my wifes 70 belvedere project (long story)

[vj318]

My project is a 1970 belvedere 318 auto. Over the last year or so I have been following several projects and restorations that others have been doing. Alot of you are doing some really amazing work. I love to read and se what you are working on. I really hadnt planned on puting my project on this site. My project is so low budget that it is anything but amazing. almost everything on this project,from parts,to materials, to tools is directly influenced by $. this story is a bit long because it began about 11 yrs ago and will take some time to bring things up to date. About 11 yrs ago ( my wife and I were living in kent wa. at the time) we were at an outdoor show in olympia when my wife pointed to a 70 plumb crazy gtx and said I want one of those. we couldnt afford a gtx in any condition so the search was on for a satelite or belvedere or if the price was right just about any late 60s to early 70s b body would be ok. maybe a barn find or the occasional widow wanting to get rid of her husbands old car. about a year later i read in the little nickle ads,old plymouth for sale $2,000. when I called the guy said it was a 70 belvedere 2 door that was complete and ran good. So we drove the 40 miles to have a look. It was an all white 2 door post with bucket seats, a 318 outo column shift, but it had a hurst foor shifter installed in it.I dont have any pics of the car when we first got it, but if you go members projects and click on, 70 SATELITE RESTORATION STARTED, our belvedere looked identical as far as the rust and damage goes. Inside ours had more rust in the floors but the trunk had mostly surface rust with just a few pinholes and virtually none at the bottom of the rear glass. The best part of the car was thast it was almost 100% complete inside and out with no damage to any of the trim or the grill. the bumpers have dents in them but are not bent. there were mounting holes in the trunk lid but the wimg was missing. Atfirst i thouhgt the holes were for a luggage rack. The owner told me he bought the car from the original owner as a project for him and his son to work on as long as hi son stayed out of trouble. Evidently he didnt. We settled on $1,500. I was really surprised when he told me that the tires and rims went with the car. The first hting his son did when they got the car was to go out and buy brand new american racing rims and goodrich t/a s. although they wouldnt be my first choice, the rims do look pretty good on the car, and it saved me alot of money not having to buy any. I thuoght I would get more in but I am a very slow typist and I have to go to work now so I will finish this later tonight maybe.

 

[roadrunnerman]

When you get back from work, maybe you can put up some photo's. Even if it looks like someone else's, we still want to see yours.

 

[vj318]

I do have some pics that I will post as soon as I can get back to computer. no time right now.

 

[sublimegtx]

I was unemployed when I bought mine and I'm still out of work so I hear ya on being on a tight budget. Luckily it just needed a little mechanical work. Good luck with the resto :icon_mrgreen:

 

[vj318]

Ok finally back. The doors wouldnt latch properly and alignment was really bad. new pins and bushings helped a little but no matter how I adjusted the doors I couldnt get them to fit properly. had a friend who used to work at a body shop look at it. he said it may have been hit pretty hard somewhere in the rear and things werent quite lined up when new panels were installed. which could be why there wasnt alot of rust in the trunk and none in the filler piece at the bottom of the reat glass. I ended up widening up the mounting holes in the hinges to get a little more adjustment. took most of a day but doors now close easily and gap front and reatr is even. the gap at the bottom of each door is a little uneven but not so much that i cant live with it. over the next year I did a rering on the engine with a little higher lift cam edlbrock intake, and a good used carter/weber carb. found a good deal on some headman headers. patched all of the rustouts in the body and welded in floor panles that I got from a 69 4-door satelite. found a replacement wing on e-bay.

 

[roadrunnerman]

Car looks good. The 70 body is one of my favorites in any of the mopars

 

[Propwash]

Work is looking good! Dig the color. Best of luck on the rest of your build.

 

[vj318]

color is actually a mismix. My wife wanted plumb crazy. had a shop mix a quart. As I began to spray it on it didnt look dark enough. thought it might darken up as it dried but it didnt. As it turned out we both liked this little pinker version of plumb crazy much better.After getting all of the patch work done and the engine installed and running, i did something really stupid.I needed to do some tuning on the motor on saturday, and it was only supposed to get down to 39deg.So ifigured it was safe to leave the water in the engine till i was done on sturday.The weatherman could not have been more wrong.It got down to 22deg. In the morning one freeze plug was on the floor and after running the engine for a few minutes it was already getting water in the oil. Found 3 cracks in the block.Kicked myself in the rear for several days. Shortly after that,we had to move and i wasnt able to work on it for the next 2 years.During this time i did manage to pick up a few needed items.couldnt salvage the old buckets, wanted more comfortable seats anyway. got a good pair of 96 maxima seats. wanted a floor shift with a console.The only relatively cheap ones were junk.Ended up stumbling across I think a 71 satelite at I believe the same yard that jeremy onthis forum found his green 70 sport satelite. Although not correct for our 70 the 71 had a good console, shifter and steering wheel and I needed all 3. Was able to get all three for $35. moved to Idaho in 2006, where it has been buried in my garage until the last several months.

