1971 340 Road Runner Revival

[SMS68]

Brought home a 1971 Road Runner yesterday. A friend of mine tipped me off about an old neighbor of his who had a shop full of cars that he was trying to liquidate. They guy had been collecting them for years and some were in various stages of restoration/disassembly. His health took a turn and he lost interest/ability to do anything with them so he decided to sell them off to folks who would take care of them. Took some wrangling and contemplation, but we loaded her up yesterday.

1971, B5, 340, buckets, auto, a/c, and console. The motor is out but he gave me most of the major components; block (not the original), crank, heads, intake, etc...He's also throwing in another 340 from a boat (have to go pick that up later). The car is all there and pretty unmolested as far as being hacked on and/or modified. The interior is rough but intact. All the glass is there too. Front bumper and grill/inserts are intact...the grill plastic is in great shape, just needs the little road runner head.

Goal is to bring it back to a nice driver condition. Here we go! Meep, Meep!

 

[Ron_M]

Cool project, congratulations!

 

[6872n73]

Very Nice.

 

[6PKRTSE]

Cool project. Good luck with it. 71's are growing on me. They have to have body color bumpers and no gull wing though.

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Great car!
The 71 an 72s are great driving cars. I loved driving our 72 satellite.

 

[4mulas]

Get it running and drive as is. Looks cool !

 

[69 Sleeper Bee]

Nice barn find. They are still out there !

 

[hanks73340]

SWEEEEEET!

 

[PRND21]

Congratulations, looks like a solid project. A full fender tag to boot.

 

[ct71rr]

Awesome, another ‘71! Looks like a good project! Please keep us updated with tons of photos

 

[moparker]

Very happy for you. A member of A bodies just scored a 70 340 Duster barn find. Im gonna enjoy watching the two of you. CHEERS

 

[SMS68]

Today mostly consisted of a few buddies coming by to take a peek. Once the dust settled, the youngest boy and I got to work on cleaning out the interior and the trunk (lots of parts in the trunk). Got the seats, console, carpet and trunk liner out and cleaned it all out to see just how bad the rust is. Found spent .22 casings, girls makeup containers, bubble gun wrappers, hair pins and the remnants of 3 broadcast sheets (none legible or complete).

The passenger rear footwell is completely rusted through and the rust extends into the passenger seat area. Driver's side front area is pitted but not rusted through. Driver rear is pretty rusted where the two sections come together. Probably need a whole front and rear pan? Area under the rear seat is solid.

View from passenger door:

View from driver door:

The trunk had what looked to be the original mat in it, biggest area of rust is in the middle. Not rusted through, but looks pretty deep (the open hole above the filler tube is because I took the drain plug out):

The car also has what others have said is some sort of inspection tag still attached to the fender tag:

All in all, nothing I didn't expect and not too disappointing. Next trick is going to be getting what remains of the vinyl top off along with window trim and windows so I can see how bad those channels are.

 

[Coronet_Arch]

Great looking car.

 

[71dodgechargerrt]

One of my favorite years.

 

[chargervert]

Nice find,it looks pretty solid! The 340 is cool,but its a big car for a 340 with an automatic and AC. Since it is non matching numbers,I would be leaning towards a modern 392 Hemi swap,485 HP and twenty plus MPG!

 

[DeltaV]

Next trick is going to be getting what remains of the vinyl top off along with window trim and windows so I can see how bad those channels are.

Curious, is a new vinyl top going back on or will the roof be all paint?

Gorgeous car and that's a nice shade of blue. A nicely tuned 340 will be lots of fun in that car.

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

NICE!! GOOD LUCK WITH IT!!

 

[SMS68]

Curious, is a new vinyl top going back on or will the roof be all paint?

Gorgeous car and that's a nice shade of blue. A nicely tuned 340 will be lots of fun in that car.

I’m kind of a purist. I’m bringing it back the way it was born lol. Even a slightly warmed over 340 will be more than enough power for a cruiser (and more than many 383s at that).

Not going to be super particular about small details but the basics will stay the same.

 

[SMS68]

Had a good time with my two sons last night. Got the hood off and started tackling the front/rear glass trim. Back glass channel looks great.

Being a vinyl top car, there is rust up high on the driver’s side. Lower passenger corner is very rusted but the whole lower front section looks/feels solid. Vacuumed inside the air intake/cowl area and it seems good too.

Now for the disappointing part. It appears the car took a hit in the passenger door and the impact pushed the pillar in. The rocker panel is buckled a bit and the door doesn’t really line up with the fender. Missed that in the dark shop while I was checking it out before I bought it. It was partially hidden under the rocker panel covers too.

I was ready for rust and dinged up panels but having the structure of the car tweaked might make this project beyond my means. Wish I had caught it before I hauled it home.

 

[moparker]

Get that issue done and you do the rest?