RebelRider
Well-Known Member
A little background before I get started.......
What I'm working with is a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. 383/727. I've owned the car since 1997. I drove the car to high-school until it spun a rod bearing. My dad and I refreshed the non-numbers matching 383 along with the TF 727. By this time, I had kind of strayed away from it and got into 4x4's. I've been stuck on them ever since. The Plymouth sat in the shop collecting dust. It turned into the same old story....." I plan to restore it ". In 2006 I actually had it pulled onto a trailer, ready to be hauled back to it's previous owner (my uncle). I got cold feet at the last minute and backed out on the deal. I backed it off of the trailer and back into the shop it went. My uncle was not upset. Again, the car sat.
Fast forward to present. I'm getting a little burnt out on the 4X4 scene. I'm not selling out, but just taking a break. My wife has been asking me for quite some time when she will get to ride it in again. I brought her on our first date in this car and she has always loved it. We will look past the fact that it left us stranded on that date. So the car has been pulled out and the dust has been blown off.
The intentions for this project.....
As mentioned before, this is not a numbers matching car. I do not plan to cut this car up with big slicks or anything like that but will not be an OEM build either. Even though I have owned this car for quite some time, I'm not really familiar with old Mopars. Instead of starting numerous threads for questions I have, I hope everyone can help me along the way using this thread. The first thing I will be working on is getting the 383 running right so I can move it around.
I started with the carb (770cfm Holley) by rebuilding it. I had started another thread because I could not get the carb to feed any fuel. Everyone was very helpful, but turns out I had the metering blocks switched around. I got this carb used, and I figure they were swapped around when I got it. We all know this probably isn't true, but that's what I'm telling myself. After fixing my dumb mistake, I got the car running, but poorly. I've about got it narrowed down to the outdated points and condensers. Years ago we had picked up the parts to switch it over the electronic ignition at a swap meet. I went to put the electronic distributor in just to find it being too tall? I figured I could swap the shaft from my points distributor and be good to go. So while tearing it down I noticed the weights were oriented opposite from the new distributor. So I jump on this forum and find out I have a small block distributor. So at this point, all I have is the new harness to swap it over. I don't have the orange box either. I've decided to just go with the PerTronix kit and be done with it. I'm also toying with the idea of doing a 4 spd swap.
The next step will be addressing the rust. It's a fairly solid car besides the trunk pans and under the top. I plan to put a roof skin, trunk pans and both rear quarters on it from AMD. I will be going back with the Purple as well.
This is where I am now, and any constructive criticism is welcome.
Pictures to come........
What I'm working with is a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. 383/727. I've owned the car since 1997. I drove the car to high-school until it spun a rod bearing. My dad and I refreshed the non-numbers matching 383 along with the TF 727. By this time, I had kind of strayed away from it and got into 4x4's. I've been stuck on them ever since. The Plymouth sat in the shop collecting dust. It turned into the same old story....." I plan to restore it ". In 2006 I actually had it pulled onto a trailer, ready to be hauled back to it's previous owner (my uncle). I got cold feet at the last minute and backed out on the deal. I backed it off of the trailer and back into the shop it went. My uncle was not upset. Again, the car sat.
Fast forward to present. I'm getting a little burnt out on the 4X4 scene. I'm not selling out, but just taking a break. My wife has been asking me for quite some time when she will get to ride it in again. I brought her on our first date in this car and she has always loved it. We will look past the fact that it left us stranded on that date. So the car has been pulled out and the dust has been blown off.
The intentions for this project.....
As mentioned before, this is not a numbers matching car. I do not plan to cut this car up with big slicks or anything like that but will not be an OEM build either. Even though I have owned this car for quite some time, I'm not really familiar with old Mopars. Instead of starting numerous threads for questions I have, I hope everyone can help me along the way using this thread. The first thing I will be working on is getting the 383 running right so I can move it around.
I started with the carb (770cfm Holley) by rebuilding it. I had started another thread because I could not get the carb to feed any fuel. Everyone was very helpful, but turns out I had the metering blocks switched around. I got this carb used, and I figure they were swapped around when I got it. We all know this probably isn't true, but that's what I'm telling myself. After fixing my dumb mistake, I got the car running, but poorly. I've about got it narrowed down to the outdated points and condensers. Years ago we had picked up the parts to switch it over the electronic ignition at a swap meet. I went to put the electronic distributor in just to find it being too tall? I figured I could swap the shaft from my points distributor and be good to go. So while tearing it down I noticed the weights were oriented opposite from the new distributor. So I jump on this forum and find out I have a small block distributor. So at this point, all I have is the new harness to swap it over. I don't have the orange box either. I've decided to just go with the PerTronix kit and be done with it. I'm also toying with the idea of doing a 4 spd swap.
The next step will be addressing the rust. It's a fairly solid car besides the trunk pans and under the top. I plan to put a roof skin, trunk pans and both rear quarters on it from AMD. I will be going back with the Purple as well.
This is where I am now, and any constructive criticism is welcome.
Pictures to come........
