1969 Road Runner....another one!

[TheSwede]

Dropped the engine off at the rebuilders today. Should get a preliminary report next week on that. Hoping no cracks are found....fingers crossed. Just going with a stock build. Keeping the same heads, intake and exhaust manifolds. Will be balanced, valve job, new pistons and rods, bored and surfaced. Should be pretty cheap. Anyone know where I can send the carb for restoring?

Also, the welder should be done on January 15th. Then comes the hard decision on trying to determine if I want to tackle the body work with the limited time I have.....or send it out. Decisions decisions.

Thanks

Great progress!
I was in the same boat as you, planning on outsourcing bodywork and paint, I went for outsourcing, there will be plenty of work left for me anyway and it is better I work in my daytime job, that is what I do best, and the body/paint guy can do what he is doing best.

 

[MoparMitch]

Body lookin good Capt. Won't be too long now before paint ? Tell us what color

 

[Capt-Culver]

Body lookin good Capt. Won't be too long now before paint ? Tell us what color

Thank you! It's always nice to get a compliment from some the experts on this board. I'm going to keep the same color she was born with....K2 Vitamin C Orange.

 

[rsd859]

Cant wait to see that engine. Good luck with your build! Please keep updating us on the progress, you are keeping me motivated for sure!

 

[Capt-Culver]

Got a call today from the shop. As they were fitting the quarter panels, they noticed the outer wheel lip and quarter lip didn't line up. After doing some research, it has been determined that the outer wheel wells are for a 69 charger or Coronet. So, I have to order more metal. But it sounds like fitting and hanging quarters are the only thing left to do.

Stopped by Fowlers Engines last week. They have been busy and haven't accomplished much. However, everything has been pressure washed and brushed down. Cylinder walls looked good and no cracks found. But, I'm obviously not in a rush to get it back.

 

[tallhair]

Wow....it's been a couple months. I don't have anything to report on the car.

The baby came early and I've had my hands tied....it's been one hell of a hot summer anyway..making working in the garage miserable. Things are slowly stating to return to normal and I hope to get some time soon. We got Mopar Nationals this weekend and I need to pick up a few things. Give me a shout if any of you plan on attending the show...I'd like to put some faces together with some names.

man that's beautiful

- - - Updated - - -

I guess I'll start at the begining.....

I told my story on the Welcome board, but for those that didn't get a chance to view that thread, I'll tell it here too. I grew up on the east side of Columbus Ohio, in Pataskala. I still live here now. Pataskala is just a small little town about 4 miles west of NTR. Mopar Nationals take place here every year in August. I have very early memories of my father taking my down to Brice Road to watch the cars. I bet my first year there was around the age of 8. Over the next several years we went to watch the show and I have very vivid memories of thinking to myself "When I get older, I'm going to have one of those cars!" As I got older, life got in the way. All I cared about was girls and partying. After high school, I left for college. Got married, started a career, bought a house and had a daughter.. (a boy on the way!)

We were finally getting settled into the house after a few years and the familiar Mopar muscle sightings appeared, yet again, on Rt 70 east of Columbus. As luck would have it, I didn't have to work that Friday or Saturday. I loaded up the family with a blanket and some soft drinks and we headed to Rt 79 in Heath. My daughter was only 2 years old for her first expierence.... but she never stopped smiling. Then it happened, I caught myself saying "When I get older, I'm going to have one of these cars." It dawned on me that I wasn't getting any younger and I am now "older". The search was on.

I was never a car guy. I've never worked on them, studied them or knew basic operations. Up until just a couple years ago, I couldn't tell you the difference between fuel injected and carbourated engines. So, I thought that if I'm going to buy one of these cars, I should start reading a little. Joined a couple websites, did reserch, studied etc.

It took me 2 years....and I found my car last November on this website. 69 RR, K2 Vit C Orange, 383 - 4 speed, 3.91 rear end, airgrabber car with V21 HP hood stripes.

I'm scared!

I know I'm going to make mistakes....and I guess the reason behind starting this thread is so I don't screw it up too much. I hope to learn as much as I can....cause I don't know what the he77 I'm doing. I want to have fun and learn this machine inside and out. I could have bought a finished car, but what fun is that? I'm not naive...I know just because it's a project, it's not going to be cheaper. I'm fully prepared to dump $20-22K into this car.

