MoparStuart's Convertible Superbird Project Pic's

[MOPARHOUND!]

The subject came up in the "Duktona" thread, thought the project deserving of it's own thread. 

[moparstuart]

hey lonnie thanks for the help
  as you can see it's topless and going to have an air grabber hood ,  white top , white interior, white plymouth lettering on the quarters,
white lettering on the wing , and the hlps are whited out instead of black like originals . 

[moparstuart]

 Here is the beginning of the long drawn out story of my 10 year dream and project to build this car. It almost didnt happen several times but now it should be finish in less then a month .
For give my terrible writing skills and spelling.  But tell me what you think of my dream car I love it .

  It has always been my dream to own a 1970 plymounth superbird and or a 1969 dodge daytona charger.  Or wing cars as they call them in the mopar muscle car world.  My best chance of owning one was an R4 red/orange daytona i had spotted in hemming in mid 1996. Ernie pyle was the mans name who owned it. He was asking 25k for it which was not bad. It had some rough spots but was actully a decent non numbers matching 440 car. Ernie had owned the car for like 20 years and it had somewhere in it's past come from cotton owens ( famous name) in the daytona Nascar racing world.  I only had senventeen thousand dollars saved at the time so i needed cash fast  the car had already been in hemming 3 months and not sold yet . Ernie and i dickered for 4 weeks , he even snail mailed me pictures of it back before our hi tech emails today. After begging to borrow 3k from my dad .  I got him to slowly come down to 20k on it. I was packed and ready to head for northern texas area when he called and had sold it to some guy for the 20k. I had done all the work beating  him down tothat price because that was all the money I could scrap up at the time . This guy reaped all the benefits of all my work .  The guy had promised ernie he was going to restore it back to perfect and keep it all his life  ha ha. I found out a few years later that the guy had only held on to it for a couple of months.  Then he sold the daytona to brent and sherri evans of illinios for like several thousand dollars more    Brent and sherri told me later ernie had died one year later after selling the car.  He was retired but did alot of toy collecting and RV ing accross the country   
     I have been chasing buying one ever since I could drive. Evertime i could just about aford one they would jump in price. Then I would save up somemore money and they would jump again in price. Still dreaming i could own a real one i was told by dick drake about a guy who had all the parts to make one. They were off a car that had crashed in the late 70's or early 80's. The car was not worth fixing at that time so it was scraped.  The car was a lime light car supposedly from colorado.  The body shop owner pulled all the good usable parts off the car. The plug was either not saveable or he was to lazy to cut it out ?   He had the nose hanging in his shop rafters for 15 year or so.  Dick had heard rumors of the parts for years and finally chased them down to curts body shop who was located at truman road and sterling in Independence missouri.  At the time he didnt want to sell them and dick wasnt as interested in them once he saw the condition of the parts   The nose was beat up and full of bondo 1 inch thick in places. The hood had a huge ugly six pac scoope riveted to it with a badly hacked hole two foot wide and nasty jagged sheet metal folded under. The fenders , latch trays upper and lower , bulk heads ,z brackets,  wing , speedo cluster, and console where all in good shape.         
