1972 Roadrunner Restoration

[MikeMeep]

Nice build loooking forward to watching. I just brought my 72 one month ago. I like the black stripe as you can see.

 

[Robliepse]

what size are those front tires and rims?

 

[plymouthman72]

Nice build loooking forward to watching. I just brought my 72 one month ago. I like the black stripe as you can see.View attachment 344711 View attachment 344711 View attachment 344711

Man she is a beauty! Mine will look exactly like your except I am not doing the front strobes and I am having the inserts painted satin black to match the spoiler.

x2, what are the sizes of your rims and tires, they fill it out nicely. I would love to see a some pics of your 440+6.

 

[MikeMeep]

Man she is a beauty! Mine will look exactly like your except I am not doing the front strobes and I am having the inserts painted satin black to match the spoiler.

x2, what are the sizes of your rims and tires, they fill it out nicely. I would love to see a some pics of your 440+6.

The tires are Front P245/60R15, Rear P275/60R15 I will take so pics of engine this weekend and post Monday

 

[plymouthman72]

When I was originally taking everything apart, I saw there are 2 holes in my firewall that nothing went through. this is not an A/C car so I do not know what else they would be used for. Does anyone know what these are for?

 

[plymouthman72]

I also wanted some opinions. My car originally came with just a chrome drivers side mirror. I was considering putting in a passenger side mirror. Given the curves of this car visibility is not exactly great so I was thinking it would be good to put one in. Has anyone put one in and regretted it?

 

[rrTor-Red]

When I was originally taking everything apart, I saw there are 2 holes in my firewall that nothing went through. this is not an A/C car so I do not know what else they would be used for. Does anyone know what these are for?
View attachment 345151

I want to say for the heater core/heater but the holes looks too far down.

Michael Counts- my car is almost exactly like yours. Except the front strobes, mine has vinyl top and black and orange seats, otherwise same.

On your second post. My car came with the chrome as well. I have a pair of painted mirrors that are going on. Whether one or two mirrors, you need a plate that goes on the inside of the door to anchor the mirror screws to the door. They are hard to find. Found these by chance

Attached

 

[plymouthman72]

I want to say for the heater core/heater but the holes looks too far down.

Michael Counts- my car is almost exactly like yours. Except the front strobes, mine has vinyl top and black and orange seats, otherwise same.

On your second post. My car came with the chrome as well. I have a pair of painted mirrors that are going on. Whether one or two mirrors, you need a plate that goes on the inside of the door to anchor the mirror screws to the door. They are hard to find. Found these by chance

Yeah, the heater core are the two vertical ones to the left. I still don't know what they are for. I guess I will just put some plugs in them or something.

Thanks for letting me know about the backside brackets! I have the drivers side but assumed the new mirror would come with mounting hardware. I will have to find one now.

 

[gastona]

When I was originally taking everything apart, I saw there are 2 holes in my firewall that nothing went through. this is not an A/C car so I do not know what else they would be used for. Does anyone know what these are for?
View attachment 345151

Love the thread and the restoration.

I have a 72 Road Runner 400 Auto.

The two holes are for the heater, one is a drain (closest to the drivers side) the other (closer to the passenger side) is a vacuum that goes to the intake.

My car also came with only the drivers chrome remote mirror. I added the passengers side mirror years ago, I love the way it looks and improves driveablity. Especially with the blind spots.

 

[plymouthman72]

Love the thread and the restoration.

I have a 72 Road Runner 400 Auto.

The two holes are for the heater, one is a drain (closest to the drivers side) the other (closer to the passenger side) is a vacuum that goes to the intake.

My car also came with only the drivers chrome remote mirror. I added the passengers side mirror years ago, I love the way it looks and improves driveablity. Especially with the blind spots.

View attachment 347857 View attachment 347858 View attachment 347859

Thanks for the pics. I love your car! She is one fine looking bird!

 

[plymouthman72]

I have not posted in a while and figured I would give an update. I have completely stripped the car and it is ready to be shipped off for body and paint. Thankfully the guy doing it is local and will catalog the process for me. While he has it, I hope to rebuild the suspension out side of the car along with the rear end/powder coated. He is coming to get it on my 30th birthday. This is probably the best gift I could give myself.

Here is the rolling shell.

I am also restoring a new gauge cluster with a tach and I will post the process when its done. So far its turning out great.

