68 Roadrunner Project: More Progress

Hahaha, those air shocks are in the garbage!
I picked up some Napa Response shocks to go in the rear. Those air shocks had seen better days. I also prepped the frame rails and painted them with rust encapsulator, just dont have any pics of that. Guess I was too excited to put the trunk in lol.

Thank rrunner, If I need something I'll definetly PM you.

Great work! Glad to see another 68 RR saved.

Great Work!!! What areas were you able to get that spot welder in? I'm getting ready to do the one in my Sport Satellite convertible. Any tips will be greatly appreciated!!

Wow! Great work! It took me two years to get that far. Of course I added 2 family members, moved, and had a couple of 3000 hour work years in there too, but what the heck. Keep it up!

Love those 68s!

I was able to use the spot welder to weld the lower quarters to the trunk wings, and also weld the wings to the center trunk pan from under-neath.

If you have any other questions about trunk install shoot me a pm or question in this thread.

Thanks for the comments guys, gives me more motivation, I'm going to start grinding down the welds this week.

Nice work! I'm going to be doing some of that on my 68 GTX soon, thanks for the pics and updates, keep 'em coming.

Did you put rust encapsulator on the inside of the trunk frame rails? What kind did you use? How about on the top part of the rails where the spot welds are, did you use a weld through primer on that? Thanks in advance.

Yes, I spent hours and hours wire brushing the framerails and I coated them with about 5 coats of rust encapsulator.(I used Rustoleum brand) I left the top of the rails unpainted and dusted them with a very light layer of weld-thru primer.

Unfortunately I can't find pics of that, I think I was too excited to get the trunk back in.

Nice Job

I am doing a 69 right now. I am at about the same part as you. Nice work. Keep it up

Looks almost identical to what I'm doing.

68sportsatvert, The frame I got from you awhile back is in the car and it drives straight as an arrow. Hopefully it will be painted come springtime! it's been a ton of work...

AWESOME!! Waive - I'd love to see some pics! You've done a ton more to yours than I've done to mine. Well done my friend!!

I just love seeing pics of project cars and the owner doing the work themselves. good job

finished up doing the brakes shoes in wheel cylinders all around on the car. DAMN , i couldn't believe the size of those roadrunner drums!

i finally got around to grinding down the welds on the passenger quarter panel. I even started some bodywork, it's coming along.

Pavell, awesome color combo on that RR! keep the pics coming.

Way to go Pavell!!!! We're in the same boat and I'm hoisting out the engine/trans today with( if you can believe this one) my wife!!! Provided I get the engine hoist rented, that is. I'll be posting pics of that on my website this weekend if all goes according to plan. Then it's time to break out the plasma cutter and have some fun. I'm sure I'll be emailing you for some pics of that trunk/quarter/everything replacement too.

Cheers

Very nice work. I do like the 68 Runners. Ron

Thanks for the comments guys. It gives me more motivation!!

I did alot more bodywork on the quarters this weekend. It sure is alot of work. My estimate is by Christmas I'll have the quarters done. I'll keep you guys updated.

Well guys, the passenger side quarter panel is almost done. The drivers side is about 60%. The Roadrunner Body lines are staring to take shape. No wonder people like B-bodies so much, I now see the beautiful body lines .


heres the passenger side, I sprayed it with some rattle can primer to check out my work . My arms are tired haha.





Drivers side, still needs some work. She's come a very long way.

it's been six years since i finished mine. seeing stuff like this gives me the itch. nice job!! don't burn yourself out, just keep the steady progress going.

That is nice work. Did that car come out of North Dakota if so what part of the state? Good luck with your project please continue with the pics.

Yes the car came from Minot, North Dakota.

The guy I bought it from trailered it down form North Dakota. He brought it to a shop to get it restored and must have been shocked at the price they quoted him .

The car still has North Dakota plates registered in 96'. So I guess they were still driving it till 1996 .

Thanks for the update!! keep it up, love the 68's

68 is THE muscle car! Keep up the good work! We are just about at the exact same point(you're out in front with your filler, too cold to risk here). Confidence with every day. Good luck and keep the pics coming...

picked up some new wheels for the Roadrunner at the Mopar Swap Meet in Melbourne, FL. I got the wheels and tires for $600.00. The wheels are American Racing Torque Thrust II's. 14x7 in the front and 15x8.5 in the rear. The tires are BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. The front tires and brand new and the rears have about 70% tread, they are very dusty in the pic sorry .The guy I bought the wheel and tire combo from had it on a 1970 Roadrunner and then sold the car. These wheels and tires should look great on the roadrunner, and give it that muscle car look with the 275/60/15 meats in the rear! I'm still in college and selling stuff on ebay to afford parts for this Roadrunner, so these used wheels definetly fit the bill.

We primered the underside of the hood and the underside of the trunk. My dad and I are restoring this car together as a father son project. My dad really wanted to go with the famous "Vitamin C Orange" color for this car as he loved Vit-C Mopars growing up. I think it will look great on the roadrunner combined with the black out hood. Check out the shots of the orange, I personally love the color, its not original for 68', but I'm no purist.

