MOPAR JOHNS EK2 SUPERBIRD RESTORATION!!

[alfaitalia]

Nice attention to detail......

....over here it took a month just to find one to replace my missing one....! Even then its not factory correct and has no numbers at all. Fits and works though ( which is about as good as I can do here without spending ages finding one, importing, and paying a fortune!!......so it meets my idea of "exacting standards"!!) My car is far from stock though. Full respect to any UK owner that has the time, patience and cash do a factory type resto without going mad and ending up swinging from a rope in the garage!!!

[70gtx440dana]

To add to your file John, my OE U joint straps.

Thanks Wayne!
Your 10 7 69 pinion straps and mounting bolts are the originals!
I have attached a picture from John ( GRAYBO) of his 10 7 69 originals.
I believe we have a pattern here?
For me I'm happy to have eliminated the mis-matched pair and have a pair of 8 13 69 on the Superbird.
If I ever come across a nice pair of 10 7 69 straps I will upgrade them!
MJ

John, I sent you an email to the frontier email address. I have a pair of the 10 7 69 straps you are looking for.   Joe

I responded to Joes e-mail and we worked out a deal for his 10 7 69 straps!
My first picture shows the straps that I got from Joe.
I decided to give both of them a light bead blast so they would look the same.
I show them after the bead blast in the second picture.
The last picture shows the straps with a light coat of clear and the bolts ready to install.
They are now on the Superbird!
Thanks Joe!
MJ

John - glad I could help contribute to your project. As always.....Take care!  Joe

[RM23U0A]

Hi All, especially John, who unselfishly started this thread and saw it through; even though this car was finished. In doing so he has been able to upgrade and help us continue to learn much more. I plan to use this as a reference in restoring my 4 sbrd`s ; red, orange, yellow, and green. There was another one,red 440-6 but I traded it for my 1970 Hemi Charger RT/SE back.                        If I may enter one small observation, when I saw the front disc shields painted black; my memory was telling me that they should be zinc (  your new  word  that starts with s  ).  Perhaps I am  forgetful?  Had a very enjoyable time reading this week.  Thanks very much, Wayne

[Mopar John]

RM23UOA ( Wayne ),
Welcome to the site!
I am glad you enjoyed reading through my Superbird thread start to current.
I have made it a priority to upgrade and correct any item that we find wrong along the way.
I will dig into the disc brake stone shields and see if we can find some original examples?
I may have been the culprit on this one when I redid the front suspension years ago?
Then during the restoration they just redid what I had done.
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                          Radio Noise Suppressor
I found out that our Superbirds radio noise suppressor was MIA as are most of them.
This is a condenser looking part that is mounted by and connected to the ignition coil.
I started a separate post on them.
I want to thank John "GRAYBO" and JIM "MAXWELLWEDGE" for their information and pictures.
I finally found a correct one and have installed it on our Superbird!
The first picture is an overall of the part with the black wire and original connector.
The second picture is of the end with the 2884869 part number and 648 vendor code.
The third picture shows the coil area on our six barrel Superbird without the suppressor.
The last picture shows the radio noise suppressor installed in the proper place and connected.
MJ

[maxwellwedge]

Looks good John.
Liking the proper nuts on the coil posts too 

[Mopar John]