 

[plymouthman72]

Back in October, My body guy came and took the car to his shop for a full body resto. He is going to media blast the car, fix all the metal, straighten the dents in the frame, undercoat the underneath and inside, ceramic coat the inside of the roof, 2 stage paint with the final clear coat being sanded to a show finish. He is also going to install my front and rear windshields and spoilers. Its going to take a year because he is a one man shop and does everything himself but his work is amazing and well worth the wait. I really wanted to do all the work myself but I do not have the tools to do the job and this car is sentimental to me so I want it done right.

Here are some pics of it heading out and getting put on the rotisserie:

 

[plymouthman72]

Even though I do not have the car, I am still working on every thing else I can afford to fix or replace right now. I have it somewhere on another thread but I had a 340 with a sleeved cylinder that was already bored .030 over and i needed another refresh due to some deep scratches in the cylinder walls. I also found out that the block was a very late 73 block and not year matching to my car. as the fates would allow, I found an unmolested 72 block in San Antonio and the guy sold it to me for $300 for the bare block. He was going to use it but wanted an R3 block for his build and wanted the 340 to go to someone that could use it in a true stock rebuild. Needless to say, I drove the 11 hour round trip to get it. Super nice guy that knew what he had but still helped a Mopar brother out. I feel very blessed to have met him.

I got the block to my machine shop and they said it had been unevenly honed to about .012 over (where there was a ring build up at the top) and said it would really need to go .030 over to be perfect and to get rid of the light rust spots in the block. I wanted to keep it a stock bore but I am very happy with that so I had them bore it .030 over and deck it. It is now bagged in my closet awaiting a rebuild. Thankfully the wife doesn't mind an engine sitting inside the closet for protection

Since I have a fresh block now with oversized bore, I plan to stroke it out with a nice top end and hope to have a mean street build with around 525 ponies. I don't plan to race it but as they say, "It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

Here are some shots of the new engine:

 

[plymouthman72]

So onto the gauge cluster rebuild. I am sure others have shown this before but I will put done the things I learned and hopefully it may help someone. My car originally had the base version of the rallye cluster so I bought a clock bezel and changed it to have a tach. Not that I am against aftermarket tachs but I wanted my interior to look original through out so I paid out the extra to make this happen. The gauges I bought were not in the greatest of shape so I bought I decal set from Classic and I am pretty happy with the results. The only problem I had was that my Speedometer had some unseen debris and caused some spots under the decal. I may go back and do it but its not noticeable in the dash so I will probably leave it alone.

The clear plastic was yellowed so I took some headlight cleaner and polished them with a dremel tool, then I took some glass polish and polished them again (both sides) then I used wax to seal them. I am not sure about the durability but if the process is good for headlights, I do not see how it wouldn't be good for interior plastic. Before and after, there is very little swirl since I used the dremmel and I happy with the results.

Here are some pics of the gauges before and after: You can see the debris in the speedo decal but I was to anxious to order another one.

 

[plymouthman72]

The harder part was painting the chrome trim on the gauge cluster. I did not like the way the silver paint pens left paint strokes on it so I taped the whole thing off and painted it with spray paint. I am sure someone will look at the this and laugh because there is an easier way but it was the best I could come up with. Considering I have never done anything remotely like this the overall turnoutcame out great and I would give myself a B+. I am still not 100% satisfied because I am bit of a perfectionist but since its going to be a driver I have to let the small things go.

The mounting holes were broken on top so I grinded them flat and glues washers to the same height as the factory and it turned out great.

Final Product:

 

[Pat412]

Awesome job ...I have to rework my dash (73 charger rallye 440) I found a good looking tach to install, and my gages cleaned up well..I just need to find a new lens for the tach..for some reason mine has a hole in it , like for a trip odometer reset pin...

Looks great .!

 

[plymouthman72]

From what I have read, the tach came with the clock bezel plastic on it and there was a little plug that went in the hole for dust. I happened to have my standard bezel with out the clock so I used that instead because I didn't like the hole.

 

[plymouthman72]

There hasn't been much done to the body yet but I will be getting the suspension back this week so I will start rebuilding it soon.

Other than that, I have been cleaning up fuel lines, transmission lines, and tank straps. I liked the steel look so I just clear coated all my lines. I hope that does the trick in protecting them long term.

And I got some new engine parts! Christmas came a little late but I don't mind!

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Nice work on your lines I like it!

 

[Charger72]

Yes, very nice work, how did you go about cleaning up your lines? Something I will have to be doing shortly.