The Miller Magnum
Need To Better Detail the GT
A guy came to look at GT today. He expected a fresh engine compartment, brighter chrome and new tires. I wanted $15k and he offered $12.5K. I went to $14k but we were stalled there. I’ll pull drive train to clean and paint that and engine compartment, blast and paint bumpers, and detail better.
Ginger
Ginger, my Magnum Xe, is in the air ready for it’s Gear Vendors overdrive. However, one of the parts was not the right one, so it was sent back for them to exchange.
I ordered a Four Seasons AC fan from Rock Auto, but the one sent was defective. The motor won’t turn – and you can see the shaft is cocked at an angle. I got the RMA , boxed it up, put a Fedex label on – and its waiting to be picked up.
A Far Better Social Media Site
and without the Liberal Gestapo tracking your every move, collecting information and reselling it, and punishing anyone posting to the Right of Bernie Sanders.
It’s called Old Hippie’s Damn Face Book. It “Looks & Feels” identical to Facebook, with most of the same features. You have your Profile, a Newsfeed of posts from friends and your Groups, Pages for businesses, Groups for like interests, a Marketplace to buy and sell, Photo albums and more.
The web address is a very simple www.OldHippie.com
It works perfectly with computers, tablets and even smartphones.
The simple goal is to grow a small community of a couple thousand like minded individuals, their family, and their friends. There is no desire to be huge, to make money, to have a Gestapo moderation department apply a Double-Standard of “Community Standards”, or to collect and sell your private information.
If you’re looking for a social community that will not be looking over shoulder and over-aggressively moderating your free speech – then why not be part of our small community by registering, checking in a few times a week, and participating, Old Hippie’s Damn Face Book would like for you to join us.
1978 & 1979 Magnums Have Their Own Group
At Damn Face Book
Click –> Magnum Group to see the group. You’ll have to register to post to it, but its a 2 minute deal.
Trim Back on Ginger
I didn’t send the grill to the paint shop, but masked it off and painted myself.
The grill on a Magnum is chromed plastic, which has its edges masked off and painted over the chrome. I started by washing the grill, then wiping down with wax & grease remover, then carefully mask off the edges needing to stay chrome. Next I lightly scuff with a rough (brown) 3M pad. Some of the paint was very loose and exposed the chromed plastic under it when scuffed.
I sprayed the part with paint adhesion promoter. I started with two light coats, and finished with two wet coats.
A couple hours later I pulled off the tape and it looks like brand new.
The rest of the trim was reinstalled. I’d say that the paint job was a total success. I’m very happy with how it came out. Tomorrow the car gets washed and detailed.
GINGER BACK FROM PAINT SHOP
My 1978 Dodge Magnum has new paint
Now the process of cleaning and polishing the trim before reinstalling begins.
Tilt/Cruise Control Steering Column Out of 1978 Dodge Magnum
I converted my column shift tilt steering column with cruise control in my 1978 Dodge Magnum with a floor shift steering column.
If your looking to add tilt and cruise in you Mopar, here’s the steering column. Has the column key lock.
$175 pick up at my shop
$75 more to ship in lower 48
Dash Panel with Dakota Digital Gauges
For Dodge Magnum
I made this dash panel for my 78 Dodge Magnum Dakota Digital gauges many years ago. I’ve since replaced the dash with white face analog gauges. Selling this panel for a dirt cheap $100 plus $25 to ship in Lower 48 if you can’t pick up at my shop. Use the panel or strip the gauges out for something else. All gauges worked when pulled, although the the tach was dimmer. I never investigated if there was a brightness setting.
New Interior For Ginger
I pulled the seats out and replaced the carpet and floor mats. About 20 years ago, I pulled a ratty console and tilt column out of Gilligan, a Magnum parts car. I sent the console to an interior shop to be recovered, and bought a new console lids on eBay. I sanded and painted the non-granny steering column. The original tilt steering is available – if anyone with a 70s B-Body wants to convert their non-tilt steering to tilt. I bought a set of near new black leather BMW Coupe power seats, and installed them in the car.
The seat looked great, but felt too small for my wide back (and fat ass) – as I weighed 330 at the time. I weigh 250 now, and they’d most likely be great – but I ordered and waited 3 months for aftermarket black leather seat that were the widest on the market. They’re now installed. I have the BMW power seats wrapped and for sale. They be great in any muscle car with black interior. Black leather seats from a 2-door (allowing passengers to get into backseat) are rarer than hen’s teeth.
These seats then had a semi-gloss leather coating used on interiors back in the 60-80s.
You may note that the door panels and gauges are also different. Let me tell you about them. First the door panels.
The above is how they looked after 40 years of use. I scuffed and wiped down with wax and grease remover, and masked off.
I generally start with two light coats, and then one wet coat of spray vinyl dye. That worked well for the hard plastic and carpet, but the soft vinyl would have parts that looked like it was soaking it up. It was splotching with parts being gloss and parts being flat. I thought I’d must done something wrong in prep, but it finally came out OK by the time I’d hit the soft vinyl another six or seven times with a wet coat, waiting about 2-3 minutes between. It took a full 12oz can for first panel.
Same deal with second panel. I made sure I’d rubbed off all of the wax and grease remover, and let it air dry for an hour. However, same deal. Hard plastic and carpet looked good after two light and one wet coat, but I had to keep hitting the soft plastic with more wet coats where the dye dries in a flat splotches. When the soft vinyl finally was a consistent gloss, I had just enough left in the can to give the entire soft vinyl an even wet coat instead of just dressing up the splotches.
I think it came out looking pretty good. The gloss made the soft vinyl look a little loose, but it tightened up when clipped onto the doors.
A Couple of decades ago, I made an aluminum upper and lower panel, painted flat black; and then filed then with switches, vents, little lights and Dakota Digital Gauges. That look didn’t work for me, but it’s for sale if it works for you.
So I bought an empty gauge panel on eBay, and ordered about $1000 worth of custom gauges close to the size of the holes. I bought a large Speedometer (with Tach) that works off GPS; and a large gauge that has Volts, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temp and Fuel Level to fill the two big holes. To fill the two smaller holes I bought an Oil Temp gauge and a clock.
The two big gauge holes with the sleeves in them were too small by about 1/16″, so I had to cut the welds attaching the sleeves to the panel and pop them out. Once out, the holes were now 1/8″ too big. On the small gauge holes, I had to cut the inset hoods off as the gauges were too shallow for the screw on collars that attach the gauges to the panel to screw on the back of them.
To make the big gauges fit, I made some spacers from 4″ schedule 80 PVC sleeves, by hand sawing about 3/8″ off the end and wet sanding until they were smooth and the same size.
I mocked the gauges up to make sure they fit prior to doing any sanding and painting on the gauge panel. They did, so I glued the spacers onto the panel.
I wet sanded the panel and masked off the idiot lights.
After painting gloss black, it looked too gloss and cheesy. Some of the glue around the rings (that I swore I’d sanded all of the way off) was also showing.
So I decided to leave the coves glossy black, but have the flat portion in a hammer tone black – to tone down the gloss and hide imperfections. So I taped off the coves, sanded some more on the glue around the rings, and wet sanded the areas to get the hammer tone paint.
I hit it with two light coats with an hour between, and then a very wet coat after another hour.
And ready for installation.
