A new chapter in the life of an unrestored Hemi Daytona

[ph23vo]

excellent!.... give her some more advanced timing and she will sing!

[70Sbird]

Congrats Bob, what an exciting milestone!

[426HemiChick]

Congratulations Bob,                       10 March 2021

Wow, Brought tears of joy to our eyes. In our opinion, you have the best stock 426 Mopar Hemi in existence. She never failed us, was fast and as smooth running as one could ever hope for.

The 41 years she sat here in our garage she was waiting for you to come and adopt her. We had numerous offers over the years, all turned down. In 06 we turned down a $1mil offer for the three cars because we didn't like or trust the potential buyer.

Seeing and hearing her run again, reaffirms our decision to accept your offer to adopt her 24 October 2020. There is no doubt in our minds that we collectively made the correct decision. She will never disappoint you; She is the Best of the Best and so are You.

God Bless You and everyone involved. Many Thanks for reawakening Her and giving her a new chance to thrill the many fans of the wing car world.

Best Always,

Dena and Christine, the 426 Hemi Chicks

[73rallye440magnum]

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Have been impatiently following.

Not my business nor am pressuring, would be neat if Christine and Dena can enjoy the car again when safely on the road.

CHEERS! 

[426HemiChick]

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Have been impatiently following.

Not my business nor am pressuring, would be neat if Christine and Dena can enjoy the car again when safely on the road.

CHEERS! 

Hi 73rallye,                    10 March 2021

We appreciate your comments and concerns; thank you very much.

Bob now belongs to her, yes, she owns him just as she owned us; we love seeing him work on her and bringing her back to life as the only Unrestored Original 426 Hemi Daytona. She is unique and an absolute rare jewel. We plan to visit Bob, his family, employees, friends and his wing cars late spring or early summer.

Knowing she is safe, has a loving and attentive parent and family, has brought us an immense amount of satisfaction and joy. We had the honor and pleasure of owning her for 48 years. We will see her again and we will get to visit with our great new friend Bob. What more could anyone hope for. Thanks Bob, see you all while it's warm up thataway.

Best Always,

426 Hemi Chicks

[billssuperbird]

 

[6bblgt]

 

[taxspeaker]

Quick update:
Today we fixed the transmission line leak (minor), installed the rest of the exhaust with resonators and the original chrome tailpipe extensions, refilled the transmission and drove around the lot for 20 minutes without leaks or problems! All gauges work and read fine, no overheating, 40 pounds of oil pressure at idle, shifts great, the radio works but must have some transistor because we found no English language AM radio stations.

All that is left at my end is tomorrow to fine tune the timing and recheck all the fluids.

That leaves the re-installation of the nose cone. After doing it once on my white Superbird my son flat out refused to do it again, so I have persuaded Mark Sekula to come down and mount it with our help. All the parts are there and marked and awaiting him. Christine even had the original headlights which Dave Wise told me are impossible to find and not to clean them because the markings come off.

I have scheduled the Daytona (as soon as the nose is back on) for 3 car shows this year:

Moparfest at the Battleships on April 24th in Mobile Alabama.  I did this show 2 years ago and it is fantastic-Big Easy Mopars puts it on and they do a great job, the USS Alabama is incredible and the seafood options are awesome. I will also be taking the Purple Hemi Superbird, and the LimeLight Green Superbird. Staying at Courtyard Mobile/Daphne Eastern Shore if anyone else is.

Chrysler Nationals. The car has been accepted into the survivor tent for Friday-Sunday July 9-11. We will also be taking the Purple Hemi Superbird which has been accepted into one of the other indoor things. Staying at Fairfield Inn & Suites in Carlisle if anyone else is.

MCACN Chicago-the car has been accepted into the Barn Find. We will also debut our newly restored yellow 6-pack Superbird.

[Birdflu]

Congrats Bob! 

