'71 RR resto project

[rrTor-Red]

Been wanting to do this for a while and after many who has asked to start one, I'll give it a whirl, so here it goes.
This is my '71 RR resto. My dad bought this car 32 years ago. He knew the original "Mom and dad" who inherited the car in the summer of '71. Their son bought it in '70, was in the Army, and was killed in Nam. "Mom and dad" drove it to church and the grocery store. The dad died in '83. The mom told my dad she was going to sell the car. At first, my dad dragged his feet about buying it, so she sold it to a different person. Then my dad kicked himself, found the guy, bought it from him in '85. In that time, the guy told us the strobe was coming off, and he took the remaining off, putting on the "Starsky and Hutch" strip on it.

. The guy blew the original engine, but a 383 from '69 in it, and found out some other surprising stuff during the tear down. Anyway, this is how we got it. It ran like a rapped ape but needed help. I started to take it apart and now, I inherited it and its mine. I've put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in it to get it to the stage it's to the present day.

 

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Getting it down and dirty, the car had VERY little rust on it. Behind the driver's side rear, a quarter size on the passenger door, and on the inner fender of the passenger firewall.

 

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Specifics: Car came with a 383 (NOM), power drums, power steering, A/C, hood mounted turn signals AND floor mounted cassette from factory

 

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After I tore the car down, I put it on a rotisserie. Me and my friend made this rotisserie. His brother-in-law had the steel tubing and after a afternoon of cutting and welding, we came up with it. My friend and his brother-in-law has a '69 RR and '70 Cuda, respectfully. So, my car was the guinea pig with theirs to follow

 

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In the body shop it went. Prior to the body shop, we put torque boxes and sub frame connectors on it. Used "All metal" to fill in anything not covered by welding and to smooth out the transition to the body

 

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I worked on restoring the heater box. Here is some of the before.

 

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After

 

[69 GTX]

Good start!

 

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OOOPs. Here's the heater box before

 

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Here's some photos of it in the body shop

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Sweet! I love the 71's!

 

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Some more and with paint. I put SS fuel and break lines on it, as seen in a couple of pictures. I didn't undercoat the bottom and maybe I might regret it but who knows

 

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More

 

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My car had undercoating on it prior to when my family obtained it. That might be the saving grace as far as rust issues

 

[Glenwood]

Nice story and great looking RR. Love the 71's!

 

[440jimr]

Love it!

 

[rrTor-Red]

Might be going out of sequence here so bear with me. Here are some pictures of the car before I/we tore it all apart. Then I'll post some pictures of it after. The pictures are not in order but just what I took at the time. Again, the car was very solid for as old as it is. It was the saving grace for it

 

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Here is the emergency brake after restoring it

 

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Around the edge of the doors and on the center of the hump was colored black. So, I made sure my body guy repainted those areas black as well like it came from the factory. Yes, the car has bucket seats with a buddy seat. Seats are orange and black. The seats was recovered in the '80's using legendary seat covers. We had to send them our old ones because they didn't have a pattern. At the time, I don't have a picture of the seats because they're covered and have been that way for a LOOONNNGG time. Waiting to put those in when time comes

 

[rrTor-Red]

Gotta love it