70's Era 'Bird Resto...... (!!FINISHED!!)

[CornDogsCharger]

Who offers the reproduction headlight buckets?  Are they made of steel?  How accurate are they?  Thanks

Justin
"CornDog"

[pettybird]

actually a number of people--Gene Gregory is making them, as is Erik Nelson and Dayclona.  There are more but I can't remember off the top of my head. 


they look nice at swap meets but you'll have to ask others about the quality comparo--mine are still rusty in my rusty noses

[Aero426]

look familiar www.superbirdclub.com/customaero.html scroll down and theres an old pic of this car

I still have our yellow DSAC flag like the one on the motorhome in the first pic--anyone else besides Doug S have one?

I still have one on kind of an orange fabric.    Our neighbor who was a graphics guy made the silkscreens for those banners.    We made them by hand in the garage.     The neighbor just turned 87 on Friday, and although his health is not the best, he's still a pretty sharp guy. 

[pettybird]

that's awesome.  did he also make the T shirts?


more importantly, do either of you still have the screens?  they just scream '1970's' and i'd absolutely buy more.

[CornDogsCharger]

We planned on dipping the nose after I disassembled it.  Before we sent it off, I wanted to dig into it a little bit to read some of the history.  From what I can tell, this is NOT the original nose to the car.  The nose was replaced early in the car's life with an OEM replacement nose from a local dealer.  I feathered back the paint layer by layer.  It was blue/orange, then red, then yellow, then a light shade of sublime, and the final layer before hitting bare metal was the original red oxide primer that was  found on many replacement parts.  I never found Vitiman C orange on the nose anywhere.  In between layers, I found LOTS of bondo... YAY! 









I don't know for certain, but I would have to guess that this car was once painted just like the car pictured below.  Maybe that is where the idea for the paint scheme came from?? 



After the nose came back from dipping, you can see the damage in the replaced nose.  Apparently, someone couldn't drive this long car too well.  I will hammer and dolly most of the damage out and weld up the holes that were drilled to pull the dents.  A few reust holes were also discovered when the nose returned.  Honestly, I will probably have more labor in the nose than any other part of the car. 















And for one last thing... The lower flange in the center of the nose.  The center valance panel attaches here.  As you can see, there was a lot of rust here.  What should this flange look like?  Is is solid all the was across?



Justin
"CornDog"

[Aero426]

that's awesome.  did he also make the T shirts?


more importantly, do either of you still have the screens?  they just scream '1970's' and i'd absolutely buy more.

Yes, I think we still have the screens.   I'll take a look.   Those were all done by hand one color at a time.   I don't have the supplies, but still have the workbench we used as a fixture. 

Justin, that rusty flange should be solid all the way across except for the mounting holes that remain.

[moparstuart]

 I WOULD BUY A FLAG IF YOU REMAKE THEM !!!!!!!

[Hemi_tyme]

Hey Justin with your skills you will be able to make that. If you need some pic,s let me know.
Ken

[CornDogsCharger]

Wow, I am past due for an update..... BAD!  I have actually been working on the car everyday (M-F) since August.  The car is much further along than my last post.  I just don't get much time to get on here and update.  I'm gonna try to post a bunch of pictures in the next couple days and get caught up with where I am at on the 'Bird. 

Since we were waiting on full quarter panels from AMD, I would piddle with the car, but not much.  At first they told us that the panels would be available in Aug... then Oct.... then Nov... and the last I heard it was the first of Jan '09.  We said screw it and I decided to repair the original quarters..... which in my opinion was a much better choice... for the car's sake.  The biggest task would be patching the area by the back glass that is under the window plug.  I had to make the piece, roll it in two directions and then flange it.  The driver side wasn't too bad but the passenger side rusted out the trunk gutter.  Now for some pictures.

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Now for the passenger side...

Justin
"CornDog"

[bebeep1969]

  Besides the paint and a few add-ons, this is a great "untouched" survivor.  Here locally is a man that use to judge Superbirds and Daytonas at the Mopar Nationals during the 80's-90's.  He siad this is one of the best original cars he has seen.  There are so many original 'bird parts that have never been removed or replaced from the car. 


