LIFE IN THE GARAGE - A CAR ADDICT AND HIS TOYS chapter 4000 - 1970 Roadrunner

[1967 'cuda]

INTRO:

The first car I ever bought was a 1970 Roadrunner. It was the summer of 1975 and I had just graduated high school. At 18, life was good. It was bronze with a 383 and a torqueflite. The interior color matched the outside. Factory mags with 69,000 miles on the odometer........

But that was a long time ago. It's now 39 years later and I've been slowly approaching crotchety old fart status. A lot has happened over those 39 years. I won't bore you with the mundane details of every day life during that period. Instead I'll speak about the things that folks that frequent a site like this would rather hear. THE CARS!

I've owned a bunch. - Ma Mopar had stolen my heart. But my relationship with vehicles wasn't exclusive. There've been a few Chebbies that managed to catch my eye. - Yes, I wasn't always faithful. The seductive lines of a '70 Camaro first made me stray. She had been my sister's car and she needed rescuing. I won't dwell on the details. At about the same time I met a '69 Camaro. She belonged to a buddy of mine. After seeing the movie ALOHA BOBBY AND ROSE, he attempted to copy the car in the show - adding fender flares, a spoiler and side pipes. After a few years though, he had grown tired of trying to get her to behave and knew it was time to say goodbye. I couldn't help myself. She had all the right curves. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking. "Run him out of here!" "What kind of jerk is this guy?"

They say that the first thing you need to do to get back on track is to admit you have a problem. Well I refuse! I know where my heart really lies. - And there's a Pentastar there. Since then I bought another Roadrunner. This time a'68. Then a '69 440 Six Pack Superbee. A Hemi Superbird. A '64 Polara. A '64 Fury. A '72 Dodge Crew cab Dually. A '79 Lil Red Express. A '72 440 Duster. A '74 AARCuda clone. A '68 Charger R/T. A '67 Barracuda fastback. An '80 Mirada. A '70 Duster funnycar. And many more. - Including another 1970 Roadrunner. Actually this second 1970 Roadrunner is one of my son's cars. I tend to list ours together because we often have both worked on and driven them.

Another 383, but this time with a pistol grip 4-speed. Vitamin C orange. We picked her up in Missouri last year. It felt really good to sit in the same model of car as what I'd first owned so many years ago.
It may not have been my original car, but IT HAD A 4-SPEED!!!!!

Sorry, I got carried away....

This is the way she looked when we first picked her up.

 

[1967 'cuda]

This latest Roadrunner was an eBay purchase. Although it still needs a lot of work, much of a restoration has already been done.

The interior is new from Year One.

Although it's sporting the factory AM/FM radio, it needs work. - Barely any radio reception and almost no volume. - A lot of static.

The bottom of the car is very clean. You can see here where the old floor welds had been drilled out.

The tic toc tach is not working. According to the fender tag, this car did not come with it originally.

The 383 has been overhauled. It's running a 750 Holley and been converted to an electronic ignition.

The power steering pump is tight and leak free but the steering box seeps.

New window and door seals were already installed.

Another picture of one of the 'very clean' frame rails.

It's got a new fuel tank and the 8&3/4 posi has been freshly gone through.

It has had some body repair to the lower quarters. Hopefully everything will look good when we get around to stripping it for paint.

The trunk floor and drop offs have been replaced.

The new upholstery doesn't seem to have any flaws.

The front suspension is tight. Someone's already gone through it too.

 

[69hemibeep]

Welcome aboard she looks nice!

 

[george68hemirr]

welcome from new york.....wow.....that is one fine roadrunner

 

[droptop]

Welcome from Southern Indiana. One of the best intro's I have seen here.

 

[Steve]

Nice Runner

 

[ralleygreen]

sweet ride ,nice score,welcome aboard !

 

[peresvet24]

Welcome aboard! nice runner

 

[Basketcase]

welcome from Ohio. Sweet '70 for sure. You won't get run off here for owning Fords or Chevies. It;s all good Amercan Muscle.

 

[Roadcuda]

Welcome form CT. That's a great story and a great lookin' bird!

