Finally have my Roadrunner on the road!

It has been a long time since I logged in to moparts. Like many others, work, life, other interests, and some issues with my car led me to taking a break from the car scene. I purchased my roadrunner back in 2008 and it has been an adventure, a struggle, and somewhat of a sad story. The car was in rough shape when i bought her, I didn't realize she was dented, rusty, bent body, and missing most of her wiring when i got her. It was all hidden under a layer of bondo and black paint! The previous owner was very honest about the car and how little he knew about it, she had been a drag racer in oregon for years. The engine was installed but little was known about it either...it was a nice looking 440 that we inspected and ran well.

The old girl went to the body shop and thats where we found the issues...no choice but to fix them at this point. We replaced a quarter panel, the area under the rear window, and a few other spots. My buddy Larry was helping me the whole time, storing parts, working on it with me, teaching me, etc. His friend Ron did the body work and i was happy with what he did - given what we found!

The paint job came out well...not perfect but very nice. I decided to paint it the factory R4 red and keep the interior black. Larry and his friend Robbie helped me get the engine dialed in (showed me how to do it is more like it). We put the car back together and replaced a lot of the broken/worn components. We put in a 4.10 suregrip and a fourspeed that came with the car. A buddy sold me his tri-power setup for a screaming deal so we installed that too...and I was hooked on the A12 look.

The car sat at my friend Larry's wife's upholstery shop for almost 8 years while she worked on it partially...I was frustrated but they were great friends and whenever I'd go to pick it up she'd assure me she'd get it done. Eventually Larry started to get early onset dementia and things really fell apart. I took the car to a local restoration place to finish the interior installation and get her roadworthy for summer. i drove it home yesterday in the sun...and it was awesome. I still have a few small projects to do but having a car that actually is useable has renewed my excitement for the hobby.

Thank you to all the members that helped me out, sold me parts, gave advice, gave me parts, and make this hobby what it is. Thanks to Stu as well...he and Hemi Herb really encouraged me and made the hobby fun.

I apologize that two of the pictures are sideways...not sure why. The mexican blanket was just to keep my butt from getting sweaty.

Congrats on the success! 1969 GTX and roadrunners are my favorites. My little brother had a '69 X. I wished I could have afforded the car and had the money to do it justice.

That came out pretty nice! Well done!

Looks nice , glad you stuck to it .. congratulations !

Thanks guys! New wheels and tires are on the docket next. Looking at getting something similar to what is on her now, like these U.S. Mags Indy U101s.

U.S. Mags

Little brother's '69 X was Bronze and had Cragar GT wheels similar to this:

congratulations

Have fun with it

Carsten

That is awesome! Congratulations on sticking with it. You are missed from the board and I hope with your new realized success you stay here.

p.s. US mags are an excellent choice

Great looking car! Great to see another old school Mopar back on the road!!!!

Pics turn on me all the time too lol.

Looking great - congrats!

Nice looking hot rod. Good job!

Thanks for the positive words! I have a gas leak at the tank, looks like the sending unit penetration? Its a newer tank (!) so I'll have to take it in...sending unit isn't working right either...tank level is all over the place.

I need to measure the backspacing for my new wheels so that the tires don't rub (they rub a tiny bit now). I'm pretty stoked to get the new wheels and tires on her.

Congrats! Well done!

Beautiful car!

Congrats on getting it back on the road it looks good.

Right on!

Car looks great, enjoy the RR. Congrats and getting it back on the road,

after looking at that first engine pic, I think I'll have spaghetti for lunch....Great to see you get it finished and back on the road! It seems like it's never easy getting one of these cars done. I had a buddy doing the body work on mine, then just when it was ready to paint, he found out he had COPD, and no one wants to paint over someone else's work, so I put the car back together and drove it in primer for 6 years before I found someone to paint it. Even with all the ups and downs we go thru, it's all worth it on the first drive. She looks great nutso!

very nice job you did ! well done !
it IS kinda hard to believe how much time it really takes, isn't it ?

That’s awesome! Projects take on a life of their own like that. Glad you rode it out.

Excellent, I am partial to R4 69 runners...

Thanks guys! Mark - your runner is pretty darn sweet.

I'm looking at ordering a new sending unit and gasket so I can fix this darn gas leak. I just have to keep the level below half until then.

I had a great cruise the other day...it is so fun to drive!

