1970 Roadrunner Build

[Phillipkj4]

As I have been working on the 69 I got a tip on a 70 for sale. I like the 70's so I said why not, everyone needs two major projects in the wings right?
Much cooler story with this one than the 69. Original Owner, everything there except carb and air cleaner. Had been parked since 1988 under a shed. Same old story I will restore it one day and then he sold his property moved and now did not have somewhere to store it. Left it at a friends place and one night someone broke the grill, when he checked it out someone had stolen the carb and air cleaner. That made him decide to sell it. He and I talked about it and he wanted more than I wanted to pay for a second one needing that much work. After some negotiating we came to an agreeable sum and it is getting delivered in the morning. Appears to be original paint, has some touch up work on the pass qtr. He had the seats recovered one time in the 80's. He and a friend had some pretty good stories about how fast the car was and how he totaled a 69 RR and got this the next week. I want a car I do not mind leaving outside and this one may serve that purpose, the 69 will be full treatment so maybe after it is done this one will get a full resto. Plan on getting it road worthy and fixing rust while leaving as much OG metal as possible. He had to file for another title but said he would keep looking for the original title which would be very cool. Wet spot on the hood is CLR to see what it draws out as it bleaches overnight. Tow bar comes with it.

Thanks so far for the encouragement and expertise on the 69. It has helped and I will hopefully not have as many questions on this one.

Phillip

 

[usaroadrunner]

sweet, its to much work to do 2 of them so i will take the 70 off your hands for ya. lol

 

[Phillipkj4]

sweet, its to much work to do 2 of them so i will take the 70 off your hands for ya. lol

That would put you with two, don't want you overwhelmed either!

 

[mr. b]

nice find keep us posted

 

[usaroadrunner]

naw, thats ok i can take it. lol

 

[daytona kid]

I had one just like this one, except mine was a 4spd.. Good find!

 

[Phillipkj4]

Thanks for all the compliments.
Got it home. Will be ordering skins for the quarters for this one. Have to deal with getting keys. Some parts are very solid, qtr's are the worst which I knew prior. Trunk floor will most likely need a new pan, I can see from underneath it is rusted at the rear crossmember.Bought a used center grille at a swap meet this weekend in about the same shape as the two sides. Cleaned it up and gave it a clr bath to see if it would bleach out and show the primer better.

 

[Phillipkj4]

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Spent this morning playing with the buffer so it at least shines in certain parts. I wanted to see it shine good to see if it is a metallic paint.
I took the steering wheel off and removed the ignition lock assembly so I can have keys made. Made a shim to hold the steering lock off the wheel until then so I can at least move it now. One project in the driveway did not bother anyone, two may and I may be doing mechanical and interior for a while so it may not change how it looks until I put the quarters on.

 

[Phillipkj4]

Been trying to clean out the inside of the car. Pulled the rear seat last night and finally laid eyes on the trunk. It was packed to nearly the top with car parts. I could see a few air cleaners headers a couple of heads so I thought I might luck up. Since it was dark and I am certain there are still inhabitants in it I delayed until this morning making the trek to the trunk latch. I had to spray to deal with a fire ant bed in the trunk then I slid about half way in and used about 3 feet of extensions to pull the latch off. I told my son as we were about to start that "You really have to like playing with cars to do this". Our two German Shepherds were going nuts on the scent of I assume the resident rodent. We were able to open the trunk for the first time in plenty of years. Once open all hopes of rare and mint parts was over, there were two 360 air cleaners both were rusted severely. No clue what the heads go to and the headers seemed to be new as the mounting hardware and instructions were what was left of a plastic bag. There was a ton of maintenance parts that are useless so I was able to clean the trunk out.

I knew a pan was at least needed but I will be shocked if the pass rear rail does not need to be replaced, it sounded solid and had paint on the outside but the pan has holes right over it so I will address once I pull the pan. Other than that the wheels wells are solid, trunk hinges all solid and the drop offs are actually nice, they may be able to be saved.

I have been focused on prepping the motor to run.Not sure if I stated before but this is the original engine to the car. I pulled the intake and started cleaning everything up.The oil is in very good shape, tranny fluid is very clean and there is no rust showing anywhere, plugs looked better than some cars I have driven recently, I have it sitting in mystery oil with the plugs out and will hand turn it tomorrow. Guy said he cranked it often so there may be hope. I have a carb and other parts inbound so we will see.

I ordered seat covers and some other parts before I start tearing into the metal. As much as I want to save OG metal, full quarters are easier to install than skins so I will have to wait and see how I feel later. I have someone begging me to sell it to them but I want to see this one through. The front end has really grown on me.

 

[Habib]

Are you just going to repair the rust? Or tear the Car all down?

 

[Phillipkj4]

Are you just going to repair the rust? Or tear the Car all down?

For now repair the rust and make it a driver. I have a 69 that is getting the full ride. After it is done I will go back into this one.

 

[Phillipkj4]

Hoping some parts come in today. Let the engine soak a few days in Mystery oil, turned over by hand great so there may be hope. Expected to pull the intake and see rust but looks pretty good down there.

 

[Phillipkj4]

So it looks better at night :^).

I know this is the wrong Air cleaner but I like this version and will run it while I search for the correct one. I bought a carb but it will not mount to my intake so I am stuck for a minute until I track one down. Did some wiring and swapped the ignition switch to one with a key, so it at least spins the starter when you turn the key.

 

[Phillipkj4]

Although this one is on the backburner while I finish metal work the seat covers came in today. These look very nice so excited to see how they look in the car with all that green.

 

[Phillipkj4]

Going to focus on the 70 a little over the next few weeks. Went and looked at a running 70 Superbee to try and satisfy the need to drive one while one is restored itch and just figured why not get this one going instead of having three in the driveway in need of serious work.

I have been fighting with trying to get the engine to run and have made no progress. Was getting a weak spark so tossed the original distributor for a new electronic distributor. Thought I had #1 set but apparently not ,even though you can spin this distributor about half a turn, the engine is not firing correctly. Getting backfires and such but nothing that feels like it remotely wants to start.

 

[440jimr]

Might be a timing chain issue?

 

[Photon440]

If all you had was a weak spark, I'd have changed the coil first. Now it sounds like the new distributor is 180 out. Hope you get it figured...

 

[Phillipkj4]

If all you had was a weak spark, I'd have changed the coil first. Now it sounds like the new distributor is 180 out. Hope you get it figured...

Yeah I actually changed all that with the original distributor in place. The new one was set up the same.. update, the old one was in 180 off as well. Got TDC on #1 with valve cover off and set #1. That said still nothing. Cold checked a couple cylinders (did not pull all plugs it was getting late) and they are at 100psi.

Will tinker some more but it most likely is getting a trip to the builder.

 

[Phillipkj4]

It's alive, No way it was running when parked with the distributor out 180, but went back through everything spun it without plugs let it sit all day (was flooded of course), put new plugs in turned and bam (fire in carb). Backed away, moved timing back a touch and back to life she roared, last tag was in 88. Aside from noisy valves sounds good.

 

[usaroadrunner]

Awesome, another mopar soon to be on the road again. Very nice.