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Saved another one

harleydodge1

harleydodge1

Active Member
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Jun 23, 2013
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Location
alabama
Got this one in April and finished it up last weekend. It's a 73 true Roadrunner. It was a 318 car but now has a nice 440 in it.
I did everything myself except the body work. I could have done that but I wanted it on the road this summer. I did it on the weekends and spare time. I really like looking at the cars that people take years to get everything just like the factory had it but that is just not me. I would be sacred to drive it if it was that nice.
This one I just wanted it to look mostly factory without all the hassle to make sure each part and bolt is correct.
It was a very solid car with just a little rust in the rear lower quarters. I had a friend of mines body shop do the body work and give it back to me ready to paint. Saved me about 4 weeks work.
I moved the rear bumper in about 1" and up about 3/4" so I could do away with the filler pieces. I painted it in my home paint booth. Replaced the front seat upholstery ( the rear was nice), carpet, headliner, redid the dash and replaced other parts that needed replaced.
I know every one likes pics so here are some of the work. What ya think?













 
Great save....I love it.:thumbsup:
 
love the rear bumper moved in,did you cut the brackets?i am looking at doing the same thing on the 74 i just picked up.
 
Ya Blue I just cut the brackets and welded them back together. Pretty simple.
 
looks pretty good to me! and I share the same philosophy re' driver vs trailer queen quality.

too many other toys that also require funds.
 
Looks great! I do think you guys who move the bumper ends are insane though. It looks different, but that gap is there for a reason and it's to keep you from turning a $0 bumper impact into hundreds of dollars of bodywork when that clipped bumper gets pushed into a quarter panel. :(
 
Thanks for the replies. Hemi I know not everyone likes these stripes but I have always thought that the look great on these cars and the Dart Sports. I may be a little bias because my first car I ever bought was a 73 Dart Sport with that stripe. The last car I built before this one was a clone of my 73 Dart. That is one reason I painted this car red so it would resemble my Dart.
As far as the bumper goes Bru there is no such thing as a $0 bumper impact. If you hit it hard enough to hit the quarter with all the bracing in the bumper you will have other problems.
Not trying to sound sour on your comments just some reasoning behind the thought. I like all comments good or bad and do think about what is said. So give some more!
Here is a pic of my Dart that I traded for this Roadrunner. It is a clone of my old high school car. Now you can see why I like these stripes.
100_4825.jpg
 
harleydodge1 said:
As far as the bumper goes Bru there is no such thing as a $0 bumper impact. If you hit it hard enough to hit the quarter with all the bracing in the bumper you will have other problems.
Not trying to sound sour on your comments just some reasoning behind the thought.
View attachment 360953
Click to expand...

That's a negative Ghostrider and I know from experience on both sides of the debate. :) I saw a 73 that had this done get backed into at a Mid-Atlantic Mopars show in 1992. It got hit on the passenger side of the bumper by another owner who was backing out from his spot. The impact bent the edge of the quarter and actually wrinkled it several inches in.

Now go back to 1985. I'm backing out of a parking spot on a one-way street in Virginia Beach in my stock bumper 73 Roadrunner and get struck on the driver's side of the bumper by a VERY drunk idiot going the wrong way on the street in a Honda Civic. The Civic's front-passenger fender is major league crunched and the bumper split the entire passenger side of the car open like a big can opener went through it, so there was a lot of energy transfer. The damage to my car was limited to the bumper being pushed in 1/4" on the driver's side and the chrome had some scratches on it.

The bottom line is the spacing between the bumper and the body is there to give the energy from any impact space to dissipate and be disseminated before reaching the body panels. The energy that was able to push that bumper in 1/4" was easily dissipated by the space and bracing with zero damage to my quarters, which is exactly what the design was meant to do. Donnie's damage resulted when his bumper was hit with far less energy transfer, but it was enough to momentarily make the bumper contact the quarter and transfer all the remaining energy into flimsy sheetmetal.

You can feel free to sour on the comments, but it doesn't change the science. I really hope your car never gets bumped, but I promise I won't hold it against you when you post that you're pissed because some soccer mom tapped your bumper and now your quarter is ruined. :)
 
Last edited:
Can not argue with that Bru. I said that I am not sour on any comments. I appreciate all comments good or bad. That is how I learn. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
 
Nice looking car, just give the one finger salute to those that talk crap about looking like the Starsky car!
 
looks great! love the factory stripe. I had a green '73 340 4 speed with a black stripe.
 
What a boring world this would be if everyone had factory bumpers!
 
i love what you did with bumper you how hard it is to fine nice bumper filler pieces,i see they are repoping them but $200 for the end pieces and another $120.00 for the long piece,plus it makes it look like the 71-72 were the bumper is flush.the other guy has nothing good to say about anything.
 
Aw 400 don't get on Bru too hard. To some people if it isn't just like it came from the factory it isn't s**t. I can appreciate a nice factory restoration and all the work that goes with it. Now I like to do a couple little things to my stuff that doesn't stand out. Like the rear bumper and didn't reinstall the rubber over riders on the bumper. Another small thing I did was to black out the trim between the front bumper and the grill. Don't know why I just liked it that way.
After I moved the bumper in it still had a gap between the bumper and the body. I happened to have just bought a squareback 72 VW and it had some new weather stripping in it. What I used is the rear quarter panel to the body seal and it worked great. Looked like it was made for it. Here a couple pics of it.
Also just trying to show you can build a nice car without taking years to do it. I did this one in 6 months on weekends and my spare time.
I cleaned it up some and think I may take it to a show tomorrow. Not really finished but this is the best time for shows.
Show ready.
If this is too many pics just let me know.



 
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