Operation Superbird: Bringing the Lemon-Twist Bird back to life: She's gone...

[hemi68charger]

Operation Superbird; passenger door disassembly..
Well, today is a good day for the disassembly, pretty much have the complete door disassembled. The door, other then the dent along the body line is in awesome shape. Almost feel bad painting the inner door jambs, they are that clean.. Maybe Sunday I can get the back window assembly out. I took tons of pictures.

[hemi68charger]

Getting all disassembled..
The dang door, other than the dent, is super straight. The drivers door is probably perfect... Darn paint in the jambs is good too.

[hemi68charger]

Operation Superbird;
Driver's side disassembly. Got the guts of the driver's door and most of the rear quarter out.. Driver's side is super clean
1. Inside door is really clean.. Took a lot of pictures of the positioning of the fasteners for reinstallation
2/3. Door jamb is really clean.. Latch/Striker assembly is all out now.
4. Method of removing the glass from the track... Straight out..

[hemi68charger]

more.
1/2. Can't get much cleaner than this.. All the internal guts are out now.. Just a bare door shell with all it's original paint.
3. another of the rear quarter area - reference to the headliner extents for the eventual reinstallation
4. You can see the accent bezel was installed prior to paint. You can see the trademark colored body primer..  ( I believe Dave Patik sells this primer-colored paint still, used it on my 68 Hemi Charger R/T resto.)

[hemi68charger]

Driver's side wrapping up..

1.2.3..  All nice and clean side of the car......    Again, original paint except over the top section of the rear quarters under the wing..

[hemi68charger]

18 March,
Operation Superbird:
Wow, good day.... In about an hour, with the help of my buddy Dave, we were able to remove the front windshield, back glass and complete dash separated from the 'Bird.. And nothing broke !!! Even the rear inside window trim was still soft and came right out.. Now I have to make room for it all in the garage...

[hemi68charger]

finally.. Everything, other than the corners of the plug obviously, looks super clean, especially the front windshield lower channel..

[hemi68charger]

Got the dash out and positioned on make-shift pedestals I made.......  It'll be here for a while until the ole' Bird gets back with new paint.. It'll be fun restoring this...

[birdsandbees]

NICE.. exactly what I need to build today so I can prep and paint my frame!

Car's coming along nicely!!

[tan top]

   

[hemi68charger]

Operation Superbird;
Whew.. Long day in the Bird.. Got a lot more taken off from the 4speed/brake assembly to the complete headliner. Interesting discovery on how the assembly line finished up the rear headliner. They actually used part of the door opening finishing trim to secure the headliner to the package tray along with a rod to push the liner back to the side.. Also got the brake and fuel lines out along with the booster assembly..

[hemi68charger]

more..

1. Pretty much done with the engine compartment. I will drop the complete subassembly at some point then put the front of the car on a dolly..

[hemi68charger]

last one today..

You'll notice how there's a rod that routes the headliner to where it needs to be then how it is secured to the package tray panel... yes, that is a piece of the soft trim on B-body door openings on the rear pinch weld by the rear inner interior panel card...

[birdsandbees]

Coming along nicely.. but that engine looks tired ! 

[hemi68charger]

Coming along nicely.. but that engine looks tired ! 

  Good one...... Had to go back to the picture again and see what the heck you were talkin' about.....

[nascarxx29]

Whats left nosecone dissasembly

[hemi68charger]

Whats left nosecone dissasembly

Headlamp buckets are already out along with the turn signal assemblies. The nose will stay at this point for transportation to the body shop when that time happens..

[Mopar John]

Troy,
The disassembly is going along real well for you!
Did you think about the price of that back glass while you were taking it out?
MJ

[birdsandbees]

He would have broke it for sure... if he'd thought about it's worth !!  1/2 the price of the original car...

[hemi68charger]

Troy,
The disassembly is going along real well for you!
Did you think about the price of that back glass while you were taking it out?
MJ

Oh yes..  Believe me, I was anxious but it came out real well...

[C500]

Troy... nice work on the bird, keep the pics coming, makes for a great photo archive for future reference

[white]

Love the history lesson on who these cars were built, Thanks for sharing.

[hemi68charger]

Operation Superbird:
More guts and trim taken off. One of the most delicate and hardness parts to take off a Mopar and NOT warp it is the drip-trough molding. Well, with some gorilla tape, bottle top opener and plenty of patience, mine came off rather well. No warpish or scrapes... Then on to the Grrrrrrrrrr-rear window regulators. Put them off as long as I could. Took a lot of reference pictures and marked the placement of the attach hardware so it will all go back as close as possible. Side window adjustments can be a bear. Hopefully this way, it will all go back just like I took it apart. Also go the bulk of the front window trim clips removed. Looks pretty good there. I will leave the top of the window area in the roof as is. Now on to preparing the complete differential for removal.

[hemi68charger]

Rear window regulator assemblies are next... Whew !!! Should be ok to go back in.. With these and other pictures and the FSM, I should be fine..

Where the car doesn't have any rust, this thing is CLEAN !!!!  I haven't had an issue one in fasteners and such..... OK.. I'm sure I stirred the Mopar-gods on that one, but I don't think I'm pressing my luck...

[hemi68charger]

Operation Superbird:
Today went to my friends house and got my body dollies for the Superbird. Also got the passenger side control arm assembly off the car in preparation to remove the k-member and place the dollies on it. The cross-shaped dolly is for the k-member and eventually will be used to reinstall the drivetrain.