1972 Roadrunner Restoration

[plymouthman72]

looks like you found an actual body shop, not an insurance shop. they're doing great work.
you might think about an orange stripe, there was an orange '70/'71 Challenger R/T in MCG years back with the orange stripe and it looked great. Hope you put the slots back on, really gives it the Day Two look.

They have been very good and very fast! They are the same guys who did Moparnation74s 69 GTX so the credit goes to him for finding them. It really is hard to find a good quality shop. While I know cars from having to work on them, I am new to the restoration hobby so I didn't know the warning signs.

I don't think the original guy set out to screw me over, life just got in the way of his business and it turned out bad for me. Thankfully I was able to get half my money back but he went insane on me when he found out I took it to another shop. Originally he wanted to do the amount of work I paid him for but he had convinced me the car wasn't worth saving (at first) and said he would give me half my money back. I had to let him believe that because he was trying to overcharge me for his hourly work. (ie: $600 bucks just to take the car off the rotisserie) to keep all my money. All's well that ends well right!?

While I have not completely decided on rims and stripe color, I am pretty set on white and the mags at this point. Martin460's car really sold me on the white. The only difference between his and mine is that I will have front/rear spoilers and the hood inserts painted matte black. Here is his picture below, Hopefully he wont mind me sharing it from his photo album. I absolutely love his car!

 

[moparnation74]

Brian

Just saw the recent progress on the bird...They are moving along at a great rate...Looks like it is very close to color time, right?

Looks very nice!

Justin

 

[plymouthman72]

Brian

Just saw the recent progress on the bird...They are moving along at a great rate...Looks like it is very close to color time, right?

Looks very nice!

Justin

It is very close! I am hoping to pick out colors by next weekend and I am thinking it will be coming home by mid November.
I have been wanting to post picks but the only time I have right now is sneaking on the site at work. However, I just realized I could save the pics from the website then post them.

On a separate note, I am getting very close to assembling the engine. I am setting up the garage this weekend and when my dad gets back from San Antonio, we are going to build it.

I got most of my parts from Summitt and Hughes Engines in Illinois. Whatever we don't have, I can run up to the new Summitt store since they are just 5 miles from the house now .

I don't know about others experiences with shipping in general but man do I hate UPS! Hughes shipped my order quickly but UPS misplaced "lost" one of my packages and the other came with a badly damaged box and a lot of missing pieces. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed about it but the guys at Hughes really stepped up and took care of me. They did a fantastic job in helping me and sent all the missing pieces the next morning. Leave it to UPS to misplace my package again but this time I got everything I was supposed too.

I will be taking a ton of pictures overy the course of the next 2 weeks and will document my build. This is my first real time to build and engine myself but my dad has built a few 340s so he knows the gotchas I may miss. Plus its only fitting for him to be here for this part since I was there 20 years ago handing him tools when he built it the first time. For me, it's more about building memories than anything. Not to be gushy but this will be the most special part for me and have been,looking forward to this since u bought the car.

 

[moparnation74]

It is very close! I am hoping to pick out colors by next weekend and I am thinking it will be coming home by mid November.
I have been wanting to post picks but the only time I have right now is sneaking on the site at work. However, I just realized I could save the pics from the website then post them.

On a separate note, I am getting very close to assembling the engine. I am setting up the garage this weekend and when my dad gets back from San Antonio, we are going to build it.

I got most of my parts from Summitt and Hughes Engines in Illinois. Whatever we don't have, I can run up to the new Summitt store since they are just 5 miles from the house now .

I don't know about others experiences with shipping in general but man do I hate UPS! Hughes shipped my order quickly but UPS misplaced "lost" one of my packages and the other came with a badly damaged box and a lot of missing pieces. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed about it but the guys at Hughes really stepped up and took care of me. They did a fantastic job in helping me and sent all the missing pieces the next morning. Leave it to UPS to misplace my package again but this time I got everything I was supposed too.

