels out... |
 | | January 12, 2017 - Polara Now that the car is essentially done my paint guy is going to do the final buff and take care of a couple small details. |
 | | January 5, 2017 - Polara I held off on the federal sticker on the door jamb with hopes I'd find a better one, no luck used the only one that is available. The other day a friend was working on the car and I leaned in to do something and bumped the wiring and got a spark... |
 | | December 27, 2016 - Polara The correct NOS spotlight hardware was located, it took getting three different spotlight mounting kits to get all the needed pieces. Some engine compartment shots just because. |
 | | December 25, 2016 - Polara Although not done I still wanted to take the car to show my family, I took my Mother for a drive, she seemed to enjoy it. |
 | | December 22, 2016 - Polara I just got the push bar back from the powder coater and wasted no time in installing it. The pads were cut from a sheet of conveyor belt material and holes punched through it, it took some effort to punch the holes. Once installed it doesn't leave much room in my garage. |
 | | December 18, 2016 - Polara The first thing was to try and resolve the gun lock issue, the bottom two screws were removed and the bracket was pulled till the lock would engage. In the end a 1/4" spacer was tested and did the job, a 1/2" would have been better but I didn't like the way it looked... |
 | | December 14, 2016 - Polara These were put in a while ago. |
 | | December 13, 2016 - Polara Just some interior shots to share. |
 | | December 12, 2016 - Polara The car was taken to the local fab shop to have the push bar fitted. We were able to use one of the braces but the angle on the other was off so a new one was made. It was transported to the shop on the car... |
 | | December 11, 2016 - Polara I like having me GPS so a mount was made to fit to the mic bracket. A quick thumb screw and it can be removed. |
 | | December 10, 2016 - Polara The door panels came out nice, once installed they finish off the interior nicely. I put the shotgun in the lock and there were issues, initially the lock was too low. The mounting holes were elongated so the lock could be raised... |
 | | December 9, 2016 - Polara The original door panels from this car were trashed and not useable, fortunately the panels in the Other Polara were in great shape but the wrong color. I had the original color matched in SEM vinyl paint and the match was perfect... |
 | | December 4, 2016 - Polara Ron came by and we along with another friend took the car out for a test drive. my friend felt like he was smelling gas an thought it might be coming out the filler pipe so we stopped and they got out to see if they could see anything on hard acceleration... |
 | | December 2, 2016 - Polara The original a-pillar trim was sun bleached and needed repainted. The color isn't quite right but will do for now. |
 | | November 30, 2016 - Polara Six months ago I tried to install the siren to find there was no way it was getting mounted. Measurements were taken and the sire taken back to have a couple new holes drilled and tapped and have the brake reclocked. Now it can be installed and look correct. |
 | | November 29, 2016 - Polara I was fortunate to get original spotlights with the car, many of the parts are available new but the main housings are not. They had a quickie coat of paint a while back but they were not properly cleaned first... |
 | | November 28, 2016 - Polara With the car road worthy I made arrangements to have the alignment done at my friends shop. As you can see he is old car friendly and a Mopar fan. |
 | | November 27, 2016 - Polara The parts remaining are dwindling rapidly, for the most part it is down to one box. The grill was put back in, hopefully for the last time. The original trunk bumpers will need to be cleaned up and used again. |
 | | November 21, 2016 - Polara This is what I see when I step into my garage now, a car, not a project. |
 | | November 20, 2016 - Polara Didn't have much time for the car today but I did get the antenna mount and clip on. |
 | | November 19, 2016 - Polara All ready for a drive I called my friend and engine builder to go for a test and tune. We took it out on some local roads first and he made some adjustments then we went and filled it with gas. From there it was onto the highway for some runs at speed and some hill pulls... |
 | | November 18, 2016 - Polara With the car almost done I thought I'd clean up the original key tag. A little Brasso and it was as good as new. |
 | | November 17, 2016 - Polara For the first time in six years it looks like a car again. The glass installation went smoothly, he wanted to put the glass trim on and then the body side moldings, I had no problems with it so on they went. |
 | | November 15, 2016 - Polara My body guy came by today and buffed out the car, looks great. He said he'd be back in a couple days (we'll see) to put the glass in. |
 | | November 1, 2016 - Polara My body guy came out and did a wet sand on the car, will be back soon (I hope). |
 | | October 23, 2016 - Polara Someone asked about what made me think this car had a cage, well I'm not pulling the vinyl to show the screw holes but the hole in the floor mat is visible. |
 | | October 22, 2016 - Polara Just because shots. |
 | | October 10, 2016 - Polara A while back Ron had an associate of his make some copies of a sticker that CHP put under the hood of the cars. |
 | | October 5, 2016 - Polara Right away when I pulled to masking I noticed some overspray, he is confident that it will clean off when he wet sands the roof. |
 | | October 4, 2016 - Polara Yea, it is painted again. He chose to repaint the full roof and not try and cut it in. He wants to wait 4 weeks to wet sand it. |
 | | October 3, 2016 - Polara The door seals went on, the rears were NOS and no real issues, just used a lot of tape. The front were used but in good shape, there were a few spots that were difficult to get to stay in place. |
 | | September 25, 2016 - Polara Once again the gas gauge died, this time a known good was pulled out of the other Polara. I have lost track of how many times the cluster was pulled, it isn't an easy job. |
 | | September 23, 2016 - Polara For some reason Dodge changed the style of the sill plates midway through the 69 production run. I have a set of the earlier style that are in better condition that I will use till I can locate a set of correct ones in useable condition. |
 | | September 13, 2016 - Polara Another step closer to finishing the repair, till it is done there is little more I can do. My body guy came over and finished the repair and put some primer on it. |
 | | September 1, 2016 - Polara Still looking at the braces, will probably need to have new ones made. The original sill plates are not in the best of condition, probably should have looked at them years ago. |
 | | August 29, 2016 - Polara Although I had the push bar made quite some time back I didn't have the braces attached. I thought I'd take the opportunity to fit it and see if the braces that were made would work... |
 | | August 23, 2016 - Polara Still waiting for my body guy to be available. I got the missing plug wire retainers but my engine guy said no-go to installing them as it involved removing head bolts. |
 | | August 21, 2016 - Polara Big update today, on August 22 2010 I towed this car home and right away work started, six years later and over 375 days working on the car, spread that over 5 day work weeks it would be about 1-1/2 years... |
 | | August 17, 2016 - Polara The seats have been taking up space in my house for three years now and I'm now ready to put them in the car but first I need to clean up the runners. A quick blast and paint the runners were ready to go... |
 | | August 13, 2016 - Polara A while back I had noticed a few bubbles in the paint, initially I thought them might be from greasy hands prior to paint. I was finally able to get my body guy over to look at it and when he removed the paint he discovered pin holes from rust... |
 | | July 17, 2016 - Polara Do to the electrical issue (likely a bad fuel gauge) I fried the dash circuit board. Good thing I already had a replacement board so I transferred the pigtail to the new board and looked into potential other causes... |
 | | July 16, 2016 - Polara For the last few months I have been waiting for my body guy to be available to do some touch-ups. While I wait I have started checking the electrical system, right from plugging the battery in nothing went right... |
 | | July 12, 2016 - Polara The CHP map light wasn't working, I isolated all the wires and tested the light, good, power good, switch good? Put it back together and everything worked, probably a bad ground. |
 | | July 10, 2016 - Polara The park on the wipers wasn't working and I felt it was the switch, I had a second switch that was cosmetically bad so I opened it up to scope out the switch operation... |
 | | July 8, 2016 - Polara I have been running through the electrical system both Dodge and CHP. One of the NOS switches used for the horn/siren control wasn't working, tried cycling it a few times, no go, and ended up swapping it out. |
 | | June 9, 2016 - Polara A friend was asking about something and I took a couple reference pictures, another friend looking at the picture noticed that I have a cracked exhaust manifold. Good thing I have another, just need to get it cleaned up and painted. |
 | | May 25, 2016 - Polara After some thinking I made multiple adjustments to the placement of the recovery bottle and now it fits and is square. While I had the grill out I felt it was a good time to install the siren, as soon as I tried to position it I kept getting interferences... |
 | | May 19, 2016 - Polara With a little work I was able to find a part number for the Leece Neville alternator belt as it doesn't show up in the application searches. |
 | | May 8, 2016 - Polara The Cadillac recovery bottle that CHP put in this car was not placed well and I couldn't put it back in that way even if that's the way it was. This will take some thinking, the hole CHP drilled for the wiring isn't necessarily in the optimal place for this installation. |
 | | May 2, 2016 - Polara The radio gets its power from the siren solenoid and there is a fuse mounted on the right wheel liner. There are a couple screw holes that are not factory and neither of them look like they would work. Need to look into this some more. |
 | | April 3, 2016 - Polara I held off putting the column in till after the flooring was in so it wouldn't be in the way. Some would say this is a two person job but I have had good luck putting the column through the floor with the wheel on a box... |
