MOPAR JOHNS EK2 SUPERBIRD RESTORATION!!

[Mopar John]

                                                              SUPERBIRD BODY IN PRIMER PART 2!
Here are a few more shots of the Superbird body in primer! The first picture is of the quarter panel extensions now sanded down and primered. The last two pictures are of roof area! Next up will be some pictures of the body after the primer has dried! ENJOY!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                                       NOW THE PRIMER IS DRY!
Here are some more pictures of the Superbird body afte the primer has dried! The first two pictures are of the drivers side. The last picture is of the cowl and windshield opening!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                                          DRY PRIMER PART 2!
  Here are a few more pictures of the Superbird body after the primer has dried! The first picture is of the passengers side. The second picture is of the taillight panel and the last picture is of the rear window plug area! The Superbird body was then turned on it's side to finish off the new trunk floor from the bottom side. While the bottom is being worked on the body and primer will cure. Then a block sand will take place with another primer coat and then sealer! ENJOY!
MJ

[FJ5WING]

AWESOME updates John!
I just spent a few minutes catching up on the thread.

[Mopar John]

                                                                          NOS SUPERBIRD NOSE!
  I purchased the nose in these pictures back in 2008. It was NOS at the time and cost $7500.00! There is another post discussing a wrecked Superbird and how much they are going for today! Looks like about double what I paid 5 years ago!
  I painted the nose and installed it for the Croxfords meet in Cleveland a couple of years ago. Soon after that the Superbird went to the restoration shop. The nose won't take much time or work to get it ready for paint! They are also working on the Z brackets and headlight assemblies!
MJ

[1970Moparmann]

John, when did they say paint will be on the car?  Looking good!

[Mopar John]

Mike,
I am waiting for a call any day now to go and see the painted body! I have some parts to take down there and some to deliver that I helped purchase for a 1970 HEMI Coronet being restored at the shop! See you soon!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                                FINAL REPAIRS BOTTOM SIDE!
  While the body is curing on the top side the Superbird body was turned on it's side for final repairs to the bottom side! The first picture shows the drivers side frame rail area. Here they make sure all the welds are ground and everything looks like it would from the factory!
The second picture shows the passengers side frame rail. Here again they did some touch up on the welds. The third picture is of the bottom side of the trunk floor where a small repair was made. The last picture shows and overall view of the bottom of the trunk floor. They will now cut off the temporary support that was welded in to hold everything in place while the new trunk floor and quarters were welded in!
MJ

[tan top]

  nice work 

[Mopar John]

nice work 

THANKS!
  This was a huge effort! When I first bought the Superbird back in the mid 70's it came from Florida and had a rotted out trunk floor. I modified and installed a Chrysler Imperial hood upside down to replace the rotted out floor. I checked in the late 70's and no factory replacements could be ordered! Not to long ago a friend of mine decided to sell his long time in storage original rust free trunk floor! It took some extra work but the last post shows some nice shots of it now at home in our Superbird. This was one of the big reasons to get the body stripped down and repaired! I am very happy with the results of the effort to get it back to original!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                                     MORE REPAIRS BOTTOM SIDE!
  The passenger compartment floor pans were in very good shape compared to some of the other areas of the Superbird body!
The first picture is of a small rust repair already prepped. The second picture is of the drivers side with glazing putty applied.