    In late 1996 i did some thinking and figured i had better try to find these parts again by tracking curt down and building myself a car. Giving in to the dream of owning a real one but atleast i would have a clone that i could call my own . Dick was great in letting me know about curt and the parts he had. I had sold aftermarket body parts to curt in the past at his shop so i started there.  Unfortunately curt had hit hard times and gone out of buisness 6 months before i started looking for him. Talking to some other shops i dealt with in the area i tracked down his last name and got his home phone # out of the phone book. Curtis hill of 1926 N. blue mills rd. Indep. mo. I called him and just so happens he was hurting for cash at the time after loosing his buiness and shop. He ran right down to my job at the time certifit auto body parts with picture of the stuff very ready to sell.  He wanted to feel me out on what he thought i would pay for them also he knew even in there condition they were worth good money. He had look up janik fiberglass reproduction parts.  The price new for all the stuff was like 2000.00 to 2500.00 .  So he figured he could get 4000.00 or more for it. Me being cheap as usual but nowing he knew what he had ,offered him the 2000.00 .  We dickered back and forth until i purchased them for 3000.00.  He also had a hemi cuda  and a six pack or hemi challenger both in pieces that were not for sale at any price . The challenger was in his garage and the cuda was at a storage locker he had out on 7 hwy south of fort osage.  We had to go out to the stoarge locker to get the console from the super bird. The cuda was a manual car that had exploded the bell housing and ripped the trans tunnel badly. He had a tunnel cut out of another car to install in it. He was really pushing to sell me his cosworth vega which i had no interest in. I was all happy at that point i owned a wing. I then joined both wing car clubs to find out all i could about these awesome cars. After seeing pictures of my  limelight hood with a six pac scoope in the middle of it. Kyle drake, dick's son vaegly remembered seeing the car  in the mid to late 70's on a used car lot on southwest blvd in kansas city . He said it was in bad shape at that point and they were asking way to much for the car.     
    Now it was time to find a car to put the parts on and make it my superbird.  I had seen several clones in the magazines . I figured this car was a clone i was going to make it the way i wanted.  I was going to drive this car alot and wanted it to air conditioning and be confortable. Not getting a rear window plug with the parts and having seen a couple convertible super bird in magazines and in photos from friends who went to the nationals. I fell in love with the idea of a limelight green superbird convertible clone made out of parts from original superbird . Now that i had a plan, and the superbird parts it was time to find a convertible.  Being that only a 70 roadrunner or satelite convertible would work and that they were very rare also with less then 3500 of each made. I really had my work cut out for me . I looked for the better part of a year before i found a car i could afford . I really should have looked longer but was so excited to get the car i bought the first one that showed up in my price range. It was a white 383 sport satelite car I found in hemming from new york state on long island. At the time it looked like a great value for 5500.00 shipped to missouri. What a mistake buying a convertible that had spent all it's life that close to the salt air.  Oh dont get me wrong on delivery cosmeticallly the car looked really good and very nice in all the pictures i got.   It was all a cover up job though as you will see in the pictures in this book next. You will see how bad it was rusted and all the cover up work that had been done to it. 
    So now it was late 1997.  Now I had the parts and the car to make my dream car all i needed was some one to do the body work and restoration.  I have plenty of mechanical skills and have done several upholstery interior jobs. I have no talant in body and paint skills what so ever. I was already having my high school car a 1969 plymouth roadrunner restored . The work was being done at dukes body shop in warsaw missouri but they were already over worked and alittle behind on the roadrunner.  So I decided to get several estimates and find some one who could do it reasonably and fast.                       

