1970 Road Runner Restoration
The Bird Is Green Again
Over the past few weeks Joe has been hard at work getting the birds body ready for paint. I went out of town for a week and when I returned I decided to visit my car and got a big surprise. I walked in to the paint booth and my bird was green, green everywhere and it looked great. I was not expecting the car to be painted for about another week so you can imagine how surprised I actually was. Joe busted his butt and I have one beautiful paint job to prove it.
The next step in the process is wait,
wait for the paint to cure and harden before the real fun begins. The
sanding and buffing is yet to come and it will really make this bird look
awesome.
I will post some after photos in the next couple of weeks but for now here are
some photos of the "Bird In Green".
Component Restoration Updates
Meanwhile I have been
working on all the components and such so that when I get the car back, I can
start the reassembly. Most of the components have been farmed out to
restoration shops or vendors across the US and Canada.
I sent the heater box, drivers side vent box, 4 speed pedals, emergency brake,
rearview mirror, and steering column to SMS restorations in Pennsylvania.
I sent the parts off back in November and I just received them back and as you
can see below they are beautiful.
They can be contacted at 1-800-989-6660.
The heater control unit, ashtray, and AM radio was sent to Performance Graphics
in Florida back in December and I have received an email letting me know they
are working on them so I should be getting them back soon.
They can be contacted at 1-850-878-1450.
I sent to Hurst and have
already received back the shifter mechanism. They did an awesome job and
it looks like new, I highly recommend Hurst for your rebuild.
They can be contacted at
216-688-8300 EXT. 500
Hurst Performance
Shifter Rebuild Service
550 Mallory Way
Carson City, NV 89701
The engine and transmission was shipped off to a local guy (Les Adams) to be
completely torn apart, cleaned, machine, and reassembled. I have already
got the transmission back and now it just needs a coat or two of paint. I
should get the engine back sometime in March.
I decided that since the
stock glass was so scratched and in some areas of the rear window, it was gouged
badly, I would just replace all the glass with new stuff. Trying to find
NOS was almost impossible and a rear window would be a miracle in itself.
A good friend of mine (Bernie) gave me the contact info for Pilkington Classics
located in Ohio and I called them to place an order. I was able to buy the
vents, doors, quarters, windshield, and rear glass all from one place. I
received the glass last week and it all looks great. The only downside, if
you want to view it that way, is that it does not have the Chrysler logo
anywhere on the glass due to trademark restrictions. I honestly could care
less if it has correct date codes or logos anyway so I am a happy camper.
I am going to keep all the original glass incase I sell it in the future and the
new owner wants the date coded glass.
They can be contacted at 1-800-848-1351 and ask for Randy.
I ordered a stage 3
steering box from Firm Feel in Washington. I don't like the feeling of the
stock power steering as it has no road feel and can be literally turned using
one finger. I wanted to get the road feel sorta like manual steering but
wanted to retain the power steering setup. The compromise is the Firm Feel
boxes which offer stiffness levels equal to or greater than cop car boxes.
It should give me the road feel I desire but I won't know for sure until it is
drivable again.
They can be contacted at 1-800-347-6426.
The dash rallye panels
and arm rest base plates were sent to CV Vacuum Platers in Canada to be
stripped, rechromed, painted, and detailed. I received everything back so
far but the radio bezel which appears to have been misplaced in the process.
When I received the order minus the radio bezel I called the company to get the
story on the missing piece. I talked to the owner and he told me that he
needed to investigate it and he would call me back. The good news is that
they have located the bezel and I should receive it in the next 2-3 weeks.
You gotta love a company that treats customers well and knows customer service.
They can be contacted at
1-877-763-2323.
Another item on the list
was the stainless trim and I can tell you there is a bunch. I never
realized how much of the trim is stainless, I believe I counted 35 pieces total
which included the grille pieces. I am very lucky because the polisher
(Sessums Polishing in Burleson) I chose is within driving distance and also well
known for doing high quality work. I have seen some of his finished work
and it looks like chrome when they are done. It should be ready for
pick-up sometime in April.
Contact Richard Sessums at 817-426-0939.
The chrome pieces were
sent to Paul's Chrome Plating in Pennsylvania. They are expensive and I
was pretty apprehensive about dropping that amount of coin for show type chrome
but on the advice of my wife I took the plunge. I can say that the
finished product is beyond awesome and the turn time was very fast. I
failed to take photos of the completed stuff but take my work for it, the stuff
is nice.
They can be contacted at 1-800-245-8679.
I would also like to take
this opportunity to mention Main Street Powdercoating located right here in Fort
Worth for doing such a great job and being very reasonable on their pricing.
Aubrey and the guys did somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 parts including my
dash assembly and they all turned out great, I highly recommend them.
Contact Aubrey at 817-822-5164 and tell him I sent you, he may give you a
discount or maybe charge you double, I dunno.
Yet another lucky break for me has been getting in contact Eric from Ohio who does plating of all sorts. I sent him a few pieces at first to see the quality of his work. I can tell you that it is "Top Notch" quality and since he did such a good job on the first parts, I sent him about 200 additional parts to have refinished. You can see from the photo below, the stuff comes out very nice. I have jumped off the deep end on this restoration so why skimp now. If you are interested in contacting Eric for some plating his email is 3404@comcast.net. He is also a Moparts.com member and his user ID is 3404 if you want to get some additional feedback from other customers. If you use him you will not be disappointed.
Since the 90% of the
interior is going to be either refinished or replaced I took a close look at the
seat belts and decided they needed some help. This is another item that I
was surprised to find out is very expensive to have restored. I sent the
whole set of belts off to Ssnake-Oyl in Tyler, Texas to be rewebbed, rechromed,
and repainted. The process takes only about 6 weeks and I expect to have
them back sometime in April. Be sure you are sitting down if you call them
for a price quote, smelling salts should also be considered.
They can be contacted at 1-800-284-7777.
I don't know if any of
you have ever heard of Rock Auto located in Wisconsin, I never had but I can now
say I would highly recommend them. I did a search on their website for
Moog front end components and was surprised to find their prices more than
reasonable and everything was in stock. I decided to order everything
needed to rebuild the front end and I am completely satisfied with their sales
and service. I placed my order on Sunday and received it by the following
Thursday, great prices and fast shipping too.
They can be contacted at www.rockauto.com.