                                                                       FRAME RAIL DENTS!
I have seen many cars that have been restored and there are still frame rail dents from getting the jack and or jackstands in
the wrong spot. These dents are from when the weight of the car is on the jack and or jackstands. The last two pictures
show a couple of dents that will be removed before primer and paint!
  This wraps up the pictures from my July 2013 invoice! I expect another soon and the body to be painted!
My next post will be on some more NOS and good used parts I found to enhance the restoration! In fact some are in route as
I type this.
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                             MORE RESTORATION PARTS!
  The parts I spoke of in my last reply have arrived! It was like Christmas at the mailbox on Monday! The last picture shows the two packages that arrived! Inside were two NOS backup lenses for the Superbird! A while back I had been scanning E-BAY for parts and found a single NOS backup lens under the 70 PLYMOUTH search. I bid on it and won the auction. It turns out the seller was our very own Doug Schellinger who goes by AERO426 on this forum. At that time I asked Doug if he had any more? I was hoping he would have the other side. He did some checking and said he had another of the same side. I told Doug I would buy that one also and try to trade for the other side or keep it for my GTX racecar. I then remebered another guy selling parts that had some NOS backup light and lenses for sale a while back. I found the ad and contacted Ken Steidle who is also on this site as moparply. Ken had the other NOS lens I needed and had an NOS housing for the other side that needed a lens of which I had the extra! I made Ken a trade offer which he accepted and I sent off the extra lens. The one I traded for arrived on the same day as DOUG'S!! WOW! The first picture shows the two NOS lenses, gaskets and original packages!
   The second and third pictures show a very very nice used automatic console that I bought from Tony Malcein who is also restoring a Daytona and sharing his story on this forum!  The second picture is of the console from the side and the third picture is a closeup of the back that is normally cracked down the middle.
 MJ

[maxwellwedge]

Good score John!

[Mopar John]

                                                      NOT EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT FOR ME EITHER!
 While I'm waiting for my next batch of Superbird pictures to post I will share with you something bad that happened this summer!
Near the end of May I drove my dumptruck to work on days Friday the 24th. I also had my box trailer in tow with the racecar. My plans after work were to go to a farmer who sold culvert seconds for a trail that I was putting in around our property and then go test and tune with the racecar. All went well as I picked up the culvert and then ran some of the best times ever! Then the next day I went to unhook the trailer and take the culvert out to the ravine in the woods for installation. The dump truck was chugging along and you could hear it in the exhaust? It had plenty of power as it pulled the culvert trailer with racecar a day earlier? Linda was off so she followed me to the local Chrysler dealer. We dropped off the truck and told them to check it out when they got a chance. They asked me if I had a check engine light and I told them no! I received a call a couple of days later and they told me all it needed was an old fashioned tune up. Now days that amounts to plugs and maybe wires. I told them to go ahead and got another call the next day. They told me they found the problem with the 360 V8 gas motor. When they went to change the number 8 sparkplug the electrode was missing! They then did a compression check and there was only 30lbs in the cylinder!! I told them to pull the head and I have attached a couple of pictures of what they found. The number 8 piston was eaten up and scored the cylinder wall!@#$%^&*(! They also sent the head off an found out that it was cracked! It must have allowed antifreeze in that cylinder and destroyed it. Quickly Linda and I had to decide what to do? We were down to two choices. Put a new motor in or buy a new truck. Linda hated the dumptruck and I had most of the yard work done around the place. So we found out what all the discounts and rebates were along with my supplier discount from work. We would save over $10,000.00 dollars! We traded the dumptruck in as is and they were very fair with us as we had bought it there new in 2002. We had to do a dealer trade all the way in Erie, Pennsylvania to get the new 8 speed auto and all the towing goodies. I have attached a picture of us picking up the new truck and then one with the trailer hooked up to it. It got over 22mpg on a trip to Wisconsin and gets about 4 mpg more than the dumptruck towing with the 395HP HEMI! It is a great truck!
MJ

[Aero426]

John how well does the new 1500 truck handle the trailer with the Road Runner loaded?

[daytonalo]

Very nice build !!

I know three late model Hemi engines that kicked rods out . My machinist who is well known says it took a few years but they have issues .
Cummins are bullet proof

[Mopar John]

John how well does the new 1500 truck handle the trailer with the Road Runner loaded?

