For the Love for my Father, My 69 GTX Restoration

68Moparmaniac said:

Awesome story
Keep up the great work. I'm glad you were able to find a restoration shop that has integrity. So may of them just want to bend you over. I was one of the many that has been ripped off so if I sound jaded its because I am... another reason why I'm just doing it myself. Just cant bring myself to trust anyone now.

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Thank you for the compliments my friend!........

I have been in "paint prison" and been ripped off by previous and the current shop......

Let me explain a bit about the Triple F experience.......Long story short I wouldn't recommend nor use any of there services again.....It had nothing to do with the paint and body work.......They billed for more hours than the actual work completed and they botched the restoration of my steel wheels.....When they give an actual estimate when the car is stripped and everything is exposed add about 10-20k on top of that.......Steve, the manager is a poor excuse of a businessman.......

A member here took his car to them them after seeing mine and I forwarded him about the managers antics......Guess what happened? Same increase on the actual estimate once his car was stripped and everything exposed......He experienced a few other issues involving quality of finish....

I stayed on top of Steve and wasn't letting up......I went over to the car every weekend until it was done....Called him out on his BS hours billed etc....... I a 15k increase and an additional 2k for the rims from the original "actual" estimate......The process was done wrong on the rims and the paint was "soft" and wrinkled. I had to send them to another place to get done right.......Do you think Steve ever emailed me back or returned my phone calls about the rims?...Nope....

It only takes one guy in the shop to run it and the odd thing here it was a SM skimming customers versus quality of work....

Justin

Hey, thanks for the tip on Gardner. I've been considering a stock exhaust for the 69 El Camino without any luck, until now.

Thanks, Bro

themechanic said:

Hey, thanks for the tip on Gardner. I've been considering a stock exhaust for the 69 El Camino without any luck, until now.

Thanks, Bro

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Roger, anytime......Eric will hook you up well......

moparnation74 said:

Thank you for the compliments my friend!........

I have been in "paint prison" and been ripped off by previous and the current shop......

Let me explain a bit about the Triple F experience.......Long story short I wouldn't recommend nor use any of there services again.....It had nothing to do with the paint and body work.......They billed for more hours than the actual work completed and they botched the restoration of my steel wheels.....When they give an actual estimate when the car is stripped and everything is exposed add about 10-20k on top of that.......Steve, the manager is a poor excuse of a businessman.......

A member here took his car to them them after seeing mine and I forwarded him about the managers antics......Guess what happened? Same increase on the actual estimate once his car was stripped and everything exposed......He experienced a few other issues involving quality of finish....

I stayed on top of Steve and wasn't letting up......I went over to the car every weekend until it was done....Called him out on his BS hours billed etc....... I a 15k increase and an additional 2k for the rims from the original "actual" estimate......The process was done wrong on the rims and the paint was "soft" and wrinkled. I had to send them to another place to get done right.......Do you think Steve ever emailed me back or returned my phone calls about the rims?...Nope....

It only takes one guy in the shop to run it and the odd thing here it was a SM skimming customers versus quality of work....

Justin

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I feel ya brother. It's always that one or group that screws it up for everyone else. Since the dawn of time Merchants have always found a way to extract more from less. It's great to come across that exception now and again otherwise WTF... There was a time when honesty, integrity and pride in craftmanship was more the norm than by todays standards. Getting charged top dollar for bottom shelf work has become adopted by many. You just have to be more diligent today and find out how deep that can of worms goes before parting with hard earned cash.... Once bitten twice shy

moparnation74 said:

Anthony.....Compsyn put me onto these lights...Thank you my friend....

They were on flee bay in two auctions and no one really bidder on them.......Scored them for a great price....

The 4000 high beam are a later bulb with the narrow flutes and not correct for 69......the 4001 low beam with the wide flute are correct. The only thing not correct are the dates but that's no biggie......

These bulbs are getting near impossible to find anymore and when they do I scoop them up.....

If anyone needs the 4000's....let me know.......