That paint looks great and it looks like your making good progress! I'm planning to do a color change on mine from fugly green to red. Were your frame rails in good shape?

Yep, the rail had some surface rust that I took a wire wheel to for many hours haha. The only bad part, was the bumper brackets were kind of rusted away, I had to fabricate my own mounts and then I was fine. But the actual frame rails themselves were actually solid, compared to how bad the rest of the car was, thankfully!

Waiveraider, what kind of red are you going to do?

Are you going to paint the rest of the car yourself? You've done a great job with the bodywork and paint gun. I've got just a little more rust then you. Here's a couple of pics of my cancer.

I just picked up a 70 Sport Satellite in about the same condition as your car. I have been reading this thread and getting inspired. Thanks for all the updates. Maybe I will start a thread of the progress of my car as well. I am trying to get it done in time for SEMA this November!

Waiveraider, yea thats going to take some surgey, but nothing that can't be done. I believe they sell that part of the frame that you can weld in right??I learned how to do all of this stuff the hard way though trial and error. Thats all it takes. Time and money lol. Besides it's so much fun doing the work yourself.

Also I have a friend that replaced his quarters on a 1969 firebird convertible, he also helped me out bigtime in giving me advice at certain stages of the build.

The secret is to work on the car little bits at a time, at first I was extremely overwhelmed with the project, considering the amount of sheetmetal repair that I had to do. But I took it one step at a time. Go out the in garage and do one small job a day. After a couple months you start to make alot of progress. I've never even used a paint gun before but I learned how to do it. It's not so hard!. I will be painting the jams and trunk by myself, but will have someone else lay down the color on the actual body. I paid $300-400 bucks to have my camaro painted and it came out great. It's all in the prep work!

MaXRSmart: lets see some pics of the 70' Sport Satellite!!

Pavell, I spent the day in the garage cutting and grinding. Your right, just have to do a little at a time. I've been afraid to try painting. When it's time, I may try doing the bottom of the hood. BTW, what part of FL are you in? My parents winter in Ft. Meyers.

I'm on the opposite side of the state. Fort Meyers is on the West Side of FL. I'm in West Palm Beach area, which is on the east coast.

Definetly make a thread documenting the 68' Satellite Vert. Keep up updated on the progress too!

last I knew my 68 went to your neck of the woods...sarasota i think I miss my 68 more than anything ive ever had...68 b5 50k orig 383 auto also my first mopar ill include a pic...if anyones got it id love to have it back!

pnypwr, sweet RR, I love the flat blackout hoood on it. Maybe I'll see it in FL one day.

if you do let me know id have to do some creative financing but id love to have that one back!

this is what replaced it however

some of the underhood and trunk need to be touched up a bit, but it's coming along.

Awesome job (don't forget the grille black out)

alot more progress has been made on the roadrunner. I have had to pull the motor mounts and replace the freeze plugs back, there so she's running great. I installed a Full 2.5 inch Jeg's Dual Exhaust system, it looks and sounds great. I even took the Roadrunner for a drive around the block. It's been the car's first time on the road since 1991.

The car's prep for paint is all done. She should look great. It's going to go to the paint booth this weekend, and get a nice shade of Vitamin-C Orange! Will keep you guys updated.

Heres the progress so far.

Great job! I did a search for this thread just the other day. I didn't notice what type of paint your using. Can you tell me the brand and are you using Urethane or Base Coat/Clear Coat?

Looking great!

I'm still not sure if I'm going urethane or base/clear. I'll have to see what the prices are.

But the brand of paint is Sherwin Williams.

I'll get the specs on it when I go to the paint shop. Hopefully they'll spray it Friday afternoon, so I can pick it up Saturday. They also bake the paint, so it cures.

It's going to be a big day, We've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on this car in the past year. Seeing it in paint is a big step.

What did you use for under the trunk lid, hood and jams? I've been thinking of going with Urethane on those sections and BC/CC for the outer body.

Finished my drivers side torsion mount and floor pan about 2 weeks ago. I didn't think I'd have to replace the pass side torsion mount, but it's FUBAR too! I hope to have that and the floor pan installed within a few weeks, then I can start sanding on the body! With any luck, I'll have it painted by the 4th of July.

Waveraider: did you have to do the rear quarters on that car?

Yes, I did quarters, outer wheel housings and trunk floor. I did my quarters almost identical to yours.



Here's my drivers floor board cut out and you can see the repaired torsion mount. Also a pic of the test fit floor pan. Turned out pretty good.

waveraider: that frame work is very nice! I hope to see yours done this summer as well. Can't beat those B-body Verts!

Sweeeeeeeeet, It's nice to see another 68 saved. It's even better that it's a post.

just an FYI, if you use a different type of paint on the outside than you did the jambs you will almost certainly have a color match problem.

In the perfect world I'd probably have the shop do the jams as well.

Although I'm on a strict budget, so no big deal. This car is no show car. It's just a nice driver that I'm doing myself. I can't pay anybody to do anything.

I hear ya.

I couldn't get my hands on a trailer, all of the U-haul rentals were taken.

