70 Roadrunner Build

[70chall440]

Hello all... I will say up front that this is preemptive of me actually building the car because I am currently building a 73 Cuda, that said I have been thinking about this car for some time and I feel this will be a good outlet for me to talk about it.

I acquired this car about 5 years ago; actually a friend of mine bought it off of EBay for $5K. He lives in ND and the car was in OR, I live in WA so he called me and asked if I would go and get it it. The ca was located in Medford OR which is about 6 hours from me, but as a good Mopar guy off I went. My friend had sent me some pictures of it and told me that the car had recently been painted. His plan was to dump a 440 in it and go racing. When I got there, I discovered that the car was sitting in what at one point was a garage, but at that time was little more than a shed. The guy I picked the car up from talked as though he was the king of muscle cars and what a deal this one was. Since it wasn't mine, I wasn't too concerned and loaded it up.

On the way back I pulled into a rest area and took stock of what was on my trailer. While it looked good from the outside, it was basically a painted shell. My "theory" is that the car was found in a field by someone who saw big $$. The car had/has some oddities about it, first of is the tilt front end which is actually pretty well done, then there is the roll cage which is not well done at all, finally there is the Charge like quarter panel fuel filler system which is partly well done (the quarter panel part is good but getting the filler to the tank is another story). In short, the car needed about everything other than paint, so when I told my buddy he immediately said "dump it". Well I had been looking for a 70 Satellite or RR to build a Superbird clone, so I said I would take it.

The car originally was a 383, AT, manual steering, manual brake car; brown inside and out. It has a 68 Charger instrument cluster and steering wheel in it (probably one of those sitting in the same field as this one came from). It is currently painted Hemi orange and the boddy appears pretty straight but we will see.

 

[70chall440]

Here are some more pics

 

[70chall440]

So, what are my plans for this.... Well originally it was pretty simple, drop in a 440 and 4spd and move on. For me, I need a long pistol grip and an air grabber and I am one happy camper. Well plans change and I came into a 1966 426 that had been a race motor that had been windowed but repaired and continued to be raced. I had it sonic checked and it is good. I had the short block redone and the heads so there is that.

Then I fell into a 69 B body Dana with 3.54's as well as a 833 (23 spline), so the die has been cast. I was recently thinking about selling off the 426 and buying a 5.7 or 6.1 but I go back and forth with it. If I keep the 426 it will have EFI on it and an exterior oil system (the rear main cap where the oil pickup tube goes is "iffy"). As it stands I am going to have to run some pretty thick head gaskets to get the CR down to something reasonable or swap out the pistons which I think are like 13.1 currently.

All of the window clips are gone and someone put some putty like substance in there I guess to make it look like a modern car with flush windows (even though they weren't flush). The car will need quite a lot of work but not as much as my Cuda so its all good. I will be keeping the tilt front end I think but need to modify it because as it is now, you have to open the hood (yes, the hood opens normally) and remove 2 bolts, then close the hood and tilt the front end. I want to make a cable system so it can be opened from inside the car. I also want to make the air grabber electrically operated vice vacuum.

I believe I will most likely keep the Mopar K frame and Torsion bar arrangement as well as leaf springs but we will see.

So I welcome your comments, suggestions, etc.

 

[Moparstyle]

Looks like a great project i do like the tilt frontend they usually hack the fenders to death that looks pretty good good luck

 

[70chall440]

Looks like a great project i do like the tilt frontend they usually hack the fenders to death that looks pretty good good luck

Thanks. Yes they did a pretty decent job on the tilt front end which is why I am going to keep it. The bottoms of the fenders (by the door) they sectioned and mounted so that when the fender comes down it sits on top of the lower part of what used to be the fender. They dud that because the lower rear of the fenders curve in and would not clear the fire wall. The only poorly done part was how it looked like they were going to try and mount the radiator; with rods. I suspect that whoever did the tilt front end was a professional or someone with a lot of experience. Whoever was then supposed to build the rest of the car not so much as you can see significant differences in skill. The radiator support tilts with the front end (as does the grille and bumper), therefore the radiator is going to have to be mounted to the front end support tubes (which will have to be replaced because one of them is split). Also, they just hacked up the shock mounting plates that used to be a part of the inner fender well, this will have to get rebuilt as well.

I will have to do quite a lot of re-engineering on the front end of the car to make it safe and drivable since a lot of the front end strength is now gone.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Nice car. Remember that air grabber hoods are heavy.....maybe find a fiberglass hood if you want to race the car? It would be easier to tilt

 

[70chall440]

Nice car. Remember that air grabber hoods are heavy.....maybe find a fiberglass hood if you want to race the car? It would be easier to tilt

I do not intend to race the car, the goal is to make a very cool street car. I have an air grabber hood for it already, although it will need a lot of work and I will have to purchase a lot of the parts to make it work. Its a 70 RR, it has to have an air grabber and a pistol grip...

To be completely up front, I do not intend to turn this into a many year build as I did with my Cuda (something like 14 and counting). I will build this as a year 5 car... (meaning a car that is heavily modified but retains some of its originality). I have a large set of chrome headers for it and really just want to make it relatively usable and fun. I love the body style (my favorite B body) but I dont want it to turn into a quagmire without an end in sight. I thought about selling off the 426 and going to a 6.1 or even a 5.7 but they just won't have the "wow" factor that the 426 has and since I am life long Mopar guy, I just have to keep it. I just need to figure out how to make more reliable and less finicky.

 

[silvertonguedevil]

Cool project!

 

[70chall440]

Thanks

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I do not intend to race the car, the goal is to make a very cool street car. I have an air grabber hood for it already, although it will need a lot of work and I will have to purchase a lot of the parts to make it work. Its a 70 RR, it has to have an air grabber and a pistol grip...

To be completely up front, I do not intend to turn this into a many year build as I did with my Cuda (something like 14 and counting). I will build this as a year 5 car... (meaning a car that is heavily modified but retains some of its originality). I have a large set of chrome headers for it and really just want to make it relatively usable and fun. I love the body style (my favorite B body) but I dont want it to turn into a quagmire without an end in sight. I thought about selling off the 426 and going to a 6.1 or even a 5.7 but they just won't have the "wow" factor that the 426 has and since I am life long Mopar guy, I just have to keep it. I just need to figure out how to make more reliable and less finicky.

Well, for my 2-cents, based on what you've said.
a. Change the pistons, replace the "iffy" main cap & re-align hone the block
b. Go stock intake/carbs (you wan't that airgrabber to be functional, right?)
c. Put some wiring in it, do some minor rust/body repair & drive it as-is....why not?

 

[70chall440]

Thanks for the input, I will consider it. I really dont want to run dual 4bbls, but I "might" consider dual throttle bodies. Really the only part of the air grabber I am concerned with working is the actual door, but we will see. As to the oiling system, an external it more effective and definitely easier than having it line bore (again); however the pistons are probably going to have to happen.