Keep up the good work Kevin, your doing a great job!

some pretty big steps made on the car in the last week and a half. got the from suspension pretty much done. just need to do the brakes and a couple small odd stuff. turned out pretty good. I used krylon battery protector to duplicate the cosmoline. turned out pretty good.

also, i still have to get the sway bar bushings.. so please dont mind that haha

steering stuff together. I put earlier that I had firm feel rebuild my original box to stage 3 specs. I went pretty thin on paint for the box as well as the supplier to chrysler always had it pretty thin.. all the bare metal parts are unpainted, but treated with ECS's RPM. works very well imo. the ball joints are all spicer bought from Bill Rolik

more stuff put on in the engine bay. just waiting for a motor! of which I should be getting this coming week

last one for now. my pride and joy for MANY COUNTLESS HOURS!! as some of you know, 71 roadrunner grills had natural black plastic for the black-out area. I obviously couldn't have it any other way so I hunted for a long time for a suitable true roadrunner/ gtx grill. I found one on ebay and bought it come to find out it had been spray bombed black (after I had asked if it was with an answer of NO) I decided to keep it and mess around with it. after several attempts to chemically strip the paint with easy off oven cleaner, it didn't make it any better. I then got walnut media for my blast cabinet and very lightly (60 psi) blasted the grill. after if was paint free, I used light steel wool to get a more natural look and I think it turned out great. it would have certainly been easier to paint it black again lol. the silver I used a krylon nickle shimmer metallic that I think looks pretty close to some original grills Ive seem. the bumper is chromed by AMS who did and awesome job (some sticker still stuck to the top..)

Your resto work is looking great. Switch all the upper control arm cam bolt assys around (if all of the cam bolts are installed the same way as the last pic). Washers and nuts should be seen in the engine compartment.

Looking good Kevin. Keep up the good work.

thanks! i saw you ryan at the mopars in the park, i was going to say hi, but you were talking to another guy. your gtx looks awesome! I hope my roadrunner turns out as nice as your car.

I have a few more updates on its way. I haven't had a lot of time to get pictures up yet. soon!

Coming along nicely...

Good to see another 'fuselage' being resurrected...

Those of us who've pulled 'em all the way down know what it takes...


On your park lights...

I've never seen a '71 RR with anything other than amber lenses...

GTX lenses display 'RS23'...

Amazing work ! Cant wait to see what it runs !

Ive been trying to upload pictures onto my home computer, but I think I might have a virus, its not letting me.. Ive had to push back the dyno until this friday due to my pertronix not coming. I am all set to go now though. Ill keep working on the computer problem also!

well got the FAST motor dynoed on friday and Jeff hit his mark and then some my best pull with headers was 512 hp and 539 ft lbs of torque! Ill have to scan the dyno sheets when I have an opportunity. the manifolds weren't quite as impressive, but what do you expect. I dont remember the numbers for those off the top of my head.

also, still waiting to get my computer fixed. the house we were renting sold so I am in the process of moving and thats consuming my time in the last week.

Did you have Jeff from Wheelers do your engine? He's doing our max wedge right now.

Wow Kevin those are some stout numbers! Was that dyno pull run with headers? Which intake? Heads. Compression, Cam, Carb with or W/O a choke? etc.? Love to hear some details

I did the motor and it was a lot of fun doing something like this for what may be the heaviest of muscle car era 340 cars (I was guessing close to 4000 lbs). The motor was built with more emphasis on mid/upper-mid torque than peak HP because of the application. I think Kevin will really be happy driving this car.

It is a pump gas (9.9:1 compression) FAST motor. The heads and intake are true 71 340 castings along with a 4973 71 thermoquad. The cam is a solid flat tappet (similar results could have been achieved with a hydraulic on this one but Kevin had a preference for a solid and he wanted a real noticeable idle).

He called me after the dyno session. The best numbers with headers(he didnt know size of the headers) were 515HP and 539 TQ. The B-body manifolds yielded 474 HP at 5800 RPM and 496 TQ at 4500 RPM. He ran the carb with the choke installed and he did not have any jets to lean out the carb with the manifolds. This along with two recommendations ( extra speed secrets) I gave him will bump it to 500HP and well over 500 ft-lbs with manifolds when he gets around to it. They ran 91 octane pump gas (didnt know what brand)

Note on manifolds: This was the first set of b-body manifolds I have ever ported. They are restrictive. I would describe the drive side as almost identical to the 71 A/B passenger side but with the dump in the rear rather than the center. Also the exits on both are 1 7/8 rather than 2 1/4 on the A pass side.

BTW after seeing some of the pics of the restoration in this thread I have to say I am pretty impressed. I believe Kevin is only 21 years old.

Where was the engine Dyno'd Jeff?