I'm going to try to get a trailer Saturday morning and bring it over to the shop.

Worst comes to worst, I'll bring it over next Friday when I can reserve a trailer.

pavell, who is spraying it?

Looks good Pav! I just completed fabbing up my frames. I'll be in paint by.....uhhhh...paint? You mean cars are painted? I thought they just rusted?

Cheers

rruner: a local shop in Jupiter, one of my buddy's friends is giving me a deal. I've gotten 4 or 5 cars painted by them before.

68RRFlyer: Those rails look great! I can't believe how much work that must have been.

I couldn't get my hands on a trailer this weekend, UHaul has them all booked up. Paint might have to wait till next weekend.

68RRFlyer, those rails are sweet!

I ended up just driving it to the paint shop today at 9am.

Will pick it up on Monday or Tuesday. Pics will be posted soon.

Cannot wait to see this bad boy in color!

It's done , 1 yr later.
The paint came out pretty nice. It's no show car, but pretty nice for doing everything myself.

nice work!

EXCELLENT!!

Looks great

I am hoping to paint next week

Nice job!

That gives me so much more ambition to get mine done. I've made a lot of progress on mine this year so far but I still have SO much work left to do. That looks sweet though and can't wait to see pictures of it all done. Nice work!

Very nice.

Looking good. Good to see you did most of the work yourself. Not many are willing to learn a little hard work. Nothing better then saying YOU did it once it's finished anyways.

I haven't even seen my RR in a few weeks now. probably will not get to touch it for another year.

Jeff

That looks awesome man! Great job. It's a good feeling when you know you did it yourself. I'll cut and weld pretty much anything, but paint? I'mma gonna leave that to someone who knows what they're doing! I don't feel like learning on this one. Keep up the good work!

Cheers

For all of you doing your own work I would like to offer some helpful tips. Great work, thanks for sharing.

When you bondo a panel do not just apply it and walk away. Instead wait for it to set up and immediately file it smooth with a "cheese grater" type file[s]. Then let it harden a little further and sand till 2 steps a way from a finished surface. Then if you can let it sit for a few days before finish sanding & priming. I cover my work with the correct plastic to protect it in between steps.




As for application of primers and paints.
You need more than a respirator... Shorts and short sleeve t shirts are not a good idea due to the health risks of the chemicals involved.

You should be covered completely, preferably with the correct coveralls, head sock, safety glasses, nitrile gloves and the proper respirator. A shower is the next thing you do when the painting and clean up is done.

Adequate ventilation is important so do something about it. A roll of duct tape & plastic along with a regular box fan can do wonders.

Wear a welding respirator when welding.

Why are you putting so much bondo on that it just ends up floor in little cheese grater curls.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. I apreciate it!

I got the bumpers and grill back on today, and took the car to it's first monthly cruise-in. Parked next to a guy w/ a red 69 RR Vert.

Will post pics soon.

Good for you

It must have been a ball pulling in to the cruise in. I would think that is what it is all about.

Dean

Awesome job sharing your resto. It really looks good!! You have agained alot of knowledge in the journey. It sounds like there are a few more folks out there in the similar stages. I am hoping to be where you are...in a few months. Still a little cool here for skim filler coats.

Pavell, It turned out really nice! Did you end up going with a single stage paint, or base coat/clear coat?

Hey waveraider, sorry I didnt check back at this thread sooner.

We ended up going with a Sherwin Williams single stage paint, it was a pretty good match to the PPG omni single stage that I sprayed the jams and engine compartment with.

I now have the front bumper, rear bumper on, and the two door panels in. Just in the process of putting in the carpets tommorow!

btw, I just bought a 70' Super Bee, will post pics of it in another thread, its in alot better shape than this roadrunner was in as well haha.

Thanks for the info Pavell. I am going with R4 Red and was wondering about the shine of a SS vs BC/CC on a bright color. I think I'll go the same route.

BTW, nothing more wicked than the front end of those '70 Bee's. Looking forward to seeing the progress of that as well.

If you want to spend a little extra I guess it wouldn't hurt to do BC/CC, if you really want it to pop. You can't beat the deepness of the BC/CC. But it all comes down to the body work, cheap paint or expensive paint it doesn't matter. The bodywork is the deciding factor really.

My cars are no show cars, so I just go for the budget paint. But that Vert will look great in R4 red.

btw: the 70 bee pics are up in the resto/a12 forum now

Looks great; thanks for sharing your progess pix.

Great job Pavell, Your posting has helped keep me moving on my 69. Starting reassembly of the bottom of the car today to get it off the roisserie.

Waveraider, I am using BC/CC on my RR. It is originally an R4 car. I am using PRN(Viper Red) very simular to R4. I will put more pictures on my page tomorrow. Then you can see if you like the look. Hopefully when done mine will look as nice as Pavell's

sorry guys, its been a while since I updated the thread. I've put all the bumpers back on and have been driving the car alot! Although it got close to overheating one day. I have now installed an aluminum radiator and electric pusher fan to keep it cool. Pictures of the rad setup soon to come as well.