Hey guys. Well I'm in the process of trying to start the restoration on my 71' Roadrunner. Where I'm at is basically square one. The car is all original and I have started disassembly under the hood.

What I'm looking for is advice. What steps do you guys use to start gathering parts? Do you start with gathering parts for the suspension, engine, or interior?

The one thing I learned from my father's restoration on his 67' Dart GTS was not to build the engine too soon. His 440 sat on the stand for several years if I remember right before it was in the car and ready for break-in. Does that amount of time cause any issues as far as parts weakening or gathering internal dust/contaminants?

All I've gathered so far is new seat covers, correct carpet, headliner, and a complete reprint of the 1971 chassis and body manual.

Any help and advice is appreciated.

Im still pretty much in your spot. I've had my RR since 2006, and I haven't really accomplished much yet.

I started with the drivetrain stuff first. Once I got it driveable, which took several years, I finally got to drive it. I enjoyed 2 summer's with it. I had already started gathering body parts though, and some interior pieces here and there.

Last year we started the tear down with the body work. I tried to have most of the parts ready to go, but things were worse than we thought once we got going. My ability to buy new metal has somewhat slowed me down, as im on a tight budget. Sad to say, but I haven't driven mine last year or this year. By next summer, I hope to have the bodywork done, and have it in primer. I probably wont be able to buy paint next year, but I hope to at least have it back on the road.

Anyways, you gotta decide what you want done first, and start there. I typically try to knock out the most expensive part first, then continue with the little pieces.

First step is to retire, so you can do this full time.

Disassembly with notes and photos is a good start. You can file parts and photos using the shop manual index, such as 7 for Cooling System, 7-3 for fan, 7-4 for water pump, etc.

It’s a good idea to never buy any part until the old one is off the car, cleaned, and evaluated. Figure out who is selling what, and know their return policy, especially if you can’t see the part unless you buy it. Buying errors will cause you to re-buy, and you’ll end up with 150% of the parts you need, rather than just 120%. But for a few parts that are very important, very visible, and very hard to find, be ready to decide quickly to pay big bucks for an excellent, verifiable part that’s just what you wanted.

See a recommended assembly sequence here:
http://www.restorick.com/tech/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=58

Take tons and tons of pictures, pictures of everything, even things that don't make sense to take pictures of. Later, you'll be looking for a picture of something that you wish you'd taken a picture of, and it will show up in one of these other pictures. Bag and tag everything. Put small parts in bags, and put multiple bags for assemblies into bigger bags. Put these in boxes, and keep everything in the same area. Take pictures of EVERYTHING before and as you're disassembling it. You will NOT look at these pictures later and be mad that you took too many.

As for parts to buy, you need to come up with your plan for the big operations, and then decide what parts you need for these. You should keep an eye out for key, hard-to-find things as the other poster said, and buy these as soon as you find them. Everything can be sold later if you don't need it. Other things, which you can buy at retail, you can hold off on to an extent, but be aware that some parts take time to get even at retail, so make sure they're not on backorder.

Probably not a bad idea to hold off on the engine and trans. These are things that can usually be done in an anticipated amount of time. Other things, like body work and/or paint may not be so easily anticipated. My engine only sat around for a year and a half, but no problems. It was fogged and bagged. It WAS broken in prior to this.

Good to get stuff off that needs to be stripped, and get this turned around and then painted, then they'll be ready when you need them.

Finally, I think someone else said it before, but make sure you do your math for the cost of the project. Take what you're anticipating it to cost, and multiply this by 2.5. That's about where it will end up.

I like to pick up any body parts I need first. Then I'll go to the suspension. So I can get it in paint then rolling. Followed by brakes, then trim and so on. Then on to drivetrain and interior last. However I won't pass up on good deals on any of the steps.

The drivetrain is a 1/3 done. I had a friend of mine take my spare 69' dated four speed to his college class that he was taking on rebuilding transmissions. Had it rebuilt for free and his professor said it was the cleanest looking stick trans he had ever seen inside and out. I also have a spare 69' dated 383 HP block that was given to me, so I'm putting in a complete 69' dated HP drivetrain in place of my numbers matching one so I'm not putting any added wear on the original parts.

Be nice if I could retire.

Appreciate all the info and tips so far.

Do yourself a favor and sell what you have, save your $$$, and buy one done! In the fall sell it, relax over the winter, and buy another one in the spring. Enjoy it all summer and sell it in the fall. Keep repeating this until your tired or retired.
My two cents..... https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

Rusty

#1 rule: bag and tag
#2 rule: see #1

Couple of thousand parts on these cars. Take lotsa reference pix before dissassembly. Try to preserve or replicate original markings.

Buy from reputable vendors who have staying power and good return policies.