 

[1967 'cuda]

We did of course, check the serial numbers to make certain this wasn't a clone.

Although we're more accustomed to doing more of this work ourselves, it's nice to know that this front suspension is done.

Although the exhaust is new, these mufflers are too loud for our liking. I love the sound of a big block but I'd like to be able to hear the stereo without straining.

Any of the pictures that we have that show body work in process were sent to us by the previous owner before we made the purchase. Other than a light skim where the quarter patches were done we didn't notice anything that gave us too much concern.

One of the things that we have changed since buying the car were the shocks.

We had a full new set of these double adjustable shocks sitting on the shelf. They had been bought for our '68 Charger project but my son decided to see how well they'd work on the Roadrunner.

Even the Goodrich TA radials were new when we got the car.

Another picture of the new trunk floor as it was being installed.

The previous owner had also replaced the panel beneath/behind the rear window. Apparently the window channel had been rotted out.

I was surprised at how much had been done. Even the rear leaf springs had new bushings.

The new shocks that were on the car will have to sit on the shelf for now.

The brake lines were new too.

New blinker indicators in the hood. They didn't work when we got the car until we solved a grounding issue.

The wiper motor has been rebuilt and the wiring in the engine compartment was all new.

Looking down the left quarter.

Looking down the right quarter.

Unfortunately it's too hard to read the fender tag in this picture.

New Vintique wheels.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Thanks 69hemibeep, george68hemirr, droptop, Steve, ralleygreen, peresvet24, Basketcase, and Roadcuda. - Glad to be aboard.

 

[mahoney0_00_3]

Did u say hemi superbird!a real one 4speed or auto?

 

[1967 'cuda]

As good of a start we had when we bought the car, it did have it's issues. We picked it up from a storage facility that was gated and gave us limited area to drive it around. So although we weren't able to take it on a lengthy test drive we had a few hundred feet to run the car. When first started it was a bit cold blooded. I wasn't too concerned because I knew the Holley wasn't running a choke. I hadn't run a manual transmission in a long time and although I consider myself pretty adept with them, I couldn't tell for sure what was going on with the clutch. It definitely didn't seem to be adjusted correctly.

We were eager to get back home so after completing the transaction we loaded the Roadrunner on our trailer and headed back to Nebraska.

It was late before we got back home. - Too late to play with the car that night. Even though the car was capable of being driven as is, we knew that clutch still needed attention. The prior owner had said that he was aware that it wasn't quite right but assured us that everything was new and it was surely an adjustment issue. The next day was time for us to really try the car out. The 8&3/4 was running a set of 3.55s. Although we were aware of those issues with the clutch, we still hadn't tested the engine much.

We live in a small town of about 2500 people in a rural area. So there are open highways with limited traffic only minutes away. We drove to the nearest gas station first to make certain we wouldn't run out of fuel. I didn't want to assume that the 40-some year old gas gauge was accurate. After finding a secluded area we proceeded to run it through the gears. It was pretty disappointing. Although it didn't seem to run bad, it was sorely lacking power. After a few minutes we returned home.

I popped open the hood to see if there were any tell-tale signs of a problem. Although I couldn't see anything wrong, I almost burnt my arm on one of the hood hinges. The engine temperature gauge hadn't even reached 180' yet. Further inspection revealed that the heat was coming off the exhaust. - A possible sign that we were running awfully lean. Without having any replacement jets on hand we decided to investigate the motor further. When we put a timing light on it we noticed something strange. The initial timing was set at around 16' BTDC at 850 RPM. As RPM increased, the advance kept climbing until it was over 70' advanced and still climbing. We had only gone to around 3200 RPM. As far as how the car seemed to be running, - it was very sluggish on the bottom end. Unless you took it up to over 4000 RPM when you left from a standing start, you couldn't even bark the tires. Over 4 grand and it seemed to develop a decent amount of torque and HP. There were no signs of detonation as the timing advanced. So I was confused. Too much timing could have caused an increase in engine temperature, but it didn't run like there was too much timing. When we felt the firewall behind the engine, - it was still cool and the intake and block were actually cooler than the inner fenderwells of the car. The heat was definitely coming off the exhaust. Adjusting the initial timing back and forth didn't affect the exhaust temp.