[Mopar John]

Bob,
You have to be the most active AERO owner out there now!
Congrats on getting that survivor time capsule running!
If you find that any of those original head lights don't work I have a stash of originals!
Yes, the black ink originally applied in early 1969 is now just mere black powder!
MJ

[taxspeaker]

Wow John that's a retirement account sitting on that blanket.
Thanks-hope to see you at Carlisle.
Bob

[426HemiChick]

Quick update:
Today we fixed the transmission line leak (minor), installed the rest of the exhaust with resonators and the original chrome tailpipe extensions, refilled the transmission and drove around the lot for 20 minutes without leaks or problems! All gauges work and read fine, no overheating, 40 pounds of oil pressure at idle, shifts great, the radio works but must have some transistor because we found no English language AM radio stations.
.
.
.

Hi Bob,                        11 March 2021

We think your Daytona's radio must still be tuned to Akron stations. A different dialect of broken Kinglish, commonly known as Gibberlish, is spoken up thataway.

That is the most likely reason because we don't remember ever turning that radio on during the 41 years it was here.

If you find a pre-tuned station that has folks speaking Spanglish then you'll know the radio must have been on while here in Tejas . . . .  ah, I mean Texas.

Now, where's the video of your Daytona tooling around the parking lot? Came back here today just to see it cruising around.

One last item: Christine took the nose off the Daytona by herself in 1979. She wouldn't attempt either task now without lots of help. She was 39 when she removed it: heck, now, she's not sure she remembers which end it goes on.

Take Care Amigo.

Best Always,

426 Hemi Chicks

[TiMopar]

I've been following this thread with interest from the beginning without commenting. I just wanted to say that it pleases me that it all turned out good and all parties involved are happy. It made me smile to see the video of the car moving.

[taxspeaker]

Teaser of car driving in office lot. The guys said they did not get good good sound so will work on another video for that. Timing is now where it should be, adjusted secondary carb linkage a bit, but drove it on the street for 1st time in 45 years to get here. Shifts fine. I notice a bit of fuel seepage from top hose at top of vapor separator-very small thing to fix, and I may need to adjust carb linkage a bit more, but it is now mechanically back to where it needs to be and ready for the nose.

https://taxondemand.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/DaytonaParkingLot1.mp4

[69_500]

Now I need to make another trip down to check the car out again. Glad to hear that Mr. Wise, had the same things to say about the originality of the car. It was a very nice car when I looked at it.

[hemi68charger]

Nice soundtrack there Bob..... 

[426HemiChick]

Hi Bob,                   12 March 2021

Fantastic! She's looking better each time we see her. Love that license Plate. Absolutely fitting for her; she is the Holy Grail of the Wing Cars and all Mopars.

Thanks for posting the video. We do know she sounds great but we really want to hear her again. It's been a long time since we have heard that Big Bad Ass Hemi Emit the Unique Sounds She Produces.

Still remember the day we first laid eyes upon her in summer 1972; bought her on the spot.

Thank you for taking her under your wing. She looks happy and will even look more so once her Proboscis has been reinstalled.

She's one Beautiful and Fantastic Car. We hope you have many years with her, even more than we had.

Take Care Amigo.

Best Always,

Dena and Christine, 426 Hemi Chicks

[held1823]

striping the parking lot, i see

[RallyeMike]

Teaser of car driving in office lot. The guys said they did not get good good sound so will work on another video for that. Timing is now where it should be, adjusted secondary carb linkage a bit, but drove it on the street for 1st time in 45 years to get here. Shifts fine. I notice a bit of fuel seepage from top hose at top of vapor separator-very small thing to fix, and I may need to adjust carb linkage a bit more, but it is now mechanically back to where it needs to be and ready for the nose.

https://taxondemand.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/DaytonaParkingLot1.mp4

What/where format are these videos? My vintage Mac via Hughesnet won't load them (well...maybe if I wait about 2 hours)

[chargervert]

Bob,Nice work getting the Daytona up and running again! Hopefully Christine and Dena will get the Road Runner,and the Superbee,up and running too!

