73 lemon twist roadrunner

[73Bitterbird]

Thanks Ron,I love the look of the gauges I got yellow LEDs for dash lights I think it will look kool. Also have some model car decals that are going on the gauges. And that's my favorite kind of pics too before n after. But seems like I have a very long way to go. Wish I had pics of it in the barn it sat in for over 20 years. I talked to the son of the women who owned it before me and he wants to help me work on it so gonna have some help soon.if you read my intro post I talked about how I got this car from the women's oldest son who I almost choked out. Well he has many issues with me and prolly well deserved issues.(friends don't hook up with other friends moms lol) but her younger son is happy I got the car and I am fixing it up. He's the reason it was put in storage when he was born. So he's super excited too help and I'm super excited to get the help.

 

[Ron 73]

I agree with you bud and will just say its good that it works out with a younger help, it will make a big difference in time alone and talking with him maybe will encourage another in our Mopar world, my wife says all i talk about is the cars, we drive and she says look at that nice house and i always ask, BIG garage? lol.. cant help it, getting old it seems i think more of cars then anything, don't know if that's the way i should put it! LOL I spent a winter tearing out my dash from the 73 and when it was done i went with the red LED, cars red and the wife and i both think it was the right decision, my next ones will be orange or yellow maybe for my 69, long way from the dash though... Keep up the good work!

Couple (i hope decent of mine)

 

[73Bitterbird]

That looks good Ron!. I just read your thread about the lights. I thnk they will look great when I get it together. Well the kid who was the reason this car was parked came to see it today.and brought me the original valve cover bolts and the bumper ends for the rear bumper, they are pretty crappy but I can't find repros anywhere so I will be restoring these. He also found the original intake for the car and will be bringing it by soon.he was excited to see the car and to tell me he was glad I got it instead of his brother parting it out. I guess the brother was trying to sell it whole till I showed interest the. He decided to part it out and before I threatened him he already had sold some parts.and today the younger brother tells me that if his brother didn't sell it he was gonna scrap it. So very very glad my violent streak came in handy.cuz the only reason I have this car is he thought I would kill him if he didn't sell it to me and I prolly would have , lol. But here's some pics

 

[Ron 73]

You read my thread? Heck, I have no idea where that is lol!! And im glad you didn't kill him to! Id hate to know what would have become of the car.... AND you LOL!

 

[73Bitterbird]

Yup I. Was searching for something and happend to see it. I read a lot of stuff on here it's like a school book for me, and I'm very glad I didn't kill him as well. It worked out much better this way lol. Got a ton of work done today a lot more little stuff done ,have one more brake line that needs to be replaced and that's the front I rear line. I cleaned and painted the brake proportion valve , started putting the nose back together. It's starting to look like a car again. Had a friend stop by who had not seen the car since the late. 90s sitting in a barn collecting dust he couldn't believe how nice it looks now we all hung around the car for years so we knew it well and to have a chance to resurrect this car has been a pleasure for me. A bunch of us are going to get together and have drinks with the car when it's done. It's coming together pretty good shouldn't be too long and I'll be ripping this beast down the road!

 

[a68postcar]

piece by piece, it comes back together.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Forgot to put up a couple pics last night.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Been working on the bitterbird non stop for like 4. Or 5 days but was just rolling through wasn't tracking many pics. I finally got the right parts I needed to put half of my front end back together,I thought I had everything but something's were wrong so I had to order new stuff,but anyway it's back on 4 wheels,the passenger fender is sanded, the under hood cowl and raidiator support rubber weather strip was cleaned and shined up,the wiper linkage is all in and works,I finally got the dash painted nice all it needs is a sand and buff and got the underside cleaned a lil and primed a lil bit. I found a soft spot just ahead of the torsion cross member I if kind a nice piece of metal to weld in,going to try to get the rocker on the passenger side and that metal welded in this week. I was really happy to get it back on 4 wheels.im going to be posting a wtb ad on here as well but I'm looking for heater control knobs, mine were cracked and when I tried to glue them back together it didn't work. But it's slowly but surely coming together. The picture with the 2 rubber lines shows old and new brake lines. I love the red bushings with the cast blast sub frame and spindle. I like the cast blast on suspension parts.

 

[Ron 73]

"I'll be ripping this beast down the road!"

Now be good! Its a Mopar yes but we have to show restraint so as not to get every one upset that doesn't own one, agreed? lol i do hope you have a ball but i would hate to see it back to the restore garage! of course its a Mopar, one made to last the duration of fun,, and more of it !! sorry, cant help it, every-time i get in mine my wife says i act like a 18 year old, what the heck is wrong with that!!!!!

