Here's my Superbird story... RM23U0A161593

[Montreal Wing Car]

Hello guys, I'm a new member, but a long-time lurker...

When I was 18, in 1982, I bought my first car, a Superbird!
I had followed that car for years, riding my bike for a couple of miles to go have a look at it and talk to the owner who had bought it new. He used it year-round with winter tires in the snow! He sold it in 80 but did give me the new owner's info, so I kept track of it, as it was still within biking distance... Here's what it looked like then:




The guy did not take any chances, calling it everything except a Superbird! Final price was about 3500$
Pretty much standard, Limelight in color with the black bench seat, column-shifted automatic....
The guy drove it for a year and crashed, and then parked it in his backyard:











The first owner was a woodworker, so when the side scoops disapeared because of the rust, he re-did them in wood!!!


Just a little bit of rust... and that's what was showing!



Keep that picture  of the nose in mind for later...

So Ibugged the guy for more than a year, by then, the car was 1-1/2 hr away by car, but I had my licence now!

More to come...

[The70RT]

Awesome that you had it that long 

[Montreal Wing Car]

By then, I had become pretty knowledgeable about Birds and Daytonas, from the different magazines available at the time, and my enthusiasm was fueled with the usual SSP toy, and Jo-Han and MPC models. One of the first articles to talk about values and production numbers was Car Collector, I think it was September 78, I still have that article, the magazine fell apart from re-reading it again and again! As a matter of fact, I still have a binder full of most of the articles that were published on aero cars in the 70's and 80's. My best pal, J-M was also nuts about wing cars, they were definitely not as popular then, they were even ridiculed...

So, finally, the following Spring, in 82, I managed to gather up all of my savings from Summer jobs, and bought my dream car, for about 1500$! Here are a couple of pics when I had it towed home:




It sat in our driveway for the rest of that year while I perfected my Beep-Beep horn technique, and made imaginary road trips down the California Coast. Upon seeing it, my then-girlfriend, and now-wife promptly named it Green Acres, those of you old enough will recall the old TV show. For the others, let's just say it was not very flattering, but she probably lacked my vision for it!!! My parents did not say much about it.. but seemed really relieved when I sent it to a friend's garage for the Winter and the work that would follow in the Spring...

By then, I had also joined the DSAC, I still have newsletters from 1981-1985, I was member 1007.
So in the Spring of 82, we began to disassemble the thing and patch it up a little bit...Originality was not much of an issue in those days, and I wanted to repaint it White, to be different from all of the orange ones...





There was no internet in those days, so access to parts was from local yards, where the cars were as rusty as mine, or you simply used fresh sheets of metal...







The guy working on my car was named Dan and is very well-known to a lot of Montreal Mopar guys, by then, he had alreay worked on a couple of Birds, and a few more would go through is garage after that...
He was very skillful with sheetmetal, as you can see by this spectacular patchwork...





This is the original nose, after  his handiwork:


More to come...
Ben

[Montreal Wing Car]

All of the important Bird stuff was there, he was able to fiberglass the headlight buckets back in one piece...





I lucked out and found a Coronet right front fender:

Which was repaired and modified...



Definitely not concours...A Satellite gave up it's trunk lid and doors...



This is as far as we went with this project...

[Montreal Wing Car]

Awesome that you had it that long  

I wish I still owned that car now... But after the last pictures, I had to sell the car cause I was way over my head with the cost of the work, and only working Summer jobs while at school... and besides, there seemed to be wing car almost every week in the Auto Trader, and I knew of quite a few in the region, I'd get another one... so I sold it in the fall of 83..


and was very pleased to make a profit, selling it for 3500$!!!

The new owner finished the car the next summer, and painted it... orange!!! He sold it after a couple of years to a father and son from the western US who had already a couple of Birds.

I had lost touch with the guy I sold it to for 25 years and caught up with him by chance last year, but he could not remember these people's names... so the trail goes cold.
I really wish I had taken down the VIN, but didn't... I seem to  recall the last numbers as 159160 0r 160159, like two consecutive numbers, but neither of these numbers come up on the official lists...
I must have given it to the DSAC when I joined, I tried emailing them a couple of times with no reply.
I was wondering if the new owners would like to see what shape the car had been in it's past... or if it's got a new fender tag and been sold as ''all-original'' since then!

