Need Help For Pittsburgh Roadrunner

[Bruzilla]

I'm picking up a 74 Roadrunner in a couple of weeks to start a project I'm calling the Pittsbird. Being from Pittsburgh, I wanted to do up a Roadrunner to reflect the city and our sports teams, and I wanted to solicit some ideas from you all.

Plans are right now for a black on black color scheme. I'm going to use two-tone stripes in black and Steelers/Pirates gold, but I can't decide which color to use between the center and trim stripes. Would the gold look better as the center with white as the trim, or vice versa?

All the engine size decals, Direct Connection decals, and other accents will be done in Penguins gold.

I'm trying to budget for two-tone seats, with either Steelers/Pirates or Penguins gold inserts. The Steelers/Pirates gold is more yellow, and the Penguins gold is more of a metallic gold shade, so I'm still trying to decide which would look better as an insert color.

I'm having custom decals printed up that look like the stock Roadrunner circle but read "Roadrunner" and "Pittsbird" around the circle instead of Plymouth and Roadrunner. Also, the bird is holding a Steelers helmet instead of the white racing helmet.

Lastly, I have several vintage bumper stickers and decals (Catch the Steelers on WIIC TV 11, Arco We Had Em All The Way, Winky's Penguins, etc.) that I'll have on the back bumper and rear windows. I was also thinking about having the view from Mt. Washington of the triangle airbrushed on the hood, but that might be too expensive.

Any ideas on some other accents that would be essentials on a Pittsburgh car from the 1970s?

 

[Red63440]

Bob's "Big Boy" from EatnPark. Thats where we all hung out at, either in Bethel Park or McKeesport. On a Friday and Saturday night it was muscle cars from one end to the other. Street racing for big $$$ and we occasionally made the trip to the old Pittsburgh International Dragway which was NHRA.

 

[Bruzilla]

That's funny. My son suggested we try to find one of those miniature Big Boy statues they used to sell for the back window. Another thing we discussed was EatnPark is famous for making these smiley faced cookies, and they sell a ton of yellow and black ones during football season. King's, a similar restaurant chain, came out with a frowning brownie called a Frownie to compete with it. We couldn't understand why anyone would want to sell an angry-looking product, but then the folks at the Kings in Plum Borough explained it was to compete with EatnPark's smiley cookies and that just broke us up. So we might have to find a way to have a 70's smiley face and a modern Frownie face worked into the scheme.

 

[dgraver]

Awesome idea!! Im a Pittsburgher so anything I can do let me know. A few ideas to maybe incorporate: Iron City Beer, terrible towel, the green weenie hanging from your rear view mirror, mr yuk stickers, WDVE, the term "super steelers", 3 rivers stadium, "luv-ya black-n-gold", your horn should play the steelers polka...Definitely looking forward to seeing updates!

 

[Red63440]

That's funny. My son suggested we try to find one of those miniature Big Boy statues they used to sell for the back window. Another thing we discussed was EatnPark is famous for making these smiley faced cookies, and they sell a ton of yellow and black ones during football season. King's, a similar restaurant chain, came out with a frowning brownie called a Frownie to compete with it. We couldn't understand why anyone would want to sell an angry-looking product, but then the folks at the Kings in Plum Borough explained it was to compete with EatnPark's smiley cookies and that just broke us up. So we might have to find a way to have a 70's smiley face and a modern Frownie face worked into the scheme.

A buddy of mine lives in Plum, he has a 69 340 Cuda with a beautiful custom paint job. His name is John Turek, great guy!! There are tons of things you could use although instead of having a nice looking ride you would end up with a billboard. Back in the 70's the City was known as "The Steel City" although now most if not all of the mills are gone. I do know at one time there was a car racing at PID know as "The Steel City Wedge".

 

[dgraver]

All of this talk of Plum, I went to high school there and spent a lot of time at that said King's!

Back to the car, as Red mentioned, i'd be weary of making it a billboard that cant be changed. I like your color scheme and emblem ideas, but i wouldnt paint on too much Pittsburgh stuff. A lot of things you can put inside the car, engine bay, package tray, etc and remove at any time. Just my opinion.

 

[Bruzilla]

My first job was at that Kings back in 1977. I get a kick out of going there every April when we go back to Pittsburgh for Steelers Fan Blitz. I swear that Kings has not changed one bit since I worked there!

I want the car to have a Pittsburgh in the 1970s theme, and lots of muscle back then did look like billboards. I knew lots of guys who couldn't see out the rear-quarter windows because of all the Hooker, STP, Mallory, Holley, and other stickers on them.