Doug,
Linda and I just got back from a trip to the dragstrip for a test and tune. The new truck pulls great! The dumptruck had 245HP and the new HEMI has 395HP. The torque is up by about 75 also! The factory integrated brake controller does a much better job with the trailer brakes. I had to put the stabalizer bars back on to take some of the rock and roll out. I have been passed by some semi's this morning and the new truck is much more stable than the old 98 regular cab truck. Overall a very positive upgrade!
MJ

[ScatPaC]

Wow! John, Thanks for posting the detailed pics. They will be invaluable as I start (yet again) my Superbird restoration...
Greatly appreciate your time keeping us up to date with the progress.
-Virgil

[Mopar John]

Wow! John, Thanks for posting the detailed pics. They will be invaluable as I start (yet again) my Superbird restoration...
Greatly appreciate your time keeping us up to date with the progress.
-Virgil

Virgil,
It's comments like yours that keep me posting and sharing my journey!
  The amount of work done to our Superbird due to all the rust repair is way above average! Such items as the passengers door pillar and the quarter window panel come to mind. There has also been a lot of panel replacemanet done with the door skins and quarter panels. Many people replace the trunk floors now days with all the 2 piece and 1 piece reproductions but to reuse an original out of a rust free parts car is also unusual!
  Soon I hope to post more pictures that go along with the last invoice from the restoration shop!
Thanks! MJ

[hemi68charger]

Been awhile John since I mentioned something...... Wow......... You are making great strides with the ole' girl........... it will be amazing to see both your Daytona and Superbird next to each other someday...... I really dig the "before and after" on the hood corners....... 

[Mopar John]

Been awhile John since I mentioned something...... Wow......... You are making great strides with the ole' girl........... it will be amazing to see both your Daytona and Superbird next to each other someday...... I really dig the "before and after" on the hood corners....... 

Troy,
I am really watching your HEMI transplant into your Daytona posts! I have the unrestored R4 Daytona and have been thinking about setting the engine and trans off to the side and putting one of my old race motors in it. I have a 30 over 440 with a HEMI crank and 6 pack rods along with the old 915 closed chamber heads that ran down into the low 12's as a possibility? A friend of mine is building an old 426 and hasn't decided what to put it in just yet!

[69_500]

Been awhile John since I mentioned something...... Wow......... You are making great strides with the ole' girl........... it will be amazing to see both your Daytona and Superbird next to each other someday...... I really dig the "before and after" on the hood corners....... 

Troy,
I am really watching your HEMI transplant into your Daytona posts! I have the unrestored R4 Daytona and have been thinking about setting the engine and trans off to the side and putting one of my old race motors in it. I have a 30 over 440 with a HEMI crank and 6 pack rods along with the old 915 closed chamber heads that ran down into the low 12's as a possibility? A friend of mine is building an old 426 and hasn't decided what to put it in just yet!

John you should just do a trade with me if you do not want that R4 Daytona anymore. I will swap you an R4 500 then you could have one of each aero car.

[Mopar John]

Been awhile John since I mentioned something...... Wow......... You are making great strides with the ole' girl........... it will be amazing to see both your Daytona and Superbird next to each other someday...... I really dig the "before and after" on the hood corners....... 

Troy,
I am really watching your HEMI transplant into your Daytona posts! I have the unrestored R4 Daytona and have been thinking about setting the engine and trans off to the side and putting one of my old race motors in it. I have a 30 over 440 with a HEMI crank and 6 pack rods along with the old 915 closed chamber heads that ran down into the low 12's as a possibility? A friend of mine is building an old 426 and hasn't decided what to put it in just yet!

John you should just do a trade with me if you do not want that R4 Daytona anymore. I will swap you an R4 500 then you could have one of each aero car.

Nice try Danny! One of these days you'll be at the right spot at the right time!
MJ

[Ghoste]

Should we hold a pool on the final invoice?

[Mopar John]

Should we hold a pool on the final invoice?

Ghoste,
It would be interesting to see what some guys would guess on this. I have seen shop labor rates from $40.00 per hour to $75.00 per hour. But they also vary more than that when it comes to how much time they bill for doing the same items!! I am very happy with Troy Angelly Restorations and this is my second wing car being done at their shop!
MJ