I have a couple things working in my favor! First, my wife. She is a car girl. Her daddy owned a 1972 Chevelle SS (more on that car later) and she's been around muscle since she was born. So, I won't have to deal with a nagging wife in my ear. She's been very supportive of this purchase and she is the reason we chose a Road Runner. I'll get into the detail on that at a later time. Secondly, my father. He had plenty of muscle when he was a kid. GTO, Chevelles, Firebirds etc. He was never a mopar guy...but has respect for all classics. And thirdly, my brother-in-law. None of this would be possible without him. He is THE car guy in the family. He is a grad of Wyotech (google it) and has years of expierence on the mechanics and body work for these classics. I hope to learn more from him as we go. And, hopefully I have the support of the community here.

But, I'm still scared. Scared that I bit off more than I can chew, scared that I'll get burned out and sell it off in pieces, scared that I'll kill myself by knocking over the jack. Just scared...






Ok, I guess we can get to the car portion of this thread. Haha...I won't tell you about my fears for at least a week!

Unlike so many of you, I didn't own very many tools. So, that was the first order of business. Since November, I've tooled up. Got my compressor, blast cabinet, welder, engine hoist, stand, I had to run 220 to the garage, air tools blah blah blah. The "shop" is my 2 car attached garage. I also have a storage unit so I'm not tripping over crap in the garage. I ordered most of the metal I'm going to need last week. New hood, floor, LH inner fender, trunk extensions, LH outer wheel house, and the 4 window corner pieces on the deck filler. It should be here by Friday. Yesterday, I started disassembly.


This is the first time I saw the car:

At home snuggled in my garage:

My engine at the storage unit:

My First blasting job in the cabinet:

How it looked as of yesterday:

I'll try to tell you more later...I think I've rambled on enough. If you want to see any pictures of anything specific, let me know.

thanks for the background. I'm going to read this entire thread this weekend and I've subscribed so thanks and keep the updates coming! I know you are getting close to re assembly since I peeked at the final page

 

[Capt-Culver]

Got a chance to stop by the shop today. Some progress pics:

A couple things to note:

The rear crossmember is brand new....it's covered in that gold weld thru prime overspray...not sure how he managed to do that.

Also, the trunk pan is in place. However, it's just tacked into place for now. Notice how he didn't drill any plug welds for the top flanges on the frame rail. Confused, I asked him about it. He said that he was going to use a pilot bit and drill from the underside to mark the location of the drill bit. I just seemed like an *** backwards way of doing things. Not sure if I should be upset about it or not. I really hope I don't have a lot of clean up, grinding left when I get the thing back.

At any rate, as stated above, I just had to re-order the outer wheel wells due to the wrong ones being shipped. Once I get that, all the fitting can take place with the deck lid, rear tail panel, doors etc.

- - - Updated - - -

By the way...sorry about the awful glare. The sun was just coming over the horizon and it was hard to get a picture without it.

 

[Basket case]

your car, your $$$, express your concerns with the trunk pan!

 

[Capt-Culver]

your car, your $$$, express your concerns with the trunk pan!

Well, I guess I don't know if I should be upset. I mean if the end result is the same, should I care how he got there? In the end, it's all the same....not how I would have done it. But, he's been doing this for a long time and if it's easier for him to do it this way, should I care? Don't really know what to think about it.

 

[roadrunnerman]

Cars looking good. Maybe just ask an inquiring question about the trunk floor. Did he do it that way to keep a smoother looking floor on the inside, better weld adhesion underneath. I'm sure he knows what he is doing, but you still need a piece of mind.

 

[Basket case]

excatly.

 

[Ron 73]

Looking real good capt, sure has come a long way!

 

[Propwash]

I agree with you Capt'n...that is confusing. Instead of drilling through the 20 gauge trunk pan, now from the underneath he's gotta drill through 14 gauge rails and shackle mounts. On top of that, he's got to drill pilot holes and then the larger holes all while not drilling through the pan above it. If he would have drilled holes in the pan, a simple punch would be enough to guide the drill bit. After that he has to weld inverted and it's going to be a lot easier to burn a hole through that pan vs. if he would have been welded from the top, starting the arc on the rail underneath. If he does all those correct, you'll have less weld to level down on the pan, but just created 3 times at much work for himself in the process. If he struggles with it, you'll have just as much if not more cleaning up to do on that pan.