 

[73Bitterbird]

Lol I'm gonna beat the living day lights outta this car.but only in short showey burst lol.i drive like a grandpa most the time. I drove junk so long I learned to drive to make things last but with out dirt tacking I will have no speed outlet. So I prolly will be beating it a little. I am deffinetly gonna lose it the first time I scratch it or something.today I worked on the bitterbird for about a hour,got the drivers fender and door sanded down have t make a patch for the fender and also going to cut and bend a dent out of the rocker panel on the driver side. I found 2 lil pin holes in the door I will be spot welding. When I do the patch,also started making a patch for the front bottom of the driver quarter. The way it's looking I will only need one quarter bottom on the passenger side. Got one of the bumper ends sanded and primed, going to glaze over the dents in it sand that and prime again before painting them gray. Had a friend stop by today and wants to buy the car to wich I said hell no lol. But I'm trying to get a cuda from him for my wife. Another mopar I have been around my whole life it was my dads when I was 5 and he sold it ale hen I was 7 it's blue with black interior and a black vinyl top. It also has a shark fin on the trunk don't know how it got there it was there when my dad bought it but I always thought it was a good looking car.but now it needs a lot of work the floors are bad the doors are bad and the motor hasent ran since '97. It's rough but well worth a project to me. I'll try to get pics next time I go over there.

 

[Ron 73]

'OK! been there done that.... Good luck bud.. I wish you all the best on the CUDA and i myself would love to see the pictures, The E-bodys are not only part of the Mopar world, there very nice looking, performance cars!

 

[73Bitterbird]

Lol thanks I'll need the luck. This guy loves this cuda a lot so I'll be working this one for awhile. The guys dad bought the car from my dad back in the day so he has a ton if childhood memories with the car too. Kinda wish my dad didn't change cars every month I keep wanting what he had,the cuda , the roadrunner ,a bandit style t/a (which I did own one) and someday a ford thunderbolt .hell we even drive the same dodge trucks his is 2500 and mine 1500.i guess as we grow we never stop idolizing our fathers. Any way back to the bitterbird I took the ECM off and after about 12 hours of reading up on it and talking to a couple friends I'm going to do a conversion to hei and put it in the original ECM box so I cleaned it out and test fitted some things. And I think I can make it work but follow along to see how it works out. I found a ton of info about it on the abodies forum. It seems like a cool little trick, I could buy a new ECM and clean it out and in the future I might but for now I can't spend the extra money on a ECM for the case. I have a bunch of gm hei modules from racing most are petronix 2000 and. 3000 numbers I also have like 4 accell mods. 5 bone stock parts store units and a msd one that I used a lot. I had a 4 race petronix 3000 mod. So I'm going to start with that. This way I can use the stock dist. And upgrade the wires that connect all of this together. Keep the stock looking box the coil will also have to be upgraded to the ecore style that I kind of wanted to put inside of a coil my dad had on his roadrunner . It's the giant accell yellow one. I will post pics tomorrow of it. But I want to try to put the e core coil inside of it and mount it on the firewall. The wires for the voltage regulator and alt. wore way over heated at one time so I will be replacing them ASAP the ends are in pretty good condition is it will be pretty easy.i will be doing the amp gauge upgrade as well while it's all apart. As for the interior the dash is 3 coats of black wet sanded with 1500 grit 2 coats of clear and 2000 grit wet sand and then cleaned and painted the back side yellow to make it bright not a kickass paint job just slapped it on the back side of the dash making sure no to get it on the front ( would have been a great idea before hand lol) I thought it would be good to make it bright behind the dash and easier to work behind there I noticed that with the underside. Tomorrow I be playing with my welder and see if I can get that driver side buttoned up.here some pics from the ECM clean out and one of the bumper ends I epoxied back together and Sanded it has some dig marks so I will be filling them and trying to get the end squared the way it's supposed to be. The epoxy on the other hasent set up yet I just did it will post pics of that and the first one after fill and sand soon.