The reason I'm doing the car this way is down here in Jacksonville (what we call Jacksonburgh) we have five Black & Gold clubs, with about 400 members. We get together to watch Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins games, and have Pittsburgh-themed socials and get togethers throughout the year. There are several members who have late model vehicles that are black, gold, or yellow, that are done up in Steeler or Penguins schemes and they really look great, but I wanted to go with an older car that represents the City of Champions days.

This will be my seventh 73/74 Roadrunner, and I've gone the stock route, the restored route, the restorized route, and now I'm just looking to try something that may just please me and my fellow Pittsburghers, but at this point in life I've stopped worrying about resale value.

BTW, which stipe combo do you guys think would look better? Center stripe white or gold and trim stripe white or gold? I'm still on the fence. Maybe I'll hire a graphic artist to do a drawing of both configurations.

 

[Bruzilla]

All of this talk of Plum, I went to high school there.

Me too. Class of 1979. I don't know if you're a Penguins fan, but during game 4 of the playoffs last season, when the Pens played at Tampa Bay, my sons and I were sitting right behind the Penguins bench and had a sign up thanking the kids at Plum High School for the Pens videos they make every year. The Penguins and the kids back at the school got a real kick out of that sign, and invited us to come join them when they come to Orlando on a school trip next month and where they're filming the finale to this year's video.

Sure would like to have the car done by then.

 

[Red63440]

My first job was at that Kings back in 1977. I get a kick out of going there every April when we go back to Pittsburgh for Steelers Fan Blitz. I swear that Kings has not changed one bit since I worked there!

I want the car to have a Pittsburgh in the 1970s theme, and lots of muscle back then did look like billboards. I knew lots of guys who couldn't see out the rear-quarter windows because of all the Hooker, STP, Mallory, Holley, and other stickers on them.

The reason I'm doing the car this way is down here in Jacksonville (what we call Jacksonburgh) we have five Black & Gold clubs, with about 400 members. We get together to watch Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins games, and have Pittsburgh-themed socials and get togethers throughout the year. There are several members who have late model vehicles that are black, gold, or yellow, that are done up in Steeler or Penguins schemes and they really look great, but I wanted to go with an older car that represents the City of Champions days.

This will be my seventh 73/74 Roadrunner, and I've gone the stock route, the restored route, the restorized route, and now I'm just looking to try something that may just please me and my fellow Pittsburghers, but at this point in life I've stopped worrying about resale value.

BTW, which stipe combo do you guys think would look better? Center stripe white or gold and trim stripe white or gold? I'm still on the fence. Maybe I'll hire a graphic artist to do a drawing of both configurations.

Why don't you just paint it black with semi gloss gold bill boards on the side or visa versa

 

[Budnicks]

An outsiders view, you should do the Gold with subtle black accents or Black with subtle gold accents {stripes maybe either gold or black depending on exterior color}, black interior easy, & maybe a small logos/insignia here or there, seat buttons, grill emblem, small gold or chrome script on side of car {Pittsbird}, don't go overboard, it becomes real cheesy really fast... Personally the yellow/black paint sceem has been done to death, I My Opinion... Now that comes from a die hard Raiders fan, but I'm an avid Roadrunner & Mopar guy, also I love my football too... I had a 70 Corvette with some small tastefully done Sliver exterior & Black interior & black convertible top, all the Raiders colors paint sceems, small sublte buttons on the seats in the interior one on each door panel & a couple of small emblems here & there, 454 raider, engine call out stripe in flat black & blacked out rear tail light panel etc, it was well received even from non Raiders fans... Good luck with your Steeler's/Penguin's 74 RR Pittsbird project...

 

[tpodwdog]

i hate to be the wet blanket here....but if i saw a classic car done up like that....i would have no other thoughts but " what retard did that to that car." i am from PITTSBURGH also...i live in a town called Eighty Four...25 miles dead south of da-burg ......hung out at the big boy...Wendys.... and SOUTH PARK in my yout ( mr Gambini )...personally i wouldnt suggest doing that to that car...if you want to ruin a car....RUIN A CAMARO BECAUSE THEYRE ALL OVER THE PLACE....you cant swing a dead cat without hitting 456 of them... save the good cars for what theyre meant to be...CLASSIC PIECES OF ART......this has been a public service announcment....sorry dude,,,but thats how i feel about that.

 

[dgraver]

Me too. Class of 1979. I don't know if you're a Penguins fan, but during game 4 of the playoffs last season, when the Pens played at Tampa Bay, my sons and I were sitting right behind the Penguins bench and had a sign up thanking the kids at Plum High School for the Pens videos they make every year. The Penguins and the kids back at the school got a real kick out of that sign, and invited us to come join them when they come to Orlando on a school trip next month and where they're filming the finale to this year's video.