I will be taking a ton of pictures overy the course of the next 2 weeks and will document my build. This is my first real time to build and engine myself but my dad has built a few 340s so he knows the gotchas I may miss. Plus its only fitting for him to be here for this part since I was there 20 years ago handing him tools when he built it the first time. For me, it's more about building memories than anything. Not to be gushy but this will be the most special part for me and have been,looking forward to this since u bought the car.

Sounds great Brian and also nice to have your father involved....Keep us posted...

As far as UPS goes in our area they SUCK! Boxes beat to sh##....big dents, holes, missing parts as well....In our area Fedex and USPS are the best choices...Of course companies use one particular shipper but from everyone else I ask to use either of the 2 above. Couple times I was at home and of course on the second floor in my man cave and I hear "BANG" on the front poor...I run down and the truck is off like a drag race...One day I will catch the prick and give him a peace of my mind and also thanks for slamming a package on my decorative entry way....I have cameras and of course when a box is damaged. They do not ring the door bell and do not get in my camera zone....

 

[plymouthman72]

Sounds great Brian and also nice to have your father involved....Keep us posted...

As far as UPS goes in our area they SUCK! Boxes beat to sh##....big dents, holes, missing parts as well....In our area Fedex and USPS are the best choices...Of course companies use one particular shipper but from everyone else I ask to use either of the 2 above. Couple times I was at home and of course on the second floor in my man cave and I hear "BANG" on the front poor...I run down and the truck is off like a drag race...One day I will catch the prick and give him a peace of my mind and also thanks for slamming a package on my decorative entry way....I have cameras and of course when a box is damaged. They do not ring the door bell and do not get in my camera zone....

That has got to be one of the most infuriating things to have happen in my opinion. They know there isn't much recourse you have either. You pay a lot of money to have items shipped and this is how they treat you as their customer. I am very thankful that Hughes came through and helped me from their end. There was about $500 worth of items missing. I am just glad my pistons/rods/crankshaft/camshaft was still there. That would have been a nightmare if they weren't!

 

[moparnation74]

That has got to be one of the most infuriating things to have happen in my opinion. They know there isn't much recourse you have either. You pay a lot of money to have items shipped and this is how they treat you as their customer. I am very thankful that Hughes came through and helped me from their end. There was about $500 worth of items missing. I am just glad my pistons/rods/crankshaft/camshaft was still there. That would have been a nightmare if they weren't!

That is it...no recourse.....

All I can do as a consumer is do not use them.....but as a buyer sometimes we dont have a choice...

That money Hughes took back in the long run affects us all....all because of a lazy no count union employee.....

The good vendors such as Hughes stand up but then they have to battle with the shipper......Costing them time and money...So they get 500 back and how many phone call email ect happen which means they lose on that 500...

 

[plymouthman72]

Here are some updated pictures of the bird. Like Justin said, it's getting very close to paint. It's so hard not to want it done now but the wait is well worth it. I just keep thinking about where it would or what kind of condition it would be in if it was still at the previous place:

 

[Charger72]

Almost there, exciting stuff!

 

[Midnight_Rider]

It really is hard to find a good quality shop.

On the 69 Mach 1 I sold to fund my present project car (71 RR), I had to end up going to a 2nd body shop like you did, and actually even a 3rd to get it in paint. The 3rd guy fixed some issues created by the 2nd guy and really went above & beyond IMO considering the amount of work vs the cost. Never really got far with the 1st shop, I could tell it wasn't going to go well pretty quickly & got it out of there pronto. Guess who's getting my business on this car?

BTW, good on ya for sticking with it. Easy to say when it's not my time and money, but it's good to see something saved rather than parted and discarded. Good luck with the rest of it.

 

[ddpsnake]

Yessssssssssssss I have bean reading what you have done,nice work,cant wait for reassembly .

 

[moparnation74]

I was over at Triple F this AM and took a peek at your bird....Man it looks Great!

Getting very close to some orange....

 

[plymouthman72]

I was over at Triple F this AM and took a peek at your bird....Man it looks Great!

Getting very close to some orange....

