1969 Road Runner from track back to street

[Grancuda]

Bought this 1969 Road Runner, RM23H, car about 3 years ago. It is a 383/727/8 3/4"/MS/MB, R4 red exterior / A4 pewter interior, bench/column shift. Bought the car with a complete repaint(jams/underhood/trunk) to a Prowler color of purple. Paint is about 15~20 years old. They also swapped the column for a '69 non-column shift & '69 bucket seats which are covered in a Delta 88'ish fabric.

The car was a dedicated drag car w/solid lifter built 440, 9" Ford rear with 4.56 spool, 3800rpm stall concertor, later model disc brakes, manual reverse valve body, electric water pump, 28x11 slicks, VW tires on 3.5" penny wheels, sub-frame connectors, 8 point roll bar, fuel cell w/12"x12" fuel cell in the trunk. Car had no heater box, no heater controls, no wiper motor, wiring harness in-place but not used-aftermarket terminal strip with stand-alone charging/ignition harness.

Got car going & running good & brake lights working but it wasn't fun on the street, the converter w/big cam & spool was a pain plus it overheated easily.

Pics I took when I went to first look at it & video from just getting it home:

[video=youtube_share;D_itPgvbV9g]http://youtu.be/D_itPgvbV9g[/video]

 

[snakeyes]

nice looking car I see they where into Jeeps to and is that your son with the yellow vette in his hand ?

 

[HT413]

nice looking car I see they where into Jeeps to and is that your son with the yellow vette in his hand ?

They should call you eagle eyes!

It should be fun bringing her back to the street. Spend a few years trolling the swap meets and you should find everything you need. Swaps are one of the best parts of the hobby for me. Maybe plan a family vaca to the nats or to Carlisle.

 

[Grancuda]

nice looking car I see they where into Jeeps to and is that your son with the yellow vette in his hand ?

The guy I got it from was a Jeep & Chevy guy, he bought the car to flip from a divorce deal or something & knew pretty much nothing about it.

Yep, that's my son, he's always got a hot wheels or transformer in his hand.

It should be fun bringing her back to the street. Spend a few years trolling the swap meets and you should find everything you need. Swaps are one of the best parts of the hobby for me. Maybe plan a family vaca to the nats or to Carlisle.

Yep, I do go to swap meets & troll thru eBay & Craigslist, got quite a bit of it back together now.

 

[HT413]

The guy I got it from was a Jeep & Chevy guy, he bought the car to flip from a divorce deal or something & knew pretty much nothing about it.

Yep, that's my son, he's always got a hot wheels or transformer in his hand.




Yep, I do go to swap meets & troll thru eBay & Craigslist, got quite a bit of it back together now.

Awesome. I grew up in the swap meets as my dad brought a 68 vette drag car back to street trim and I plan on doing the same for my boys (and girl) as well.

 

[Grancuda]

About 6 months after I got the Road Runner I took it to the Tulsa Raceway to run it a few times & found the carb needed built, on the top end it was back firing/popping thru the carb. The car launched really good & would really lift the rear, planting tires & no spinning even launching at 3,800 rpm w/4.56 gears. After this I pulled the 440 for something more streetable. The 440 is on the engine stand & will probably make its way to my sons '69 Dart.

[video=youtube_share;OkncS2JHRII]http://youtu.be/OkncS2JHRII?list=UUqyHZXPalbgqo2cp_BiUI_A[/video]

 

[mopar12372]

i was waiting for people to start doing this i love the idea . old race cars are pretty inexpensive

 

[Ron 73]

This is going to make you a nice ride!, You should already have the HP you want the old gal to have.. Good luck with it!

 

[Grancuda]

After taking the RoadRunner to the drags I took it straight over to a friend who does resto type body work/paint to have him fix the sagging door hinges & busted out door strikers. They work flawless now. He also fixed the hole from the fuel cell & holes from the relocated battery.

After getting the doors working right & a proper fuel tank in I spent about a year messing with the 440 just around town. I decided to slowly get all the electrical stuff going. Turn signal switch got the brake lights working, dimmer switch got the headlights going, a wiper motor & wiper motor harness got them going. There was a portion of a factory console shifter installed, I removed it & put a 1/4 stick in.

Now lights are working & it's actually legal to drive just can't far with the 440/4.56/3800 stall. Decided to drop in a stock rebuilt 400 I have had sitting & a 2.90 Trak-Loc & try and do the 2013 PowerTour.

Worked out great except I broke an axle in Birmingham, AL & the motor was using oil. Put roughly 1200 miles on before we broke. Ended up for some weird reason only 1/4" of the drivers side axle was in the Trak-Loc but the spool had about an inch. It broke off about 1/4" of the axle, kind of a weird deal.

 

[moparker]

This reminds me a lot of my Duster when I got it. I had to do a lot of the same things. The latest is replacing th solid lift cam for a hydraulic. Nice car.

 

[Grancuda]

Getting back around to getting the Road Runner back on the road after the Power Tour.

Here is what was going on with the motor.

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?82683-Fresh-B-series-Big-Block-w-heavy-oil-consumption

I am in the process now of ordering some new axles & I am having a new 9" third member built with 3.70 ratio & a Trac-Lok.

Here's some pics from this past weekend when it was 75* out. Pretty fun throttling around town with 4.56 gears but the spool just sucks in town, chirping, hopping & just too many weird noises from the back end.

 

[69 GTX]

Looks like a fun car!

 

[roadrunnerman]

I like how the color changes depending on how the light hits it.

 

[Grancuda]

Yeah the color is kind of neat but I wish it were the correct R4 red.

Found a car that at first, I thought it was my car before I owned it but this was just recently for sale. It's crazy because it has what looks to be the exact same paint. Look at the asking price!!

http://www.classicalgasmotors.com/cars/1338/1338details.htm

 

[1778ppr]

That's one tuff rr you have. I like the color and the Keystone wheels, but most of all those chrome valve covers! You don't see those factory (Direct Connection) chrome valve covers a lot any more.

 

[Grancuda]

Making more progress, got a clutch type diff for the third member & I am keeping the 4.56 gears, they aren't too bad with 28" tires, I have some 30" drag radial I may try too.

 

[Jacks_Runner]

Nice car.

 

[Coyoteduster]

Very nice! My '69 has the same story and the cool thing about X race cars is that they were never left out in the weather to rust. :yes:

 

[HYRDGOON]

Damn in the one pic the car looks black! Crazy how the colour changes with the light. And to be honest I've never been a fan of Keystone's but on your car they look Perfect! Awesome RR!

 

[Grancuda]

Got some miles on it now with the Trac-Lok & it is so much nicer around town & out on the highway than with that spool. Put about 200 miles on it 2 weeks ago when taking it around town then to work.

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Damn in the one pic the car looks black! Crazy how the colour changes with the light. And to be honest I've never been a fan of Keystone's but on your car they look Perfect! Awesome RR!

Thanks & I like the Keystones but I am about to swap out for something different.

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Very nice! My '69 has the same story and the cool thing about X race cars is that they were never left out in the weather to rust. :yes:

yep, this thing is really clean with no rust from it sitting in the garage so long.

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Nice car.

thanks!