Fixing up a '69 Roadrunner

[7ate9]

Well, last summer my girlfriend picked up '69 Roadrunner that we're going to be fixing up. It's a 383 column shift car. I figured I'd start a build thread for you all to follow allong if you'd like. I'll probably be asking for some advice and opinions along the way. Progress is probably gonna be slow cause we don't have a ton of money right now and parts and materials aren't cheap. I've got the tools and the know how to do the majority of the work that needs to be done since I've been working in my father's restoration shop for the past couple years. So atleast she'll be getting some cheap labor out of me...

The car's in pretty good shape over all. It's going to need a pair of quarter panels, some patch work in the trunk floor, patches at the bottom corners of the rear window and I'm gonna have to do something about the way a previous owner patched a couple small spots on the front fenders. That's about it for metal work

The interior is so/so, it has a pair of bucket seats out of a different car, '71 RR I believe.. but she likes them so they'll stay, atleast for now. The rear seat needs to be recovered, needs a carpet and headlinder and everything else will be painted and dyed black until we can afford to replace it all.

Mechanically, the car goes great and won't be needing too much, though I am sensing an engine rebuild in it's future just to get some more power out of it.

She wants to keep this car pretty simple so it's probably gonna keep the black steel wheels and police style center keeps. As for colors our first thought was to do it up original. So it would be sunfire yellow with the wide black stripes. Then she started looking at other colors and decided she really liked plum crazy purple. I think we've settled on going with the new plum crazy purple color used on the new Challengers. I think it's just a bit darker and has more depth than the original pcp. My thoughts are to build a mildly custom car, using the modern plum crazy color, maybe moving up to a larger wheel size but staying with the same style wheel, (I think you can order them from wheel vintiques) going with either the flat black hood or the wide stripes and eventually when we can afford it having a custom black leather interior made up using purple stitching.
So I'm curious what you all think. Which direction would you guys go with this car? Have any other ideas? Or do you like our plan for it?

 

[7ate9]

 

[rileys68plymouth]

Sounds like a cool build! I've always liked plum crazy paint myself, It ought to look nice with the right stance and wheel size. That's cool that it's "her" car, I'm waiting for my wife to want one fer herself

 

[7ate9]

Yeah, I think it'll be sweet in plum crazy, especially since a girls car. I was skeptical about it at first since that color didn't come out on Roadrunners till '70. Then we started thinking about the new plum crazy color on the Challengers and doing a custom/resto-mod type deal with some 17" police rallys. And yes, I'm very excited about her recent interest in muscle cars! hahah she's definitely a keeper in my book..

 

[Sneke_Eyez]

Nice car!
I like your plans for it, honestly.
I've always liked Plum Crazy, but I think the new PC is a little bit nicer with the pearl, and I'm going to be going a similar direction with my interior in my 69 Coronet, so I think you've got a great plan right there!
I also really like the the cop wheels and centers, while I'm not usually a fan of the "steelie" look, I've got them on my Coronet right now and I'm a a huge fan, so to see them made a little bit bigger, I think that'd be pretty awesome.
Good luck with the project, I know I'll be following along!

 

[Propwash]

Looks like a great foundation to start from 789. Looking forward to watching your project unfold.

 

[7ate9]

Thanks guys! I was playing around with a picture of a '69 Roadrunner on photoshop today and this is what I came up with.. (I'm not very good with photoshop by the way) hahah

 

[7ate9]

I don't know why I didn't think to tell you all about it before, but this car has a little bit of an interesting history (or atleast I think so) The guy we bought it off told us that he bought it from a young girl in the military who had to sell it when she was deployed over seas. (so atleast the car's used to having a famale driver... ha ha ha..) apparently she rebuilt the numbers matching 383 in the car and raced it on occasion. It's had a standard in it at one point, it still has the clutch pedal on the floor and a whole on the side of the transmission tunnel. The torsoin bars are aalmost all the way bottomed out and it's got air shocks in the back. It also has a cherry bomb dual exhaust on it and is pretty dang loud! So, this car's definitely been someones hot rod at some point, like I'm guessing so many of them were...

 

[70roadrunner]

Looks like a real good starting point keep us updated on your build

 

[roadrunnerman]

that will certainly look good in plum crazy purple in pearl but i think i would raise the front end up a little.

 

[7ate9]

I agree, I wouldn't/couldn't have a car that low here in Maine. And I think it'd look better up some anyways. I was just playing around to see what I could do with photoshop since it was my first time using it haha

 

[70roadrunner]

I'm wondering how yours would look/handle with drop spindles thats what I have planned for mine Plum crazy would look nice when mine was ready for paint my dad said I should go for pink lol

 

[7ate9]

I'm wondering how yours would look/handle with drop spindles thats what I have planned for mine Plum crazy would look nice when mine was ready for paint my dad said I should go for pink lol

Yeah, maybe if I went with drop spindles I could tighten the torsion bars back up some to get it about how it sits now, then hopefully that would get rid of that floaty feel it has in the front end.. I don't think I'd want it any lower than it already is in the front though. It'd probably scrape.. the roads around here suck!

hahah I'd honestly love to have a panther pink car.. but I don't think I could ever paint a car that color that it wasn't originally on to begin with. I love the red you ended up choosing for your car by the way

 

[7ate9]

Well it's been a good long while, but I've finally got some work done on the Roadrunner.. I got the left 1/4 and trunk extension. And now that I've got the bumper off I realized I also need the rear crossmember. I spent last saturday and today cutting out the old sheetmetal and welding in the new.
Here's a few pictures of what I've been up to.

Also! have you fellas seen the SMS Challengers? SMS is Steve Saleens new company. The color on this one is called Plum Insane and I believe can only be found on these cars. I'm thinking it might be a good color choice for our Roadrunner, agree?

 

[69clone]

Hey looks like some great plans, guess I won't be the only one on here with a pcp 69' for much longer lol trying to decide myself on the flat black lift off hood vs stripes, hard to decide when there aren't many other pcp 69's to compare too. btw you might not want to ride in it without your gf I've notice pcp is a real chick magnet I get women of all ages complementing me on mine at shows.

 

[detmatt1]

Nice work, it has been a while, Glad to see you moving forward with it. I think that would look hot in that purple, go for it!

 

[7ate9]

Hey looks like some great plans, guess I won't be the only one on here with a pcp 69' for much longer lol trying to decide myself on the flat black lift off hood vs stripes, hard to decide when there aren't many other pcp 69's to compare too. btw you might not want to ride in it without your gf I've notice pcp is a real chick magnet I get women of all ages complementing me on mine at shows.

yeah, If it were up to me I'd go with the stripes, but I think my girlfriends decided on the black hood hahah we've had the same problem trying to decide wether or not to go with pcp.. but the ones I've seen I like the looks of. Also, I'll be lucky if she lets me drive it at all hahah!

Nice work, it has been a while, Glad to see you moving forward with it. I think that would look hot in that purple, go for it!

Thanks for the kind words! It's encouraging.

 

[roadrunnerman]

it's good to see you get some progress on it.

 

[7ate9]

well, the right quarter fiinally came in so I can get the other side done now.. I've gotta get the metal work wrapped up on this thing before spring! I'm just waiting for the rear cross member and patches for the filler panel underneath the rear window now.
I went and looked at a co-workers 2010 plum crazy challenger the other day. I'm really loving the color on it! Now I just have to figure out how I can get a mix formula for saleens plum insane color. Then I can mix some up on the paint mixing bank at work and do a test panel to compare to the plum crazy.