Talladega or Bust - 1970 Super Bird Cleanup

[kiwigtx]

...............

Something that's always been missing during my 29 years of ownership. Can't believe how well they cleaned the car for paint... retainers from the OE cowl seal are still in the holes and were fun to remove!

Why I type in "Plymouth" on kijji from time to time and go through the 200 pages looking for stuff. Picked up a new in package Soft Seal cowl seal for 10 bucks.

Glad I had my Bee's OE to make retainer installation easier, with correct spacing, as this one came with them in a bag.

Found the easy way to install these was to just press them hard through the rubber into the wood, then use a thin pair of needle nose to hold them in place and another pair of pliers to bend over the tabs.

.....................

I have one of those seals as well Wayne...brand new with the separate clips in green, in their own bag...bought from "The Paddock" when they were still in business...probably in 2000-2001 era. I never got around to installing that on my GTX. I'm glad you figured a way to get the clips on...that is the main reason I never used it.

BTW...pleased that my hose is the one for the job...I've never had complaints about my hose in the past. Just goes to show that the supposed correct parts are not necessarily all the same design.

 

[dadsbee]

Not a single hose out of the three replacements has the end fittings made correctly. Either the nut is double the width of the OE's... the round connector end to hard line is twice or three times as thick.. etc, but like your wife said to you "yours will do" !! THANKS!

Still cloudy as to if the barrel end fitting is correct, as from what I've seen with front disc/rear drum it should have a plain fitting like the Dorman hose. Is why I even ordered a '70/'71 hose from NMoparts as it was supposed to be the same as that, but shows up barreled. Thinking maybe earlier '70's Roadrunners got the '69 hose to use them up, laters the '70.. I don't know but considering my hoses date stamp I can't believe it's not the OE.

 

[dadsbee]

So people will know it's my car... lol.. Rear flex line from Roger in New Zealand installed.

The slightly longer line actually works nice to give some clearance away from the tail pipe.

Rear frame to axle flex line on and bleeding the brakes. Right rear first.

Bleeder hose looped up to the frame onto an S hook and then down. That way you can see the bubbles rising out through the fluid, and not just have the bleeder cup fill up.

Helping hands, a hole cut in the cardboard box.

Left rear next.

Fronts I had a hell of a time getting to bleed. FULL vacuum on them and they would not pull any fluid, until I gave thought to the diverter valve that allows the rears to get some pressure first before it opens for the fronts. Pushed the brake pedal a few times and then they started bleeding well.

Same bleeder set up on the fronts. Bleeder hose looped up to the frame and down.

Original master cylinder cover rubber seal #2225441 that in years past swelled up because I grabbed the wrong bottle of fluid to top of the reservoir.

Just to give you an idea of how much rubber can swell if you use the wrong fluid (I believe it was PS fluid) !! Lid, swollen OE seal and an NOS I got from AMS.

 

[dadsbee]

 

[dadsbee]

Somehow managed to buy two sets of UCA adjuster access rubber shields when buying Bee parts.. wonder how that happened!

Looks so much better closed up.. been open since I've owned the car.

Still can't figure out the stupidity on this, but the passenger side goes on the inside of the inner fender, not outside like the drivers side.

Rubber seal in place.

First time this side marker light has worked since owning the car. So nice.. then I realized the lense had to go on BEFORE I installed it!

The common theme and hate for the reproduction industry. $300 + US for signal light lenses and I still had to buy the correct gaskets from Detroit Muscle, as the (on the right) gaskets that came with them are junk.

New lenses in place. Need to work on the drivers side alignment when I have the nose off the car.

Rear splash shield to fender attach tabs broken off on the drivers side.

50 year old undercoating and a welder.. what could go wrong.....

Man I love this undercoated car....

