In the beginning...

Sorry that is post is going to be a little long-winded, but here's all the background story for the rest of this blog:

In April of 2007 my wife and I determined we needed a second car. I had a job where I needed a vehicle at work every day, so it made it difficult for her to either a) be called in to work or b) go shopping, etc. We found a few cars that were more rust than car or barely ran. Then one day my wife happened to mention to a co-worker that we were looking and she said she had an 89 LeBaron convertible sitting on her driveway she wanted to get rid of.

My wife called me and told me about that and I was more or less sold right then. I've always loved the J-bodies, and wanted a convertible for years.

We went out to go see it one night. That time of year it was still getting dark early. The battery was drained so they had put it on charge that afternoon. We did the usual walk-around and poked and prodded at the imperfections like the rust spots and the splits in the top.

The previous owners told us it sat on the driveway for so long because of suspected transmission issues, and that the problem was described to them as a bearing in the differential. I took the car for a quick test drive and felt the shudder they told me about. It was pretty bad. It felt like I was constantly driving on a washboard road. I was a little disappointed and drove back to their house. Then I got out and I saw the "donut spare" was on the front. That didn't help matters, I'm sure.

We left that night saying we'd think about it. I was a little turned off, but it stayed in the back of my mind. Finally a week later it had tortured me enough that I had to go pick it up. I went back with a friend of mine who could give me a second opinion. After his thumbs-up we took it for another test drive, offered the owner a little less than the asking price, and took her home.

183,000 miles on the clock, on an engine rebuilt 70,000 miles ago, supposedly. There is the usual 80's Chrysler clearcoat failure on the trunk and surrounding area, and a bit at the tops of the doors. The passenger's door has some rust on it, as do the quarter panels just above the tail lights on both sides. There is also some floorpan rot on both sides, particularly around the parking brake cable. This is often seen on these 80's Chryslers.

Oddly enough, it has almost power nothing. It has power windows and top, which they all have.
The only option was the airbag, which will become a bit of a thorn in my side in later posts.

Under the hood is the base engine, a 2.5L TBI and a 3-speed automatic, aka the a413. The first thing I did was change the oil and replace tune-up parts ie spark plugs, cap, rotor, PCV valve, air filter, and the coil as the case was rusty.

I discovered the source of the vibration wasn't the transmission at all, but a broken front motor mount and a sloppy inner CV joint. I replaced both and saw a huge improvement. At the same time I adjusted the bands in the transmission and re-centered the engine. After that, I slowly replaced the following parts - front & rear brake pads and rotors, ball joints, outer tie rod ends, EGR valve, AIS motor, and all vacuum lines.

Then, in September everything changed. I found a wrecked LeBaron in the junkyard with the engine and transmission combo I wished this one had: a 2.5L Turbo 1 and the a520 5-speed manual. The car was untouched, with the exception of the radio having been taken out. Over the next couple of days I took the doors as they were rust-free and had power mirrors and locks, the rear quarter windows as the seals are in much better shape than mine, the door seals, a couple of convertible-specific trim pieces, and the shifter boot/cover plate as that is also convertible-specific, as a just-in-case part.

3 weeks later I got the go-ahead from the wife to pull the engine, transmission, and any other parts necessary to do the conversion. She probably agreed just to shut me up. The day we picked to pull the parts was less than ideal. A friend of mine came up to the city to help, as well as to look (unsuccessfully) for parts for his car. That day had a high wind, heavy rain and near-freezing temperatures. We spent what seemed like 6 hours out there in that, while in reality it was probably more like 3. We picked clean what we could, I had to leave the shifter, shift cables, clutch pedal and cable behind, hoping nobody would touch them. We just had to get out of there, we were cold, soaked and hungry.

Of course, the next day was much better, the sun came out and dried up most everything the next morning, and I was able to pull out the rest of my parts I needed.

My co-worker offered up some garage space based on the understanding that I'd help him in his garage with his stuff from time to time. That's an offer I can't refuse. Otherwise my shiny new toys would be sitting outside under a tarp over the winter and I would still not have anywhere to do the work.

Time passes... stay tuned for the more exciting part -- engine rebuilding and ultimately converting a TBI/auto car to a turbo/5-speed!