 | | March 30, 2016 - Polara The battery cable needed to be cut and lugs added for the junction block. Originally CHP cut these before drilling the holes to mount the block, I need to cut the new cable to match the existing block location... |
 | | March 25, 2016 - Polara With the mats repaired they were cleaned with a bunch of different cleaners followed up by foaming tire cleaner. Carpet padding was put down to cover the floor, various cuts were put in to follow the contours. Initially the flooring wasn't laying right... |
 | | March 22, 2016 - Polara The plywood for the radio was painted and the radio mounted. The original floor mats were in generally good shape but there were some repairs needed. Somewhere I read that someone used Por-15 and fiberglass cloth to repair rubber mats... |
 | | March 20, 2016 - Polara Before I put the flooring it I want get everything I can done to minimize having to walk on the mats. An original package tray was painted but before it was installed I wanted to blank off the unused speaker openings... |
 | | March 19, 2016 - Polara The original wireways were toast so I needed something to replace them. I found some flashing at the hardware store that I was able to trim and make work. The spots where the wires go through were clipped and folded to protect the sharp edges... |
 | | March 18, 2016 - Polara It is hard to believe how many bulbs this car used, this doesn't even include the 9 bulbs (5 packages) for the instrument cluster. |
 | | March 9, 2016 - Polara The sail panels from the other Polara were used, the green vinyl was removed and used as a template one the material that came with the headliner. The point where the sail panel meets the headliner just didn't look right, after some looking through pictures... |
 | | March 6, 2016 - Polara Like mentioned previously I realized I should have done something earlier, this time it was the dash insulation. I did get it in. With all the preparations done I had a friend come by to help me with the dash installation... |
 | | March 5, 2016 - Polara A days work plus I have the dash ready to put in the car, not only do I have the Dodge stuff to do I also have the CHP stuff to wire. |
 | | March 2, 2016 - Polara Before the dash could go in I needed to fabricate a couple brackets one to hold the microphone, the other a fuse block under the dash. It will be painted black before going on the car. The CHP had used sheet metal screws to hold this to the plastic... |
 | | February 27, 2016 - Polara This isn't the first time I found myself putting parts on that should have been done earlier. A while ago I had put the ac box in and should have done the vacuum lines at that time, not that big a deal removed a couple vent pieces and got it in... |
 | | February 26, 2016 - Polara There are several points on the car where I needed to replace connectors and I need some more of these. |
 | | February 22, 2016 - Polara On a car where you know there are "correct" electrical modifications when you see something you need to look into it. The dash/ac harness from my car had a tapped up connector with a jumper and removed terminals... |
 | | February 15, 2016 - Polara Yesterday my engine builder friend came by but this time to help with the headliner. First we measured, cut and glued insulation in and then prepped the headliner for the bows... |
 | | February 10, 2016 - Polara Leave it to a C-Body to have unique parts, for some reason they chose to use a different "T" for the wipers and use a "Y". On the lookout for a good one. |
 | | February 7, 2016 - Polara Ok, if forgetting the air dam under the radiator wasn’t bad enough I forgot the pair that attach to the bumper. I got the correct rivets and a tool with a swivel head with the idea I could reach in and not need to pull the bumper. Even with the grill out there was no way... |
 | | February 6, 2016 - Polara On an original CHP harness I looked at the color of the 6 gauge siren wire and it looked brown, I even cut into it and it was brown all the way through, doubt it would fade that deep but who knows... |
 | | February 1, 2016 - Polara For the most part I have swapped out all the parts that I needed off the other Polara but there were still some pieces I could use. All the hardware for the visors and mirror were pulled including the screws. The visor corners needed to be pried off... |
 | | January 29, 2016 - Polara Parts hunt, I only have one of these and am looking for another. You thing with a parts car and the other Polara this wouldn’t be an issue. |
 | | January 23, 2016 - Polara The rear brakes were done, started with putting the original cleaned up parking brake cables in and moving on from there. When I put the original drum on that I had painted I didn’t like the hub so I masked everything off and painted those... |
 | | January 18, 2016 - Polara With the rear end now in the car I can put the brakes on but I still need to clean up the parking brake levers so some before shots were needed. Likewise I can now get the driveshaft in but first it had to be painted... |
 | | January 16, 2016 - Polara My friend came over today to help with the rear end. The center section was put in after a quick break to get the correct gasket, from there the brake backing plates were put on and even checking I somehow had them swapped... |
 | | January 9, 2016 - Polara I never liked the circuit board connector used on the Mopars of the era so I chose to eliminate it. Some wire from an old harness was used to make a pigtail, the NOS board was missing half the pins anyway... |
 | | January 3, 2016 - Polara Through this I was also working on the instrument cluster. The fuel and temp gauges had some rust on the terminals but otherwise good so I put some vinegar in an ice cube tray and let them soak for a few days... |
 | | January 2, 2016 - Polara This update may not be for the faint of heart. A little while back I had my dash pad done by Just Dashes and I’m now starting to do the dash assembly. The first thing I needed to do was mount the shotgun bracket... |
 | | December 20, 2015 - Polara The CHP use this tubing to run wire through, three different sizes were acquired and the correct size clamps. The clams were installed in the original holes drilled by the CHP... |
 | | December 15, 2015 - Polara New brake lines for the differential were acquired but differ from what was on the car, they were sent back to Inline Tube along with the originals. |
 | | December 12, 2015 - Polara The NOS Motorola Radio cable I acquired is for a positive ground vehicle, I will need to do some research before I put power to it. If used the red wire will need to be extended to reach the front of the car. There are two holes that the cable could go through... |
 | | December 8, 2015 - Polara The Leece Neville alternator utilizes a special cable to bypass the bulkhead connector, the original cable was in bad shape and I thought about trying to have a new one made. Since the wire and connectors were in good shape I chose to rewrap this one. |
 | | December 7, 2015 - Polara The engine and headlight harnesses were installed and I started in on the CHP wiring with putting in the correct style tubing and clamps in the original holes. |
 | | December 6, 2015 - Polara It took a while but the correct bracket was acquired for the fire extinguisher along with the correct model extinguisher. Using the original trunk matt as a guide and one original mounting hole, new holes were drilled the accessories were screwed down. |
 | | December 4, 2015 - Polara The belly of the car was painted with a rust encapsulator (Rust Bullet) and the gas tank put in. On the driver side where the flange was bent up for exhaust clearance needed to be bent up some more. |
 | | November 21, 2015 - Polara The front turn lights were blasted on the outside using some old lenses to protect the inside, the lenses were left on for painting. The unfinished units pictured are not the ones used, the ones used had perfect insides. |
 | | November 15, 2015 - Polara As always work continues, after I got the grill and bumper I realized I didn’t put the air dam in. I looked to see if I could fish it in and I didn’t see a way without taking something apart... |
 | | November 7, 2015 - Polara The grill went in next with no issues, I did replace all the studs. Once the grill was in I was good to put the bumper on, normally a two person job I was able to get it in place and bolted in... |
 | | November 4, 2015 - Polara First up was the recirculating air duct, new foam was added and it was screwed in. The AC box was put in place and it surprisingly stayed till I could get the engine side housing on and bolted... |
 | | November 3, 2015 - Polara Before the AC box could be installed the engine side housing needed to be cleaned up and the seal added. A couple other parts needed to be put on as well. |
 | | October 31, 2015 - Polara My engine build suggested I put a mechanical oil pressure gauge in, he also mention running the hose through a firewall insulation nail. The gauge needed to be in place before the AC box went in to make it easier to connect up. |
 | | October 25, 2015 - Polara Now that I have the condenser and heater core back from being inspected I can move forward with the air conditioning box assembly. First up was applying the seals to the condenser... |
 | | October 11, 2015 - Polara The brake on the CHP siren was a pull solenoid but the only one I could find was a push. I tried every combination of parts trying to get this to work, I think the coil will behave differently than I want when energized, will need to look into some more. |
 | | September 28, 2015 - Polara My friend that helped put the engine together came by today to look at the dash pad and the steering column assembly, and he asked what was needed to fire up the engine. I told him he would need to tell me so we looked it over and in minutes we were working on it... |
 | | September 26, 2015 - Polara With all the jack parts in place I put the spare in. I started cleaning the differential housing and leaf springs, scraped the grime off the best I could and then used a wire wheel. They cleaned up easier than I thought. |
 | | September 23, 2015 - Polara I have new switches but will need to use the old panel, once I get it apart and cleaned I can touch up the lettering. I thought about using the ignition light but have chosen not to. |
 | | September 20, 2015 - Polara This was a dash frame from a parts car, the clip I believe was for the antenna cable. I do not see a need for this clip on the CHP car. |
