Body In White Superbird Questions

[Arnie Cunningham]

Hey All,

Did the teams that raced Superbirds receive body-in-white 70 Road Runner shells as a starting point for their race cars?

If so, did those shells have the Superbird rear window plug or "wing washers" installed on the assembly line?

Just wondering if there ever was something that could be remotely considered a factory race Superbird other than the reconfigured street cars used in drag racing.

Brennan

[nascarxx29]

Maybe this helps how sox and martin did it
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,29444.0.html

[Redbird]

I saw and sat in the Werst/Jennings car in the late 70's in Ken Jennings shop in Maryland. It was a very trick piece. I have every belief that all the weight shifting that has been noted was done. I remember the rear wheelwells being very reworked. Instead of being a 90 degree fold where they turn over, there was a rolled edge. The lace paint job also helped hide the movement of the wheels around, making it hard to compare to a stock car. I am under the belief that the wheelwell openings on the quarters and fenders were modified and enlarged, sure to provide tire clearance-but also to hide part of the weight shifting. The power brake booster under the hood has been replaced with a standard unit.

I have every belief that it was just a production line car though, based on the totality of evidence the car presents. It is on the 1920 list, it has a dash VIN, door tag and fender tag. It is assembled as any other car that went down the assembly line was, and this is hard to do if you are just picking parts out of a box in a shop to build one car. The trunk has the correct soundproofing on the quarters, it has the right sealer on the hump over the axle, the trunk lid has the 2 correct jack stickers and the correct grease marks for the spare, it also has the typical paint overspray in the corners at several places in the trunk.

The interior is a correct white interior, the details are harder to get than a black interior. It had the correct white plugs at the front of the doors, the correct white pinchweld trim at the back side of the doors correct paint overspray on the floor in front of the foot pedals, correct stamps on the steering column. Most noteably the door assembly is exactly typical of an assembly line car, rubber bumpers, paint overspray and how it is put together.

It is very hard to get a car to look this way when you are building it out of a box in a shop, even more so when you are under time limits in order to get to a race.

[Aero426]

All Superbird circle track cars started out as a plain Belvedere body in white built at Nichels Engineering.   They were in primer and would not have any window plug.   These cars had no factory VIN numbers.    Nichels would assign their own internal serial number.    For instance, P-94 was a Plymouth Runner and the 94th chassis built.   DC-95 was the next car and it was a Dodge Charger.   Any Chrysler product built at Nichels is considered a "factory" race car.

Probably the only Superbird race cars built as a "Superbird" from new were the Petty Enterprises #40 and #43, and the Dan Gurney #42.   All other cars are likely 1968 or 1969 race chassis that were updated during the winter before Daytona in 1970.   The Petty cars were partially completed at Nichels and sent to Petty where they were finished and "became" Superbirds.    The Gurney car has been seen in photos at Nichels.

I cannot emphasize enough that you have to forget most of what you know about the assembly line street car side of things when you deal with the race cars.   They are two separate entities and have almost nothing to do with each other.   

[Arnie Cunningham]

Ah!  Good.  Clarification.  So none of the NASCAR Superbirds were body in white "Superbirds" prior to being delivered to race teams/shops.  I thought that Petty's return to Plymouth also included some exclusivity as to the "movement" of Plymouth race parts.  Please expand on this.  Who did what, etc.

[Aero426]

Petty's return to Plymouth included them becoming the exclusive factory provider of all Chrysler circle track cars and components beginning in 1971.   Nichels had handled this function since 1963 and would finish out the 1970 year.    For all the talk about "wanting a Dodge", the move to Ford and subsequent return to Plymouth was a power play by Lee Petty to gain control of the car building operation and parts business.