When they rebuilt the engine they installed a COMP cam. We aren't sure which cam because the previous owner never supplied us with the info. When we asked him over the phone about the build, he told us that the block had been milled but he didn't know how much. He couldn't tell us much more.

I began to wonder if the cam and crank were synchronized correctly. The prior owner had done the assembly and he didn't degree the camshaft. One other theory I had was that there wasn't enough valve lash after the block was milled. The engine was still running stock rocker arms and pushrods. So, I decided to test my theory by shimming the rocker shaft with some brass shim stock. The effect was that we seemed to lose some power and increased the valve train noise. I pulled the shims back out. I put a degree wheel on the front of the motor and used a piston stop to see if the 0' timing mark was accurate on the harmonic balancer. It seemed to be within 1'.

So I figured that I should focus on what I did find out from my tests. I was certain that we were getting way too much advance and indications were that we were probably running too lean. We have always been big proponents of MSD equipment, so we ordered an MSD Pro-billet distributor and an MSD Digital 6 Plus control box. Then I went ahead and ordered the full set of replacement Holley jets to experiment with.

When the parts arrived I began to play around with them. After doing multiple jet changes we ended up increasing the sizes by about 8. The exhaust temps normalized. The switch to the MSD equipment seemed to give us a substantial increase in power throughout the entire RPM range. Although not a super powerhouse, the car was beginning to behave respectfully.

We had a friend of mine test drive the car who was much more experienced with manual transmissions. He made some clutch adjustments which improved things but said that we should check our Z-bar bushings. When we did, we found that they were actually missing. He set us up with some extras he had on hand. Viola! The clutch problems were gone!

 

[1967 'cuda]

Did u say hemi superbird!a real one 4speed or auto?

There's quite a story on the Superbird. Yes it was a real Hemi 4-speed Superbird. It was actually (absolutely no bull) the very first Hemi Superbird that had been sold to the public. The story is hard to believe but it is true. - Back around 1976 a buddy and I were cruising around in my '70 Roadrunner when we spotted what looked like an orange Roadrunner behind a machine shop that I'd done business with in Lincoln, Nebraska. I had been keeping my eyes open for a Dana 60 to replace my single track 3.23 8&3/4 so whenever I spotted a potential donor car I'd check it out.

By all appearances it was another '70 Roadrunner. The car had been vandalized and abandoned. I crawled underneath to look and - sure enough, a Dana rear end. I came back the next day during business hours and asked Lewis (who owned the shop) what the story on the car was. He told me that a guy had brought it to him 3 or 4 years earlier after he'd scattered the Hemi, to have a 440 six pack motor rebuilt for it as a replacement mill. Apparently the Hemi had exploded so violently that the crank, block, and both heads were junk. Shortly after the guy had dropped off the car it was vandalized. Someone had bashed in the windshield, stolen the tires and wheels, stolen the bucket seats and stolen the hemi 4-speed. You could see on the side of the car where they had attempted to use a crowbar to pry one of the doors open. The car's owner was so discouraged that he left the car sit and never came back for it. The 440 six pack engine was still sitting in Lewis's shop.

The owner worked for Burlington Northern and apparently traveled a lot. He was difficult to get in touch with. After a few months of trying I finally succeeded. When I first mentioned the car over the phone, the guy got very apologetic. I guess he thought he was in trouble for abandoning it. When I explained to him that I wanted to buy it he was shocked. - Actually, I think he was thrilled. I offered him $150 for it. At that time, that was the going rate for a Dana 60. Without hesitation he agreed to sell me the car.

A week later I came with a trailer to pick it up. I hadn't questioned what kind of car it was. I was totally focused on getting the rear end. I mean, as far as I knew it was another Roadrunner that just happened to be beat up. Keep in mind that back in the mid seventies people were not looking at these muscle cars as having any real value beyond being fast transportation.