 | | September 19, 2015 - Polara I thought I'd outline how to put a steering column back together, along the way I may make comments about the disassembly but for the most part you can just start from the bottom and work up. For starters this column had surface rust inside and out... |
 | | September 16, 2015 - Polara Maybe not that exciting but I got my jack pieces back from the powder coater. The mast was soaked in vinegar for a week or so. I used a piece of 2" PVC capped on one end to minimize the amount of vinegar needed, 1 quart... |
 | | September 7, 2015 - Polara The steering wheel is one of the signature item on the CHP cars, I was planning on painting a standard wheel white but when I saw a friends recast wheel I had no choice but to have my wheel redone... |
 | | September 5, 2015 - Polara My long awaited steering wheel came in the other day, all in all it looks good. Sandblasted all the brackets for the rear end and removed the brake lines from the rear... |
 | | August 29, 2015 - Polara One thing I wanted to get done before I put the car on the road is to clean the differential and that area under the car. I have already cleaned up the area where the stub frame mounts but the central section will need to wait till I can get the car on a lift... |
 | | August 22, 2015 - Polara Today marks five years working on this car, August 22 2010 I brought this car home and began work immediately. There have been times I have tried to estimate the days and time put into this project and there is no doubt that... |
 | | August 20, 2015 - Polara When I first saw it in the assembly I thought it was a dead bug, but once i took it apart I saw that it was the ground wire for the horn. It connects the bolts on both sides of the rag joint. |
 | | August 13, 2015 - Polara The column (and a spare) are now apart, I have some cleaning to do. I have two different columns and I’ll be picking the best parts from the two, the original steering shaft will need to be used as it has a different coupling. |
 | | August 10, 2015 - Polara In taking the steering column apart I ran into a problem with taking the shift tube out, the shift indicator bracket was held in with a couple nylon rivets. They were drilled out, I'll deal with it later. |
 | | August 9, 2015 - Polara While waiting for AC components and knowing the dash pad would be done soon I moved on to cleaning up the dash frame. It wasn't that bad, the back side needed a light sanding and the front just scuffed real good... |
 | | August 5, 2015 - Polara No actual work has been done but I felt like some update shots were in order. |
 | | August 2, 2015 - Polara While we were working on the bumper I took delivery of a new trunk mat. The first thing I did was put it in the car to check for general fit, which was good. I had the original mat out of the other Polara so I checked them together to see if there were any... |
 | | August 1, 2015 - Polara They always say it is better to have help when installing things like bumpers so Ron came up again to help. Initially everything went well but it just didn’t want to snug up as much as we felt it should... |
 | | July 19, 2015 - Polara Time to start on the AC box assembly, so I thought. Ron got me the replacement housing I needed so I set out to mock it up so I could remember how it all goes together... |
 | | July 17, 2015 - Polara With the engine issue out of the way I felt I could move forward with the engine assembly. The carburetor was bolted down along with the coil, the throttle linkage along with the kickdown rod were installed, still need to locate a new or NOS kickdown spring. |
 | | July 5, 2015 - Polara When I had the exhaust installed they noticed that the engine was askew so I felt now was a good time to address that. My first thought was to unbolt the engine mounts and push the transmission over... |
 | | June 27, 2015 - Polara Now that I have the firewall insulation I planned to move forward, that didn’t last long as I had problems with the fasteners that hold the insulation in. I destroyed half of them with zero success, I tried multiple different methods but just couldn’t get them in... |
 | | June 18, 2015 - Polara You think with all the 69 440 Magnums in the world I could find a picture of one with this throttle bracket. I was able to find some pictures with a different bracket and they showed the booster hose going under the bracket so that is how I’ll do it... |
 | | June 16, 2015 - Polara These were the final pieces needed to get the project moving again. Without these the AC box cannot go in which needs to be done before the wheel liner... |
 | | June 12, 2015 - Polara I received a package today and it was the firewall insulation from DMT. This completes all the stuff that DMT was doing and eliminates a big roadblock in the project. The other day when Ron was here working on the doors he dropped off a package tray... |
 | | May 18, 2015 - Polara I guess I'm just bored waiting for parts. |
 | | May 16, 2015 - Polara Just seeing the doors with windows in them makes a world of difference, just need to finish the car. |
 | | May 13, 2015 - Polara I put some parts in vinegar to clean like I have done many times before, same vinegar, same store, etc. I did forget to check on these for a few days but overall they were in less than some other parts I have done. The parking brake spring... |
 | | May 12, 2015 - Polara This is a junction block that the CHP used on these cars, it is an original CHP used part. We are still trying to ID this part to better aid in tracking down more. |
 | | May 10, 2015 - Polara Ron came by to help and we chose to get the doors loaded, I need to give most of the credit to him as in the time it took me to clean the glass he was ready for it with the rest of the door being done. |
 | | May 2, 2015 - Polara Now having the booster and the firewall seal kit from DMT I felt I could get the pedal assembly in and the booster. |
 | | April 29, 2015 - Polara Recently I received the AC box rebuild kit from DMT and there were some overlooked pieces. Jim got right on it as he wanted to make sure the kit was correct before it made it available. |
 | | April 28, 2015 - Polara M-Squad finally came through with the graphics, I’d give them a 9.5 out of 10. Very close, good enough! |
 | | April 27, 2015 - Polara Detroit Muscle Technology (DMT) has been working diligently on everything needed for this car, the pieces needed for the AC box have come in. |
 | | April 23, 2015 - Polara After having issues with another dash pad company I chose to take a second car to Just Dashes. I haven’t got it back yet, soon. |
 | | April 21, 2015 - Polara The original power brake booster was sent in to Booster Dewey to be rebuilt and it came in, not much to say. I had a couple boosters and sent them both in, parts and credit as these housings are shared on many Hemi cars. |
 | | March 31, 2015 - Polara For sometime I have been looking at the different grill assemblies I have acquired and none of them perfect, most were either broken/cracked or pitted till now. I recently received another grill this time it is near perfect, just need to freshen up the paint... |
 | | March 28, 2015 - Polara One of my projects right now is going through all the AC box parts, the middle housing will need to be replaced. Between broken studs and chunks of plastic missing I do not feel it is worth it to try and fix this one. |
 | | March 25, 2015 - Polara Looks like the battery cable is about ready, they were asking about the fusible link. I had a bunch with only one good red one that I needed. The Leece Neville alternator required a different one. |
 | | March 20, 2015 - Polara One thing about being friends with the owner of the finest restored 1969 CHP Polara is the wealth of information, the only thing better is being able to borrow the Prototype CHP Push-Bar assembly to make a copy... |
 | | March 9, 2015 - Polara The other day I received a NOS shock that was specified on the CHP cars, this shock is a little bit bigger than the standard shocks. Not sure how its performance compared to the standard shocks of the day but I doubt it would be as good as today’s shocks... |
 | | March 1, 2015 - Polara The bumpers are now ready to be taken to the chrome shop, I needed to remove the deflectors so new rivets will be in order. |
 | | February 28, 2015 - Polara With the exhaust being done I felt there was no reason to wait to put the driver side wheel liner in. With the car now in the garage the other direction I can roll it back to get more room to work, rolled back the car was then jacked and the wheel removed... |
 | | February 22, 2015 - Polara On to vendor two or is it three, not sure but I hope this one can make this cable. It's just a battery cable, how hard can it be. |
 | | February 17, 2015 - Polara One of the tailpipe hangers was not shaped the way it should so I put a block of wood to help coax it in place. |
 | | February 13, 2015 - Polara Before they started on installing pipe on the car I was able to get a good look under the car. The first thing I noticed was the transmission had shifted on the mount, I’ll need to loosen up the engine mounts and see if I can shift everything... |
 | | February 12, 2015 - Polara The brackets and hardware cleaned up nicely. The belts were masked off and they were painted with exhaust manifold cast iron gray. The belts have some cracks but are serviceable. |
 | | February 8, 2015 - Polara The plan is for the exhaust installation on Friday so I need to get the original hangers cleaned up. With the car having dual exhaust there is an extra mounting bracket on the left side, this is a bolt in piece. On the right side there this bracket is welded in the car... |
 | | January 31, 2015 - Polara A new year and work to get done. I was able to track down a serviceable pulley and a NOS coil so the pulley was cleaned up and painted. Not wanting to watch paint dry I installed the compressor and fan assembly... |
 | | January 19, 2015 - Polara Taillights are up next. |
 | | January 11, 2015 - Polara Recently I acquired another washer bottle but it was filthy, no amount of cleaning would take care of the discoloration. This is a one year only part so the hunt continues. |
 | | January 1, 2015 - Polara New Year, new outlook. I felt it was a good time to get the garage in order (again). Much of the garage was emptied and just organized, it doesn't take much to free up some space. |
 | | December 28, 2014 - Polara The original condenser had a strap holding the tube, it doesn't appear to be needed and was probably something to protect the tube in manufacturing. The strap is a Mopar part and I'll be putting a new one on the new condenser. |
 | | December 27, 2014 - Polara I can’t say enough about Detroit Muscle Technologies (DMT) for stepping up to the plate and making the seals needed for this project. I sent them the parts needed to make the seals and the results are perfect... |
