Marietta Family Restores 1988 Turbo Lebaron Convertible

Marietta Family Restores 1988 Turbo Lebaron Convertible

Posted by Steven Seale on Dec 7th 2023

Our story 

My wife has always wanted a convertible - realistically though with three kids, car pools, etc, a minivan was more practical. When I started searching for a car for my younger son to drive, I happened upon a non-running 1988 Chrysler LeBaron. Garage kept most of its life, minus some needed paint work on the trunk, she was gorgeous. 

I grew up doing car work, first out of financial necessity but then as passion projects. Over the years, my kids have gotten involved as well - I want them to have the ability to repair their own vehicles eventually as well. Some folks like brain puzzles to keep themselves mentally sharp, I prefer puzzling out a car’s various issues. 

First order of business was a new head for the car my wife affectionately refers to as “Miss Rouge” - which was probably the easiest part to find to date (the joys of classic cars). More tinkering, more replacement parts - just kept getting closer to having a car that runs as beautifully as she looks. And while the head was an improvement, it still wasn’t perfect- so we opted to replace the engine as a whole. 

We purchased a complete long block 2.2 turbo engine from Steven at TurboDodgeParts.com. Steven was great to work with and personally delivered the engine to our home and provided many installation tips and helped us several times with after the delivery service questions.

Miss Rouge is still a work in progress but my wife loves zipping around town with the top down in the meantime.

The Swan Family
Marietta, GA