View attachment 716497 View attachment 716496 View attachment 716499

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Oh cool! I was wondering if you bought those. What date codes did you end up with on the 4001's? These bulbs are like Easter eggs. Open up the sealed box and see what ya got.

I reason the later narrow flute GE's would be great for a driver where one would like a genuine Made In U.S.A. GE bulb and not really concerned about OE Gold correctness.

CompSyn said:

Oh cool! I was wondering if you bought those. What date codes did you end up with on the 4001's? These bulbs are like Easter eggs. Open up the sealed box and see what ya got.

I reason the later narrow flute GE's would be great for a driver where one would like a genuine Made In U.S.A. GE bulb and not really concerned about OE Gold correctness.

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Anthony...

Much appreciated you keeping an eye out and giving me a chance at those......IIRC the dates on those were for 64 but I packed them away.......Your correct on the narrow flutes there is no better replacement than an original, incorrect flute or not......

Justin

When your not hunting for something is when you actually find it. Awhile back I purchased an original 440/426 fuel sending unit date for 1970. Which is the first original restorable/usable one in years.......Then a couple weeks ago do my daily search on Moparts this one showed up. Finally, the long journey of finding the correct sending hunt is over. It is in pristine shape with beautiful stamps that clearly mimics a day 1 part. I had it shipped to John Wolfe for restoration and just got it back a couple days ago......Based on the Epoch calendar the 190th day of 68 equates to July 8th 1968 which is in the appropriate 3 month window....

I have included pre and post pics....The pre pics show the original "bare" finish as they originally were....

Wanna sell the "wrong" one?

Richard Cranium said:

Wanna sell the "wrong" one?

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Do you wantonebad?.......lol.......

You know I will hook you up brother....

It's even for a '70... LOL

dadsbee said:

It's even for a '70... LOL

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Great Irony, right.....

There are still deals to be had.....I scored this "solid state by Plymouth" radio recently.....All intact and no rust.......75 bucks including shipping......

The more and more I go to shows. Decent and high quality parts are just not around.......Having spares for any car is better than having nothing around......The future is very grim for parts and the time was years ago.....Just some advice my friends...

In my backyard today in Columbus was the Jeff Johnson Motorsports Mopar swap meet.....It is a one day only meet at the Ohio state fairgrounds in Cbus......

Not a very large swap meet but a decent size group of vendors attended....Legendary Auto Interiors, Kramer and Carlisle events were present amongst other smaller vendors....At every swap meet my goal is to go through everything at least 3 times....You never know what you can miss or what a vendor may put out later......The pics is a right and left shot inside the building. To give you an idea...

I did manage to score a single part and a key one.....I missed it on my first trip but caught it on the second go around.....This is the (R) lens and I have a (L) lens so I was ab le to have a NOS set.

Justin- Mid-Ohio in Wooster( end of March,early April?) Thinking of going, about 1-1/4 hrs for you. Up I-71 and east on Rt.30.

oldbee said:

Justin- Mid-Ohio in Wooster( end of March,early April?) Thinking of going, about 1-1/4 hrs for you. Up I-71 and east on Rt.30.

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https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/mopa...rs-annual-indoor-swap-meet-car-corral.167880/

Jeff

If I am off that weekend there is a high probability I will go.......I am planning to go to the Indy show next weekend....

Justin

Nice score Justin! As we all know parts are expensive now, as the years go by they will become harder to find and of course the costs will be thru the roof. I wonder at some point when/if the hobby will backslide to more reasonable costs, otherwise it will be so hard to be a part of this great hobby.

The Rebel said:

Nice score Justin! As we all know parts are expensive now, as the years go by they will become harder to find and of course the costs will be thru the roof. I wonder at some point when/if the hobby will backslide to more reasonable costs, otherwise it will be so hard to be a part of this great hobby.

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Thanks Roger.....

I have been to major shows, swap meets etc since the 80's......NOS prices in the beginning were reasonable to most but unreasonable to some.....At that time in order to restore a car you had to find used parts or NOS....Used parts at that time were plentiful and in near NOS shape and hence why most passed on NOS.....In the 90's that leveled out and parts were getting sucked up....Then OE certification became a staple and that involved day 1 parts, leading to the NOS parts craze and capitalization.....Keep in mind true NOS parts were already produced and most declared NS1, not reproduced. Common items got reproduced by Ma Mopar but elicited a newer package etc....

