Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[hemi-hampton]

How come I'm not surprised the aftermarket knob was poor fit, like most aftermarket. Besides that looking nice.   LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Oh I'm not surprise either Leon, just pointing it out in case someone has a knobless seat adjuster lever, orders one and wonders HTF it attaches. OE set screw is also too small, so you'd need to source the next size up.
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What's in a font anyhow...
Decal on my Superbird (not certain it's OEM, but pre '89)
Firestone Collectibles
Performance Graphics.

Firestone Collectibles
PG
Superbird's

Tire air pressure decal in place.

Air cleaner decal in place. Debatable as to correctness as it has .. severe conditions.. on the last line and not just conditions. I've seen evidence, in Mopar John's Bird thread, that conditions only would probably be correct until late into '70 and the AAR cars introduction. So that would probaby imply that in '69 the sticker font would have had just conditions on the last line by itself.

Safety Standard sticker in place on the drivers A pillar.

Emissions decal in place.

Bumper Jack "how to" decal in place exactly as per OE location.

I used the Firestone Collectibles anti-freeze decal as it just looks nicer and I have two.. so I can make both cars exactly the same and claim it's correct!!   

[Lennard]

Beautiful 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Lennard!
..........

Time to bring my stripe kit out from safe storage.

Trying to be absolutely sanitary. Clean sheet of aluminum from my materials stock rack and same grounded with a booster cable so no static is generated cleaning / peeling etc.

Rear marker bezels, NOS clamp brackets and speed nuts.

Test fitting the reflector bezels to be certain they fit and if any filing is necessary of the opening.

Bezels, repop reflectors, two face tape and bezel gaskets.

This tape backing is a PITA...

New reflectors taped and snapped in place.

Gaskets in place and ready for install. Precut the new speed nuts onto the posts as well.

[birdsandbees]

Time to spend a good two hours test fitting the stripes for final install. I would have never made it as a line worker...

1 Teaspoon of dish soap to a gallon of water. Spec'd mixture for a good decal float out. Also used it to wash any wax off the back of the car.

Playing with stripe layout. Performance Graphics states 4.5" from the REAR of the quarter cap when measured along the quarter to trunk joint.

Marking center on the marker hole, with a little "wiggle room" for the stripe width.

PG sure doesn't waste material... #%(#@%*#. All that is left with the Bee centered on the body line.

At 4.5" , as per spec, I don't like the decals slant to the quarters end and it's of course a compromise top to bottom to have the marker hole centered and still keep the decal on the lower quarter as it wraps around the bottom.

Think I'm finally happy with line up.

PG's 4.5" from REAR of quarter cap is a NO... by this much.

[birdsandbees]

4.0" from the END of the quarter panel, not the cap, seems to give a better flow to the trunk to quarter transition.

All marked out with tape for final install.

I think I'm ready, need to clean the paint with Naptha and then Rubbing Alcohol ... and see if my assistant is available tomorrow.

What it's hopefully going to look like!

[birdsandbees]

Rear of car was first washed with dish soap and water, then wiped down with Naptha (Coleman stove fuel) and then 99% Rubbing Alcohol.

Don't forget the underside where the stripe wraps around and the quarter to trunk gutters.

As clean as she's gonna get.

Peeling the adhesive side protective cover while spraying with the soapy water mix. The aluminum sheet I have grounded worked perfect, no static and bonus was once wet you could peel the cover without holding the decal!

Decal in place on soapy water and sitting on it's marks.

Working out the bubbles and water. You can see the look of terror in my eyes...

One quarter decal on, almost wrecked it as I had air trapped on the upper body line and head to peel it. Was stuck pretty good, but lots of soapy water and careful lifting to remove and put back down.

Passenger side, wish I hadn't sent my assistance off to do yard work. Trick is to get the side fairly well stuck in place and then put the top section down.

[birdsandbees]

Crude X cut just like the factory.

Almost an hour later and you can finally put the gutter section down into place and get it to stick. You need to cut the covering material between the center stripe and the rear stripe so it will go around the curve of the gutter.

Back side of the cut out. You can't fold it back until the decal cover layer comes off.

A tad pissed with the manufactures +/- 1/16" tolerance on decal width. The quarter's center stripes are 1/16" wider than the deck lids... so instantly make the stripe look off. Here it is lined up nice at the rear edge, not so much at the front. Had to bump the trunk lid forward 1/32" so I was happy.

About 3 hours later, peeling the outer cover off ever so carefully.

Using a sharpy to gently work the decal into the marker opening. Went back and forth between sides about 10 times until it stuck nice. DO NOT use your fingers.. unless you have no nails!

Decal just crudely folded back per factory "specs" and the NOS bezel retainer in place with speed nuts.

Drivers side marker bezel in place.

[birdsandbees]

Passenger side marker bezel in place.

Trunk mat in.

Something I didn't even know existed, a jack hold down plate and wing nut, until I started researching my restoration. Never saw one in ANY Mopar in my life. Thrown away, with the jack, after the first flat tire! lol

Of course the factory wouldn't wrap it up. Jack in place with hold down bracket and wing nut.

Spare tire, jack base and hook in place with an NOS wing nut. (and a 2" black nylon washer so no scratches)

I couldn't get the speed nut to grab the single accessible post of my trunk Bee, and if it had I don't think it would have sat right anyhow. Fortunately I'd bought these 4 years ago to put the Road Runner emblems back on the Birds trunk lid. Only thing with these, once they're on.. they're pretty much ON. Drill a 5/32" hole, insert these locking rings and then the emblem.

Bee tapped gently into place with the rubber hammer. It's tight and not coming off.

An ass I've always loved! It's 50 years older and I love it even more!

[birdsandbees]

Trunk adjusted 1/32" forward, which of course took about 6 tries. Now I'm happy.