The first odd thing that I noticed about the car was the stainless steel trim on the windshield pillars. (also keep in mind that most people had never actually seen a Superbird in person and few people were familiar with them) Other than thinking it was different than my own car, it didn't mean much to me. After I got the car back to my parent's farm I unloaded it and popped open the trunk with a screwdriver (the lock was missing). I immediately noticed that the trunk did not open as far as the one on my car. That's when I finally realized that the back window was different too. But, believe it or not, I still didn't know what I had. I thought that maybe this was something similar to the Charger 500s that were made with the stainless windshield pillar trim and flush back windows. (in case I hadn't mentioned it, this car did have a Roadrunner front clip on it)

While cleaning out the trunk I saw the reinforcing brackets where the wing had been attached. Although still confused (hey I was still a teenager) I began to suspect this was a Superbird. Even though I considered putting it back together, it needed too much work. This was an era when completed (non-wrecked and running) Superbirds could easily be bought for $5000. A Hemi back then was around $2000. The front end sheet metal would have cost another $2000. - And used Hemi cars weren't considered to be worth a fortune like they are today.

A buddy of mine who I sometimes went racing with had mentioned to a few other guys that I had the car one day when he was racing up at Thunder Valley in South Dakota. They were from Bancroft, Nebraska. As it turned out they already owned several Hemi cars. One of them was a secretary for the NHOA (National Hemi Owners Association) and another was a treasurer for the same organization. After coming down to look at the car, they ran the numbers. According to what I was told this car was the 8th Superbird made. The first one made was apparently a Hemi car and one of the Chrysler factory execs had kept it. Then they made 6 Superbirds with 440s. Then they made this one. That would have made it the first Hemi Superbird that had been sold to the public.

I ended up selling them the car for the same price that I had paid. $150. But I kept the Dana 60 and the front Roadrunner clip. I also swapped out the instrument cluster with my Roadrunner. The one in the Superbird had 14,000 miles on it. Mine had over 70,000 miles showing. They were identical otherwise including the tic-toc-tachs. My reasoning behind that swap wasn't to make my car appear to have less miles but because I assumed that the one with less miles on it would outlive the other and I'd heard those tachs didn't live forever.

The story gets weirder. After I'd sold the car I thought maybe I should look for another Superbird. - One that wouldn't need near as much work. So, once again while I was driving around in Lincoln, Nebraska I spot what appears to be a yellow Superbird. This time there was a wing on the back but it did have a Roadrunner front. A short chase ensued before I was able to get the driver to stop. It was a girl. - She was the daughter of the Lancaster County Sheriff. Although her car was not a Superbird, the wing on the back was off of one. After some finagling I was able to buy the wing from her for $80. I was disappointed that I hadn't found a second 'bird this time but knew those guys down in Bancroft would be grateful I found them a wing. I sold it to them for the same $80.

About six months later while I was visiting another car buddy (Terry Richards from David City) I mentioned the fact that I'd found that wing. He laughed and told me that he knew how it had come to be on that Roadrunner. Years earlier he had been visiting a fellow auto body man in Ceresco, Nebraska. They had a wrecked Superbird inside the shop that they were converting into a Roadrunner. It had front collision damage and the owner had decided to jerk the nose off and replace it with regular Roadrunner sheet metal. When Terry saw the wing leaning against the fence outside, he asked them what they were going to do with it. That's when they laughed. Who'd ever want it? Terry bought it from them for $25 and sold it to his brother Tommy (from Rising City) who put it on his yellow '70 Roadrunner. So it turned out that after several years of having been separated from it's original wing, the Superbird got it back.

When Tommy Richards caught wind of the story, he contacted those guys in Bancroft and bought the Superbird from them. The last I'd heard about the car was that after completing it Tommy sold it to someone in Wisconsin or Minnesota? To this day though, the owners don't realize how few miles are on that car.

 

[69B5]

Welcome from western ny.
Very nice cars.
And quite the stories.
I enjoyed both

 

[1967 'cuda]

Welcome from western ny.
Very nice cars.
And quite the stories.
I enjoyed both

Thanks 69B5
I really need to spend more time out of this garage.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Throughout my life I had never been a die hard restoration guy. No matter how good a job the factory had done with their millions of dollars in research and development, there was always something I wanted to change when I got a car. Usually it was the tire/wheel combination first. I think it was the influence of the CARtoons I read growing up.

