73 Roadrunner - Street/Strip Build

I've actually had this car for awhile and expected to move on it faster than I have so I figured I would start a project thread on it to encourage me to continue making progress on it.

When I picked this one up about 12 years ago I was actually only looking for a roof for a Satellite of mine when 65BelvJim offered this car up.

When I picked it up it had been pretty well stripped as you can see in the first picture. No rear end, no leaf springs, no hood, no motor, no transmission no glass and no interior. To make matters worse, it was a rubber floor mat car and as a result of years of neglect, the floors were shot.

Now that I actually read that typed out, I may understand why Jim was trying to sell it to me for the roof. Lol.

That didn't stop me though. I drug it home anyhow and have been collecting parts for it over the years with the dream of some day putting it back together.

The foundation for the build is an original 71 B Body Dana 60 with 35 spline axles and 4.88 gears, a 4 speed conversion and a 451 with about 12.5:1 compression and a bunch of nitrous. In an effort to get running sooner than later, I may leave the 451 out for a bit and utilize a mild 440 that I've had sitting on a stand for years.

So after 12 years of ownership, getting married and 3 kids later, here it is. Enjoy. -Trent


As it sat when I bought it...

With no rear end, missing rotors and no steering components someone was pretty aggressive moving it around at some point. As a result the lower core support and valance took a beating. I'm hoping to have both items replaced this weekend.

I should add, I have been lucky enough to source several original red body panels for replacement. I am going to leave the original paint for awhile and just enjoy the car so to find the red parts was pretty nice.

Cool. Good story, and bring on the pics. I love watching cars progress. Good luck. We're watching you...

Trent, all I can say is I tip my hat to you. Wow..what determination..may the force be with you on the build. Proud of your effort! now make with the pictures
HR 20

Since the weather has heated up, works been crazy and I haven't made a ton of headway on the car but figured I would post a few progress pics.

I got the old lower core support cut out and straightened the radiator flanges back out for the most part although they still need some fine tuning. I glass beaded the replacement lower support, repaired a couple of the mounting flanges and have it clamped in place for now. I would have welded it in place this weekend but some schmuck stole our shop welder out of one of the trucks so this weekend I focused my efforts cleaning up the pack rat nest in the trunk and spraying the spider webs off while I was at it. Hopefully I'll have more progress to post about in a couple weeks. -Trent

Made a bit more headway this weekend. Got the rest of the old floor pan out and set the replacement in for the time being. I still need to finish some prep work before it goes in and stays in. I was able to remove the donor pan in one piece through the window openings on the parts car but after screwing around for a bit today, decided to install it in two pieces to make my life easier. It's been years since I removed it and how I got it out in one piece is beyond me.

Way to stick with it, nice work too.

great work, and glad to see another '73 saved. my first mopar was a '73 340 4 speed runner.

Thanks guys! -Trent

Keep up the progress on it...I am rooting for ya.

Looking good.

yep looking really good. it will be a cool car once it is done.

Not a ton of progress but slowly moving along. I started cleaning up a set of hood hinges for it a couple weeks ago. They are both glass beaded now but need to be test fit before I commit to using them. I think they'll be okay though. I also got a steering column for it and a trunk lock so I can stop using a screwdriver to get in there every time I work on it. It's amazing how having a keyed lock makes it seem more like a car again. It's the little things.

Speaking of trunk locks, I was comparing the newly acquired one to some of the others I had on my other cars and was trying to decide which style was correct. Majority won and I ended up using the one with the larger lock nut. I did weigh them for reference since I'm trying to go fast and at first was disappointed with the fact I had chosen to use the heavier one. After pondering on it for a bit though I concluded if I was going to use a heavier anything, the back of the trunk was the place to put it.

Little more progress today. I got the hood hinges bolted on and pretty much adjusted. They seem to operate well so eventually I'll pull them back off, finish cleaning them up the rest of the way and get them ready for paint.

Using my GTX as a reference, I made a template of the big block passenger side inner fender cutout. Using reference points I then transferred the template over to the Roadrunner's small block inner fender in several pieces. After a bit of work the rough cut is made and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I still need to go back and roll the edges I left behind but that's a project for another day.

Finally got some more time to work on the car again. Since I need to modify my motor mounts to accommodate the big block, I brought home a spare 383 I had at the shop and set it in the car along with the transmission to start lining things up. I also cleaned up a spare manual steering box I had, threw on a new pitman arm and swapped it for the power steering box that was in the car. I've had a set of 5209 Hooker Super Comps sitting around which I purchased with hopes of using on the build so I figured this was as good a time as any to see if they'd fit or should I say what it would take to make them fit. After looking at it for awhile, and sleeping on it for a few days, I've decided it's not worth the hassle to use the 5209's and swapped them out for a set of 2" CPPA headers I had laying around for another project. Although they fit nicely, I'm not sure that I'll end up using them either. May look at using the #5101's instead...

As far as engine placement goes, I was hoping to move the motor back a touch since I would be modifying the mounts anyhow. However, setting the position based on the stock transmission mount location has the scattersheild already hitting on the firewall seam so I'm not sure it's going to go back as much as I hoped or at least as easily I hoped.