Restoring a Junkyard Christine Clone, 1958 Plymouth Belvedere

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This is a five year restoration of a junkyard car. It was as rusty as anything you ever saw and we took extraordinary care to completely de-rust and rustproof the resulting movie-car clone. The text below goes into much greater detail if interested. Otherwise, just enjoy the show!

History:

This 1958 Plymouth saw her first restoration attempt abandoned long ago. When I found her she had 1972 newspapers still taped in place and many pounds of lead melted into the rusty fender caps, there were two sets of replacement rocker panels screwed in place, the first of which was also rusted away. We reused the second. I suspected that the owner may have passed away part way through the work and the family kept it garaged and untouched for the next 27 years. Changing circumstances eventually led to the car being junked.

I happened by just in time, she was sitting low to the ground along with some other new arrivals. My first thought was to buy the side trim off the car as I knew it was quite valuable. My second thought was a little more bold.

Whatever you want, I thought, it's not enough! When Jim Swaine said $700 dollars, I nearly fell over. My dad and I raced to the nearest bank. I had them deliver it to my parents summer home, 50 miles away. The driver stopped at the first gas station and the first customer to walk past correctly identified her by name.

I trailered her back to Illinois where I began to confront the cars desperate condition. I ended up storing it for a decade myself. The motor was stuck but I rebuilt the 2-barrel and replaced the plugs and wires and after freeing her up, she actually ran. The Powerflight had to be driven about 10 miles in first gear before it would warm up enough to shift into second so I located a Torqueflight at the late Eldon Millers junkyard in Viola Wi. He charged me $35 since he was winding down the business. That one was unsalvageable but I never told him that, I just asked to buy a second some months later and had it rebuilt by Randy Foltz in Rockford. Pfeiffers in Freeport Illinois rebuilt the engine .040 over and I had many parts chromed and powdercoated. I installed NOS springs and torsion bars and did all the alignment and other mechanical details before restarting the long stalled restoration. She was remarkably complete, but needed bumper wings which I located online when that was still possible.

I have made many changes including Hazard Flashers and a custom re-created wiring harness, which was altered to correct the oddball turn signals. These cars used the same side for both left and right turn indications and the other side, with a red lens, for the high beam indicator. That's just nuts! I salvaged another green lens and drilled a hole for an LED high beam indicator in the common aluminum part. I rolled the odometer of the authentic eBay sourced Fury speedo into the correct position to allow her to pick up where she left off and relocated the mirror, welding the dash hole shut.

Kevin McCracken did all the heavy lifting as seen in the video. He converted western '57 Plymouth front fenders using NOS '58 headlight panels and buckets and went well beyond the four NOS patch panels seen in the rear quarters. The car took two 4x8 foot sheets of original gauge steel to save. I ground all the welds. I also did the gas tank conversion and hereby dedicate the result to Virgil Exners exceptional crew, the plan had been to hide the filler from the '57 Forward Look cars onward, but budgetary issues pushed that back until the 1960 model year. The K-Car filler I used works perfectly with no spillage during refueling. She has a 20 gallon 1961 Chrysler tank which fits a little tight but works very well.

Upon learning what I had drug home I had fairly low expectations. The plan was just to fix it up and paint it. Somewhere along the way she began to blossom and I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved.

Thank you for your interest!

-KevFin
Kevin Mueller, Rockton, Illinois.

Kevin Mueller

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Beautiful work. My favorite car ever…Christine

johnd.

Thank you for restoring her she is a beautiful machine

RonNorman-quqz

Awesome resto job. Long live Christine

johnd.

Great job. Great editing with the music, too.

dustygrimes

This man isn't human!! OUTSTANDING JOB!👏👏👏👏

grandchamp

Man it would be a dream to sit in the passenger seat of this car while the owner drives it. Great work bringing history back to life!

matthewjacobs

My sister had a black 1958 Belvedere years ago. I loved that car. It had the black and red interior, but someone had switched the bench seat for two, what we were told, Mustang bucket seats. They were blue vinyl. The back seat material had worn and so she had a Native American type blanket on the back seat custion I remember when she said she had to junk it because the rear end was going out. I was so young, I thought the trunk was going to fall off - as that's what is in the rear end of the car. She put it out in front of her house and within 2 hours she sold it. I miss that car.

brianmoore

Awesome. I adore your work. Perfect. Five years…. That is a long period of time. I love it. 😊

gieselats

Just what I was looking for 👍 great video

captnchronic

Man, you did such a lot of restoration work on that 58 Plymouth “Christine” classic car. Such a labor or LOVE, fantastic my friend & take it slow & easy with whoever you have in your life. You don’t want to UPSET CHRISTINE, we all know what could happen!!! Great movie & beautiful car.✌️❤️🙏🏻💚👍

garyeagleson

She is a beauty, my father had a 57 plaza sedan , got pictures of me playing in it 1960's, thanks for sharing your talents and car 😎Doug

francispotter