 

[67440chrg]

Keep up the good work. I had a family member who had a 73 when I was young I always liked that car. 73 has the best stripe kit of that body style.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Thank you 67440 chrg. I keep it going as best as I can. These are some good looking cars and the stripes really make them pop. I love this body style a lot and I'm very happy I was able to get this one.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Well been spending a lot of time with family but got a couple things done,the wires for the ignition system was wired and tested waiting for the coil so I can finish hooking it up. After trying to fit the ignition mod in the mopar ignition box I thought I would clean the box up and repaint and use it but it was super crappy and I kinda wanted a chrome one so I'll be cleaning out a chrome box soon. Also replaced wires from the ignition to the ignition mod. And the wires from the voltage regulator and from the alt. as they were all dried,hard and cracked. The wires are the same gauge but the insulation is much fatter and more oil n heat resistant then stock were.i couldn't get the patches welded in yet due to upstate ny weather so I just got one of the door jams detailed. But back to family time for now.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Well got a lot of body work done ,also the dash is finally done. Today I'll be working on the back bumper trying to get it strait and not dented. Still working on getting it buttoned up
Before winter.heres some pics for now.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Couldn't get these to upload earlier.the top pic is the body corner after it was messed up and filled looks better now. The second pic is my drivers door bottom it was cleaned and I put some plastic paint on it looks like it's armor-allied lol I like it. The. My bumper and epoxied together my door after I filled the dent and glazed a spot. Then the coil,ballast and alt. wires that were removed a friend wanted the coil and ballast for his 73 charger. He almost cried when I gave them to him lol he was never givin anything I guess.they both worked great I just changed out the ignition system.and his charger had none I figured some day I might need a part and he will remember that. I know he wanted good old pieces from around the same time period. Then my bracelet my lil niece made for the bitterbird. And the right body corner after sanding.

 

[Ron 73]

Very nice! and there is no way you can loose helping someone, even if he doesn't remember, it will come back to you!

 

[73Bitterbird]

Ya I like to be nice sometimes lol. I went to a lil car show today and found another73 roadrunner I couldn't believe it. He was a great guy with a very nice car.i was able to get a good look at some things I had questions about. On my car I got the dash in and the Pedal pads on as well as the chrome trim I bought for it. It didn't originally have it but I wanted it. Started taking my shifter apart and cleaning it it was kinda sticky but I got the ratcheting action to work,which I couldn't before. I also had to pull apart the indicator for the shifter there was crud in the lens/diffuser. It now works and is so awesome. My dad's had a different shifter so I never knew the indicator changed color to see that was awesome. I got some rust removal done in the trunk area and was not very pleased. I'm kinda a little list on what I'm gonna do about it. I really don't wanna use tiger hair or anything like that I have cleaned it out and used rust resistant primer a until I can get to it.i wanted to get the dash in and I will be doing the headliner very soon as the windshield needs to be in before it gets too awful cold. Did a lot of wore testing the last couple days making sure it's all good and up to snuff. I ran the blower motor and it was nice cuz last time there was all sorts of crap in there and it wouldn't let it turn.works great now. After putting the seat back in to make it more comfortable to do wire testing I got a lil giddy about sitting in it again also relit the fire I have for this car so full steam ahead. Here's some pics of the car show and my new friends roadrunner. Will have new pics of the work on my car tomorrow.

 

[73Bitterbird]

Hello all so I got my wires under the dash all pluged back in where they are supposed to be. Some one before me upluged things so that got done ,thank god for the wire diagram I have because it was a big pain in the rear with it.with out it would have been damn near impossible. I also got the rear bumper sanded and primed.that and the inner bumper had a ton of rust but It's now cleaned up and primed.the holes from the bumper guards will be filled. The rear-side windows are cleaned and need new rubber pieces for them.need to get moving on the window felt pieces.and the trunk weather strip. It's hard having a car that cost a small fortune to even get on the road. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I had a more popular car,finding parts cheap doesn't happen everything I need cost a lot or I can't even find.theres parts of the car that are bad but I don't have money to a whole trunk lid just for some holes underneath or they don't make it. And it's in spots where I don't think I could make a patch for. I don't want to but I will have to fill them in a cheaper easier way. Sorry lol just having sticker shock looking at prices on what I need to have. Anyway back to the bitterbird still haven't fired up the welder yet to do the patches it needs on the drivers fender and quarter in front of the wheel.i won't be getting the bottom rear quarters till the winter time sine they are like 400 for 2. Just gonna get the rust cut off and get it primed so it doesn't rust anymore. But I guess Rome wasn't built in a day and my roadrunner won't be eathier. The rust pics are from my trunk area. The pic with the black fender is when I first brought it home. I almost forgot the hole I found in the roof from the dome light screw from the rust and the look it's been there for a short time thank god. But while removing the passenger door panel I find the door has been changed before. But couldn't tell from the outside so I guess it's not a big deal.