Thanks for helping if you can!
Ben

[kw mopar]

Awesome story, and great pictures. I wish I had some pictures of my projects from the eighties. Hope you find it. Rob.

[Old Moparz]

Thanks for posting all the old pics, I enjoy seeing them.  

Sorry you got rid of it, but I know how that goes. I did the same thing with a '69 Charger & a '70 GTX I used to have. Kept seeing them in the ads & figured they'd always be around cheap enough to snag another one later on.

When Dave (nascarxx29) reads this, he will probably know all there is to know about your old car since he has them all memorized by, classified add, VIN & current location.  

The confused person on the left looks like they never saw a Superbird before.  

[Redbird]

Really nice story and pictures. Very well done.

[bad88t-top]

Great Story:  I hope you track it down and have enough money to bye it back.   From the sounds of it you're interested.

[BigBlockSam]

great story Ben and great pics . thanks for sharing . it would be great for you to see the car again  

[hemi68charger]

Very interesting story... Thanks for sharing thus far..........   

[nascarxx29]

Great story If you have the vin be great to see how it looks today

[Arnie Cunningham]

This is a long shot but you can clearly read the license plate in one photo.  Some government agencies can trace by plate number.  You may find the VIN number that way.  Or, if you ever had it insured, the agent may be able to find it.

[nascarxx29]

I show in 79 records a FJ5 RM23UOA161559 lime green automatic Bill and Bruce Lear Phoenix AZ

[tan top]

  awesome pictures & write up , love all these old pictures    thanks for sharing 

[billssuperbird]

 

[Montreal Wing Car]

I show in 79 records a FJ5 RM23UOA161559 lime green automatic Bill and Bruce Lear Phoenix AZ

The car was originally sold in Canada, and was here till 84 or 85... Someone here who has kept some records of wing cars (he bought another lime green/black Bird right about the same time I did, but he still has it!) tells me it was probably RM23U0A161593 , but that car shows up as a V code car on the lists? Any records on that one?
I'm just curious about where it would be now, can't afford a wing car now... After I sold it, it was just about when prices started to get out of reach, and a lot of local cars were purchased by americans, as the US$ was very strong. Life got in the way, the house, kids, blablabla...
About 5 years ago, a friend, actually the same guy who was riding his bike to see the wing cars with me back then, bought a 71 Chrysler 300 from the original owner and offered it to me the following year... so I finally got back into Mopars, with a two-door, bucket-seat, 440-powered GREEN cruiser!

I even went back to where the original Bird picture was taken 25 years before!




Ben

[FJ5WING]

Cool reading for sure....GOOD LUCK!

[nascarxx29]

I ve seen another lime green bird on a board from Canada Jean Mark Claudet.Does that name ring a bell

[Montreal Wing Car]

Dave, Jean-Marc Gaudet is the guy I was talking about, the one who had the wisdom to keep his green Bird...
The same guy who had been working on mine started on his right after he was finished with mine...

Ben

[nascarxx29]

The green superbird of his on here I recall
http://www.clubchrysler.com/forum/index.php

[Montreal Wing Car]

This is it:


Ben

[nascarxx29]

Thanks for the picture .If you find you old cars vin .Will see what can be dug up
http://www.brcook.com/id17.html

[SBBob]

SUPER - Superbird story Ben.  I know what it is to be bitten by the wingcar thing early in life.  Wish you all the luck in finding the car and connecting with the new owners.  I really enjoyed the old pictures as they always bring back the best of memories. 

[Magnumcharger]

That's a fantastic story! And I'm certain that you will find out the VIN shortly.
I too had an opportunity to buy a SuperBird back in 1981, a real ORANGE V code, from Grimsby, Ontario. If I ever find out where it's at these days, you can bet I'll be trying my best to get it - after not paying the paultry $1500 when I could of.
Like you, I have a "stack" of Daytona-Superbird club newsletters that I'm now motivated to go back into.
Perhaps your VIN is in there?