                                                                  Superbird and the Paving Crew!
 Yesterday after living on US HWY 421 for 17 years we finally got a repave of the highway.
There was a big crack in the road about straight out from our home that was a problem.
Every time a big truck, especially empty semi dump trucks would drive over it and make a big noise!
So yesterday when the paving crew got to the front of the house I took a walk out to watch.
As soon as I got out there a guy driving a vitamin C orange colored dump truck asked me if I still had the Superbird the color of his dump truck?
I replied yes and gave him a thumbs up.
Then a guy in a INDOT ( Indiana Department of Transportation ) truck pulled up and we started talking about the road.
I informed him that my wife 426 Linda has done a seasonal summer a few years back out of his office.
Then he gave me some more detailed information and told me they only had 20 dump trucks hauling the black top.
He told me they needed at least 22 to keep the paver moving continuous.
Then he asked me if I still had my Superbird? I told him yes and decided to go get it out!
As luck would have it they ran out of black top right in front of our driveway.
That is shown in my first picture.
The last 2 pictures show the crew checking out the Superbird while waiting for more black top to arrive!
There were about 12 guys in all once the three guys running the rollers showed up.
I left the Superbird running with the hood closed at first.
Then each guy had his own take on the car and questions!
So here is a list of questions probably not in the order that they were asked.
1) How long have you owned this car? I bought it in 1976!
2) Has this car been redone? Twice, once by me and then professionally in 2014-2015.
3) It sounds great does it have the 3 2bbl carbs? Yes
4) Can you open the hood and let us see the engine? Yes and then many WOWS!
5) Does it have the special horn? Yes
6) Can you beep the horn? Yes to a happy group!
7) My friend says this thing is worth $200,000.00? I said that is a good number for a OE restored six pack Superbird
What is OE restored? Then I explained a restoration using original and NOS parts
9) What are NOS parts? Then I explained about them
10) There was a local stock car racer that knew the history of the wing cars and had great praise for the car!
I probably missed a few questions but you get the idea.
MJ
P.S. I'm thinking about getting the Daytona out when they do the other side!

[held1823]

i've seen that road, and seen that driveway, and seen that superbird

awesome of you to get it out

[Mopar John]

i've seen that road, and seen that driveway, and seen that superbird

awesome of you to get it out

Thanks Ernie!
A while back when I changed my avatar to the picture of the wing cars in the shop with the doors up,
you asked me for more pictures of the 2 wing cars together.
We'll today I knew the paving crew who liked the Superbird so well was coming back on the other side.
So I brought the Superbird out again and then brought out the Daytona!
Here are some pictures of both of our wing cars together out on the front lawn!
MJ

[birdsandbees]

NICE!   

[Mopar John]

                                                                    Superbird Rear Bumper Jack Update!
 If you go back in this post to August of 2018 I was reporting that I had found a correct date coded spare "450" wheel.
The pictures that I posted that day opened a can of worms for me concerning the rear bumper jack!
Pete "Wingnut426" pointed out in repy #920 that my jack mechanism was painted the wrong color and that I had a tubular style jack mast !#$%^&*(!
That is when I started posting about Superbird rear bumper jacks with quite a few responses.
After gathering information and deciding what was correct I started looking for the correct parts.
I was able to get a correct length mast with a decent date code and a nice base.
Later I found an NOS base and another mast that had a better date but was a little longer in length.
So this weekend we made a trip to southern Indiana to visit our grandson at college.
Monday when we left there we made a visit to our restoration shop Troy Angelly restorations.
We were able to pick up all the bumper jack parts that I had shipped down there for restoration.
Today I had time to finally install the correct bumper jack, hook and base!
The first picture shows the wrong old tubular mast jack and wrong base.
The second picture shows the wrong jack mechanism painted the wrong color!
The third picture shows the correct "T" post jack in the correct color installed.
Notice how the hold down plate slides all the way down into position with the correct jack mast in place!
The last pictures shows the correct base and hook installed!
I want to thank Pete for pointing this out and allowing me to correct this and help others along the way!
I also want to thank John "graybo" and Jim "maxwellwedge" for pictures from their original Superbird jacks.
MJ

[birdsandbees]

Nice John.. now to add to your "fun" is the jack hold down plate supposed to be black or bare metal?? 

[Mopar John]

Nice John.. now to add to your "fun" is the jack hold down plate supposed to be black or bare metal?? 

How about gray to match the jack parts?
I think it is supposed to be black?
We'll have to see what our experts come up with?
MJ

[Wingnut426]

Hi John. My jack bracket is black, but what I noticed in the bottom picture is your spare has no white letters or you installed the spare letters down? Shouldn't the spare be  mounted so the valve is pointing up?  WINGNUT426

[birdsandbees]

I do/did the same as Wingnut with the tire sticker left on the tread, but I've been told by others that Line tires didn't have stickers...