It will take (at least) twice as long as you plan for.

Try to find a body shop that will quote a price rather than hourly fee.

Have fun

With taggin n baggin and LOTS of pix. Lots of GREAT info and advice from all here. I save my pix to certain folders on my computer...ie suspension, interior, fuel, brakes, etc.

Along with bag and tag, create lists.
As you remove items, clean and determine if cleaning or replacement is needed. Create lists of parts you need. There will always be small items you forget were missing/broken and these are what can bring you to a halt when assembling.
Read other's builds and make a list of suppliers, both good and bad.
Also understand that a car apart will take up a HUGE amount of space and you will want to be able to keep track of it all.

That's funny about the space, but you're right, I noticed that too. A car is an extremely efficient and safe container for it's own parts. When disassembled, it's shocking how much space they take up. Parts become prone to damage, and it's easy to lose track of things. I'd still like to know where my antenna mast went...

I don't plan on selling this car. Has all the options I want and is the car I've always wanted. Me being my age, I was amazed to find a true RM23 roadrunner and being able to get it and say its my second car I've ever owned.

When I took the engine bay apart, I took a million pics and tagged everything. My father did a 20 year restoration on his GTS Dart and only had a video to go off of. He told me when I started disassembly that I need to take pictures of everything.

I've got a 1500 square foot garage so having enough space isn't a problem. I do all my own body work, paint, welding, fab, and engine building. I save a lot of money this way and the only thing I really outsource is getting the exhaust done, but I may just buy a kit for this one so its a bolt-in/weld deal.

I don't bag individual parts. The time it would take to do that and label them would add a lot of time to restoring a car. I just put all the bolts/screws for one door together, fender/hood hinge/hood bolts, suspension and so on together. After you after taken so many of them apart and put them back together you learn where the parts go Pictures are always a plus, now there I say you can never have too many.

Do yourself a favor and bag,tag and label everything so you know what goes where when it's time. If your going to use original bolts and screws it gives you a future reference of bolt head markings etc. This saves a ton time and cuts the chase when assembly starts. The first thing is take a lot of pictures and organize them by catagory, under hood, chassis, interior, trunk area etc and put them in their own envelope, again for future reference. After you gut the car you need to look the car over and secure as much clean sheet metal as you can for any replacement.
If your going back with the same engine combination and interior combination and you can afford to stash some parts, buy them now and store them in the end it will save you a lot of money by avoiding all the price increases as time marches on during the restoration. Put all parts your buying in rubber maid tubs and again organize by catagory, rubber parts, interior, underhood, trunk, chassis etc. This is the number one time saver when you start the assembly, no wasted time searching for parts etc because you have it organized and know where to look for it.
I could go on and on but this should have given you an idea. It's all about organization, labeling, and storage of parts secured etc. Keep an inventory of the stored parts in each rubber maid tub by catagory, this will help you know what you have bought and what you haven't.

logan426

One thing I would add about storing the parts...do yourself a favor and buy various sizes of clear PLASTIC bins to store the bags of parts. Label the bin with a piece of paper and some tape from the inside. I stored my stuff in cardboard boxes and with the weight of them, the humidity in the garage various exposures to water and with the time they say, many of the boxes ended up collapsing and damaging some parts. Clear PLASTIC bins.

Also, use pencil when you label things. The pencil will not smear, fade or wash away like many inks do.

Seems to me the dividing line in the sand is whether or not you want to restore the fasteners and such minor details.

If you are going to restore about 2,000 fasteners in multiple original finishes, you have to do this in piles, which means you can't leave them in bins with the main parts. Afterwards, to go from restored piles back to exactly where the fasteners came from, you're going to have to be well organized.

If you have an original, one-owner, numbers-matching, unmolested, unwrecked car or close to this, and you want to restore it righteously, you probably need to get organized, take a lot of time, and act like an amateur museum curator. That's me.

But if I had pieces of a picked-over junkyard basket case that could never be more than a wannabe clone, I'd be working a lot faster and taking a "that looks good enough to me" attitude.

To each his own, but this is a restoration forum, right?

All set on the clear plastic bins lol my old man told me to stay the hell away from cardboard boxes.

I'm technically the third owner and yes this car is very unmolested minus some small cosmetics. Wires have not been tapped into or snipped anywhere and the only thing missing are the original road wheels. I don't plan on going crazy with the fasteners as far as which have the correct finishes. I do plan on doing a lot of driving to events such as the Nats and Cruisin the Coast.

If you are ok using reproduction parts, I would start with the items produced in limited quantities. For example, I imagine those 71 'Cuda grilles will be produced for x-number of months, satisfying all those who need them. If there are similar parts for your Roadrunner, get them now.
The mechanical stuff will likely be around a lot longer than grilles, trim, and so forth.