[moparstuart]

that is a picture of my missing /lost/ stolen wing.  That i have now replaced with another original superbird wing off a yellow car .
   one more of those obsticles that theatened to halt this project . 

[4cruzin]

So someone stole for wing in the first picture?    Sorry if the story has been told already here . . I must of missed that one.   

[moparstuart]

sorry here is the wing story
  I had to buy another one two weeks ago  luckily( but not for my wallet)  i begged and badgered wayne perkins in to selling me an extra yellow wing he had bought at the nationals 20 some years ago .  i just found out 6 weeks ago it was missing and two weeks ago the new body shop was ready for it .

    Sunday july 1st 2007 was moving day , With jim cordell fellow mopar (wing car guy) and his trailer we got to warsaw at 9 am and loaded it all up. Sean had all the parts ready (or so we thought)  for us to load up and go.  Two hours later we had the car wenched up on the trailer and my diesel truck with a stake bed loaded to over flowing with parts .  After 10 years having my car sean quit working on it still oweing me about $5000.00 in labor .  It made me sick to my stomach everytime i thought about it . For the last few years i have tried to block it out of my mine.  After 4 years of sean not working on it . I finally decides i had better move the car . Had really been looking for a good body shop to take over the project for quite some time. Being gun shy already with the previous shop experiences i looked long and hard.  Finding someone to take over someone elses work in mid stream was tough .  I also needed to find someone reasonable because of  how upside down i was from getting ripped off.    Four different friends in HPAC who had work done or knew of his work recommended Ed Horner of Adrian missouri. So two hours after picking up the car we had it at ed's body shop . Now my project is going again and should be completed  hopefully by the end of the summer . 



     now the wing story he had told me the wing was packed in the car   ( it wasnt )

   Missing (stolen?) Superbird Wing

Stuart Sutton, a club member from Overland Park, Kansas, is asking the wing car community to be on the look out for an original aluminum Superbird wing that was either sold by or stolen from a restoration shop in Warsaw Missouri.   He has been building a Superbird clone for ten years.  He contracted with Dennis Duke of Duke's Body Shop in Warsaw, Missouri (also doing business as Midwest Mopar Restorations) to do the work.  Dennis Duke eventually ceded the project to his son, Sean Duke.  Although Stuart provided or purchased all the necessary parts and paid a substantial sum for labor Duke just sat on the project.
After the car sat untouched and uncompleted for a number of years, Stuart found another shop to complete the work even though Duke still owed Stuart over $5,000 in labor.  Stuart collected the parts but noticed sometime later that the wing was missing.   Attempts to obtain the wing, or at least learn the truth of what happened to it, from Duke have not been effective.  Stuart is now asking the wing car community to help him locate his missing wing or find a replacement for the missing part.
The wing is very distinctive--Lime Light Green with no decals and black overspray.  The wing has a lot of black paint on the crossbeam.  The car is now being restored by a shop in Adrian, Missouri.  In just two weeks, the shop has managed to get the rear frame rails, trunk floor, quarters, doors, fenders and hood welded on or ready to install.
Stuart asks that you keep a look out for his missing part.  If you have seen this wing or heard of it please contact Stuart Sutton at (816)935-1246, or call him toll-free at his shop at 1-877-230-4587.  Since his new body shop is making fast progress on the car, he's going to have to find another wing.  He asks that if you have, or know of, a wing for sale, you might give him a heads up or give the owner his name and number.
Please help bring Stuart's wing home!


   thats most of my crazy story    wow what a learning experience it has been  but hey i will have my dream car and i will never let it go
stuart

   

[Charger_Fan]

Great story so far, I'm lookin' forward to the happy ending!

[moparstuart]

 thanks    my writing skills suck but i hope you get the point of my 10 year saga  It's really more them 10 years because i have always wanted a wing car since the first time i laid my eyes on one.  My brother got me hooked on mopars and he saw a bird on the show room floor at age 9 . He was 7 year older then me , His dream was to have one also ever since then.  He is no longer with us now so i feel like i am fullfilling his dream too.
         

[moparstuart]

 i have a ton more picture if i ever figure out how to post them i will

[moparstuart]

here is a picture of my beat up nose 11 years ago when i bought it

[moparstuart]

Thats the super nice original fenders laying next to the nose.   See my original superbird hood with the ugly six pac hacked on to it
  thats why it got the air grabber treatment.   I would have never cut up an original but i think we have actually save it and it looks awesome.

  stuart

[Ghoste]

The number of great stroies in this hobby never fail to amaze me and this is one more.  Looking forward to the happy ending.

[moparstuart]

     thank i know now that it will be a happy ending . Now I have the right body man on the job .

[The70RT]

I really hope you get it done soon. It seems too often body shops sit on work and take on more to survive. Sounds like a lot are miss-managed or they are greedy and keep people hanging on. That sucks that you barely missed the 20K bird .....you probably would have had it done by now. Glad it is finaly coming through for you though. At least your will be one of a kind. Keep us updated with pics.