 | | December 20, 2014 - Polara I received the AC parts and determined what hardware would need to be swapped or transferred. The needed parts were removed from one of the salvaged compressors cleaned up and painted... |
 | | December 14, 2014 - Polara With new AC parts on order I wanted to get the brackets and hardware all mocked up so I would be ready to install the new parts when they came in. A couple things came up, one it looks like I may have an incorrect bracket as it doesn’t line up with... |
 | | December 6, 2014 - Polara I’m still at it, I have been cleaning up the air conditioning hoses and the fire extinguisher. The fire extinguisher was taken apart and the tank sandblasted it was the primed and painted red. The metal ends of the hoses were soaked in vinegar for several days before... |
 | | November 23, 2014 - Polara The original air conditioning compressor was stripped of the parts that I needed to cleanup and transfer, my plan is to order a ready to use replacement that is setup for R-134. The hoses from this car are rusted and I may need to cleanup some of them... |
 | | November 18, 2014 - Polara I thought I'd take the time to point out the lower radiator hose as some might think it is a cheap one size fits all flex hose, it is actually the correct hose for the car. In 1969 CHP requested a heavy duty reinforced hose to be used on the lower radiator hose... |
 | | November 13, 2014 - Polara The original Leece Neville alternator was sent out for rebuild and came back looking almost like new. With the engine in the car some of the engine related parts could go on, the front pulleys and alternator were all I was able to do... |
 | | November 11, 2014 - Polara The first thing that needed to be done was to install the torque converter, my friend tried first and after a few tries my other friend tried with success. That done the transmission was mated to the engine and the hoist was wheeled to the car... |
 | | November 8, 2014 - Polara Very simple, roll engine into the garage. Ok even I knew it wasn’t gong to be that simple, first up it wasn’t going to fit through the door from the house into the garage without removing the exhaust manifolds and the dipstick and hat wasn’t going to happen... |
 | | November 5, 2014 - Polara I managed to locate a pair of serviceable torsion bar boots and get the rest of the front end done. |
 | | November 1, 2014 - Polara The day started with the plan to get the front wheels under the car, with that done I could put the engine in. First up I started with the right torsion bar and had issues with the boot, turns out it was not the correct one so I chose to reuse the original ones... |
 | | October 29, 2014 - Polara Once I get the engine in the car I'll be getting the exhaust done, the plan is to use the original hangers as they are in serviceable condition. Little by little parts are going on the engine. Exhaust manifolds and water pump were done... |
 | | October 18, 2014 - Polara It was discovered early on that this car was equipped with a Cadillac recovery bottle, my plan was to put one in. I didn't like the way it was installed and planned to clean it up, I used a piece of heater hose to represent the CHP wiring harness tubing... |
 | | October 16, 2014 - Polara Once I get the engine in the car I'll be getting the exhaust done, the plan is to use the original hangers as they are in serviceable condition. |
 | | October 9, 2014 - Polara I have had the tires for a little while now and finally had them mounted on the recently powder coated wheels. I had the use the stick on wheel weights on the reverse side. |
 | | September 20, 2014 - Polara I did get a new brake hold off valve and needed to swap brackets with the original. The rivets were drilled out and the bracket removed. On the new valve the mounting holes were drilled out and tapped... |
 | | September 19, 2014 - Polara Although I powder coated this bracket black I wasn't sure it was black or engine color. The problem is not all cars had it, not sure if it was a midyear change or what. |
 | | September 17, 2014 - Polara Before the engine could go in I needed mounts, needless to say I needed to order them. Upon test fitting them I noticed the locating nub didn’t line up with the hole in the bracket, I checked with a friend and he had the same problem with his 70 Cuda... |
 | | September 13, 2014 - Polara The last couple days I have been trying to get the front suspension together. I had installed the steering gear, pitman arm and idler a couple weeks ago and had problems getting the upper ball joints in so I put it on hold till I could check on tricks to get them in... |
 | | September 8, 2014 - Polara The original oil dipstick was broken at the block and a replacement will need to be located. |
 | | September 4, 2014 - Polara I got the new pre-bent fuel lines and when installed they didn't lineup the way I thought they should. With a little finesse I got them lined up. |
 | | August 16, 2014 - Polara Once again although I haven’t posted updates doesn’t mean work isn’t getting done. This project has been more about logistics than actually working on the engine. First up the engine shop forgot to put the main bearings in the box of parts... |
 | | July 15, 2014 - Polara I had previously checked with one vendor on making the battery cable and they were not able to so I wrote it off. Recently I thought of another vendor that might be able to do it and they said they could. |
 | | July 12, 2014 - Polara Well although I haven't posted much progress I have been working on the car I have been working on it. I got the engine back from the machinist a little while ago and have started the assembly... |
 | | June 8, 2014 - Polara I just spent the afternoon cleaning the steering gear. This thing was filthy, I had to scrape a 1/4" of grease off of it before I went at it with carb cleaner and brake cleaner. This thing has more nooks & crannies than Thomas' English muffins... |
 | | May 24, 2014 - Polara Well I got the block on the engine stand and in the house, the heads and all the tin was put on the engine so it could be painted. Its late so I'll paint it in the morning. |
 | | May 9, 2014 - Polara I recently ordered a power brake booster and master cylinder from RockAuto, the website had a picture of the correct unit but the unit shipped wasn't close. For you daily driver it would probably work but not for a restoration... |
 | | April 30, 2014 - Polara I was collecting parts to take to the powder coater and looked at one of the wheels, this wheel was on the car with a flat tire and buried so there was some scales from rust. I spent some time grinding of it till I felt it was good. |
 | | April 25, 2014 - Polara As previously mentioned the engine has been in the shop and it is finally ready. Initially I thought the bill was a little on he high side but soon realized they also purchased some of the parts that we were not expecting them to get like a cam... |
 | | April 18, 2014 - Polara Although I haven’t been posting updates I have been cleaning parts. Recently I heard about using vinegar to clean parts so I thought I’d give it a try. I chose to start out with the door lock mechanism as I didn’t think sandblasting was a good idea... |
 | | March 9, 2014 - Polara Ron had some tailpipes made, I'll need to compare them to the originals, at a glance they look great. I also got a set of tires for the car, they are light truck tires from Specialty Tires of America. These are bias ply and have that vintage look... |
 | | February 23, 2014 - Polara One of the vendors was asking about plugs and bumpers on the car and I looked the car over to create a list, it was easier to look at the other Polara as everything was the same as far as these go. |
 | | February 22, 2014 - Polara With the wiper motor blasted I masked off some stuff and painted the housing. The housing bolts were removed and painted along with the other pieces of hardware. In the end it looks almost like new. |
 | | February 11, 2014 - Polara First, why all the silence and no updates? $$$ The engine was taken to the machine shop a few months back and I have been saving money to pay for it. Just yesterday I get a call saying that they are working on it!! |
 | | January 16, 2014 - Polara Just an example of the personalized service you get from Leanna. |
 | | January 12, 2014 - Polara Where to start? This little girl was hiding in the front seat so she must be good, “Peggy”. Even before I had this car I stated collecting accessories, some correct some not. The pictures are in no particular order... |
 | | January 4, 2014 - Polara This car still had its original exhaust system still in it and I'll probably be getting reproduction Hemi mufflers and having the local muffler show bend pipe and install. It was difficult trying to figure out the pipe size as there isn't a... |
 | | December 15, 2013 - Polara One of the things I need to look into having made if the positive battery cable, initially I thought I might be able to take some other cables and adapt them. I figured I'd be cutting it in the middle anyway but there still wasn't any... |
 | | December 8, 2013 - Polara At the same time I dropped off parts to be sandblasted I left some trim to be taken to someone to polish. All I had done was the aluminum trim which was just the trim around the taillights. As for the stainless I’m not sure what I’ll be doing... |
 | | December 5, 2013 - Polara I had all the parts ready to ship to be used as samples for the seals and insulation. I needed to have an idea what size box I was going to need. |
 | | December 1, 2013 - Polara I collected a bunch of parts to be blasted, a local shop has allowed me to use their blast cabinet. I still need to take some of these apart, I still have a little time before I blast these. |
 | | November 30, 2013 - Polara I started to collect more parts for sandblasting and grabbed the two sets of wiper linkage I had, One was from this car which has a 2-speed motor and the other from the parts car that had a 3-speed/variable one... |
 | | November 29, 2013 - Polara In looking at the heater box and parts I noticed that the two housing had a slightly different linkage arrangement on them, will need to keep this in mind in putting it back together. |
 | | November 26, 2013 - Polara I needed to inventory the interior pieces that I'm looking into having done to see what pieces they may be interested in doing. |
 | | November 25, 2013 - Polara Recently I handed off a bunch of parts to Ron to take to a sand blaster as there isn’t one in my area. He returned the parts and they all look great, now I need to get moving on the front suspension. |