 

[dadsbee]

Apologies to the folks in GA that build these ($5400 Cdn) POS... but 3 weeks out of warranty and putting me behind on the important stuff around here and a dealer that told me it was my problem. Yah... okay, guess he forgets we have 5 Kubotas of various sizes in the family, so we'll buy our parts from another independant dealer and advise anyone we can to do so as well! 2 days lost getting this thing running again, but I finally found the issue (needle loose in the float mount and not being pulled out of the seat) and was able to heat the float, reshape it and get the needle to not hang up in the seat. This all of course after tearing half the machine apart looking for **** that was too "obvious", ordering a fuel pump shipped overnight on amazon for an amazing $15, etc. I have spares now... lol

 

[kiwigtx]

Bad publicity spreads faster than the good stuff.

 

[dadsbee]

Replacing the upper control arm bump stops. I removed the nut while the suspension had the rubber clamped tight, then set the car onto the wheels to lift the UCA off of it for removal.

New bump stop in place and again lifted the car to clamp it in place, then install the nut.

OE bump stop nuts on left, generic not quite close on the right.

Good aim eh! Wasn't sure I really wanted to drain good, zinc rich oil from 1990!

(I wanted to know exactly how much came out, so I could put back the same amount.)

How to keep the mess off the K frame when pulling the filter.

Best thing the county ever gave me for my hard earned property tax dollars!

A shot for the filter crowd, didn't want any more BS over using a FRAM ! Ordered yesterday, here today off Amazon.ca. Can't buy Wix anywhere here..

Added 5 more gallons of gas and gauge looks about right.

Another 5 gallons and just shy of 3/4. No sender to tank seal leak either, bonus!

Received a used transmission pan from a fellow in Quebec. 50 years old and like NEW! Thanks for the GREAT part @moparcuda

 

[dadsbee]

New nose to fender seals that I have had for 29 years. Of course one was curled up backwards in the bag compared to the way it goes around the nose

I made the mistake 29 years ago when reinstalling the nose (that had no seal) to fight and install the thick part showing like a Daytona vs the thin section. I had never seen another Superbird back then and had no internet to browse for correctness.

A wheel trim ring works great at holding the seal out in the sun, to hopefully correct it's desire to curl the wrong way.

Off with the latch tray. Need to scuff and repaint in satin I believe, it's too glossy. More research...

Tray out, vacuum hoses disconnected and headlight wiring harness disconnnected.

"Bumper" mount bolts out to drop the nose and it went pretty well, until I got to the end of the wiring harness... as I'd forgot to unbolt the ground wires.

Nose off successfully. Some year I'll learn to ask for help.

Nose off and what is left.

Whom every painted it Yellow back in the '80's ran the vacuum llnes through the radiator support hole, along with the wiring harness, like would have been done on a Charger 500. Daytona's and Birds vacuum lines went OVER the radiator support. Still researching the correct wiring location.

Incorrect ('69) battery tray removed and vacuum canister looks mint.

 

[The Rebel]

Nice job Wayne! You sure you're not going to do a full blown restoration?

 

[BB BELLA]

It's just getting Wayne's common every inch inspection! then the complimentary every new OE piece I can find replacement!

 

[dadsbee]

LOL guys.... with a wedding in 12 weeks I don't have time for another restoration, nor would it add any real resale value to the car. If I want one of these in concours condition I'll sell this one and buy someone else's hard work and $$$'s for a few grand upgrade.

 

[dadsbee]

Radiator support to K frame seal that I have had since 1990 and never installed. Don't think I will this round either, as it will restrict maintenance access (oil filter etc) and possibly cooling air flow.

Original Year One box for the lower K frame seal.

Shot for "history" to show my fenders front edges aren't beat to hell to fit the nose like others I've seen.

Marker light wiring all pulled out, so I can reposition the harness to above the radiator support.

Where the vacuum lines and wiring harness belong. Note the two special holes for a retainer.

More "history". Dual engine vacuum port for brake booster and headlight doors.

Correct brake vacuum booster fitting. Clamp is questionable.