Love those slots - don't see them much any more. They can be a pain to maintain but they have that 'all-business' look about them that works on most anything they get installed on... the car looks great with the ones on there already, some elbow grease might bring them back....

The blanket looks fine too. I'd keep it.

Very happy to see your success!
Those 8 years in limbo must have been unbearable.

Car looks fantastic! I love the R4 and the A12 look. I like the Cragar option for wheels. I like the slots, but the gray centered cragars would be unique and sharp with the R4.Congrats and lets hop this is a great summer for our cars!
KID

Looks cool, man!

Came out well! Congrats!!!

With a little more detail, could have been a build thread.....But this is better for short attention spans.

I can't imagine sitting that long just waiting for upholstery....Wow.

So sorry about your buddy's health issues.

If we could all be that successful

Sixpack = The rear wheels are unilug and the backspacing is not enough, so the tires rub on the lip of the quarter when i go over speed bumps. The front wheels are two piece steel and aluminum, so i feel good about getting one piece aluminum wheels. Otherwise I'd have the buffing wheel out!

I ordered the wheels today....looking forward to getting them installed. On the advice of many mopar brethren I went with 4.5 inch backspacing on the rear 15"x8" wheels. The plan is to put on 275-60-R15s on the back.

I have been enjoying looking out and seeing the old girl in my driveway.

Looks really nice. Love those B bodies.

Thanks guys. I ordered my new wheels and when they arrived i had three of the correct size and one 5x5.5 truck wheel. Summit was great about the mistake, the new wheel should be here tomorrow and I'm sending back the truck rim tomorrow as well. Great customer service and fast response. Tires should be here in a week or so - just in time for our local car show.

The finish on the U.S. Indy Mags I received is very nice.

Drat, if it wasn't for that pesky vinyl top on this one...

That’s a great piece of artwork!

Here are a few shots of my new wheels.

Congrats on getting your Road Runner back on the road...I love it (just look at my username) lol
Take some pics for us when you get the new shoes installed, have fun with her!

Time has a way of getting away when working on a project. My current project has been sitting in the corner of the shop for 20 years and 3 years under construction. Hope have it done by fall.

bigbird -

Please post pics when you get her done.


I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my vehicle speed vs what transmission and rear end ratios were installed in the car. When I drove her home I was never going as fast as I thought I should be for a given RPM. The car has a late model truck overdrive A833 and 4:10 rear gears. I started putting in the ratios I thought I had into the Tremec calculator and it didn't seem to match up to what I was seeing empirically. I tried putting in 4:55 rear gears and it matched up to what I was seeing at 2500 rpm....what the heck!! I don't know how I wound up with 4:55s...I still have the receipt for the differential, dated 10 years ago. Attached are the calculator results for both gears...any idea what's going on other than I have the wrong differential gears?

There is a car show today in my town that I am registered for and I was excited to put the Roadrunner in the show, along with a 1989 K5 Blazer that I bought from a friend. It is rust free, pretty original, with a 2" lift, and is in amazing condition for its age, with a partial repaint somewhere along the line. I had the local paint and body guy respraying the hood, fixing a few small dents on the front fender and tailgate. The show is approaching and I have been stopping in to remind the owner (a very nice old guy) that I need it by June 5th for the show. He has had it for three months at this point...so yesterday I stop in to see if its ready...he had painted it that morning. They were unmaking it and getting ready to put the front bumper and grill back on. Paint has some crud in it here and there, which he assured me will buff out. I seem to see a LOT of orange peel but he assures me it will look great. I ask if it will be ready to put in the show tomorrow, in whatever condition its in, and he says it should be fine to drive the short distance to the show. Great!

I was continuing to have trouble with my Roadrunner gas tank leaking so I had the sending unit replaced locally, which did not fix the problem but did identify that the portion of the vent that goes up into the trunk was missing...causing the fuel to siphon out the tubing that was there above the tank. I did not know this (or notice) so we ordered the correct vent tubing and installed it. I was driving home yesterday from this shop (luckily got it finished in time for the show!) and I look down to see i have ~10 psi oil pressure at 2,800 rpm. Uh oh!! I didn't hear any horrible noises coming from the engine. I shut her down and pull over onto an adjacent road (it's out in the country) and call AAA. The auto repair was closed so AAA dropped it at my house (a mile or so from the breakdown) and is taking it to the shop Monday. Car is not safely driveable so I'm not going to be able to put her in the show. I might have to change the title of this thread!