Sure would like to have the car done by then.

I definitely remember seeing that last year during the playoffs, the videos they do are great. I graduated from Plum in 2001.

Back to the car. This is your car, do what you want. Nothing wrong with black and gold paint schemes, you dont have to paint it a factory color for it to look good. Would I paint the city on my hood? I would not, but as you said putting the old school stickers on the windows and such would be cool. Have fun with it!

Whats going to powering this Pittsburgh Road Runner?

 

[MarPar]

Dahntahn

a little late...but hilarious! my buddy from Da Burgh sent me the link, i just bout pissed my pants laughing. (btw we say jagoff here in Chicago too!)

btw...paint her up however the hell you want, it's YOUR car! anyways, you can re-paint it later!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnWgjSZqv80

 

[Bruzilla]

i hate to be the wet blanket here....but if i saw a classic car done up like that....i would have no other thoughts but " what retard did that to that car." i am from PITTSBURGH also...i live in a town called Eighty Four...25 miles dead south of da-burg ......hung out at the big boy...Wendys.... and SOUTH PARK in my yout ( mr Gambini )...personally i wouldnt suggest doing that to that car...if you want to ruin a car....RUIN A CAMARO BECAUSE THEYRE ALL OVER THE PLACE....you cant swing a dead cat without hitting 456 of them... save the good cars for what theyre meant to be...CLASSIC PIECES OF ART......this has been a public service announcment....sorry dude,,,but thats how i feel about that.

No problems with being a wet blanket. I know exactly where you're coming from. I used to obsess over every detail of my cars. This was back in the days when NOS still meant spending hours rummaging through the parts room at a Plymouth dealership and not finding something on ebay. If I saw something on a car that was out of spec, it drove me nuts.

Then my wonderful wife of now 28 years pointed out that this thing with Mopars had gone from a hobby, to an obsession, to a job, and she was right. I would come out of the garage after hours working on cars all ticked off just like I had spent a day at work. I fretted over details on the cars just as much as I did details at work. Car issues kept me up at night just as much as job issues. In short, it had stopped being fun, which is what it had started as.

Now I have a different take on cars, and am enjoying them much more. I've readjusted my mindset back to the days when I drove these cars for fun, and things like originality, points, resale value, NOS vs OEM vs repop, and all the other issues I used to focus on mean nothing to me. Even better, I'm saving a ton of money. The seats on this car were long gone and replaced with buckets from who knows what. I could spend $200 buying some rebuildable OEM seats, $240 on biscuits, and $350 on covers, or I can do what I would have done in 1980 and find some seats that look good (in this case buckets from a 1994 Ford Explorer) that cost $50, have some custom two-tone vinyl seat covers made for $215, and spend $265 instead of almost $800, which makes the wife much happier too!

I can now look at the drivers who do some really bizarre stuff to their cars and think "have fun with it guys!" instead of "what retard did that to that car?"

 

[Bruzilla]

I definitely remember seeing that last year during the playoffs, the videos they do are great. I graduated from Plum in 2001.

Back to the car. This is your car, do what you want. Nothing wrong with black and gold paint schemes, you dont have to paint it a factory color for it to look good. Would I paint the city on my hood? I would not, but as you said putting the old school stickers on the windows and such would be cool. Have fun with it!

Whats going to powering this Pittsburgh Road Runner?

All but one of my Roadrunners have been 440 cars (I had one that was a 340). This car started life as a 318, now has a very nicely built up 360, and my first thoughts were to put a 440 in it, but with the issues with Iran going on I'm going to hold off on that until I see where gas prices are going. I'm sure it'll eventually have a 440, but when... maybe when the Bucs get to the World Series.

BTW, funny story about the 340 car. I bought it right before I was transferred to Naval Air Station Bermuda. Bermuda doesn't like cars in general, and to drive a car on the roads it couldn't have bigger than a 1.5L engine, couldn't have more than like 80 Hp, and couldn't have any rust or physical damage. The Navy would ship cars that didn't meet those conditions to the island for folks to use on the base only. When I got there, I looked around and saw all the on-base only cars were either cars from the island that had rust or damage, VW Beetles, or smaller cars, so I made arrangements to have that 340 bird shipped over because I would be able to honestly say "I have the fastest car in the country!" (how often do you get to make that claim?) But, sadly, the Navy changed the rules on shipping on-base only cars and I never got to make that claim.