1970 Road Runner Restoration
BACK FROM BLASTING
The car is back from the blaster and now the truth is uncovered. The car was up Pennsylvania for 8 years or so before I bought it so I expected to find some surprises when all was said and done. The blaster did an amazing job of stripping all the paint, surface rust, and undercoating from the car. The metal looks like new for the most part as you can see in the photos below.
Now that we had the car back, we decided to cut off the quarter panels so we could get a good look at what was underneath. It did not take long to see the crime that had been committed. As suspected the newer quarters were installed directly over the factory quarters, rust and all. The damage was so bad that during the removal, the outer wheel wells basically disintegrated. The rust had been bad in this area and the previous owners did everything they could to cover it up. We found bondo that was 3/4" thick and about 3'-4' in length, we should have weighed the car first to see what the difference would be. The previous repairs were despicable to say the least and someone really deserves a beating. One thing is for sure, it will be repaired correctly this time.
With both quarter panels removed and the
damaged assessed, I made the list of new metal needed to get my bird back to it
glory days. I already had the new quarter and now I needed to order the
outer wheel wells, rear valance panel, and rear window filler panel. The
rear window filler panel had about 5 holes in it which were too larger to either
weld or replace metal so we are going with a new one.
Another surprise was the passenger side door which had several patch panels, some small holes on the side and top, and the inner edge was badly rusted. I have located a local yard that has a few so hopefully I will have a replacement soon.
Now that we have had some time to determine what needs to be replaced and what needs to be repaired and the new parts are on order, it is time to start repairing. Here are some before and after shots of the repair work done so far.
The rest of the reproduction metal arrived from Auto Body Specialties so we were able to get back to repairing my bird. I purchased the rear window filler panel, left & right outer wheel well tubs, and rear valance panel, and everything arrived in perfect condition and looked to be very nice units.
We have been very busy over the past week or so getting the outer wheel well tubs fitted and installed. The fit was decent but they did require some modification prior to being permanently installed. You have to expect some reworking on reproduction panels no matter where you get them. I am just happy that you can get reproduction parts versus looking for clean replacements from a donor car like we had to do not that many years ago.
Now that the wheel well tubs were installed, we focused on the rear window filler panel. These panels are notorious for rusting out and mine was no exception, although it was not really that bad. We probably could have repaired the old one but decided to just replace it. The fitment on this panel was excellent and needed no modification to install. We have only tack welded it in for the time being so that we could move on to bigger things like quarter panels.
The quarter panels were ordered from Goodmark Industries and are very nice. They had to be truck freight shipped to the body shop, which cost an additional $100. When the panels arrived we opened the container and found some damage to the upper areas of both panels. Not bad news for me since we needed to trim the tops off to install anyway. The panels were somewhat rippled and not as straight as I would have liked but for reproduction they were very nice.
Next the quarter panel installation areas were trimmed, as were the new skins and then they were test fitted. The fit looked good so we proceeded to permanently install them. Here are some photos of the panels, at this point they have been tack welded.
Here are a few photos of the quarter panels fully installed and already have a coat of mud on them. Soon they will be as smooth as glass.
Now that the holidays are over it is time to get back to work on the bird. Joe has been really going to town on the rear quarters, doors, roof, fenders, and rear window panel trying to get them super straight for painting. Here are some photos of the progress so far. The rear quarters and the roof has been blocked and sanded twice so far and now they are ready for the third time. We are shooting for as close to perfect as possible.
The last body panel that needed to be replaced was the Rear Crossmember which had some fairly serious corrosion. Instead of trying to repair the panel, I opted to just replace it. The replacement was purchased from Auto Body Specialties and in my opinion it is a much better and stronger part than the original. I was not at the shop during the removal of the Crossmember but I did get some photos of the finished product. It came out great.
The Road Runner has been at the body shop for 2 months and I am very happy with the progress. The car is definitely further along than I had expected and I think it looks great. I was talking with Joe about where we are and what comes next and he told me that he still has to block and sand the quarters again as well as the roof. After that he will finish the fenders, doors, and trunk lid.
The last item he will tackle will be the air grabber hood, it will need a fair bit of work because I want the underside of the hood to look as good as the top. My thought here is that when the car is on display at a show or wherever, the hood is usually open and the underside is what people see when they walk up to the car. I am sure I am being a bit anal here but I want it to be right and look good. Plus the voices in my head told me it is the right thing to do so I am going to go with it. Whether anyone actually really notices all this effort is yet to be determined. As they say, "The Devil Is In The Details". I have no idea who "They" actually are but they say it alot.
Here are a couple of overall shots of the car for your viewing pleasure.