I went to pick up the Blazer this morning and no one is there. No car show entries for me this year, maybe my junk will be functional next year!

Fram filter by chance?

How is your friend Larry doing?

If I might respectfully suggest, if dementia hasn't completely taken over, taking the car for him to see.
It might help him have a good day to see the results of what he was a part of.

Even if he's deteriorated, the car might trigger a moment of clarity. No downside I don't think.

Kevin

Yes, recently replaced fram filter. I'm interested to hear why you asked that...experiences?

I like your line of thinking. I am planning on heading up to visit Larry and his wife in the roadrunner after I get the engine figured out and get the new wheels and tires installed. I love the hobby and the cars, shows, burnouts, and the viceral experience of driving an old car. What I really miss is hanging out with my mopar buddies (and chevy and ford buddies too). Cruising in a long line to a destination somewhere, looking for parts at the swap meet, building engines, installing transmissions, learning from these old timers, bench racing, hearing stories from the old days, getting deep into 'quench' theory, etc. Most of my buddies are dead or have dementia...and I'm not even that old!

There is a reason they call the filter aisle at Walmart the Orange Wall of Death. Lol

The filter media has been known to collapse and cause what you are experiencing. Wix is a dependable replacement. NAPA filters are made by Wix.

If you see a Wix and a Fram cut apart side by side, you will have no problem never using a Fram again.

Kevin

Interesting...I was not aware they had become junk. I will look into this!

It's been a while since I posted but I figured out the oil pressure issue...and it was strange. We pulled the oil pan at the local repair shop and everything looked okay, we found a little crud in the bottom of the pan. When we removed the intake the lifter and the pushrod were lying in the valley! We replaced the lifter and put it back together and she seems to be running well. Oil pressure is good, while it was apart we checked some of the bearings and they looked okay, no damage.

She just got back from a three day trip to the tire store because they didn't have and couldn't get left handed lug nuts. We ended up getting regular nuts from NAPA and I'm going to get the fancy acorn style and replace them later. The new tires and wheels sure look sharp though. I'm really happy to finally have a functional hot rod (until I break it again).

looks good with the wheels

Carsten

Thanks Nutso for the compliment. Your car is looking sweet. Can’t wait to get mine on the road, hopefully next year. It looks like rockauto still has left hand thread lug nuts.

Beautiful runner! I was backing mine out of the garage a few years ago to clean up for a show. Lost oil pressure. Eased it back in the garage. Changed pump. Nothing. Ended up puling the intake, and yup....a slightly bent push rod laying in the valley. Musted been the burnouts the week before. And if it hasn't been done already, first thing I do to my old Mopars is change those left handed studs. Always someone looking to buy them.

Thanks for the kind words! I kind of like the lefties even though they are a pain...and it's probably time to put new ones on.

My car is far from perfect, it already has a few tiny paint imperfections and it is certainly not a concourse level restored car, It's just a pretty nice hot rod! I was driving back from the tire store and it was a relatively nice day for November, a lady in a late model Jetta pulled up and was smiling and waving...I forgot I wasn't in my boring daily driver and for second thought something was wrong... I drove a few more miles and a young guy in a mid 2000s mustang pulls up and wants to race...I smiled and he zoomed ahead, only to have me pull up next to him at the stoplight. No street racing but it was fun to be out and about in the old girl. I could tell the kid in the mustang was loving my car and I remember (and still do it today) seeing a cool car and rubbernecking to check it out.

I still have a few little things to sort out.

no show car here, but I have done a couple. I even told my painter not to bother buffing it...didn't want it too nice to drive.

That's a mean looking machine! I love the green, my first mopar was a green on green 69 Coronet 500.

Old cars are fun, if you keep them that way. Too many think they need to be perfect, but then are afraid to drive them for fear of chipping the paint. A chip in the paint is a badge of honor for a car that is driven. It proves the car is worthy of being driven. The response of most people on the street is positive. Don't let the fools that want to pick your ride apart bother you, they have probably never had anything close to being as nice as your Road Runner is. Gene

Nice roadrunner!

That green Road Runner is sharp! Nutso yours looks great with the new rims! My very first ride in a muscle car, as a 12 yr. old kid, was in a '69 Road Runner, that an older kid who lived down my street owned.
His was a B5 blue coupe, with a 383 4 speed and black bucket seats. I still remember him power shifting it, as we flew down the road... at the time..I thought we were going 200mph!