Ghostridersixseven
Member
The biggest modification I had planned was the redesign of the entire rear face of the Coronet. I wanted actual lights, and not a chrome plated tin bezel, to extend the whole way across the rear end. I tried 67 Charger lights, 68 Cougar lights, and finally settled on 1966 Thunderbird tail lights that blink sequentially. I pulled a setup off of one in a salvage yard and scored the sequencer as well which was still wrapped up in the fiber bundle from the factory and was like brand new. The OEM trunk deck lid on the 67 flows down over the back to almost the bumper top. I would need to have it end just above the light bar. This meant the trunk seal rail had to be moved up there as well, and the latch. The quarter panel tail extensions, ( the rear corners), had to be modified to accept the taller T Bird light base which was also shorter by 3" on each end. A new bottom panel would need fabrication to fit under the light base across the center rear. Soo.... I got to cutting.
Along with the lights the second half of this mod was a swap to a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner rear bumper. I wanted the exhaust to poke out through the back up light holes, ( the T Bird light bar has the back up light in the center of the light bar), and I wanted the upsweep on either end of that specific bumper because it matched near perfectly with the down sweep of the quarter extension sides. So, when paired together the outer profile as seen from the rear is a smooth curve top to bottom and the bumper height on the face is nearly as tall as the rear face of the car above the bumper. Symmetry.....it looks like the factory did it. It's cool. Along with these mods I also needed to add more than 4" to the center of that bumper so the ends , after rebending, would line up exactly below the extension sides. The bumper ends were bent around to hug the quarter panel pockets an the pockets cut out and fabricated to exactly match the bumper ends. I also ground off the bumper end contour lines and welded new metal along the sides that lines up with the quarter panel incoming body lines. I used that same dirty yellow 67 Coronet custom as my inspiration. The fabrication of all of this took nearly a year. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and had to start over twice. Many things are impacted by these changes that may not seem apparent at first. Lots had to be done to make these changes work and look correct.
Along with the lights the second half of this mod was a swap to a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner rear bumper. I wanted the exhaust to poke out through the back up light holes, ( the T Bird light bar has the back up light in the center of the light bar), and I wanted the upsweep on either end of that specific bumper because it matched near perfectly with the down sweep of the quarter extension sides. So, when paired together the outer profile as seen from the rear is a smooth curve top to bottom and the bumper height on the face is nearly as tall as the rear face of the car above the bumper. Symmetry.....it looks like the factory did it. It's cool. Along with these mods I also needed to add more than 4" to the center of that bumper so the ends , after rebending, would line up exactly below the extension sides. The bumper ends were bent around to hug the quarter panel pockets an the pockets cut out and fabricated to exactly match the bumper ends. I also ground off the bumper end contour lines and welded new metal along the sides that lines up with the quarter panel incoming body lines. I used that same dirty yellow 67 Coronet custom as my inspiration. The fabrication of all of this took nearly a year. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and had to start over twice. Many things are impacted by these changes that may not seem apparent at first. Lots had to be done to make these changes work and look correct.
Attachments
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1968 Cougar tail,light mock up - Copy.jpg -
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