Oh baby...what have they done to you?

Hey Guys,

Nothing big to report but I'm going to just rant for a bit. Admittedly I'm only doing it here as we are brothers in Mopar arms.

Long story long, I purchased a '69 Road Runner back in 2012. Pretty much a plain jane job. Manual everything, nothing special. However it's my 1st B body (only owned A and C bodies before) and I've always wanted one so I was stoked

Now I understand these cars are approaching 50 years old at this point, and in some cases, older depending on your model year. But I swear...whoever put mine together..or should I say whomever worked on 'her' as I call her, over the years has done some of the most Mickey moused, jury rigged, finger f**ked work I've ever seen.

Some of you probably saw some of my earlier posts of welding in driver side floor pan section. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. So far, I have found the following:

There were no locking rods from the door locks to the door latches.
An A body radio installed.
An aftermarket dash speaker was installed which had a HUGE magnet coil on it. Which in turn was fouling up the already less than steller Defost/Heat/Temp cables.
The fuel filter was in backward.
Engine had small block pullys on it...and it's a big block.
About 1/2 the bolts where missing that attach the inner apron to the fenders.
She had '64 side stop hood bumpers on her.

I noticed that fan belt was being dug into by the alt bolt a few years back and upon investigation I found THIS item installed as a 'spacer' behind the alt.


Also had to pull the heads this summer as I had an idle issue I could not resolve. Found one of the heads had a crack in it and that...get this...the valve springs had 100 pounds of seat pressure. And these springs were being used with an aftermarket performance cam!

Tonight I went to put some new rear shocks on her and I found this lovely item in the cross frame:


I suspect the crack was created due to the fact that these bolts were use to hold the upper shocks in place. Sorry for the crappy photo but yes, there are two different length bolts with 2 different types of threads:


I theorize, that since one of the bolts wasn't tightened all the way, the upper shock bolt was moving and flexing around which in turn looks like it was flexing the frame and created the crack as the crack is smack dab in the middle of the frame. Obviously it's not the end of the world as I can and will weld it up.

I swear...right now I just want to just throttle the dim bulbs that worked on 'her'. They didn't even think about doing a job right at the least or just flat *** didn't know WTF they were doing. In any event, she's in good hands now but oy...what a handful....

Thanks for your time.
FS32

Yikes! Sounds like you bought a handful. Good thing she's in capable hands now. Keep us posted on your progress with her. A rants okay as they're cathartic.

Sounds like my car, the previous owner jerry rigged too many things.

Well, hate to see these kinds of things happen to good cars. FYI, that crack in the cross member is typical of having had air shocks (at one time). That piece was never designed to support the car's weight and will crack like that when coil spring (overload) shocks or air shocks are used to jack up the rear for that cool hot rod look.
Let's see some nice pics of the car. I love those big block stripper cars, they mean business.

Some things never change. Crap like that was being done to them when they were only a few years old! At least you saw less of it when they were still fairly new but it was just mind so boggling to see it back then.....now a days, I expect to see it.

Sorry to hear about the "tweaks" you found in your car but I have to say you are lucky if everything else is ok. Those are mostly detail items that can be fixed, better than a bent frame, bondo covered rust, or other major problems you hear about all the time. Most of us respect these cars today and treat them very well but that was not the case back in the 60s to 80s. If the original owners didn't mess them up racing or modifying them, the second, third and fourth owners sure did - and they didn't care at all about using the "correct" factory parts.

Badvert65 said:

FYI, that crack in the cross member is typical of having had air shocks (at one time). That piece was never designed to support the car's weight and will crack like that when coil spring (overload) shocks or air shocks are used to jack up the rear for that cool hot rod look.

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Ahhh...thanks Badvert. I did not know that about the air shocks but it makes sense!

Yep. takes time to get stuff fixed and at some point if you're not doing a oem correct resto deciding which A/M part to use.

Yep, sad what some folks do. I chalk it up to kids or Chebby folk. Mine happened to be owned by a kid who did every stupid thing you can imagine to it, none correct.
As I always say, one thing at a time ... we'll make 'em right!

That first item IS supposed to go as a part of the alternator attachment on a non-air big block. I have a couple of those in my parts box from cars I've parted over the years. And since you had small block pulleys, that was the cause for the misalignment, not that "H"-shaped part.

Glad mine was a non messed with survivor. Just a little bondo in two places.

yep meeeee TOO. Hell mine is so original even the exhaust hangers are original.

patrick66 said:

That first item IS supposed to go as a part of the alternator attachment on a non-air big block. I have a couple of those in my parts box from cars I've parted over the years. And since you had small block pulleys, that was the cause for the misalignment, not that "H"-shaped part.

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Hmm... I've had two non-air 383's (this one and a '67 Chrysler) and neither of them had that part on it. What is the 2nd part of the "H" for?

Parts book lists it as "Fan belt idler puller bracket spacer" from the casting #

ODZKing said:

Parts book lists it as "Fan belt idler puller bracket spacer" from the casting #

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yep goes between idler & pump housing

Jeesh... I sure hope that lock ring works out.

68chicken said:

Jeesh... I sure hope that lock ring works out.

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?

cdr said:

yep goes between idler & pump housing

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I know which one that is..... "if I ever meet the idiot that designed this ..I'll....." yep that is the one.

Looks like about 200 miles of nefarious wiring under the dash on mine - that doesn't seem to go anywhere.

ODZKing said:

Parts book lists it as "Fan belt idler puller bracket spacer" from the casting #

Click to expand...

Ahh, thank you. So if what I see in the picture is correct, then it is a Mopar part however it has no use on my engine. First off, my engine doesn't have an idler. Secondly when Helen Keller was working on my car, he/she/it installed that item it behind the rear mounting ear of the alternator using it as a spacer. From what I see, that part doesn't not belong there!! Ultimately I resolved the issue by getting an alt spacer kit as even the spacer between the alt mounting ears was missing.