 | | November 24, 2013 - Polara One thing about these cars is nothing is available. I wasn’t content on using old worn out parts so I contacted one of the suppliers to see if they would be interested in samples to put together a kit for the heater/ac box and the under dash insulation... |
 | | November 23, 2013 - Polara Well I felt now was as good as any to hit the garage and clear out as much unnecessary stuff as I could. Hopes were to toss as much as I could, in the end I filled one 95 gallon trash can. The plan was to empty it to the walls and only put back what was needed and... |
 | | November 17, 2013 - Polara After a recent powder coating job I chose to send my stuff elsewhere. A while back I sent my air cleaner to Phoenix Specialty Coatings and was very happy with the results and importantly the service. So I chose to again ship some parts this time a bunch... |
 | | November 16, 2013 - Polara I have a couple heater/ac boxes along with some spare parts I went through both units to see what parts would be used. Good spares will be sent off for new seals to be made. There are some minor difference in the two units but... |
 | | November 12, 2013 - Polara Today I had a visit from the family that sold me the car. They were in the area and checked to see if they could drop by and see the progress on the car. They were very happy to see it and were quite pleased in the workmanship on it... |
 | | November 9, 2013 - Polara Time to start assessing parts from this car as well as the ones from the parts car and in some cases my daily driver, another 69 Polara. I started soaking the greasy engine parts in preparations to have them blasted... |
 | | November 5, 2013 - Polara Well I’m continuing with the firewall assembly and got both the recirculating air ducts that I had out and hosed them off. Overall they are both in good shape, a little soap and water will do wonders... |
 | | November 4, 2013 - Polara Nothing is ever simple even simply installing a few components. With the recently cleaned and painted hardware I set off to install the voltage regulator and ballast resistor along with a junction block. First up the ballast resistor wham... |
 | | November 3, 2013 - Polara I set out on a couple projects today, one was to collect the aluminum trunk trim to be sent out for polishing, and the other was to start cleaning up parts that mount on the firewall.First I collected most of the parts and the spares I may have had... |
 | | October 30, 2013 - Polara These are a couple items that remain difficult to locate, the pilot light is a mil-spec item but trying to locate a vendor to get small quantities is virtually impossible. The junction block is another elusive item, we don't even know the manufacturer of it... |
 | | October 27, 2013 - Polara Where to start? I was looking at the side marker housings to see what needed to be done on them to clean them up and I had more questions than answers. At first I thought these were off my other Polara as the backside was green but... |
 | | October 22, 2013 - Polara The block, heads and crank were taken to the machine shop along with the rods. |
 | | October 19, 2013 - Polara We were finally able to schedule to get the rest of the polishing done. The hood was brought out and wet sanded and polished, once it was done it was taken back in the house where it will stay till the engine goes in. |
 | | September 29, 2013 - Polara Although work on the car has been at a stand still I have been saving towards getting the engine done. I’m at the point where I needed to do the teardown and cleanup. Once I found the engine I removed the transmission which was... |
 | | September 14, 2013 - Polara Hey, we’re really movin now, ok not that much. We did get the other fender done along with the trunk lid. |
 | | September 11, 2013 - Polara Two months later and progress is being made, ok it is only one fender but it is progress. There really isn’t much more to say other than the driver side fender was polished and installed. |
 | | September 5, 2013 - Polara I have collected up a bunch of parts that will be sent to Phoenix Specialty Coatings for powdercoating. Leanna is a car girl and does exceptional work. There may be some more stuff later but at the moment this is all of it. |
 | | September 2, 2013 - Polara The inside rear window trim is in bad shape, problem is so is the trim on the other Polara, its unique profile will make finding an alternate difficult. |
 | | September 1, 2013 - Polara Ron loaned me some under-dash insulation that he had. I had the carcass of a parts car still in the yard so I put the pieces down to see where they went and if there were any missing sections. With these I'll be making templates so I can have new ones made. |
 | | August 31, 2013 - Polara The sail panels on the CHP car were in bad shape and were not serviceable so I had planned on using the ones from the other Polara. While at it I grabbed the headliner that may be needed for a pattern. |
 | | August 29, 2013 - Polara Literally since I got this car I have been planning on getting this trim. I was able to track down a dealer that had all the pieces aside from one which they had for the wagon. Not wanting to take chances any longer I sent my order for all eight pieces... |
 | | August 20, 2013 - Polara One thing about working on a C Body is that many items are just not available that might be for other Mopar’s, the electrical harnesses are no exception. Recently I contacted one of the companies that makes harnesses for the restoration suppliers... |
 | | July 25, 2013 - Polara While I had the car wrapped up I felt it was a good to take care of the wheel wells. Like inside the trunk I hit all the seams with Chassis Saver along with all the edges of the patches. Once that was done I tried some rattle can undercoating that had no build... |
 | | July 20, 2013 - Polara Getting the inside of the trunk done was a slow process as each application needed to sit overnight to setup. Having the seam sealer done I followed up with Chassis Saver coating as much of the inside of the quarters that I could reach... |
 | | July 13, 2013 - Polara With the fenders up next I felt it was a good time to put the core support on. The core support was attached to the fenders when the factory originally painted the car and was then the painted body was attached to the frame. |
 | | July 6, 2013 - Polara The polishing continued to the doors and all four doors have been done and installed. |
 | | June 22, 2013 - Polara I took a break from working on the car to go visit my brother in Oregon and felt it might be a good time to get my seats from the upholsterer in Medford. I had initially planned on taking my truck but it was in the middle of a disc brake upgrade... |
 | | May 29, 2013 - Polara Well the buffer came out and two hours later the body shined. First up was a rubbing compound that alone brought out the shine, which was followed up with a polishing glaze compound that just mad the shine pop... |
 | | May 28, 2013 - Polara Well once again it is all about sanding, the 1500 was finished up and all the 2000 was done on the body. It is hard to show but the finish actually has a shine although you wouldn’t know it at a glance. The plan is to polish the body first then move on and repeat... |
 | | May 25, 2013 - Polara The initial stages of polishing the paint is under way, work started with started with 1000 grit sandpaper and moved to 1500. With the time available only the body was done once the body has been done with 2000 the work will move on to... |
 | | May 9, 2013 - Polara I finally got all my small parts painted, my bodyman has been a little busy on other projects. Not seen are the trim for the rear of the hood an on of the fender extensions. The trim was camera shy and hiding in the cab of the truck and the extension is getting extra attention again... |
 | | April 21, 2013 - Polara It probably would have been wiser to have done this prior to paint but I was lucky and didn’t have any issues. First up I mixed up some seam sealer and sealed up the seam in the air plenum as far as I could reach... |
 | | April 14, 2013 - Polara The first part of the day was getting the frame in. I painted the area that was previously sanded and then put some seam sealer on the joints from putting the floor in, I was then able to roll the frame in, lower the body and bolt it up... |
 | | April 13, 2013 - Polara The bottom of the car has never been shown here. For the most part it looks like the day we pulled the car from the field minus the exhaust and driveshaft. The other day I went to put the frame in and realized the replacement floor pan was still just primer... |
 | | April 10, 2013 - Polara What can I say, I just picked up the frame from the powder coater and it looks amazing. Got it home and started to put it in when I realized I needed to put some paint on the floor pan I installed and I had no paint, tomorrow. |
 | | April 8, 2013 - Polara Having a green and a red car to compare was nice when it came to trying to figure out what was painted with the body. The parts car is red and it was easy to see what was painted red under the hood and what was painted black... |
 | | April 4, 2013 - Polara Yet another load of painted parts. I managed to get the trunk, hood and both front doors in the truck but had to leave them there half the day till I could get help unloading them. Just like the others they all look incredible... |
 | | April 3, 2013 - Polara Yesterday my bodyman finished up prepping the remaining panels till now the trunk wasn’t even blocked on the final primer. This evening he started on the white while I masked off the inside of the hood and trunk... |
 | | April 1, 2013 - Polara No work just brought some of the panels home. No time to put them away so they ended up in the middle of the garage till I got off work. |
 | | March 31, 2013 - Polara Ron would regularly come by for one reason or another, I'm sure this time was to see the freshly painted car. These are his pictures, I needed to unbag the hardware so I could be painted so I put them in a board and marked it up for what they were, |
 | | March 30, 2013 - Polara Well we got all the panels in the booth, today was all about black. All four doors, both fenders the deck lid and hood were all arranged so you could circle them as needed. The rear doors were fully painted, the fenders just the outside... |
 | | March 25, 2013 - Polara This evening worked progressed on getting the final panels ready for paint. The rear doors and one fender were done, work had to be moved to the driveway as the car is in the way. It is nice seeing the painted car each night as I close up shop. |
