1966 Coronet 440 HELP
 

If you are trying to stay all original, it is going to hurt the wallet. What I mean is it is really hard to find NOS (new old stock) stuff for your vehicle. Nationwide junkyard search might help. Looking for a new carb is easy if you want a new one, I mean a Holley or Edelbrock 750 would do the job, but if you want a numbers correct carb for both year and vehicle, you are going to pay for one or have to get real lucky. I had seats re-upholstered and they looked close to factory and worked great for a decent price, but if I wanted exact original 1967 (the year of the car I was working on) I was going to pay close to $1000.00. for the material front and rear seats, which isn't bad. Carpet will be easy as there are many places which will get you very close.

Now if you don't mind being not all original, there are great ignition upgrades and a great starter from Mancini Racing for your car and a carb too. Mechanical is easy, the small chrome bits and interior leave you with hunting junk yards, repop places, or going custom and or refinishing what you have. Make a list and go from there. You may want to upgrade as much wiring as you can. Interior dome lights, gauges are tough and expensive for aftermarket too. Sounds like you have a good foundation and a big block to start with. Much of your steering, shocks, brakes etc are all available or upgrade able your choice.

Summit, Bouchillion, Mancini Racing, National Parts Depot, are some places to get ideas and make a list or lust over. Good luck.

Welcome to the forum, pictures are aways good.

I've got a '66 Charger, which of course was based on the Coronet so a lot of the running gear parts are the same. What you'll quickly find is that a lot of the parts you need for your Coronet are common with the Charger, but are unique to the '66-'67 B-bodies. You can find an amazing panoply of aftermarket Mopar parts for B-bodies, but not quite such a wide selection for the '66-'67 cars.. I've got a PDF of the 'original Mopar service manual for '66 Dodge Dart/Coronet models, and the supplement manual for Chargers is only thirty pages. (Why Dodge combined the Dart (A-body) and Coronet (B-body) manuals into one but published a separate adjunct manual for Chargers I have no idea.)

You didn't mention what drivetrain your '66 has, but presumably it's not a Hemi. (If it does have a Hemi, go lock the car in a vault, it's very valuable.) There should be plenty of sources for the 383/361/318 that's likely what you've got under the hood. The real question is, are you going to restore the car or build it out as a non-stock runner? I can tell you from having a number of classic Caddy's that a show-quality restoration is a real project, and then you never want to drive the car anywhere for fear or door dings or being rear-ended. If you've never campaigned a sled of that era, you will quickly learn to hate all the idiots who ride your bumper in traffic or cut into your extra margin of following distance on the freeway. Your average kidlet in a rice burner or mom-van pilot just assumes your sled can stop on a dime like theirs and will pull in front of you blithely, not realizing that your two-tons of classic iron could accordion their tin can.

Speaking of which, there are a number off disc brake conversion packages available for '66 B-bodies. Previous owner of mine installed a Right Stuff front disc conversion kit, and though I'm still sorting out the bugs with it, the disc brakes do make for a much more drivable sled. He also slapped some herkin' sway bars on as well, and I have to say the car handles quite well for a tank. In fact, the parts and services are available for '66 B-bodies to do a serious performance rebuild of the suspension. It's just a matter of whether you want to keep it stock--and money!

If you want to rod-out your ride, swapping in a 440 RB mill is a pretty common mod. Plenty of parts, services and guides available to do that. My Charger came with a 440 RB/A833 transplant, and all that extra torque sure is fun.

Oh yeah, hoard any original parts that are chromed. Despite what some claim, I don't think anyone makes aftermarket parts with chrome-plating as good as original quality, and it's insanely difficult to get parts properly re-plated because the process generates huge amounts of toxic waste.

Did you ever post pictures?