1970 FM3 Satellite Conv - The car that should have been crushed

[Chris Many]

thanks. It's a really cool car which makes it worthwhile seeing it come back to life.

 

[Builderguy]

You work much faster than I do. It took me about a year to get my Roadrunner into paint and now almost another year to put all the pieces back on. About a week or two from being done now.
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/73-roadrunner-340-auto.184541/page-21

 

[Chris Many]

You work much faster than I do. It took me about a year to get my Roadrunner into paint and now almost another year to put all the pieces back on. About a week or two from being done now.
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/73-roadrunner-340-auto.184541/page-21

I've been following your project. Looking good. 2 years is a pretty good rate to get as much done as you did.

 

[Auggie56]

Just think you can stand back and look at and say I did all of this. Not to mention that thin wallet you carry these days. Nice work guy.

 

[speakerguy88]

Chris, Did you get the dash refurbished & if so by who?

 

[Chris Many]

Chris, Did you get the dash refurbished & if so by who?

I am redoing the dash myself. I got the textured paint from Instrument Specialties. I did get a quote from them to do the whole dash. Can't really post it hear, but it was in the thousands.

 

[Chris Many]

Update 01/04/22: Not much visible progress to report except for the dash, which is now restored. I will install it once the wiper motor and brake booster are back from being restored. Should be back by the end of the month.

Some notes on the dash: The frame is painted the correct suede lacquer (from Inst Spec). The dash pad is a restored one I got off ebay. The heater controls I also bought as a restored unit. The LH lower dash panel I bought as a used one that I painted, detailed with a chrome paint pen and used a pencil eraser to "ink stamp" the letters. The panel/dimmer light switch is NOS. The Conv Top switch is NOS from Tony's. The map light is NOS. The ashtray is repo. The cluster lens is repo. The radio bezel is NOS. the radio knobs are repo. The PCB on the rear of the cluster is a repo.

One funny thing to note is the Conv Switch button is labeled "Top" on the front and "R Wind" on the back as the button was reversed when used on a station wagon. the actual switch is different though....

 

[Chris Many]

UPDATE 2/23/22: Visible progress is slow as I needed to wait for my plated parts to come in to put the dash in. I have lots of things dismantled and am working towards getting them back together.

The A904 transmission is apart. I bead blasted the housing and coated it with clear engine paint. I have a new rebuild kit for it and a relined kickdown band form Alabama bands as the repo parts are junk.

I got the engine apart and the autopsy revealed that a bunch of plastic teeth had broken off the timing gear. this probably lead to the car being parked as it would have run for crap after that. The original distributor was replaced with one dated 1968. So I suspect that they couldn't get it running right and gave up on it. The engine is going to the machine shop tomorrow. Should be about a month before it comes back for me to put together.

I have been redoing the front suspension and brake pieces. The cast parts were soaked in acid, bead blasted and painted with Seymour's high temp 1200F cast blast paint, followed by a 2 hour oven cure at 400F when the mrs isn't home......

I finally got all my plating back and other parts restored by Stephan Fournier in Quebec. Pretty amazing work. Too bad he is retiring.

Well, back to work,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Chris Many]

Here is some close-ups of the plated parts.

 

[Chris Many]

UPDATE 3/2/2022: With the restored wiper motor and parking brake assembly installed, I was finally able to install the dash last night. Couldn't have been easier. I followed moparnation74's lead and installed the dash with the heater controls removed and made the cable connections after the dash was bolted in. I am still waiting for my date-coded windshield to come in to finish that area of the car. next up, install door trunk & hood latches and then the grill and headlights...

 

[3white74]

Stellar work

 

[Nxcoupe]

Who did your speedo cluster? If you covered it in the build, I apologize.

 

[72 Satellite]

UPDATE 3/2/2022: With the restored wiper motor and parking brake assembly installed, I was finally able to install the dash last night. Couldn't have been easier. I followed moparnation74's lead and installed the dash with the heater controls removed and made the cable connections after the dash was bolted in. I am still waiting for my date-coded windshield to come in to finish that area of the car. next up, install door trunk & hood latches and then the grill and headlights...

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Sure is nice installing the Dash with no seats or steering column in the way! I recently put mine back in with both in the way, grrrrrrrrr.

 

[Chris Many]

Who did your speedo cluster? If you covered it in the build, I apologize.

I restored the cluster myself. I thought I did a good job until I found out I had to take it apart and replace the temp gauge when I discover I had one from 1968 which has different temp ranges.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I restored the cluster myself. I thought I did a good job until I found out I had to take it apart and replace the temp gauge when I discover I had one from 1968 which has different temp ranges.

View attachment 1248502 View attachment 1248503 View attachment 1248504 View attachment 1248513

Thank you. What all was involved with doing it? How did you do the speedo and it's lettering?

 

[gary h]

Very Nice !

 

[Chris Many]

Thank you. What all was involved with doing it? How did you do the speedo and it's lettering?

I was lucky that the instrument faces were nice. The inside, I just cleaned up and painted with flat white paint. the clear bezel with the lettering on it it reproduced. It's really nice, but the hole for the clock knob is a little larger then the original. in my case no clock. so I used the original plug. I had to add a little glue to keep it from rattling around.

 

[Chris Many]

UPDATE: 04/08/22: The car has it's face back. the grill is finally installed. I was able to get a set of 1969 date coded NOS headlights. For comparison I included a picture of an NOS 1972 headlight next to an NOS 1969/70 style headlight. As you can see, the flutes in the glass are different. the older bulbs had wider flutes then the newer ones. Be careful, some sellers put the newer style bulbs in the older boxes.....

I put the inner fender dust shields in last night. though not pictured the convertible top frame was installed a couple nights ago.

I am waiting on the glass which will be here next week. Once the windshield is in, I can put the top on.

 

[3white74]

Wow looks great Chris many ....glad to be a small part of this project

 

[Chris Many]

almost forgot to mention that I got the transmission back together...