1969 Dodge Super Bee Coupe Restoration

[dadsbee]

A bit more careful wiggling and prying.

Original signal plate apart, ready to clip the wires and clean the original base plate for reuse.

Wires clipped.

Make sure the contact wires are the correct length compared to the old and if need be carefully bend them for even pressure / contact on the base plate.

Dielectric grease on the contacts.

Squeezing the two plates together at the shaft and testing for continuity. Turn to left and right postions and check the green pair and the brown pairs for zero ohms in each of the positions (that is to say one pair only has continuity in each direction)

A bit of white grease in the signal shaft hole.

Signal plate in place and bearing / plate retainer going into place.

 

[dadsbee]

Signal arm being installed with the large head screw. This screw holds the plastic plates together as well as retaining the signal arm.

Once again testing left and right signal function on the green and brown pairs. Better to find out it doesn't work now than after the wheel is on!

Dielectric grease on the horn contact roller.

Wiring cover going on.

Why you make notes. Colour codes and postions for those that didn't. This is the WIRE side of the connector.

You'll need to tweek the lock tabs and then put each wire end into the plastic block. Note the orientation of the sloped ends to the round hump on the connector. Only way they'll mate with the dash harness.

Column retainer plate loosely in place c/w ground wire.

Horn "button" going into place.

 

[dadsbee]

Reproduction wheel was tapped a tad tight, redoing at 6-32.

Repro wheel didn't have open gaps behind for screw clearance. Drilling away PLASTIC with a 3/32 bit.

Video showing signal auto cancel. Better now than once more stuff is together...

Horn "button" in place.

Testing the horn ring function. Continuity from the black harness wire to column ground when depressed.

Wheel end all done !

A bit of wheel bearing grease into the steering knuckle housing.

Knuckle shoes and retainer spring clip greased.

Shoes/clip inserted into knuckle housing and retainer pin going into place. The ONLY part I used from the rebuild kit I bought from Partsmix.

 

[dadsbee]

Holding the seal retainer in place to bend the tabs over.

A quick hit with a hammer and screwdriver to lock the tabs down.

Worked pretty good and seems to be tight.

Ready to install to the car.

 

[moparnation74]

Holding the seal retainer in place to bend the tabs over.

A quick hit with a hammer and screwdriver to lock the tabs down.

Worked pretty good and seems to be tight.

Ready to install to the car.

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Column looks great Wayne......great tips....

Those new wrist pins are tight....I sand down the bottom half and oil it before install....keeps you from banging the crap out of your steering box......but the original pins were natural steel.....

 

[dadsbee]

Yep already "shaped" a bit. I went to use my original but I don't know where it rolled off to ! Think I'm going to have a good look for it, as it's probably in my removed suspension box. I hate shiny Chinese steel.

EDIT.. Found it !!!

 

[moparnation74]

Yep already "shaped" a bit. I went to use my original but I don't know where it rolled off to ! Think I'm going to have a good look for it, as it's probably in my removed suspension box. I hate shiny Chinese steel.

EDIT.. Found it !!!

View attachment 586488

Thats it....I wish they had an easier way to install these pins......Makes me cringe every time banging one in....

 

[dadsbee]

Repro kits incorrrect length and material split pin on the left vs the correct original steering knuckle retaining split pin on the right.

Steering box shaft showing the female "keyed" area that you line up with the knuckles male key, thats location is indicated by the notch. The grove between the teeth is what the split pin goes into.

Knuckle in place and split pin tapped into place to retain it. Note the shaft teeth still showing, don't try to hammer the pin in with the knuckle too far onto the shaft.

Steering column up in place, showing correct bolts and ground wire installation.

I can steer this machine again !

Realised that 49 years of tightening had bent my air clearer bases attachment bracket down so much that the two bolts for lid attachment were tipped towards each other.

Wish I'd noticed before I refurbished it.. but here we go in the press.

Success, perfectly straight again and no extra dents or paint damage.

 

[69 GTX]

Great pictures , it'll help me with mine!

 

[dadsbee]

Spent from Saturday until Tuesday doing 3 sets of corporate tax returns and finally got back to the shop this afternoon.

I had an old rotted washer fluid reservoir I've been toting around since 1980 or so that I've kept because it had a complete pump on it with correct wiring still intact. Carefully drilled the one piece rivet / wire connector off from the back.

My original pump, bottom, with wiring broken off and the spare all apart. Using the best parts of two to make one for the car. At least that's the plan.

Both motor magnet housings into Evaporust to see which cleans up the best.

The spare wasn't running, brushes are good but pump was tight. Poured some washer fluid in the pump housing and sprayed gun oil onto the shaft to free things up. Slipped the magnet housing on and it runs again! Plugged the outlet and blew in the inlet and it doesn't appear to leak at the shaft seal.

Cleaning up 49 years of grime in soapy water first.

Then the brass brush in the dremel.

And it almost looks new.

 

[dadsbee]

Cleaned up the wire connector end with the brass brush as well. Once installed it will look like it's still crimped to the reservoir.

Spare reservoir I grabbed back in the early '80's from Ma Fitzgerald's in Jasper, my original front and reproduction rear. I'm guessing it's cap is correct for '69. Pretty sure my '70 in the 'Bird has script on it...