 | | March 24, 2013 - Polara What more is there to say other than I can't wait to get the rest of the panels painted and start the assembly. The car sat in the booth over night and I when went to pick it up it was waiting out front as the booth was needed... |
 | | March 23, 2013 - Polara Early in the morning the car was towed to the body shop where the booth was that we were using. First thing was masking while we waited for the booth to be cleared. Once the car was in the booth it was again cleaned... |
 | | March 22, 2013 - Polara Even though we got off to a late start we got everything ready to roll the body and front doors into the booth tomorrow. If all goes well we'll be back in the booth next weekend with the rest. |
 | | March 20, 2013 - Polara We knew going into today that there were some final things that needed to be welded. The recently discovered striker was the big one and was worse that I even thought it would be. Then some final pinholes and a missing pinch nut on the firewall... |
 | | March 9, 2013 - Polara One thing I wanted to get out of the way before paint was to clean up the interior. I didn't feel it was necessary to shoot body paint as it all gets covered up, needless to say I wanted it to look clean. Because I'm all about presentation... |
 | | March 3, 2013 - Polara Just when you think the sanding is all done the sponge comes out, the sponges are like sandpaper along with the guide coat the entire car was gone over again. With that all done it was time to take it all apart. With all the panels removed the jambs could be fully sanded... |
 | | February 17, 2013 - Polara With the recent rearrangement of the garage I needed to separate the motor and frame. I only needed to unbolt the transmission mount as both the motor mounts were split. The only parts left were the steering gear, idler and center link... |
 | | February 16, 2013 - Polara Today was the FINAL blocking and we are ready to pull it apart. Once we get the doors off the jambs and the inside of the doors can be sanded and prepped for paint. The hood and fenders have been pulled and they will need inside preparations as well... |
 | | February 9, 2013 - Polara Today was the FINAL blocking and we are ready to pull it apart. Once we get the doors off the jambs and the inside of the doors can be sanded and prepped for paint. The hood and fenders have been pulled and they will need inside preparations as well... |
 | | February 5, 2013 - Polara Much of the time this evening was spent fitting the rear window trim. With all the repairs to the frame and some just didn't like the way the factory fit was some of the trim didn't fit that well. First we fit the trim on my other Polara to see what factory... |
 | | February 4, 2013 - Polara With a week of treating and attempting to break it free I finally got a pop on Friday. Throughout the weekend I continued to beat the heck out of the motor along with standing on the breaker bar and was finally able to rotate the crank about 50 degrees and rotate it back... |
 | | January 27, 2013 - Polara For the most part this phase of the blocking is done. Some minor issues were noticed in the trim mounting so that will be resolved prior to the final blocking. Till now the blocking was all 220 grit, it will be followed up with 320 right before paint... |
 | | January 23, 2013 - Polara The original full length body harnesses was toast and I needed a new one. I contacted M&H Electric Fabricators, Inc. in Santa Fe Springs to see if they could do one. I had a few originals that were all in just as bad shape so I sent them all to them... |
 | | January 21, 2013 - Polara Well finally I'm going to get into the motor. First up was the water pump housing, but thought I'd remove the bad thermostat housing off it came one broken bolt, ok that's how it is going to be, great! I couldn't get a grip on the heater hose fittings... |
 | | January 20, 2013 - Polara Today was just a mirror image of yesterday just with different problems. The shock came out relatively quick as did the adjuster bolt, so I was set to knock the torsion bar out. On the other side I loosened the lower control arm nut and knocked it bac... |
 | | January 19, 2013 - Polara This afternoon I spent some time on the fame and motor assembly. I started off taking a bunch of new pictures taking advantage of the natural lighting. With that out of the way I moved on to actually working on it... |
 | | January 17, 2013 - Polara No real work was done on the car and even these pictures may need to be done again. The flash was too much in most of them and there just isn't that much time after work so looks like I'll be redoing them on Saturday... |
 | | January 15, 2013 - Polara With the car nearing paint I felt it was time to start looking at the motor and front frame assembly or should I say start looking for it. After moving all the stuff that was piled all over the assembly I started cleaning, initially I couldn't even see that... |
 | | January 13, 2013 - Polara Over the weekend I drove down to LA to compare my paint sample to Ron's car. There were mixed results depending on what light and angle etc. that you saw the two together with but in the end I am happy with the color and will be going with the code matched paint. |
 | | January 5, 2013 - Polara With the holidays behind us it is back to work. The blocking on the final primer has started and about half the car was done. A guide coat was applied to better show what has been sanded, it sits in the texture of the primer and as you sand the texture off it goes away... |
 | | December 15, 2012 - Polara Well it is at that point I can say body work is DONE! The workday started off with finishing the filler on the roof and passenger fender, once that was done the areas were masked off and primmered... |
 | | December 11, 2012 - Polara This evening was more the same, filler on previous work. The driver side fender and headlight brow, windshield frame as well as the roof. |
 | | December 10, 2012 - Polara Not much of an update but it is progress. The previous patches were filled and sanded and the final couple holes were filled, somewhere along the way without me noticing the windshield frame was taken care of. |
 | | December 3, 2012 - Polara For quite some time we knew we needed to get back and fix some rust issues that were discovered while removing paint. The lower portion of both fenders need about a 3x4 patch and the spot on the top of the fender from a previous fix... |
 | | December 1, 2012 - Polara For once it wasn't blocking. Today was about finishing up some things in the trunk, both sides still needed to be dressed where it was welded. This weld line wasn't factory, the gutter channel was spot welded on the horizontal portion and dropped down about... |
 | | November 23, 2012 - Polara I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Today again started off with blocking the first prime on the rest of the car, very little spot filler was needed. With all that taken care of the car was again primered... |
 | | November 17, 2012 - Polara Well another quiet day, lots of sanding, a little spot filler on to primer. That just about sums it up the only thing different was the primer, it's a hi-fill polyester primer and a much lighter shade of grey. Only half the car was done... |
 | | November 13, 2012 - Polara Quiet day, that is a good thing. Lots of sanding, probably a quarter of the car if not more was blocked out and so far not spot filler needed. On the flip side a pin hole was discovered smack dab in the middle of the roof... |
 | | October 27, 2012 - Polara For a car that sat in a field for thirty years the roof was in pretty good shape. The only real repair was just above the driver side B-pillar. With that taken care of the rest of the car was primered so finally the heavy work is done. |
 | | October 24, 2012 - Polara With scheduling issues with my assistant work has slowed down but I'm still looking into different things about the car that may have long lead time or just simply difficult to find. One item is the package tray... |
 | | October 16, 2012 - Polara Well this evening was like the last few, apply some filler sand it off prime, call it a night and repeat tomorrow. In a nutshell that was it and like the last few evenings rust was discovered. The bottom of both fenders will need to be repaired... |
 | | October 14, 2012 - Polara First thing was to install the front sheet metal, I'm not sure if not having the frame made it easier or not. While we were prepping the hood to install I noticed a fare amount of rust, no cancer but enough to create noise when you moved to hood (loose stuff between the layers). The decision was to go with the hood off the parts car... |
 | | October 10, 2012 - Polara Work resumed with completing the skim work on the right rear door, with that done the front doors were installed. The skim was completed on the right side before we ran out of time for the night. |
 | | October 9, 2012 - Polara With the weather turning we chose to cover-up what has been done up to this point. Not much more to report. |
 | | October 8, 2012 - Polara I spent the evening tearing down the dash because it was there. Before I had at it I took a series of pictures and compared the wiring modifications to the diagram from the CHP bulletin. No real issues other than I needed to poke my way into the glove box... |
 | | September 19, 2012 - Polara Even though there was a little more time today to wok all that was done was some additional work on the quarter and fitting the left rear door. One of the things that took some time was the patch over the wheel well needed some extra attention... |
 | | September 17, 2012 - Polara This evening was about finishing up the lower quarter repair. Initially I purchased some additional sheet metal so we could finish this last big repair but it ended up being thinner that what we wanted... |
 | | September 15, 2012 - Polara With the rust in the lower quarter on the driver side I had him cut an inspection hole on the other side, it was fine so that was welded back in and we moved on. Although there was no rust in the quarter there was in the lead seam at the rocker, that was patched... |
 | | September 9, 2012 - Polara My helper wasn't available so I took the opportunity to clean the inner panel and put a coat of paint on it to protect it. |
 | | September 7, 2012 - Polara The evening started off with patching the bottom of the quarter panel forward of the right wheel opening. Like the other side there is a lead joint here something that I didn't know about. Further work on the quarters revealed that the lower on the driver side... |