After getting the Roadrunner to behave respectfully on the road my son decided it was time to address the concerns with the radio. As sweet as the sound of a big block may be, sometimes a guy wants to hear some classic Rock and Roll while waiting in line at the Burger King drive thru. The static that the factory radio was putting out just wasn't cutting it. We knew enough not to toss the original tuner but it was slated for retirement on a shelf in the garage. We're not into building mobile boom boxes. We like hearing bass but not from the car that's 4 blocks away. Nowadays it's really hard to find a new stereo that isn't sporting micro sized buttons that are really hard to find while driving. There are a few retro radios made that are a lot more driver friendly and are a better fit in the old dashes. I was leaning towards one of those. But my son wanted something more. He felt that the Roadrunner deserved a system that more exemplified performance instead of one that was more akin to a wallflower at the prom. What he came up with was this. A JVC KD-AVX77.

What's so special about it? Well, for one thing it utilizes touch screen controls. That translates to having larger button surfaces that are easier to find while driving. It sounds good. - Very good. Without running any external amps it reproduces sound crisp and clear with great highs, lows, and mid-range. There are I-pod inputs. It can act as a DVD player if a person wanted to use it that way. (we weren't that concerned about that option) It could also be used as a monitor for a back-up camera system. (we didn't care about that option either) What we REALLY liked was that it could display wallpaper. - That's right. Wallpaper. Just as a person likes to display their own custom background images on their computer screens, now we could do it in the car.

The obvious choice for wallpaper in the Roadrunner was to put a picture of a Roadrunner on the background. The radio is only capable of storing 4 images at a time, but you can always swap them out later if you want.

There are settings that you can adjust that will make the buttons disappear until your hand gets close to the touch screen or you can have them visible at all times.

'Lil Roadrunner rockin' out to the tunes in the back seat.

 

[1967 'cuda]

To prevent having to cut the original plastic radio bezel I bought a reproduction radio delete plate. - (Hard to believe they ask $100 for them.) While I had the dash apart I found an old insurance card that had fallen behind it and was sitting in the dash frame. According to information on the card, the owner was from the Boston area.

Just for the heck of it I decided to see if I could find him. The internet can really be great sometimes. After doing a Google search for his name I came up with a phone number. Although I wasn't certain that I had the right person I gave him a call. After introducing myself I asked him whether or not he used to own a 1970 Roadrunner. He hesitated for a bit (I suppose the question seemed odd to him). But then he said yes. He had bought one new back in 1970. As we chatted he gave me some of the car's history. He confirmed that the tach in it was not original and said that he used to have an aftermarket tach mounted under the dash overhang in that same area. He had used it as a combination street/strip vehicle for quite a few years, during which time the original 383 had been scattered. He'd run several other power plants in it and had gotten it to run into the 11s.

One thing that I had failed to mention when I originally started this thread was that the car had a salvage title. I was hoping that the original owner might know why.

He told me that the accident happened while he owned it. Back in 1982 he was in the habit of parking the car on the street in front of his house. One day a woman was driving by with her kid in her car. It was the child's birthday and she had bought him a helium filled balloon. As they were going down the street, the balloon went out the window. In an attempt to see where it was going she took her eyes off the road. That's when she ran into the front passenger side of the Roadrunner. Although not terribly damaged, the insurance company decided to total the car. When they'd picked it up, that was the last time he'd ever seen or heard anything about it. He had assumed it'd been parted out and crushed.

I sent him what pictures that I had of the car, and send him updates on it as we make progress. He surprised me by telling me that he still had the original owners manual and window sticker from when he'd bought it. He sent them to us. He also sent me a copy of a picture that he kept, - showing him working on the car back in the seventies. He's semi-retired now and spends his time restoring old Harleys.

This is the picture that he sent us.


By the way, I looked underneath the dash overhang where he'd told me he had mounted his tach and I could still see the 2 holes he'd drilled.

 

[Bee Keeper]

Great stories and a fine looking bird!

"Welcome Aboard!"