Ah man, we must have just missed you! We were there around 11:30. All if the jambs will be painted this week. They have done a great job!

Here is the color it will be painted. I didn't know until this week that Torred has a small amount of metal flake in it. I really like it a lot.

 

[plymouthman72]

Here is the latest update on the body shop. Like Justin said, there will for sure be paint on her this week.

 

[plymouthman72]

Since I am updating the body pics, I will go ahead and update the engine build as well. My dad came down last weekend and helped me put the short block together. To say it was challenging is an understatement. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong:

First, I put 6 connecting rods on backwards not realizing the chamfers have to face outwards (dumb rookie mistake). So my dad and I painfully took the spiral lock pins out and switched them around. Those little bastards do their job well. Those spiral locks dont like coming out! Thankfully I looked it up before we installed them because my spider sense was saying I was doing it wrong.

Second, we got 2 pistons in and when I went to crank it over, the connecting rod bolts hit the cylinder wall. The new H beams were just slightly to big. I knew I wanted I beams but was talked into the H beams and I had forgotten about the clearance issue from my previous research. So we broke it back down, I taped the engine up and I notched the block. I cleaned up the metal shavings, and put her back together to find out I didn't clear #8 enough so I did all again again.

Third, we go to install the roller cam and it will not seat in the rear cap all the way. We research it and it could be anything from a tight cap to core shift. Probably not the best idea but I over oiled all of the bearings, cap, and cam got it in as far as I could, slightly rotated in the bearings and she popped right in and turned as it should. Was probably risky but I took the chance. If she hadn't turned I would have been up poop creek with out a paddle.

Fast forward to this weekend and I could not get the harmonic balancer to go on (I'm another thread here). I found out that most new balancer are made on smaller side of tolerances while my scat crank is on the larger side. I ended up using a little Emory cloth on the balancer and was able to get it on. Probably not the "right" way but I got er done. I am thinking I am finally out of the woods and BAM, I get the next curve ball. My oil pump won't fit because the ARP main bolts are higher than stock and the one under the pump sits to high. So I research this and find out it is a super common issue with molar small blocks. Most people either shave the bolt down and don't use the washer, mill the main cap, or they just use a factory bolt under the oil pump. I chose the latter because it's the easiest. By the way, it looks like they don't make any oil pumps that will clear this either. That is where I am at right now and tomorrow, hopefully it will be a bit smoother. Thank the Lord I live 5 minutes away from the new Summitt facility. Makes life much easier!

Last but not least, I have great respect for you guys who pioneered the way before the days of the internet. I can not image how hard it was for you to learn the craft with out the resources available online line and the lack of parts availability or locating them. Thank you all for freely sharing your knowledge now and helping a noob like myself. This makes the hobby fun and while I am not well versed, I enjoy sharing my journey with you guys.

Sorry for the novel guys! I hope that this post will help the next guy who is new to building and can use my mistakes so they don't make them.

 

[plymouthman72]

Here are some pictures of the build so far:

 

[moparnation74]

Ah man, we must have just missed you! We were there around 11:30. All if the jambs will be painted this week. They have done a great job!

Here is the color it will be painted. I didn't know until this week that Torred has a small amount of metal flake in it. I really like it a lot.

View attachment 533425

I am an early bird I was there when they opened and left around 10ish....

Had to BS about cars with Steve before I left....when we get talking it seems to never stop...but thats hobbyists for ya...

Steve asked me about that when I was there and it does have a little metallic in it....One of the best Mopar colors. Especially, for that body style...

 

[moparnation74]

Yeah...those new balancers can be tight.....Sometimes you can bake em and they will slide on..

Btw not sure if you need it but I have the oil filter turn down for a small block....

 

[plymouthman72]

The day is finally here!!! She has some orange paint on her! I have had so many ups and downs through this project and to see paint on her for the first time is just so flippin awesome. I have not had a chance to see it in person yet but will update later this week once I get to the shop.

 

[Charger72]

Getting close...

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Nice it will look fantastic