Justin,

Great work and progress on this car.  I saw this entery from 6 months ago.  I had to chuckle alittle with what this judge from the mopar nationals said of this car.  'one of the best original cars he has seen??'    Your restoration sure proves that he cant evaluate a car well.  Where did you send the guages off to get restored and where did the dash get sent to?  AMD has awesome looking quarters and sheet metal.  It sucks that you were told august, then october, november, and now maybe in January.  Hopefully the quarters will come out nice.  Looking at your metal fabrication skills, they are going to look like new and correct.  Keep up the great work and keep posting pics. 

[mikepmcs]

Mad skills!
Looking great Justin.

[CornDogsCharger]

Thanks for the comments guys.  Hey bebeep1969, where are you from?  The car really looked nice.  It was hard to see any rust issues with the car until you hit it with a grinder.  The fiberglassed spots were recently repaired and spotted in.  Actually, I have already repaired both quarters and they turned out very nice.  As for the dash and cluster... I sent off everything for the dash besides the pad and the frame to Performance Car Graphics.  They did an AWESOME job.  Everything looked great.  I'll be sure to post pictures.

Justin
"CornDog"

[BPTRacing]

I'm sure these probably came from your archives somewhere, but just in case, I though I would re-post them - Really have no idea when or where I found these.

[CornDogsCharger]

I'm not sure where the pictures originated but they have been posted here a few times.  Does anyone know who actually took those pictures? 

Justin
"CornDog"

[tan top]

some nice fabrication work going on there Dude ....    

[Ghoste]

I'm sure it's been discussed to death but I find it interesting at the number of wing cars that had custom paint jobs.  It was well known that they were rare and a collectible from day one but luckily people didn't fret about that stuff when the cars were new(er).  It also interests me that most of the wing cars had a certain style of custom painting that they all seemed to follow.  I imagine that it was just because the body lines lent themselves so well to that style.
Great work Justin.

[CornDogsCharger]

The Jan '09 MCG is hitting the mailboxes now.... I never knew this car would cause so many positive/negative opinions..... Time for more updates.

I installed a pair of lower quarter panels.  They came from Sherman and Assoc.  They needed a lot of trimming and reshaping.  When you line up the back edge where the bumper notch is, then the front wheel opening area does not line up.  Actually it is about 1/2in off.  I had to cut and flatten the front egde and re-fold it once I had it all welded up.  You'll have to over look the extra lip along the bottom edge.  I went back and trimmed it off as it is supposed to be.







I slicked out the inside of the quarter panel the same way I did up by the back glass.  Now when you look at it..... what repair??  haha  Next I installed the trunk extension from AMD.  They are very accurate and nice to work with.  They needed to be trimmed just a bit in the bumper notch area.  Other than that, very nice!








Don't ask me why, but for some reason I didn't take pictures of the passenger side being replaced.  I could have sworn that I did but can not find them right now.  It was pretty much the same as the driver side.  I installed the AMD tail panel.  It fit pretty well and only needed minimum trimming.







Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Now for a few random patches on the the quarter panels.....





POR-15







Passenger Side

















Justin
"CornDog"

[moparstuart]

It is very refreshing to me to see you just replace the bad spots and have the car retain more of it's origin sheet metal. So many shops get full quarter replacement happy.   

[Aero426]

I'm not sure where the pictures originated but they have been posted here a few times.  Does anyone know who actually took those pictures? 

Justin
"CornDog"

Justin, those photos were taken by Todd Lamensky of Appleton Wisconsin.   They were taken in the Motel Birmingham parking lot on August 6, 1976.  I posted them from our DSAC club archives.   Todd was 14 or 15 when he took those photos. 

Incidently, Todd Lamensky was the owner of the white Charger 500 with the red interior and stripe that is currently on Ebay.   Todd restored that car as a project in his high school years.    It's still in that condition.

[oldcarnut]

Any chances there are some of the red/white one next to it?

[Aero426]

Any chances there are some of the red/white one next to it?

Here is one of two photos on this Bird.    This one was also taken in '76 in Birmingham.

[Aero426]

This one is the same car, taken in 1978 in Milwaukee.  It's had some paint work since we last saw it.

[oldcarnut]

Thanks Doug  , I'm putting my own paint scheme togethor for my clone. Goldbergs and others like this help me out visually with the colors and the body lines to edge it up to. David