1970 Road Runner Restoration

October 2004

Going Off The Deep End

I have decided to disassemble the Road Runner and perform a restoration.  It will not be a concourse show car, it will be completely rebuilt and updated as necessary.  The whole project started out as just a fix up and paint but quickly snowballed into a full blown restoration.

Thanks To My Wife

I know that most people end a project by thanking the people that made their dream possible but I would like to start mine that way.  I want to thank my wife Julie for all her help, understanding, financial support, and pep talks.  We have been married for 25 years and believe it or not, we still like each other.  Thanks baby for everything!!!

THE TEARDOWN

DAY ONE THRU FIVE
 

           

           

           

           

           

       
 

DAY SIX

Today I wanted to mount the custom brackets which attach to the frame via the existing bumper mount holes.  The brackets have a plate at the bottom to mount pneumatic tires so the car can be moved around.  I bought the brackets from a guy on the Moparts.com website and the tires were purchased from Harbor Freight.  You can see from the photos below that they work quite well.

I also wanted to get the engine bay completely stripped of all components and hardware.  I did that as well as removed all the glass and internals from the doors and rear quarters.  The entire task was not too difficult but I will predict now that they will be a bitch to get back in.  Oh well that will be a problem to deal with later.

I did an overall walk around of the car to be sure I have everything removed so that it can be taken to the blaster.  I still need to remove the back window which should happen next week Monday (11/08).  I called in a professional to remove the window in hopes that it will come out in one piece.  With the exception of the windshield all the other glass should be reusable assuming I can find someone locally who can polish it.  I was going to just replace it all with reproduction stuff but decided to save some money and reuse what I had.  We will see what happens when and if I find a polisher.

After a few more details and with a little luck I will be taking the car to the blaster Thursday (11/11) so that they can strip it.  Then I can see what I have to work with once and for all.  I feel that I have a very solid foundation to work with but there could be some surprises after the blaster is done.  Another wait and see scenario.

 

           

           

           

Body & Paint Shop Decision

I have decided to use a local shop to do the body work and paint on this project.  The shop is Blue Mound Automotive and is ran by the owners Joe & Debbie Siefkas.  They are club members and really good people and came highly recommended by fellow club members.  Joe can be reached at 817-232-2261.

Dooms Day

Today I shall call "Dooms Day", I say that because today we found out that both quarter panels will have to be replaced.  This was something that I did not really expect and it took me by surprise.

It all started after the car was trailered from the hangar to the body shop.  Once there we proceeded to modify the rotisserie and mount the car.  It was kinda cool and kinda scary to see my car being flipped upside down.  Usually if your car is basically sitting on the roof it is considered a bad thing, but not today.

After some discussion we decided to check the quarter panels for hidden damage after seeing some suspicious repair work.  The left quarter was sanded down and what we found was alot of bondo and a quarter panel installed over another.  Whoever did this went to alot of effort to do it wrong.  Here is a photo of the quarter panel.

Next we ventured over to the right quarter panel to see what we expected to be a similar or same repair.  This side must have been done by the repairman's 5 year old son because it is a butcher job that has to be seen to believe.  This quarter was also installed over the existing quarter and god only knows what the bodyman was thinking.  Here is a photo of the crime.

Needless to say I have ordered two new quarter panels and I guarantee they will be installed correctly this time.

Next we loaded the rotisserie with the car mounted onto the trailer so we could take it to the media blaster.  I was very nervous about this load because the trailer was shorter than the rotisserie and had to stick out over the rear.  I am an over worrier and this almost put me over the edge.  I was assured all would be well and we were on our way to the blaster.  We made the entire trip and arrived without a hitch.  Here are some photos of the rotisserie/car on the trailer.

       

The car will be at the blaster for the next 5 days and then we will go pick it up and get it sealed so the bodywork can begin.

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