1969 Road Runner preservation

[RSMS]

Outstanding work Pat. It's really cool to see how you are, as much as possible, keeping everything as original as you reasonably can. I think this will be a really cool car to display at shows and I'm sure it will attract a lot of attention.

My 1962 Corvette is an unrestored NCRS Top Flight car - so it has been judged to the highest standards while still having only had maintenance. This is a very rare thing when a car is that old. I find that many people are more interested in that than a totally restored car, because it has a story to tell, even with its warts and issues.

Anyway, carry on and thanks for taking us along with pictures!

Totally agree with you that a preserved original car is much more interesting than a restoration, even a very high end restoration. With enough money you can make anything nice again but they are only original once. Congrats on your 62, that's my favorite year, 1st year of the 327 and last year of the C1's. The job Pat is doing on the RR is awesome, I love the effort put into trying to keep it as original as possible and results are stellar!!

 

[keepat]

Outstanding work Pat. It's really cool to see how you are, as much as possible, keeping everything as original as you reasonably can. I think this will be a really cool car to display at shows and I'm sure it will attract a lot of attention.

My 1962 Corvette is an unrestored NCRS Top Flight car - so it has been judged to the highest standards while still having only had maintenance. This is a very rare thing when a car is that old. I find that many people are more interested in that than a totally restored car, because it has a story to tell, even with its warts and issues.

Anyway, carry on and thanks for taking us along with pictures!

I have really come to love finding and working on original unrestored cars. I think they are the most fun to drive. And I agree they do tell a much more interesting story.

I’m envious of your 62 corvette, one day I will come across the right C1 or C2;-)

Thank you!
Pat

 

[keepat]

Some Eastwood gel rust remover and a
Coat or two of Sharkhide and the hood latches look pretty good. The spring rusted and broke so I made one until I can find a original spring

 

[keepat]

Some compound, green colored wax, aluminum polish, and a lot of bronze wool on the chrome bumper is helping make 50+ years of road rash disappear.

 

[Coelacanth]

Looks great! I got some very nice results re-dying some faded seatbelts with this. It’s been awhile, but if I recall correctly, it didn’t really impact the white labels.

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That's exactly what I'm planning to use to restore my faded black seatbelts.

For anyone looking for a cheap tip on polishing chrome, wad up some aluminum foil and dunk it in Coke, and scrub the chrome with it. Here's a vintage snare drum I restored and polished the chrome this way:

Before:

After the foil & Coke treatment:

The process is great at minimizing rust too; the aluminum from the foil gets into the pits and fills it in pretty well:

 

[Richard Cranium]

Some compound, green colored wax, aluminum polish, and a lot of bronze wool on the chrome bumper is helping make 50+ years of road rash disappear.


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Very nice.

 

[keepat]

56 years ago today (April Fools Day) my 1969 Road Runner was built at the Lynch road plant in Detroit.

I got a call from the family of the original owner a few days ago. They called to say that they found the 1st Maryland tags that were on the RR when it was new. It will be cool have them reregistered to the car when it back on the road!
Thanks
Pat

 

[RSMS]

56 years ago today (April Fools Day) my 1969 Road Runner was built at the Lynch road plant in Detroit.

I got a call from the family of the original owner a few days ago. They called to say that they found the 1st Maryland tags that were on the RR when it was new. It will be cool have them reregistered to the car when it back on the road!
Thanks
Pat

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Thats cool, I just found a correct year plate for my car, not the original to it but from correct state. I always think that’s a great detail to add to my cars.

 

[keepat]

Thats cool, I just found a correct year plate for my car, not the original to it but from correct state. I always think that’s a great detail to add to my cars.

I have a few car with same year tags but this will be the only car with it’s original tag. Congrats on finding a FL tag for your car!
Thanks
Pat

 

[zyzzyx]

Thanks for all of the fun! You have a winner! Good Luck and send us some more goodies.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Very cool!