OE vacuum lines. Black, black with yellow stripe, black with green stripe and the main vacuum hose has two white stripes.

Sorting out the mess, vacuum lines were originally up on the inner fender, until they hit the battery area.

Joys of a previous restoration! Extra vacuum hose to clean this one up as well... at no extra cost.

 

[dadsbee]

Piss off of the day, forgot I got stiffed for a "correct as OE reproduction" positive battery cable from dodgerken, 5 years ago.

Need to go through my Bee paperwork and see whom I bought it's cables from, as they were perfect and not this pile of crap ! (Brewers Performance of all places.. a transmission specialist!!!..and theirs' were spot on!)

Great stuff eh... should last one good hard crank.

The head scratcher is... he shipped this fairly proper negative cable!

5 years ago I bought this rarity for 10 bucks shipped. Correct radiator support vacuum hose retainer clip.

Figured I had to sand out the paint humps anyhow for the new coolant decal and had a glimmer of hope with a guys car a few VIN's off mine having a stamped partial VIN on top.

Amazing what you can see if you want to... but unfortunately the "1's " were just shrinker teeth marks from a body repair. Oh well, smoothed out and clear coated, ready for decal installation.

Be careful of what you lean on... on an old car!

We can fix that, but don't forget that glycol is flammable ! Lost an Uncle to cutting an, empty, 45 gallon glycol drum in half.

Old tricks, from the Tremclad days and the daily newspaper.

 

[dadsbee]

A LOT easier to work on this thing with no nose on the car!

Horn removed. Noting it was never correct anyhow, it's for a '71 and up.

Correct long armed horns on the left for '69/'70 and short, threaded, arms on the right for '71 and up.

 

[The Rebel]

Coming along nicely Wayne! Once this is all done looks like you might be selling some left over parts to bump up the old bank account.

 

[dadsbee]

Found that one of each arm length horn had a date code and the others marked 12V. Suggests OE assembly line horns got a date code and OEM replacements did not and were marked 12V (also probably 6V) for aftermarket use.

Best long arm attached to the new horn, which I think is a repainted Jeep horn from '65, with it's "065" date code. It'll do for now and I'll rebuild the "259" horn for correctness at a later date.

Vacuum tested the headlight pods to make sure I had no leaks, up or down.

Could be why it's thrown a belt or two over time. Alternator is 3/8" too far back.

The song "ONE THING.. LEADS TO ANOTHER" ringing though my head. Alternator is out of the way, I may as well do that vapour separator and use that 1/4" return line I cleaned out.

On the shelf and ready to go, bought from Jeff Brown 4 years ago... with correct restricted return orifice, etc.

Dry charged, not filled, correct red cap 27 series acid battery that I've had on the shelf for 29 years. Thinking she's gonna get gutted and have an Odyssey AGM stuffed inside!

Just keep grabbing stuff off the shelf...

Hood to radiator support seal in place.

I bought this $$ moulded hood pad well over 4 years ago. Seller wouldn't ship to Canada so I had a fishing buddy, from Thunder Bay, and his wife that were nice enough to drive to Duluth MN to pick it up and then resend to me.

 

[dadsbee]

Expensive and "correct", yet shipped with cheap plastic retainers.

I had to buy the correct metal pad retainers separately from these guys. www.rjlautofasteners.com

The pad is as dusty and easy to tear as those cheap yellow insulation drop ceiling panels. I gave it a mist of Tremclad clear to try and "mat" the fibers together.

Both sides sprayed and we'll see how it looks tomorrow.

 

[71dodgechargerrt]

Wayne looks like things are coming along, we are heading to Carlisle in 18 days if you have anything small you need I can get it back to Midlland for you.

 

[rich hourigan]

Wayne, im really enjoying seeing your bird getting ready, fantastic job... I love the originality and your attention to detail.... i'll keep reading and watching... thanks for documenting your car along the way...Rich