[moparstuart]

sure will i actually live in overland park kansas , so if your close i'm sure you will see it around

[The70RT]

sure will i actually live in overland park kansas , so if your close i'm sure you will see it around

I am not too far. Maybe if I am in the area sometime I will check it out.

[moparstuart]

 great i should have the car back with in a month   i will post completed pictures then

[moparstuart]

  hey 70 r/t  what is the kansas mafia ?  and how do i join  ??

[Old Moparz]

Nice car, & cool story. 

A lot of people get screwed by body shops, myself included, but I'm sure there are more good ones than bad. It's just that the bad ones are the easiest to remember, & the good ones are sometimes forgotten.

The first time I saw a wing car convertible, was either at the 1985 or 1988 Mopar Nationals. Pete Veight from CT, had his Daytona convertible in the parking lot right next to my car. We started talking about it, & how I was planning a Charger convertible. He did some incredible work turning a 1968 Satellite convertible into a Daytona. I'd still like to have a Charger convertible, but not yet. Maybe in the future I'll do it, but right now I'm just doing a hardtop Daytona.

[MOPARHOUND!]

  hey 70 r/t  what is the kansas mafia ?  and how do i join  ??

The idea came from a corporate recruiter who reminded me of a used car salesman, full of the stereotypical salesman's song and dance.  He would try to get people to re-locate to Maine, and join the "Maine mafia" as he referred to the employees of the company that worked there. 

It started in the Charger chat room, when at any one time there would be 4 or 5 members from Kansas in it at once, usually around 10:30PM Central at night.  Coined the term "Kansas mafia", and the informal fraternity was born.  Really no actual organization, just several mopar guys with similar interests with Kansas addresses.

Moparguy01, Todd Wilson, buttermilksloth, RD, were among the originals.  Moparguy01 was in college at McPherson, KS at the time, now resides in North Dakota.  We used to kid around about the "bada bing" chat room, back when the Soprano's were popular.  Actually would go off in our own chat room when people started chatting about non-mopar stuff in the Charger chat.  Then 01 and Todd Wilson put Kansas Mafia in there avatar, with my following suit, and it has lived on, despite the infrequent use of the chat room recently.

[moparstuart]

    old moparz   my son has caught my crazyness and wants to build a convertible  charger/ daytona 
not sure it will ever happen but we have to have our dreams

   just glad mines coming to pass finally

   
  thanks for the kansa maifa story lonnie  can i play tony soprano



 

[moparstuart]

I need to mount my air grabber toggle switch . I know it mounts to the right side of the steering column  does any one have a 70 only car they can take a piture of the switch location and maybe get me some measurements   
   thanks stuart

[Charger_Fan]

  hey 70 r/t  what is the kansas mafia ?  and how do i join  ??

The idea came from a corporate recruiter who reminded me of a used car salesman, full of the stereotypical salesman's song and dance.  He would try to get people to re-locate to Maine, and join the "Maine mafia" as he referred to the employees of the company that worked there. 

It started in the Charger chat room, when at any one time there would be 4 or 5 members from Kansas in it at once, usually around 10:30PM Central at night.  Coined the term "Kansas mafia", and the informal fraternity was born.  Really no actual organization, just several mopar guys with similar interests with Kansas addresses.

Moparguy01, Todd Wilson, buttermilksloth, RD, were among the originals.  Moparguy01 was in college at McPherson, KS at the time, now resides in North Dakota.  We used to kid around about the "bada bing" chat room, back when the Soprano's were popular.  Actually would go off in our own chat room when people started chatting about non-mopar stuff in the Charger chat.  Then 01 and Todd Wilson put Kansas Mafia in there avatar, with my following suit, and it has lived on, despite the infrequent use of the chat room recently.

That's funny, I didn't know that's how that whole thing started.

[moparstuart]

   are you in the utah mafia 

[66chargerkid]

And i have been through it all from the beggining of this project when i was 4 to its stages of being finished