 

[68BabyBlue]

Thats cool, I just found a correct year plate for my car, not the original to it but from correct state. I always think that’s a great detail to add to my cars.

I saved a correct year plate from back in the day, that I finally put on my '69 GTX, 52 years later. It was on my dad's new Valiant, the day I test drove the GTX. Not original to the car, but dad's car was parked side by side with the current one that day. Tag service that did the transfer was amazed I had the original paperwork, original owner of my GTX signed the pink slip.

 

[Runcharger]

Dang this car sure has "the look". Even those original black and white photos remind me of why I've lusted after 69 R.R.s all these years.

 

[keepat]

I saved a correct year plate from back in the day, that I finally put on my '69 GTX, 52 years later. It was on my dad's new Valiant, the day I test drove the GTX. Not original to the car, but dad's car was parked side by side with the current one that day. Tag service that did the transfer was amazed I had the original paperwork, original owner of my GTX signed the pink slip.

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Cool looking PA tag!!

 

[keepat]

Painted the inner fender patch panels with a with a single stage acrylic enamel. I think they turned out pretty good for 50+ years difference in paint. I sanded the fresh paint (to glossy) with a used soom 3000 grit foam sandpaper. This help Matt down the finish to match. Then using a few small brushes and a foam roller, I blended the new paint into the surrounding areas along with touching up a few rust spots.
I still have a few spots yet to touch up, and add a little more patina to the fresh paint. But I will be ready to put the motor in soon.
Thanks
Pat

A few after and before along with some before, and after pics;-)

 

[Floyd]

Really nice!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Almost like you knew what you were doing!

 

[keepat]

Almost like you knew what you were doing!

More like very lucky;-)

 

[FASTEDDIE1960]

I’ve known about this 1969 383 auto Road Runner for about 20 years. It’s a one family, 45,000 mile, 95% original paint, rust free, unrestored spring special RR. Lots of documentation, and tons of vintage pictures, half a dozen time slips from the early 70s. And a few traffic citations from back in the day.
Car was pulled off the road in the late 70s. Then back on the road for a few weeks in the late 80s. After that it never saw the road again.
In the late 80s when the owner tried to get it back on the road it developed an oil burning problem. He removed one head, set it a side and never touched it again. And the car just sat in the garage.
When the owner passed away in 2018, his only daughter and son-in-law planned on getting it back on the road and started by removing the engine and having it gone through to repair the cylinder surface rust from sitting exposed for 35 years. Other than boring it 20 over and replacing the Pistons, the engine retains most of its original components. Other than having the transmission freshened up nothing else has been touched on the car.
With life getting in the way and things changing, they decided to sell me the car. So now I will start the preservation of this car, trying to keep it as original and unrestored as possible.
These pictures are as the car sat from around 1989 to 2018
Thanks
PatView attachment 1782080View attachment 1782081View attachment 1782082View attachment 1782083

Awesome find

I’ve known about this 1969 383 auto Road Runner for about 20 years. It’s a one family, 45,000 mile, 95% original paint, rust free, unrestored spring special RR. Lots of documentation, and tons of vintage pictures, half a dozen time slips from the early 70s. And a few traffic citations from back in the day.
Car was pulled off the road in the late 70s. Then back on the road for a few weeks in the late 80s. After that it never saw the road again.
In the late 80s when the owner tried to get it back on the road it developed an oil burning problem. He removed one head, set it a side and never touched it again. And the car just sat in the garage.
When the owner passed away in 2018, his only daughter and son-in-law planned on getting it back on the road and started by removing the engine and having it gone through to repair the cylinder surface rust from sitting exposed for 35 years. Other than boring it 20 over and replacing the Pistons, the engine retains most of its original components. Other than having the transmission freshened up nothing else has been touched on the car.
With life getting in the way and things changing, they decided to sell me the car. So now I will start the preservation of this car, trying to keep it as original and unrestored as possible.
These pictures are as the car sat from around 1989 to 2018
Thanks
PatView attachment 1782080View attachment 1782081View attachment 1782082View attachment 1782083