1969 Dodge Super Bee Coupe Restoration

[moparnation74]

I talked to Mr Hall and he assured me they were indeed Brown " the same as the heater box" (which I thought was black and then I looked at it again and no its DARK brown) and he even offered to sell me paint. Is yours, Justin, not Brown as received from him? My weekend project is to get all the pieces bonded back together again and hopefully at least into primer. I always thought they were black, and that's what you always see on restorations... except until I saw yours!

As for the seal, I have a new repop one from Dales Cuda Shop... but my old one (that I bought in '88 from Mopar) is still in pretty good shape. Just needs a good clean up and repaint along the steel strips. Part # 8849233

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I would reuse the old one as well......The new seals are like new door seals...They dont compress well and can cause other problems....

 

[dadsbee]

Cool.. looks like I'm on the correct track on coloUr and am using a big magnifying glass to go over it for cracks.

I thought about sending it out... but the border makes that stuff a PITA, and you know me... I'm a glutten for punishment!

 

[moparnation74]

Cool.. looks like I'm on the correct track.

I thought about sending it out... but the border makes that stuff a PITA, and you know me... I'm a glutten for punishment!

Thats true...the last thing you need is it getting damaged in customs....The seal I am referring to goes between the center section and the hood. It is a foam seal......

 

[dadsbee]

Oh okay, the foam seals. Got them from DMT. YES I noted the recessed area on the old one and will be sure to cut it out on the new. My old one is toast.

 

[moparnation74]

Oh okay, the foam seals. Got them from DMT. YES I noted the recessed area on the old one and will be sure to cut it out on the new. My old one is toast.
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That is the key area to trim but I had to trim mine all the way around......I am sure Don uses the same seal.....

Good luck and take your time installing it....Having an extra hand around will help a lot......

 

[dadsbee]

Put another patio heater together (got 4 on sale 75% off for my daughters wedding next Fall). I figured I may as well use it to warm up my work space... NOT under a heat sensor like I did with the first one yesterday and set off my shop fire alarm. Monitoring didn't find it funny...!

All remaining paint stripped, power washed and drying off so I can grind cracks and repair.

Thought I'd try to remove the 50 year old wave in the air box mounting edge.

Lots of heat and a flat board. Worked great.

Here a crack.. there a crack.. everywhere a crack crack! Everytime you look at a piece you see another one. This one was barely evident and I touched it and the piece fell off.

Notched up hard wire set into the grove I ground out.

Tools of the trade!

 

[dadsbee]

Wire embedded for added strength on the hood attach tab.

Rubber air box flaps. I never even noticed until I took the boxes apart that they're different lengths. I was actually marking one as to which side it fit, when I noticed there was no need.

OE part number of one flap.

OE part number of the other.

Rubber overmold was peeling along the steel shaft, so I cleaned them up on the wire wheel and then used liquid rubber to recoat around the shaft to seal them up.

Plasti Dip rubber coating.

A couple of coats of rubber and good to go.

 

[dadsbee]

Reminding myself of what will be visible and what will not in case I can build up some repair areas thicker than OE.

Made a "mould" on the outer show face with wax paper clipped tight in place, for the large broken out areas on the drivers side front of the box.

Cut some fiberglass heavy cloth to fill the large broken out spots.

Added a layer of JB on top of the wax paper and outward onto the air box (like doing gel coat), then laid in the cloth and squeegeed in another layer of JB. Sitting for the night and I'll see what I have tomorrow.

Now to make the center box one piece again.

Has a twist to it and I can only join one break cleanly at a time. So I clamped one side down with a perfect fit on the break line.

Ground the crack to half part thickness, added some "branches" and some groves to embed wires.

Coated with JB and left for the night. Many hours into this now and having flashbacks back to doing an instrument cluster and why I didn't just "farm" it out! LOL

 

[oldbee]

Reminding myself of what will be visible and what will not in case I can build up some repair areas thicker than OE.

Made a "mould" on the outer show face with wax paper clipped tight in place, for the large broken out areas on the drivers side front of the box.

Cut some fiberglass heavy cloth to fill the large broken out spots.

Added a layer of JB on top of the wax paper and outward onto the air box (like doing gel coat), then laid in the cloth and squeegeed in another layer of JB. Sitting for the night and I'll see what I have tomorrow.

Now to make the center box one piece again.

Has a twist to it and I can only join one break cleanly at a time. So I clamped one side down with a perfect fit on the break line.