[Mopar John]

The attached picture is the spare in our Daytona.
The first thing is that you see the white line pointing up.
The second thing is you see the original Goodyear sticker still on the tire.
At the OE judging at the Mopar Nationals we had a full point deduction for that sticker.
We were told that Goodyear brought tires to the assembly plants by the truck load.
The assembly line workers didn't have the time to peel all those stickers off.
So when we went to the MCACN show and had the Daytona judged there I spun the spare so the sticker was in the back.
But that sticker shows the average person that the Daytona has an original NOS spare!
MJ

[birdsandbees]

Thanks John, guess I'll put my sticker back on. I was told the same story, tires came by the truck load and didn't have stickers period.

[Mopar John]

                                                               Superbird Spare Wheel & Tire!
  Yesterday the special decal for the jack base arrived from ECS.
I show it in my first picture.
So I had to remove the wing nut, hook and base to install the decal.
I show it installed in my second picture.
So then I thought while I had all this removed that I would flip the spare wheel and tire over.
I show that in my third picture.
I looked at the pictures from members here and elsewhere and decided what you guys were saying was correct.
Thanks! MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                           SUPERBIRD MOTOR MOUNTS REVISITED!
Way back on page 24 in reply #578 I showed a picture of the NOS passengers side motor mount.
I had run a wanted ad and was able to buy a pair of the NOS 2536121 motor mounts from a friend.
No one spotted that these were wrong and superceded parts until the judges at Carlisle in 2016 spotted them.
With an LED flashlight it is pretty easy to see the top side of the motor mounts when they are installed.
My first picture shows just that view from earlier today.
Once I found out what I was looking for the hunt began!
Today my Christmas present to myself arrived.
I got a pair of factory assembly line motor mounts with a correct 9 and 8 or 9 dots.
This works out to August or September 1969 for the 1970 model year and the Superbird!
My last 2 pictures show the date codes and part numbers on the mounts!
Hope everyone else has a GREAT Christmas!
MJ

[odcics2]

Dr. Pimple Popper can take care of those for you.   

[Mopar John]

Speaking of Dr. Pimple popper I do have a question about the dots.
The one mount has 9 dots maybe 10 all off to the right side of the 9.
The other mount has 8 dots off to the right side of the 9 and also 1 above the 9.
Do all of these get counted?
The reason I'm asking is I think these both may have come off the same car.
Thanks! MJ

[bannedbird]

John, I have the 29K mile Bird back near my house (after 4 years).  Let me know if you need pictures of anything.  With 40+ pages to this thread, it will take me some time to look for things you were asking about!
Of course, with the 383 motor in it pre-1977, not sure about the motor mount.  Let me know if you want me to clean it up for a better look.

[Mopar John]

John, I have the 29K mile Bird back near my house (after 4 years).  Let me know if you need pictures of anything.  With 40+ pages to this thread, it will take me some time to look for things you were asking about!
Of course, with the 383 motor in it pre-1977, not sure about the motor mount.  Let me know if you want me to clean it up for a better look.

Thanks for the reply with picture!
That is an assembly line or very early motor mount.
If you get a chance to clean up across the bottom to about an inch up it will show the number for the year of manufacture and pimples for the month's.
Thanks! John

[Mopar John]

                                                                     Superbird Rear End Gear Ratio Tag
Ever since I got my Carlisle OE judging deductions back I have made it a mission to correct as many as I can.
Some items are more difficult than others.
Today I want to share the correction of the rear end gear ratio tag.
The deduction read "reproduction gear ratio tag".
So the first thing I did was to look at all my original gear ratio tags but there was no nice 3.55 tags.
I show them in my first picture.
The second picture is from this morning showing the reproduction gear ratio tag on the Superbird.
The third picture shows the reproduction tag removed and is on top in the picture.
The tag on the bottom is a nice original that I recently bought.
You can see that the 3 on the original almost looks like a 7 on the top half and not all rounded.
The last picture shows the original 3.55 tag installed on the Superbird.
MJ

[hemi68charger]

Nice John !!!

All the little details I'll need for my Charger 500.... Have any extra 3.23's laying around?