- - - Updated - - -

almost forgot these pics. cut the floors out of this 69 at vintage auto wrecking in mountain home Idaho.

 

[Ron 73]

Car looks good. The 70 body is one of my favorites in any of the mopars

I agree, the 70 RR's and no way i could leave out the 70 SB, Plymouth and Dodge had it all in 1970, then we had the music of the 70's, all the good times i remember like they were yesterday! VJ318 Your really going to town! Your wife's car sounds like its going to be sweet to say the least! Good luck and thanks for the update! as Prop said, i dig the color!!

 

[Basket case]

great project. good luck. and that console in your pic is a A Body

 

[vj318]

Thanks for the infoon the console. Makes me wonder when and who put the console in the satelite,and what car it originally came from.In 2009 a friend who works at a yard here in idaho got me a good deal on a 318 that was in a 68 pickup.My no.2 son and started rebuilding the motor in 2012. The engine is now done,installed and running in a very dusty plymuth.didnt have anything but the headers on yet so it was loud music to my ears to finally hear it run again. The motor is bored out 20 overand I was able to use the crank,larger cam and lifters from the old motor. It came from a 68 pickup but the block is a 74.The heads have the word truck cast into them.The numbers show them to be 1975 to 78 truck heads.They appear to be the same as my old heads but with 2 differences.1st is the exhaust valves have rotaters on them,which is the first time I have seen them on a 318.A friend of mine had them on his 340 duster. 2nd is my old heads have the usuall exhaust crossover thru the intake to help warm the carb. These heads pass water thru the intake not exhausr. I dont know how common this is,but it is the first I have seen,and wasnt sure if they would even work with the edlebrock intake. I have run the wngine several times and idled it once for about an hour and it seems tombe just fine. any info on these heads would be appreciated.

 

[vj318]

here are some pics of the disasembly after installing the motor and exhaust.

 

[tallhair]

Looking good / and nice progress I see you've got then hang of inserting photos. If you need any assistance with the forum tools I'll gladly help out if Joey or the mods are not available.

 

[vj318]

thanks tallhair,the last post just happen to come out correctly this time, and I couldnt tell you why. what I would really like to be able to do is when I am posting multiple pics, is to be able to post a few words under each pic if I need to,like if i need to point out something in particular about a certain picture. I am so computer iliterate that I was surprised I was able to get any pics up at all. Havent worked on the car since august, but will be starting up again soon. my wife really wants to drive it and have it ready for the Emmett cruise in july.

 

[vj318]

update on wifes 70 belvedere

was able to get some work done, last saturday and monday. got both doors and trunk lid smoothed out and primed.fixed dent in hood and now ready for white primer. still needs more work on fenders.

 

[tallhair]

thanks tallhair,the last post just happen to come out correctly this time, and I couldnt tell you why. what I would really like to be able to do is when I am posting multiple pics, is to be able to post a few words under each pic if I need to,like if i need to point out something in particular about a certain picture. I am so computer iliterate that I was surprised I was able to get any pics up at all. Havent worked on the car since august, but will be starting up again soon. my wife really wants to drive it and have it ready for the Emmett cruise in july.

In your reply window type out what you want then hit enter a couple times to give yourself some space between your words and where the pic is going, then insert the pic you just typed the words about.

Then hit enter a couple times and type out your next caption or set of words, hit enter a couple times and insert the next pic

and so on

and so on

you can insert all the pics and edit words in between them but it's a little trickier. First insert all the pics then get your cursor up above the first pic, hit enter a couple times, type words, then use the arrow keys or your mouse to get your cursor ahead of the next pic and hit enter a couple times and type the next caption and hit enter a couple times and so on. I'll bet that son of your could show you real easy.

 

[Boise68]

.... my wife really wants to drive it and have it ready for the Emmett cruise in july...

Really nice work on your 70. We are practically neighbors, I am over in Horseshoe Bend, wrapping up suspension upgrades & discs for my 68. Hope to see your car in July! Rode in a friends car last July, so this will be my first cruise-in.

 

[vj318]

thanks for the kind words from you and everyone else. I dont know if you can really call it nice work, but as a novice I am really learning alot and am having a great time working on it.( when I can find the time) had to work this saturday and then watched my brother race at meridian speedway. hope to get back work on it again soon.

 

[snakeyes]

looking good getting a lot of work done :headbang:

 

[Lighthorseman]

My very favourite body style! Really nice work - keep it up, and be sure to post lots of pictures as you go along!