1972 Roadrunner Restoration

[Charger72]

What a beauty. Do you have a cover for it? I'm stalled with my assembly with winter here and a single car garage and no cover. Afraid I am going to scratch my fresh paint job.

 

[plymouthman72]

What a beauty. Do you have a cover for it? I'm stalled with my assembly with winter here and a single car garage and no cover. Afraid I am going to scratch my fresh paint job.

I don't have a cover for it yet but that is on my short list to do. Until then, I just look at it in the garage. lol

 

[Robliepse]

Does anyone know if all 71 - 72 Roadrunners left the factory with the wheel molding? I think i read that somewhere but I'm not sure and I don't recall where I read that.

 

[plymouthman72]

I don't believe they did. I think it was a higher end option. My car did have a repaint late in the eighties but I never saw any holes drilled for them as mine was a bare bones car.

 

[Robliepse]

it only took 5+ months but the repaint is finished and she's back in my garage for reassembly. The paint shop took care of the issue and all is well.

 

[moparnation74]

Very Nice!

 

[72Rdrnner]

No I didn't, it looks to be a small clip of some sort. I will do some more research to see what I can find.

I restored my one owner (me) '72 Beeper so pretty familiar with the parts since I tore the entire car apart. Not sure but think those "clips" might be the "locks" that hold the wiper arms on the shaft.

 

[plymouthman72]

That's beautiful!

 

[plymouthman72]

I can not believe its been a year since I posted last. I had been working on the car slowly putting it back together piece by piece and it was going very well until I broke my leg in August. It turns out I am not very good at softball and while running for the ball I tripped forward on the turf breaking my fibula & tibia as well as completely tearing my LCL & ACL (from the bone too). Needless to say, recovery has put the car on hold and I am just now getting back to tinkering out in the garage. It's so hard knowing I have the parts to finish it but not able to go out there and work on it.

I will post more detailed information on each part of the reassembly process this weekend but here are a couple of pics showing its current state.

The back panels are just loosely put in right now and they line up much better than the pictures show.

 

[ddpsnake]

O my a hairy leg,lol nice work for sure.Working on that sweet ride is great rehabilitation bin there done that.

 

[plymouthman72]

O my a hairy leg,lol nice work for sure.Working on that sweet ride is great rehabilitation bin there done that.

Good call, I deleted the last picture so no more hairy leg. haha

 

[moparnation74]

Brian

Glad you recovered well and your back at the bird finally!

 

[3white74]

The wiper arm issue is a missing clip.....it goes on a small stud with a clip.... ebody is the same I believe...I think r/t specialties can help you with a clip....they are. Small little suckers!!!! Easy to lose

 

[72RR4SPeed]

I can not believe its been a year since I posted last. I had been working on the car slowly putting it back together piece by piece and it was going very well until I broke my leg in August. It turns out I am not very good at softball and while running for the ball I tripped forward on the turf breaking my fibula & tibia as well as completely tearing my LCL & ACL (from the bone too). Needless to say, recovery has put the car on hold and I am just now getting back to tinkering out in the garage. It's so hard knowing I have the parts to finish it but not able to go out there and work on it.

I will post more detailed information on each part of the reassembly process this weekend but here are a couple of pics showing its current state.

The back panels are just loosely put in right now and they line up much better than the pictures show.

View attachment 700118 View attachment 700117 View attachment 700120 View attachment 700119

Sorry to hear about your accident, sometimes life throws you a curveball! Car is really comming out awesome, you will have something to be proud of! A friend of mine has pretty much the same car 340 Roadrunner, same color. The great thing about the 71 & 72 Birds is there aren't many so people get a kick out of seeing them. Mine is still in the body shop, will see paint sometime this spring. They do insurance work too so they work on it when they have time but thier work is very good and reasonable. Did you buy new door panels?

 

[plymouthman72]

Sorry to hear about your accident, sometimes life throws you a curveball! Car is really comming out awesome, you will have something to be proud of! A friend of mine has pretty much the same car 340 Roadrunner, same color. The great thing about the 71 & 72 Birds is there aren't many so people get a kick out of seeing them. Mine is still in the body shop, will see paint sometime this spring. They do insurance work too so they work on it when they have time but thier work is very good and reasonable. Did you buy new door panels?

Thank you for the kind words! I reused the bottom door panels but I bought new uppers from Year One. I had to attach them to the metal frame and had to get new fuzzies but it turned out nice. I bought the "deluxe" set and in hindsight, I probably would have bought the original plain black style with the vertical ribbons just to be "original". I went with these because I though it would look good with all the other wood grain style in the car. I can always do that in the future though if I change my mind.

 

[gibber]

I just found this thread and read about thinking about you giving up when you found so much body work. Certainly glad you stuck with it as the car looks absolutely stunning.

So I had almost the exact same car, 72 EV2 RR, 400, Slap stick auto. Bought it already restored with 44K actual miles. Loved the car but it was so nice I was afraid to drive it. Stupid. My wife told me not to sell it but did I listen, Unfortunately no...

Sold it in 2012 to a guy in CA, we lived in PHX at the time. Hadn't heard anything more about the car till 6 months or so ago....you can see why I am sick....so cherish that car please! The guy I sold it to sold it to a buddy in Northern CA last year....and then...gone....

I now have a 65K all original 72 SSP, such a huge fan of these fuselage body style Mopars...

Mark

 

[72Rdrnner]

Did the same thing...except I bought the car new, had it ever since. Daily driver until 1989...parked & pickled, started resto in 2003, finished 2007. Did all of it in my garage with the help of a good buddy. A few random images...out of several thousand pictures I took. Process was made easier that what you are dealing with because (1) I had owned the car since day one so all the original parts were there. (2) was no body rust as car was Ziebarted. Had a garage with a two post lift, built a paint booth around it. Wasted a lot of paint, and drank a lot of beer...but worth the effort.

 

[72Rdrnner]

Follow up on "Now" pix......

 

[csilko]

Wow, great build so far, and great thread detailing it all. I have had a 72 RR/GTX that I inherited sitting around for a few years and I am trying to dig into it more. I am bascially where you were on page 1, post number 3, LOL. I pretty much have it stripped to the frame and am simultaneously working on the suspension while narrowing down options for a blasting/body/paint shop to do their part. My car looks similiar to yours in many ways - not too much rust showing from the outside - but I am praying that the sandblasting doesn't reveal to many more deeply expensive body issues. I know it needs quarters, fenders, floor panel, and we have to do something with all the rust on the firewall and cowl area - there was a huge squirrel next in the air mixer compartment, and it looks like that nest held water there to rust out that part of the upper cowl. Here's how I got the car...

 

[csilko]

It's been a few years, but I have been working on it pretty recently and here is where it is now, with the bad rust spots highlighted. It seems the frame is in pretty good shape, and in addition to the quarter/fender work I will have to look at options for this other rust.