[426HemiChick]

Bob,Nice work getting the Daytona up and running again! Hopefully Christine and Dena will get the Road Runner,and the Superbee,up and running too!

Hi Chargervert,                   14 March 2021

Thank You; that's the plan. The SB should be the easiest as little was modified on it. The big changes are the K-Member and the Third member, the latter of which belongs to the RR and visa versa. We bought a spare Hemi K-Member in 69 to simplify installing the Hemi in the SB.

Need to rebuild the 440- Six Pack engine due to shoddy factory workmanship and even shoddier dealer mechanical repair. Plan is to keep it stock and as original as possible. It has a couple dings, one compliments of me and my stupidity and two compliments of thieves. There's no rust, they haven't been rained on since their first year of life.

Once we have them in Phoenix, Dena has a large fully equipped shop where we can do serious work and get it done quickly. She also has paint and body shops that do excellent work. Our hope is to have the SB and the Ford Police Mustang up and running by summer 2022.

Once those two are done the Hemi RR will get a complete make over. Its Hemi is going to require a lot of work. The guy that did the major work on it kind of screwed things up. Later on I figured out he didn't know much about Hemi's and made some serious mistakes with the engine. He modified the oiling system and did a real no, no on the heads. He used an orbital seat grinder thereby damaging the seats and heads. I think a good head shop can correct his mistakes, all 16 0f them. I know what to do with the oiling system, just return it to stock.

We'll use the RR for local car shows and maybe a bit of street racing.

We really enjoy seeing and reading about Bob and his Hemi Daytona. I think she is his main car love and he is her main human love. The two of them belong together. We could see it in his face when he first laid eyes upon her 24 October 2020. We're happy they have each other.

We'll keep you all posted on a new thread after we have our relocation to Phoenix completed. Once we are settled in we should have time to devote to the cars rather than packing boxes and moving.

Take Care Chargervert.

Best Always,

426 Hemi Chicks

[tan top]

 Awesome Sight !  Amazing    

Congratulations Bob !!
this  IS fantastic seeing this Daytona &  listening to ( 426 Hemi Chicks ) storys & thank you  for  continuing to share your story & adventure with us Bob  
watching your first videos when it did not fire , i was thinking i was actually there & talking to the computer screen saying check this that
& watching avidly ....was excited listening you cranking the motor waiting for that HEMI to fire up  

awesome thread  

looking forward to seeing & reading more installments  !

[1969daytona]

Congratulation!!!!
XX29 haven

K-E

[taxspeaker]

Nose going on Friday 4/2/21 for first time in over 40 years. Car is running fine-we pulled it out, drove it around the lot and let it idle in the sun for 30 minutes yesterday-steady 180 degrees, steady 40 PSI oil, no leaks. Picture from last night with all systems go.

Taking to Mobile Fest at Battleships April 24.

[426HemiChick]

Hi Bob,                      30 March 2021

Fantastic Amigo. We're sure she is happy. Hope the package arrived OK.

Today, the Super Bee will be going out of the garage, weather permitting, for the first time in 35+ years to have a bath. Yes, she's another survivor but we're not going to take her to Phoenix as filthy as she is. We have photos documenting all the crud from spending 42 years in our Texas garage.

Getting everything ready for shipment to Phoenix in the next two weeks, hopefully sooner.

We're planning to start a new thread for our 68 Hemi Road Runner and 69 440 Six-Pack Super Bee. We'll do it in another section of the site, just haven't figured out zackly where (Any suggestions?). Have a couple photos we'll post here shortly, before and after type. They need to be resized before we can post them.

Take care, have a safe, successful, and enjoyable adventure; we're positive your Daytona will enjoy this as this will be her first ever formal car showing; She'll be the hit of the show.

When you are installing the nose, if you find anything inside that looks like hay or straw, it's from the time she spent in our barn in Ohio.

Best Always,

Dena and Christine