That's a wrap ! Well not quite, still a few little things to finish up!

[kent]

Congratulations Wayne!! 

Beautiful Job! And to pull such a great job off up here in Canada says something else!
Well done sir. She looks marvelous!

[alfaitalia]

Beautiful job.....gotta say that stripe looks great....With the amount of work that went into fitting it I'm kinda glad my 69 stripe is being painted on.......someone else's worry that way!!! I just know id screw that up. You cant have much left to do before she's 100% done.

[birdsandbees]

Thanks, the stripe was painted last time and I wasn't going that route again as it was a nightmare when it came time to add the "super bee" and the bee decal itself. Lost track of how many sets they ruined clearing over them. Also years later the stripe went yellow in places, or the clear did.

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Shop at 80*F and dehumidifier running full blast. Decal looking good!

About 1/2 of the deck lids small bubbles have disappeared in two days. Hopefully all gone over the weekend.

Finally got the O ring to stick to the original washer fluid pump seal and reassembled the pump.

All back together, runs and holds fluid this round!

My OE sill plate extensions, from Moparsal, showed up in the mail. They need a good cleaning but in great shape.

[INTMD8]

Awesome job on everything!  Very much appreciate all of the photos. Had to order some parts I didn't know were missing 

[birdsandbees]

Glad I could help you spend money Jim !!

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Outside and ready to load her up for a front end alignment in Orillia tomorrow.

All strapped in and ready to go in the morning. Next road trip will be under her own power, as I applied for Hagerty insurance last night. Now to see if they'll cover me for my agreed value!

[birdsandbees]

On the alignment rack at Jim Wilson's in Orillia, Ontario.

Many say they can't get their OE geometry past 2.0* Positive Caster for better handling. Passenger side would go 3.5* right out of the gate.. but of course we then couldn't get the drivers side there. It would only go to about 2.5* which is just fine on bias plies and then setting camber brought it down to just under 2.0. Factory spec is 0 to -1 (that I didn't want).

So great to see a young mechanic that understands old cars. Dalton is rebuilding a '66 Belvedere himself. This is BB BELLA's son. If you need your Mopar aligned in Ontario, give Jim Wilson Chev your business and request Dalton. He understands the work that's gone into YOUR car, knows to work clean with hand tools and most of all understands Mopar ....even if he is working for Chevrolet! Even the dealership owner came out to see a real car...

Some neat technology..

Just about done setting toe in.

My most important "want"! A centered wheel.

A bit more left side camber, just like factory spec, to keep you on the hump of the road. Car test run seemed to run nice, track straight, wheel is centered and it did a U turn really nice before I got caught too far up the street!

Came home to insurance slips from Hagerty! No issues, no questioning value, just took my money. I sure don't miss the days of having to get a $$$ photo appraisal done, with FILM! lol Now I can go get licence stickers and get her dirty !!!

[birdsandbees]

I've waited about 15 years to power shift this bitch again! Just like riding a bike, but smoother!

https://youtu.be/hDVlOiWIw-U

[mopar4don]

 

[alfaitalia]

Very cool indeed.....sound sweet too!

[timmycharger]

Congratulations!! looks and sounds great! thank you for this detailed build thread, I know I saved many pics for reference! 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Guys! Still a few things to do. Carb rebuild, alignment hole covers, god forbid undercoating the wheel wells, clean up and install those sill plate extensions, swap out a new driver/center seat belt that PG Classics has on it's way to me and I need to figure out how to drain my steering box somehow and refill with John Deere Corn Head grease.

[BLK 68 R/T]

Looks awesome, Wayne. Very nice work and glad to see you are able to drive it finally

[birdsandbees]

Got a bit behind here with no time to downsize pictures...
........

Stickers for both cars and insurance!

New plates are on

Pick a filter.. which one do I want to get dirty, which for show only. All the lids supposably the correct colour! I think mine on the left is the correctest! Good filter in the trunk for shows, reproduction on the engine for sucking dirty air.

Installing new alignment / clutch pivot hole rubber covers. Drivers side hole before cover.

Cover in place on the outside.

Passenger side adjuster hole.

Cover in place on the inside.... someone had a screw loose at Chrysler...

AMD repro adjuster hole covers on the left, my OE's on the right. I had bought reproductions not thinking my OE's would clean up this nice, but they're going back on when I can source the correct screws.

[birdsandbees]

Kinda miss working on the "old" car, when you just climbed right in! :rolleyes:

I'd say it was a BIT rich !

Accelerator pump jammed in probably isn't helping.

Holes so close to 3/8 thread size, I tapped them partially for legs.

3/8" bolts threaded in for legs to hold for rebuild.

3310-2 (4160 model) Holley with fixed secondary jet plate. Funky screws holding it on.

Ground a screw driver to fit.

Hole in a vacuum plug cap. May have helped it run by giving it some more air! Power valve is dried out and stuck in place, just like the accelerator pump. If it's stuck open would explain the raw fuel spitting out the tail pipes.

[birdsandbees]

Remembering why I've always just bought a new one when they go for a shit. Took almost 30 minutes to get the metering block off, almost had to use a sledge!

Brown scum on the bottom of both bowls, that turned to dust when it dried up.

Accelerator valve dried out and stuck in this position.

Gaskets are stuck GOOD, after 30+ years. You'd swear they were glued on.

New accelerator pump diaphram going into place.

Only solution I could muster for final gasket removal.

Carb body ready for assembly. All ports checked and cleaned out.

So close to back together. Have metering block (and 3 UCA alignment cover screws I found) soaking in BBQ lighter fluid now hoping it will lift the final gasket by morning. It's been soaking all day in gas, which did little if anything and the lighter fluid seems to be softening it up. Want to go for a drive tomorrow...