Now let us roll to today.....Good parts have been sucked up by the many people that have restored or restoring cars.....NOS, you can forget it...Thats a one part here and a one part there....For the real NOS be ready to pay.....The demand sucked the supply....

Reproduction parts suck and fit like snot or not at all......That will not change due to production cost and profit seekers....

What will be left is junk, bent up, pitted etc parts at prices of what good parts used to bring......People are not going to haul these parts around in the future and those guys that do are getting into retirement ages......It is just eventually going to fall flat on its face......The big guys will buy up what they can and that is what will be left.....

People will never let NOS go for a discount, period! Dream on.....That will always have value.....the ones that have the "good stuff" don't need the money and have those parts dedicated for future restorations.....

What you will see is complete cars restored selling for less and that is where one will make out well......

My concern is not to turn a part around for a profit....it is to be able to have that part that is nice and restorable....Thats the future.....You just won't be able to get it.....

Face it this way at the show this weekend. Dont factor the NOS part....There was not one single used part I would have taken home for free in relation to the X....At the Nats last year, I found ZERO anything but both a reproduction part from Richard....I was also searching for parts for 2 friends and found nothing....I know I am picky but what I was searching for was not the "unobtanium"......

Back in the 80's at Carlisle one year I bought 5 complete 68 charger grilles in perfect shape(you dont want to know what I paid, lol)..........The past 2 shows currently, I saw none.......All 5 that I sold went to cars and not wall hangers......Certain parts, I wouldn't sell unless it was dedicated for a car.....I always had a dream of having a 68 but haven't had the privilege....

Justin did you score the 3 left lenses just recently?

69 GTX said:

Justin did you score the 3 left lenses just recently?

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.........They now have a good home

From having an insider's view on the availability and cost of the reproduction parts and NOS parts, I will give you my opinion. Each and every day, there is some new reproduction product that comes to the market place. Just like any business, the companies who are into the reproduction business realize that they have to continue to bring new and different products to the market place to maintain their significance to the customers. If they decide to sit on the side lines and fail to keep bringing out product, they will soon be left on the side. In the grand scheme of things, the Mopar industry is still relatively untouched in some areas and you continue to see some try to enter into the frenzy.

With each new product that may be brought out, you are not aware of the fact that most probably another product just got dropped from the availability. Just because we want the availability of any given product does not justify it for the wholesale vendor who is stocking the product or is looking at making another run of a product. They can not afford to put the latest product that just came available on the shelf without dropping something that no longer is in demand. It is just Business 101.

The other issue is that some of these products were pieces where the vendors have searched out the original manufacture and were able to purchase from them. This OEM vendor either had inventory on the shelf from years ago or still had the tooling and the opportunity to provide the product. But we are continuing to see that source dry up overnight. If they are willing to continue to provide the product, we are seeing them want to put a surcharge on the product because it is no longer economically feasible for them to inventory this product just for us. Just for an example, we faced a 280% price increase on one of the materials we use back in November. There is no way that you can pass that increase to the buying public.

Personally, my thoughts and talking to others within the industry, the reproduction parts that are of quality and have a need once dropped will become the "NOS" of the reproduction parts world. These pieces will pull down a considerable amount of money and trade within the circles of those searching for factory original NOS parts. True factory NOS pieces will only stay at or continue to climb in price. Money for some is no issue and if that new owner that has just dropped $180,000 plus into purchasing a Six Pack Super Bird has no issue in dropping $300 into the correct distributor cap.

So with all of that said, my one bit of advice is to think ahead and develop a plan if you have a car your working on or that you have the desire to do in the future. That one piece that is readily available now may not be available two to three years from now. It may not be available three months from now. Just develop a plan and follow your plan. Good luck and do what makes your happy. As Justin has done with his GTX and this forum, be thankful for what it has given us.