Ground the crack to half part thickness, added some "branches" and some groves to embed wires.

Coated with JB and left for the night. Many hours into this now and having flashbacks back to doing an instrument cluster and why I didn't just "farm" it out! LOL

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Ur over 1/2 way. Keep going! Looking good, I’m wondering if the brown tint is just from O2,ozone exposure, etc.?

 

[dadsbee]

It's definitely dark brown, if you stare at your heater box you'll see it's actually brown as well and not black. The insides of the outer boxes show the brown the best.

My real kick in the nuts today was noticing that the resto shop forgot to seam seal my passenger side roof rail before paint...

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

It's definitely dark brown, if you stare at your heater box you'll see it's actually brown as well and not black. The insides of the outer boxes show the brown the best.

My real kick in the nuts today was noticing that the resto shop forgot to seam seal my passenger side roof rail before paint...

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Had the same issue on mine too, they forgot to seam seal both side, hopefully my car is white so I found a white seam sealer when the car was back home applied it and we can barely noticed the sealer...
But I wish they did it before the paint!
I'm with you on that know what you feel lol

 

[dadsbee]

Wax paper "mould" worked great!

Getting the thumbs up!! Well except for the air void I somehow managed to trap in.

Before I went to the dentist at noon I got the other side of the center ring clamped in place, ground and sealed together so it could set up while I was gone.

Crack ground and groves for metal "stitching".

JB'd and off to the dentist.

Back in the shop about 4 hours later. Cleaned up the missing flange area.

Built a dyke to replace the flange.

Flange "poured" and set enough to peel the clay.

Top section set up enough to flip and do the other side. All ground out and ready to seal.

All parts firmly back together again. Tomorrow is sanding to shape and probably filling some voids.

(to think I could have just bought a repro for $700 US.. LOL... 20 hours of labour so far)

 

[oldbee]

Wax paper "mould" worked great!

Getting the thumbs up!! Well except for the air void I somehow managed to trap in.

Before I went to the dentist at noon I got the other side of the center ring clamped in place, ground and sealed together so it could set up while I was gone.

Crack ground and groves for metal "stitching".

JB'd and off to the dentist.

Back in the shop about 4 hours later. Cleaned up the missing flange area.

Built a dyke to replace the flange.

Flange "poured" and set enough to peel the clay.

Top section set up enough to flip and do the other side. All ground out and ready to seal.

All parts firmly back together again. Tomorrow is sanding to shape and probably filling some voids.

(to think I could have just bought a repro for $700 US.. LOL... 20 hours of labour so far)

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It’s a labor of love now!!

 

[Super Rob]

No repro part compares to OE stuff.

 

[dadsbee]

No repro part compares to OE stuff.

Definitely not Rob and they are Black which is not correct! Some people complain about the cost of sending stuff out for restoration/repair and have no idea just how many hours it takes to do some of this stuff. I'm just being stubborn and learning first hand while I lose $75/hr not working on customers airplanes!

 

[dadsbee]

Is everyone tired of airbox pictures yet?? LOL I'm sure tired of working on it. Repair areas sanded down to find low spots in the JB where it sunk into the broken / ground out areas.

Same deal here and ready for a skim coat to fill the depressions.

Drivers box end almost there, just needs a skim of JB

Skim coat of JB makes it look pretty good.

Center ring all skim coated.

Driver box skimmed.

Then I had to switch uniforms and play "Mr. Plow" before I couldn't move this potato snow.

3 hours later and the skim coat sanded out quite nice.

Center ring just needs some finer finish sanding and everything scuffed for priming.

Drivers side box looking good. Primer coat tomorrow to see how it blends out.

 

[Charger72]

Excellent work.

 

[mopar4don]

That JB weld looks like it works pretty well. Did you heat stake it with wire staples for strength?

 

[dadsbee]

That JB weld looks like it works pretty well. Did you heat stake it with wire staples for strength?

Don if you tried to staple this stuff it would just crack some more I think. You did see the pics of me embedding wires? This way I can keep the same material thickness so there are no bumps to be noticed after repair.. or so I hope. Just how I decide to proceed with this air box repair. Seems damn solid and I can only hope it stays that way.

I have everything scuffed, wiped, hung and ready to prime. Hoping it's a prime and paint.. but suspect it will be a prime and wait! .. more sanding, priming and then another scuff and paint.

 

[mopar4don]

I am sorry. I did not see how you embedded those wires. But I can see how that should help.
Nice job!