 | | September 5, 2012 - Polara What more is there to say cut grind weld, done, next! Ok I cannot get off that easy. Heck I'm not doing the work so there isn't much to comment on about the challenges or learning. We were limited in the repair to what we had available from the parts car... |
 | | September 3, 2012 - Polara On to the next day started off working the driver side to match the passenger side. Along the way a crack showed up on the c-pillar, looks like I may have ground a weld a little thin. With that taken care of work progressed onto the quarter and... |
 | | September 1, 2012 - Polara The day started with beating the trunk lid into submission and getting all the gaps to look good. The rest of the day was about getting filler on the car and blending the repair work on the passenger side. |
 | | August 30, 2012 - Polara While work was being done on the roof and c-pillar I worked on cleaning up the trunk. In the process I exposed a couple more rust holes that were concealed under some seam sealer, not big and easily fixed... |
 | | August 29, 2012 - Polara With the rear roofline cleaned up filler was applied and an instant transformation (well after a little sanding). |
 | | August 28, 2012 - Polara The evening started out finishing up the repair in the antenna mount area. I stepped out to get a nut to repair the shoulder belt mount, upon return the patch was done. While I worked to remove the plate for the shoulder belt mount he was moving onto the roofline... |
 | | August 23, 2012 - Polara This was the update I didn't want to do. There were some pin holes in the area of the antenna mount and in trying to fill them the area just buckled from being thin, the decision was made to cut it all out. As much as I had hopes of keeping the original antenna mounting... |
 | | August 22, 2012 - Polara This evening was about the c-pillars, even before the lead was removed rust pin holes started to show. With that the plan changed to cut it all out, on the passenger side it turned out to be from the seam up about four inches and one driver side quite a bit more... |
 | | August 20, 2012 - Polara Metalwork is just about done, one more evening all the patching and welding will should be completed. The recent work was to clean up the trunk gutter and finish the tie in of the replacement window section. |
 | | August 18, 2012 - Polara Once again sparks are flying! The other side of the trunk floor was opened up and patched much like the passenger side, with this being done the trunk floor is done. I was about to say the rust repair is done but the plan now is to cut open the c-pillars and... |
 | | August 15, 2012 - Polara My assistant wasn't able to show so I spent some time on some areas that he'll be working on next. I still hadn't removed all the seam sealer on the driver side wheel well and had hopes that it would be ok, well there are holes... |
 | | August 14, 2012 - Polara Well quite some time has passed since the last update and work as well. The decision was made to recruit some help and knock out the rest of the rust repair. The trunk pan and extensions need work and we felt it was better to just fix several problems with a single patch... |
 | | May 6, 2012 - Polara Four months later and the exterior rust repair is DONE! The only rust repair still needed to be done is the trunk and there isn't that much there. The passenger side quarter patch was probably the largest patch outside the rear window that I had on the exterior... |
 | | April 22, 2012 - Polara Last weekend was the Annual Spring Fling Mopar show in Van Nuys that I have gone to for the last 20 plus years. Last year I got second place for my Barracuda, this year I chose to take the CHP car and put it in the Work in Progress class... |
 | | April 7, 2012 - Polara Well just when you think you have it done problems surface. I had the patch done but needed to take care of a few pin holes. Well they grew faster than I could fill them so I added a patch, no good it still grew. Finally I had to cut all the work out and find good metal... |
 | | March 20, 2012 - Polara Started digging into the quarters, literally. At first it was sort of a connect the dots and as I was working on different spots the opening ended up bigger. There are a couple of holes on the wheel side in this area that will need to be address first... |
 | | March 18, 2012 - Polara WOW, the idea that I can just about call this done is amazing. I still have some fill work to finish and edges to cleanup but the welding, grinding, cutting it out doing over is done. It is hard to believe this is the same car that rolled into this garage 19 months ago... |
 | | March 13, 2012 - Polara The windshield frame was finished up over the weekend and most of the patches on the rear window frame were taken care of. If all goes well I should have the entire rear window frame cleaned up by this weekend... |
 | | March 4, 2012 - Polara The biggest hole in the windshield frame is filled, still a little cleanup to do on the filler. The patch was pulled from my parts car, all the other patches will probably be made from raw stock. |
 | | March 3, 2012 - Polara With the interior basically all cleaned up I felt it was time to finish it off and primer it along with the firewall. Even though the rust repair isn't done yet I thought that I might as well prime the full car. Overall the body is in good shape so I... |
 | | March 1, 2012 - Polara The windshield frame is in pretty good shape, even after removing all the sealant I was still happy with the extent of the work needed. I felt this was a good time to start sanding the body I hope to expose any further rust issues... |
 | | February 23, 2012 - Polara Till now I had no real idea how bad the windshield channels were, I knew there were holes. The trim was removed and I tried to just bump the glass out as that basically worked on the rear, I could see the glass move but it was going to take a little more effort... |
 | | February 18, 2012 - Polara Like any project frustration set in and I had to just take a break. Back at it and I replaced a portion of the rear floor, when I went to remove the replacement from the parts car I ran into difficulties with freeing it from the car... |
 | | February 2, 2012 - Polara There is an alignment issue with the trunk lid that doesn't have an adjustment for, I have an idea how it happened. Soon as I can look at my other Polara I'll have a better idea on the problem. In Thursday's class I did some work on the rear window... |
 | | January 30, 2012 - Polara I didn't have much time for the car but I was able to get the trunk lid on. The original was to rusty to save so the one from the parts car was used. Not much to say other than I was able to do it myself even though it is heavy. I put the catch back on the car as well... |
 | | January 28, 2012 - Polara The plan was simple, reinstall the pieces that were removed. Well first up more rust was discovered where one of the fender braces connects to the car, then the hinge supports were too rusty. First up was to replace the lower portion of the second hinge support... |
 | | January 27, 2012 - Polara Well class is back in session, be it only three hours a week. The good side is some additional tools and advice from the teacher. Last night I looked at what the options are for restoring the braces and hinge supports in the trunk that were removed to facilitate... |
 | | January 23, 2012 - Polara One thing about not being a seasoned pro at this is that some things take longer. My welding skills are ok, not great just ok so I need to do a little more grinding, needless to say I did all the welds that I had previously done... |
 | | January 19, 2012 - Polara Everything from now on will be minor in comparison to what was needed to get this window in, from cutting away rust, fitting the replacement to finally welding it in. This was a long day that actually started the night before with treating everything... |
 | | January 17, 2012 - Polara Just a minor update today. Work on the rear window is underway, much of the piece and the area around it in the car were treated for rust which gave me time to fix one last item that needed to be done prior to installing the window section... |
 | | January 10, 2012 - Polara Well the panel is welded in for the most part, I still need to weld the portion on each side of the heater openings. This evening my plan is to get it ground down and primed. |
 | | January 9, 2012 - Polara The front floor went in relatively smooth having already had it in at least once. First thing was to sand down all the edges and put weld-through primer down. Once the primer setup I slipped the panel in and lined up the critical areas... |
 | | January 7, 2012 - Polara I finally feel like I am truly moving forward on this project. I started off by sanding the inside of the front replacement panel and putting a coat of primer on it so it will get welded in later. Back to the trunk, I had acquired a replacement trunk pan that was not even close... |
 | | January 5, 2012 - Polara I was finally able to get my friends welder over to the house so I decided to move back to the front floor and get that out of the way. First thing that was needed was to strip all the undercoating from the replacement. With heat gun in hand I scrapped the panel clean... |
 | | December 26, 2011 - Polara In class I was able to get the wheel wells patched, that done I took care of the filler work and now one step closer to getting the window installed. |
 | | November 22, 2011 - Polara This is a post to let those who have bookmarked this car and not my homepage know that I'm moving the journal to a forum on my server. I thought it might be fun and give the fans the ability to comment on my work... |
 | | September 27, 2011 - Polara Well I know it has been quite some time from my last update in part because I need to get the car to class where I can work on it. The class is at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria CA about 25 miles from my house in Lompoc... |
 | | July 23, 2011 - Polara The front floor has been fitted. After a little planning I made the initial cuts in removing some more of the car in the area under the ac box, this area was rusted and I felt it could easily be replaced with the floor section... |
 | | July 7, 2011 - Polara It doesn't take long of inactivity before stuff starts taking over the garage. With my brother moving it left me needing a truck which put work on the car on hold. The other thing that happened was that the only soda blaster within 100 miles went out of business... |
 | | May 6, 2011 - Polara Started off by removing the wheel house as fully as I could without resorting to drilling spot welds, still not sure how but I'd like to use most of the piece that was pulled. I then removed the other pieces as needed... |