A repo with the correct script even and part numbers. Part # WAS -005 (concurs) from National Moparts

Off shelf screws / washers on the left that came with the reservior of course are incorrect. Fortunately not knowing it came with screws I also ordered a pair of screws and they have the correct head shape and captive washer. # WAS-39A Got those from National Moparts as well. Suspect they are really supposed to be black oxide though... so they'll get a good long soak in my dirty Evaporust to darken them up. EDIT: SCREWS ARE CORRECT AT BRIGHT ZINC

 

[moparnation74]

Cleaned up the wire connector end with the brass brush as well. Once installed it will look like it's still crimped to the reservoir.

Spare reservoir I grabbed back in the early '80's from Ma Fitzgerald's in Jasper, my original front and reproduction rear. I'm guessing it's cap is correct for '69. Pretty sure my '70 in the 'Bird has script on it...

A repo with the correct script even and part numbers. Part # WAS -005 (concurs) from National Moparts

Off shelf screws / washers on the left that came with the reservior of course are incorrect. Fortunately not knowing it came with screws I also ordered a pair of screws and they have the correct head shape and captive washer. # WAS-39A Got those from National Moparts as well. Suspect they are really supposed to be black oxide though... so they'll get a good long soak in my dirty Evaporust to darken them up.

View attachment 588444 View attachment 588445 View attachment 588446 View attachment 588447

The washers screws were originally bright zinc.......

Are you going to get the washer pump cover plated gold CAD? The factory originals in 69 were that gold CAD cyanide.....The spray can version with a flat clear looks fairly close to the old stuff btw....

 

[themechanic]

I saw a guy on YouTube called the 8 Bit Guy who restores the old tan computer cases using UV light and a few chemicals. They look brand new when he was finished.

 

[dadsbee]

The washers screws were originally bright zinc.......

Are you going to get the washer pump cover plated gold CAD? The factory originals in 69 were that gold CAD cyanide.....The spray can version with a flat clear looks fairly close to the old stuff btw....

Thanks Justin! Saves me a step and will just RPM them tomorrow. As for the motor magnet housing, I wasn't seeing any gold.. thought the housing was just bare metal but I'm sure you're right. I'll give them the same Champagne Pearl as my wiper motor and brake reservoir cover then. The "poor mans plating".. LOL

 

[moparnation74]

Thanks Justin! Saves me a step and will just RPM them tomorrow. As for the motor magnet housing, I wasn't seeing any gold.. thought the housing was just bare metal but I'm sure you're right. I'll give them the same Champagne Pearl as my wiper motor and brake reservoir cover then. The "poor mans plating".. LOL

Pic below is a new 69 for reference.....

I have a similar paint I use on small items as such...I listed that in my thread just can't find it at the moment....It works very well and once cleared you really cannot tell it.....I am sure yours is the same and on small pieces like this I would do it as well....It looks the same...

 

[dadsbee]

Don't show that picture too much.. the heater hoses cross !! LOL

 

[dadsbee]

I had a fair number of people tell me you can't get scratches out of tempered glass. Sounded like a challenge to me! Don't show the wife, she might expect the house windows washed.

Great core workout, that's for sure. Asked the wife to get me a straw for my drink glass..lol.

At this stage I was just polishing out some heavy haze someone else had put on the back glass, from what I think was a failed attempt at polishing. This is the back glass I picked up to replace my heavily scratched one, so I do have a spare it I blow it. After this I got really brave and ground down scratches on the back side of the glass and polished them back out. I'm about 8 hours into this glass so far, I figure 14 or so hours more to get the major stuff and it'll be presentable... and be OEM original with correct date codes!

 

[dadsbee]

Glass Scratch Removal / Polishing kit I bought off Amazon awhile back. Decided to give it a try.

Did a test run on my passenger window that I'm replacing. F'Tards at the body shop in '88 blasted my key hole with the window down. Figured I had nothing to lose. Started with the coarse Red, then Green and then the Blue. I wasn't trying to completely remove the sandblast, but more wanting to see if I could get the clarity back after grinding with the sandpaper.

I'm on the right track.. onto the cars back glass !

This cloudy look was on about 1/3rd of the back glass. It wouldn't clean or scrub off, so I figure someone failed at a polish job... and I may too!

Figured I'd start by seeing if I could get rid of the haze. Numerous passes with the polishing compound and numerous wet downs to get slurry going.

Multiple passes in every direction for a good 3 hours on one half. Remember to let your drill gear box cool down from time to time.. and your arms!

No more haze and minor scratches are gone. The "lines" are the galvanized ceiling reflection!

Looking pretty good, but now I just had to get brave.

 

[dadsbee]

Flipped the glass over and started grinding down some deep scratches. Used the Green to start.

Scratch gone using the Green pad.

Ground again with the Blue pad and later water added and it cleaned up even better.

A long scratch right up the middle ground with Green. Must have been some wild nights at the Drive In with all this interior scratching.

Smoothed out with the Blue and water.

On to polish.

Once it dries out.. sprayed with water to get slurry going again. Too expensive to just keep adding more compound.

Getting pretty clear. I figure another 4 hours tomorrow just to clean up the stuff I ground and another 4 or so to buff everything out. Then I'll probably get stupid and flip it over and start on exterior scratches.

 

[themechanic]

I've always heard if your fungernail catches the scratch then it's too deep to polish out. But nobody said anything about sanding then polishing. I like what you said, "I had a fair number of people tell me you can't get scratches out of tempered glass. Sounded like a challenge to me!"

Good luck.