1965 Dodge Coronet

The Gel battery I bought a couple of years ago wasn’t operating as well as I liked and the charger was almost constantly running. So I decided to upgrade to a 200AH LiFe Pro battery instead.

I bought it just before the COVID crisis, so it was reasonably priced with free shipping. I was also able to get some custom features so it fit in the space I had available. That meant that I needed a new charger and decided to buy a proper inverter special made for lithium batteries.

The previous charging system was connected to the front car battery as well, which wasn’t a good idea with the lithium setup because the batteries charge and operate at different voltages. The voltage drop across the conductor probably would have made it fine, but I decided to get a cheap battery charger from Harbor freight.

The two battery systems can be tied together via a switch beside the radio and a switch by the utilities, which switches between the new battery charger and the lithium batteries so that I can keep them charged while I am driving.

The area is a mess because every part of it was an experiment. I feel sorry for the person who follows me!

Lina made some great looking, but uncomfortably thin seats when we first bought the Great Dale. I decided that I wanted seats with spring, but couldn’t find anyone who wanted to build them. One of our friends suggested I contact our local trade school to see if they had a program that would teach me how.

The Emily Griffith Technical College did have an upholstery program, but I couldn’t get anyone to confirm that I would learn how to build a bench seat. I almost dropped out, but at the last minute decided to give it a try. Turns out it not a traditional class. You bring in an upholstery project and the instructor just bounces from project to project giving specific help for whatever stage you happen to be at.

Most of the other students projects involved recovering a couch or love seat. One guy was recovering his classic car seats, another woman was recovering boat cushions, and another woman was making blackout curtains. One poor woman spent three classes removing the staples from her project. Everyone seemed to be really impressed that I was building mine from scratch.

I started by building frames out of cedar in my shop. Then I brought the frames to the class where the instructor showed me how to add the springs and tie them down:

Then I added 3″ of foam and some dacron to smooth everything out. The instructor explained that dacron was the crumb coat of the upholstery world.

Then we measured the form and I sewed some covers from with a red vinyl to match the front seats of the Great Dale with some black piping. I was originally going to make the same style as the front seats, but I decided it wasn’t sleek enough (or that it would be too hard).

Of course the two sides weren’t the same, so I measured it again and made a custom set on the other side.

Then I mounted them in place. I think they look great. Now it’s time to breaker them in!

Our friend tried his hand at carving wood for the first time and started with the first Great Dale House Car tiki.

Some friends were displaying their trailers at the Forney Museum and suggested to the power that be that our house car might make a fine addition to the exhibit. Stop by to see our house car and many more fantastic trailers and cars at the museum!

The 1st revision of the swamp cooler looked like this and its description can be found at http://greatdalehousecar.com/great-dale-swamp-cooler/.

Then I added some vent hose to help direct the cooling where we wanted it.

Everyone made fun of it, so I switched to one large vent hose.  The blue media released a bunch of particles that gummed up my pump… and then the filters I added to the new pump, so I replaced it with paper media that work great.  Then I  disguised it to look like a palm tree for the modernism show.  My first sewing project!.

 

Everything mechanical was running great, so I decide to mess with.  A 22 gallon tank doesn’t give us much range, so I up-sized to a 43ish gallon tank that is EFI ready if I ever decide to get fuel injection. I couldn’t find anyone to build and install it form me, so I had to work with a company if CA to design and build the tank, then I was back on back for the second time replacing the tank.

The pump is inside the tank and is an EFI tank, so I needed a regulator to bring it back to carb pressures after the EFI installer talked me out of EFI. I was worried for a couple of days because the regulator company said I needed bigger lines, but the gas tank supplier said not to worry about it.  It seemed the regulator guys were right because I couldn’t get the pressure down, but it turns out they sent me the wrong part and everything was fine.

The first vent line was too low and poured fuel when the tank was full and the Dale was at an angle.  I put the vent in the spare tire next, but the vent line got pinched and didn’t quite work.  There was also a leak in the service plate, so the tank came down again to work those issues out.  I’m not just waiting for a proper vent and the fuel system will be done.