 | | April 30, 2011 - Polara After looking at the car and seeing that the center section of the trunk floor should work to fix the forward area, I went out and took a second look at the parts car I have in the yard. First thing I saw was that I started to cut this car up... |
 | | April 26, 2011 - Polara First up I needed to remove the gas tank. After breaking all the dried up fuel lines I pulled the first bolt, no problem just spun the not off with little effort, not so lucky with the second one, snap. Tank down, I went to carry it out and noticed that there was... |
 | | April 25, 2011 - Polara Not much to say, I went out to the garage with the idea of better seeing how bad the trunk floor actually is. After taking a sander/grinder to the floor I was able to isolate the problem spots, all the groves were cleared out to double check them... |
 | | April 23, 2011 - Polara While I look for a trunk floor I might as well move on to the passenger floor. Prior to getting this car I had already acquired a parts car to help with my first Polara. I was already in the process of cutting up the car to make it easier to haul off... |
 | | April 8, 2011 - Polara It looks like my registration is finally resolved. CHP did their VIN check and I got the paperwork through DMV. So if I need to transport the car I can tow it on its own wheels or use a dolly, once I receive the registration back from Sacramento... |
 | | April 4, 2011 - Polara Received my air cleaner back from powder coating the other day and it looks better than new. Personal custom service from Phoenix Specialty Coatings Currently I'm looking for a new trunk pan, till I get one no money is being spent... |
 | | March 24, 2011 - Polara The trunk floor has multiple holes to fill and an overall bad surface, I felt replacing it all might be the easier way to go. A new panel was acquired off eBay and I received it today. Even at a glance I could see it wasn't well made... |
 | | March 9, 2011 - Polara The floor has been opened up to the extent of the rust, at this time I'm not sure how much more will be removed. For now I kept the cut forward of the forward front seat mounting rail. At this point I'm ready to get the car to the soda blaster... |
 | | March 1, 2011 - Polara Today's update may be short but it is big. One thing about being a rookie and not knowing what you are doing means that you have different ideas. I'm known for being a little unconventional in the way I approach some projects... |
 | | February 26, 2011 - Polara Recently I received a pair of NOS Unity spotlights off ebay, the originals were pitted and had broken handles, and these have everything I need to put correct units on the car. With them were installation hardware as well completing the package... |
 | | February 15, 2011 - Polara After making the last two cuts I pulled the pieces apart and hosed it off. Before I tried to see what will be needed to fit the section in I climbed into the trunk to tie the trunk hinges down out of the way, the passenger side one went down as before with no problems... |
 | | February 13, 2011 - Polara I pulled the replacement rear window section into the garage and mapped out the cuts as I had them on the car and then adding the extra as I planned. If all goes well it will come out in one piece inside and out all intact... |
 | | February 12, 2011 - Polara To start off I'd like to note that I received a reply from the CHP about my project and it looks like I will get my agreement upon completion of the restoration. Rumors have been that they don't hand out these agreements anymore and haven't in over five years. |
 | | February 4, 2011 - Polara I finally got a new compressor (and some new tools) and after a day setting it up I was back in action. With the trunk lid removed I climbed up and started cutting away along the roof, still not sure where the final cut will be... |
 | | January 23, 2011 - Polara Well I'm back on the car, today was all about the rear window. Even before I started to work the glass out I was able to move it so I knew it wouldn't be that difficult. Basically I used a putty knife and worked my way around... |
 | | December 29, 2010 - Polara A week ago i got the reproduction license plates but they had sticker wells on them that the exempt plates didn't have. The vendor site showed the plates correctly and I know others got them, they were contacted and replaced the plates... |
 | | December 22, 2010 - Polara The only recent work was removing the rest of the parts from the interior. The seat belts were still there and the rear floor mat was still in the car along with the dash assembly. With all the parts finally out I again ran the vacuum throughout... |
 | | December 5, 2010 - Polara Like many things on this car the brake booster fought me. Two of the bolts were difficult to even get to but with a box wrench I was able to get them out, the two that were accessible broke. The pedal assembly is coated in rust but should clean up just fine... |
 | | October 28, 2010 - Polara Now that I could move the cart I didn't like the way it was put together so I rebuilt it which was a little difficult with everything still on it, either way I got it done and moved it to the side so I could get the casters under the front of the body. |
 | | October 25, 2010 - Polara After thinking about it I felt I should be able to move the cart. Again I tried and it wouldn't budge then I looked at the wheels and each one was pointed in a different direction, that fixed, it rolled now, 2". Ok something is stopping it, doh! |
 | | October 24, 2010 - Polara With most everything ready I threw together a cart to hold the sub frame. The frame was rolled under the car and right away I saw that I was going to need another block added. With the frame in place the wheels were removed... |
 | | October 18, 2010 - Polara Having purchased the car from the couple that purchased it from the CHP has its benefits, while working on the car I noticed that there was a connector for a trailer and evidence of a hitch having been installed... |
 | | October 7, 2010 - Polara If I don't take pictures things like ground screws may drive me crazy on where they go. |
 | | October 4, 2010 - Polara Not much to report, been traveling a little and not much time for the car. In class some more parts were cleaned up, the radiator core support and a few other smaller parts. On the car preparations were started to remove the motor... |
 | | September 25, 2010 - Polara I had some time this weekend to work on the car so I set to get the rear floor mat out. Before I started I first needed to organize all the parts that were coming off, all the hardware was bagged and tagged but the larger parts were a little scattered... |
 | | September 24, 2010 - Polara Before I headed to class this evening a friend dropped off the inner fender he took home to work on. He is in the class with me and lives around the corner and is the one who introduced me to the class... |
 | | September 21, 2010 - Polara A couple weeks ago when working on Ron's car I noticed that his car didn't have a hole in the radiator core support that mine did, my first suspicion was that my car had the radiator recovery bottle upgrade mentioned in a Motor Transport Bulletin... |
 | | September 12, 2010 - Polara The last couple weekends were about helping Ron with his next project. First was to do the same full dismantle that we had just done on my car, with Ron's we pulled the motor and transmission and left all the sheet metal in place... |
 | | September 9, 2010 - Polara For class I brought the other front door along with a wheel liner. The door for the most part came apart much easier than the driver door once we figured out the vent window pivot (which is broken on the other door... |
 | | September 6, 2010 - Polara Back at it again, I started off removing the doors while Ron worked on clearing the accessories from the motor and removing the heater box. By the end of the day we had the dash, spot lights and rear bumper removed... |
 | | September 5, 2010 - Polara Ron came to help with the car this weekend and we had no idea how much would get done. We started off with getting the front seat out of the car then moved right onto the front of the car. For the most part everything went well and only a few broken bolts... |
 | | September 1, 2010 - Polara Again not much time spent, I did get a new shop-vac and did a thorough cleaning of the trunk and started in on the interior. With all the granular cleaned up the rust problem better showed itself. Even though the rust is more than I had originally thought... |
 | | August 31, 2010 - Polara I didn't have much time to put to the car this evening so I worked on clearing more debris out of the trunk. I found it much easier to just fold up the trunk mat and remove the bulk of it. After sweeping up the trunk I spotted another "drain" hole... |
 | | August 26, 2010 - Polara This evening the plan was to get the rear doors open. First the front seat was unbolted and moved forward to have more room to work. With the front seat out of the way I was able to unload all the spare parts that were piled up in the back seat... |
 | | August 25, 2010 - Polara I decided that today I was just going to clean and look at stuff. Having the number for the distributor I checked to see if it was correct, it is. I also wanted to get a look at the packaging for the front door trim that was in the trunk... |
 | | August 24, 2010 - Polara With that done it was on to seeing if the motor can be turned with a wrench. Seven of the plugs were removed, one was left because of accessibility problems. With the plugs removed the wrench was placed on the crank and an attempt was made at... |
 | | August 23, 2010 - Polara The initial plan was to get it running so bodywork could be done in class 30 miles away. Before anything is done I wanted to swap out a hood hinge that was tweaked in a prior incident, with a weld nut spinning that was put on hold till the fender comes off. |
 | | August 22, 2010 - Polara For the last three months I had been thinking of everything I might run into on the day we picked up the car. Everything from spares to rakes and shovels, in the end I only took some tools and the spares. First thing I needed to do was reserve a trailer... |
 | | May 8, 2010 - Polara In April Ron and I were at a car show, he was there with his 69 CHP Polara and I was over in the swap trying to earn some restoration funds. I get a call from Ron asking if I was interested in the real deal, a true CHP 1969 Dodge Polara... |
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