Another thing that is interesting is the white flash residue around the spot welds at the bottom edge of the rear fill panel. The welds don't look that great and usually when you get that white residue, you're welding through or on top of some sort of seam sealer, filler, thick adhesive or foreign material, not weld-thru primer. Those effect the integrity of the weld. Also the heavy and odd laid black soot above that isn't typical. Strange....

I'd stick close to it and ask lots of questions. Lots of folks have their own techniques to doing things, but there's a few things going on there that a quite a bit off the beaten path. The biggest thing that would be a concern for me if that was my car is all the extra work he created for himself by going that route, being you obviously pay for his labor..

 

[Capt-Culver]

Sorry for the confusion...it's my fault that I didn't make it clear. From my questioning of the situation, I understand that he was going to use the pilot bit to drill from underneath the car...thru the frame rail and trunk pan BOTH. Now he has a visible mark on top of the trunk pan as a point to start his drilling. As I understand it, he plans to weld from on top of the pan.

Another thing that is interesting is the white flash residue around the spot welds at the bottom edge of the rear fill panel. The welds don't look that great and usually when you get that white residue, you're welding through or on top of some sort of seam sealer, filler, thick adhesive or foreign material, not weld-thru primer. Those effect the integrity of the weld. Also the heavy and odd laid black soot above that isn't typical. Strange....

I noticed that too... The bottom edge of the rear tail panel would be welded directly to the trunk pan back edge right? So, that's a new piece and no seam sealer, filler etc. I'm wondering if he cleaned that ecoat off that trunk pan before he began welding. He would have to clean it off to bare metal, right? Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten an arc? Am I understanding this right?

 

[Propwash]

Sorry for the confusion...it's my fault that I didn't make it clear. From my questioning of the situation, I understand that he was going to use the pilot bit to drill from underneath the car...thru the frame rail and trunk pan BOTH. Now he has a visible mark on top of the trunk pan as a point to start his drilling. As I understand it, he plans to weld from on top of the pan.



I noticed that too... The bottom edge of the rear tail panel would be welded directly to the trunk pan back edge right? So, that's a new piece and no seam sealer, filler etc. I'm wondering if he cleaned that ecoat off that trunk pan before he began welding. He would have to clean it off to bare metal, right? Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten an arc? Am I understanding this right?

Ahhh I see...How about just using spray paint or a paint marker from underneath to create a silhouette edge of where the holes need to be drilled instead of drilling twice? Guess it doesn't matter. Either way sounds like he'll get that pan on there just fine. You are right, the trunk pan extends to the fill panel and bends down 90* to sit flush with the bottom edge of the fill panel. You need fairly clean metal to strike an arc. Usually ecoat just bubbles up and gets crispy if it's too close into the heat affected zone of a weld. Never seen it flash out like that before. Who knows, might be that funky weld-thru primer he's using. Usually those are copper or plain metal colored depending on if they're copper based or zinc based, golds's a new one for me. Either way, it's enough to raise an eyebrow. Next time you go, give us the scoop on that. I'm pretty interested to see what it ended being.

 

[Capt-Culver]

Will do prop! Thanks for the info....


Just got word that he got the left quarter hung. He must have been busy yesterday and last night. I'll try to get pics soon. He can't do the right one until the new outer wheel well goes in.

 

[Pistol Pete]

Keep up the good work.

 

[OhioMopar]

Good progress. I got sidetracked on mine, will pick it back up next week. What shop did you take it to? Pm me if you don't want to publicize!

 

[Capt-Culver]

Well, I got some answers to the questions:

Regarding the rear crossmember: If you look closely you can see that it's not welded at all. I didn't even notice that when I was there. The burn marks and white residue are from a plasma cutter. He has a really unique way of cutting out the spot welds with the plasma cutter. I didn't notice any damage from using it and it was rather clean...beside the burning marks and white residue left behind.

He sent me some pictures of the updates.

The right quarter panel is on now.

Also, the trunk pan has now been plug welded. Again, I'm not sure how he did it. I'll need to get down there and take a look under the pan to see if there is any damage done to the rear frame rails. As you can see, there was some spatter.

He says he'll be done grinding and cleaning things up by Friday...so we'll see about that. I've decided to let a body shop do the cleaning and painting. I think I'll have more fun doing suspension work and the like while that gets accomplished.

 

[Basket case]

when those quarters go on it makes things look great!