Oldcarnut's Superbird Clone

[oldcarnut]

Center plate drilled for parts and sized to fit the other plates tonight.  Clock due in Tues and chargers came in late this week.  Below it looks rough but hopefully will finish up same as the others.

[oldcarnut]

Clock finally came in yesterday.  It's a fairly close match to the gauges.  Made some bezels for the usb & 12V chargers I got off Ebay to also go with the others and bolted everything in. Different looking for sure but I'm satisfied with the appearance.  I reckon I'll pull the wiring harness out the car and get them all connected next

[JB400]

 

[DonC1]

Lookin good.

[BigBlockSam]

looks cool!   

[tan top]

 

[Musicman]

Oh Yeah!   

[oldcarnut]

Got my glove box liner from Classic today and what a piece of tore up junk it was.  Called them up and sent some pics.  I hope they do something about it.  Can't believe they would even send it out to a customer.  

Thanks and thought I'd update about the glove box liner.  Classic did send me another after checking the pics I sent them so I'll say their customer service was great and had no problems fixing it.  Didn't even want the first one back  .  As for the liners they carry, they are not as nice.  They're made by this company http://www.repops.com/  The folded bends rip the outside surfaces along the fold and whatever process used to do it tears the paper on the inside in various places. Both pieces I got were like that and according to the sales rep, that's just the way they get them.  Sitting side by side against the R.E.M liner I already had but for a 69, it's no comparison. Sooo if I had to do it again, I wouldn't buy one from a vender that sold the RePops brand. They might be cheaper by a few dollars but lack in finish quality.

[oldcarnut]

I bought a 70 318 Challenger SE a while back that had been cloned into a 440 RT.  I kept the motor to use temporarily in my project until the new motor gets built. Besides being a pretty good performance built engine, it also had some nice aftermarket pulleys, ps, brackets, a/c, and electrical items. Later sold the Chally after swapping in a 400 and putting the a/c compressor back on the 400.  I also had a brand new radiator I kept too.  The water pump housing and radiator has the inlet/outlet hoses on the opposite sides of the 70 RR which was ok thinking I wouldn't have the lower hose blocking the oil filter so much and I had everything new to make the swap. Why waste it? Since the a/c compressor is gone with the chally, I made an idler pulley adapter setup this past weekend for the current pulley and belt configurations until I add the A/C to the clone. Just used a water pump bearing assy pressed into a machined stainless pipe and clamped into the bracket I fabbed up. Worked out good. Now I need to locate the upper hose to use and begin getting the rest of the engine ready to crank.  Can't say I like the way that hose is routed though. The green bay has the compressor and hose in the Chally.  The other is the motor in the RR with the pulley adapter and no hose.  Just about ready to pull the trigger on getting a steel window plug from Donc1 because I'm using a real glass window and maybe the hood extension too.  

[oldcarnut]

Completed gutting the interior of the RR, took out any surface rust and began repainting. I removed the rear window and started cleaning out all the sealer and glued rubber from the channel.  That was a time consumer and then moved on to taking out the qtr window assy's to replace broken rollers.  Found out the lift arms were bent or bowed a good bit from someone in the past forcing the window to close or open.  That was another tough job and a few cuts on the arm trying to get that out.  Now debating whether to try and get some undamaged crank assy's or try and bend the twists out straight and less bow and hope it doesn't start binding up again.  Also ordered the window plug minus the triangle indents and a steel hood extension from DonC1.  Sent him a pattern of the real glass window I had just to make sure of the fit.  Will have to figure what I'm going to do with Janek's plug, window, and triangle pieces after build.   Wonder how much crank pressure it took to bend it that much in the pic?

[Stevearino]

Someone really really wanted to move that window up or down. That's crazy.
By the way.More pictures please.

[oldcarnut]

Signed today for an auto-body repair and paint class.  8wks long, one day a week for $120 which included supplies.  Pretty good deal at the trade school I thought and I could use some formal training since I never had any before. They will let you bring your parts or car to the class and work on your own things for training so I started modifying the fenders for the valance because the rest of the fenders needs work. Here's how I did the first one and with a little variation do the second.  I bent a long piece of flat bar the shape contour of the whole valance.  I also bent a short length for the cut off area.  Just for comparison, I checked it against the other one and it was different so I will have to re-bend the bar to fit the second one when I'm done.  After marking off the flange cut line, it got cut off. I trimmed off the small bent curve of one side and cut a line in the wheel well end then bent the tab so the flange would be able to fold at the line.  The flat bar was clamped in place for the crease line and flange bending started with a wide vice grip sandwiching the short and long flat bar on either side.  Finished it off with c-clamps and a little fine tuning with a hammer and dolly. The wheel well section will get welded so that the bent flange and well flange are joined even though the factory picture I referenced just showed an angle cut away from the well flange leaving it open.  Fit it all up and seems to be ok but you can tell me what ya think.  Did the original mod have anything between the valance and fender flanges when bolted together?

[oldcarnut]

more

[oldcarnut]

Difference between the two valance contours

[rainbow4jd]

I just wanted to say - I think you are doing a beautiful car!   With the "fear" of driving an original matching numbers car - I'm becoming far more inclined to "do what makes you happy" and I simply love EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR CAR!   Fantastic workmanship and just a beautiful eye.

If you ever get tired of it - I won't be!  That's a promise!

[Hemi Runner]

Nice work. I would assume the difference between the two contours is due to making the molds from hand made superbird conversion parts??

[oldcarnut]

Thanks for the kind words Rainbow4jd  It will be different for sure. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Nice work. I would assume the difference between the two contours is due to making the molds from hand made Superbird conversion parts??

I don't why it was different but I'm glad I checked before cutting.  How much difference was there with yours?

[Hemi Runner]

I don't have a valance yet so I didn't even worry about any differences. I will be making mine myself so I can make it to match any uneven contours. Mine won't look stock underneath as my valance will incorporate a tray under the dry sump pan to contain any mess in the event of bad stuff happening while on the track. It will be a 5 piece valance.

[Musicman]

 

[oldcarnut]

Got my notice from DonC1 today and my window plug and hood extension is done.  I sent him a template cutout of my glass window and he made sure the fit was good to it.  The pic with the paper cut out is during the build and the other as its finished.  He made these out of 18g.  Thanks Don  

[moparstuart]

nice stuff

[wingcarenvy]

Awesome!!

[Hemi Runner]

Very nice!! I just sent him the funds to get started on my window plug

[oldcarnut]

Been taking a little time to get some interior metal cleaned up and coated.  1st is what I started with.  Floor pan and roof was in very good shape to begin with.  I cleaned off any scale, surface rust, and loose coating and then treated with rust-mort anything bare and the whole roof surface.  After a good coating of paint, sealer ,and sound deader, I started apply this insulation.  Got to find some floor plug replacementss before completing the floor.  Is there any alternatives to those plastic plugs from the resto shops?  Kind of expensive for plastic plugs I thought.

[oldcarnut]

Roof