MOPAR JOHNS EK2 SUPERBIRD RESTORATION!!

[Mopar John]

                                              SUSPENSION CLEAN UP!
This batch of pictures show's the front suspension parts being cleaned up! The first picture is of one of the upper control arms. It's in very nice condition with no DEEP pitting. The second picture is of the tie rod center section, the idler arm and the pitman arm being cleaned up. These look very good as well. The third picture is of the Idler arm and pitman arm ready for a light bead blast. The last picture is of the tie rod center link bead blasted and cleaned up! MORE SOON!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                             LOWER CONTROL ARMS!
I was relieved to know that we were going to be able to use most of the original suspension including the lower control arms. This batch of pictures shows what they looked like and some of the work that had to be done. The first picture is a side view of the lower control arms alreay cleaned up. The second picture shows the damage to the bottom of one of the arms. Most of this was from me pushing my jack under there to lift one side or the other!
The third picture shows the work that was done to clean up the bottom on one side. The last picture is the same work on the other side! YES!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                               TIE ROD END ASSEMBLIES!
Next up was to clean the tie rod end assemblies. This was made up of a left and right tie rod end and the tube that they screw into. The first picture shows the assembly as removed from the Superbird. The second picture is of one end cleaned up. Notice the small head on the grease zurk! The third picture shows the parts bead blasted and cleaned up. The last picture shows where Troy and the guys duplicate the factory black coating on the suspension parts! Can't wait till it's assembled!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                    DISC BRAKE CALIPERS!
Years ago I had a caliper that was dragging and ate one of the rotors !@#$%^&*()! So I had them rebuilt and painted them. This help preserve them and we will be able to use them in the restoration! The first picture shows one of the calipers and if you look down at the bottom they are date coded! This one is dated 294 9 which is right before the Superbird was built! The second picture shows the correct small headed caliper pins and the positioners. Speaking of positioners I am still looking for one NOS or good used left side positioner. The third picture shows the caliper bottom side and the disc brake pads. The pads are in great shape and wearing evenly! The last picture is of the caliper disassembled and ready for a light bead blast! MORE SOON!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                             POWER STEERING PUMP!
With the suspension parts cleaned up and ready to go it was time to restore the power steering pump.
You would think that there wouldn't be much work there but it was! The first picture shows the pump assembly as removed from the engine. The second picture shows the dents in the bottom of the pump resivoir! OUCH!
This must have happened when I was changing belts? The third picture shows the pump disassembled. The last picture shows the pump dents removed with it bead blasted and a coat of glazing putty for a final smooth finish!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                         POWER STEERING PUMP CONTINUED!
The first picture is a before of the power steering pump brackets. The second and third pictures are of the power steering pump pulley. The last picture is a before of the power steering pump cooler. These pictures don't have much wow factor but when you see the completed assemblies it will! More soon!
MJ

[hemi68charger]

Looking great John... Love the detail to the power steering pump........... 
Kudos to Troy and his team........

[johntpr]

My untouched original power steering cooler was very similar....the tubes almost seem damaged and crushed in some areas, but that's the way they came. I'm sure the flow would be better if the bends weren't so retrictive !

[thehemikid]

 Fwiw John, here's something that may interest you if you don't already know of.

http://www.moparaction.com/Tech/beep/PUMP_IT_DOWN-re-v1.4.pdf

[Mopar John]

Thanks for the comments on the power steering pump! The bends on the original cooler do look a bit crude but that's the way they came back then. The tech article has some good info!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                  MORE PREP WORK!
When I dropped the Superbird off I thought that all the engine would need is some gaskets and a fresh paint job!
The first picture shows what my water pump looked like. That was just the beginning! OUCH!
The next two pictures show the damage to the skid plate on the K member. I guess it did it's job? The last picture shows the skid plate cut off for repairs!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                             REAR WINDOW REGULATORS!
Each and every piece of the Superbird is cleaned and refurbished even parts that will be hidden when done. The rear window regulators are some of those parts. The first picture shows the regulator frame as removed. The second picture shows the regulator bead blasted. The third picture shows it painted and the last picture shows the regulator assembly ready to be installed!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                               VENT WINDOW ASSEMBLIES!
These are a nightmare to take apart and get rechromed then reassembled! This batch of pictures shows the chrome parts of the vent windows before rechroming. Just as a note I had one real nice vent window assembly and one that was not so nice. I saved the nice one and sent in two that were not so nice. The reason is the platers charge the same to rechrome these. I traded the nice one to a friend for his project!
This is the last of the pictures that went with the February invoice! Many small things being worked on so they are ready when the time comes! Next up are the pictures from the March invoice and visit!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                               ORIGINAL DOOR HANDLES!
Back around 1980 I installed some real NOS outer door handles on the Superbird. Over the years they have deteriorated a bit and not nice enough now! So I took my box of door handles down to Troy's shop on a visit. We found a pair of original handles to have rechromed. The first picture shows the rechromed handles waiting for reassembly. The second picture shows the outside edge of an original handle. It has a flat edge! Since the 80's most of the NOS handles that have been sold were superceded truck handles. They look almost the same but they come to a rounded edge on the outside! The third and fourth pictures show the rechromed handles assembled and ready to install on the freshly painted doors!!!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                              OIL PAN!
This batch of pictures show the work that needs to be done to the original oil pan. The first picture shows a nice dent in the flange where it bolts to the block. The second picture shows another nice dent in the bottom at the front. Most pans are way worse from the motor being sat down on them! The third picture is of another dent. The last picture shows on overall view of the pan. Keep in mind that the bottom of the oil pan didn't get much paint at the factory when the engine was painted. So there is a lot of work to be done to restore this pan!
MJ

[hemi68charger]

Looking great John.... I remember rechroming the original door handles for the '68 J-code I had. They fit like a glove !!! It was nice having the originals in good enough condition ( no pitting ) to rechrome. The NOS ones you got back in the 80's/90's were retooled truck door handles and there was an ever-so-slight difference in fit and casting.......

[r4daytona]

That looks great !  Wish my parts didn't have the pitting.  Eventually I'll find ones that are better.   Yours look great and it's nice to not have to think about changing them down the road. 

[FJ5WING]

 
I had Jules rechrome mine handles when I sent him my other plating projects. He said they were still able to actually still get real chrome done in Canada. I have no idea if that's the case or not but they sure look good!

[Mopar John]

Looking great John.... I remember rechroming the original door handles for the '68 J-code I had. They fit like a glove !!! It was nice having the originals in good enough condition ( no pitting ) to rechrome. The NOS ones you got back in the 80's/90's were retooled truck door handles and there was an ever-so-slight difference in fit and casting.......

Troy,
I think there are so many truck handles out there it's like Legendary interiors and becomes the new norm!
Not as many with the right handles as there are the wrong ones!
MJ

[Mopar John]

That looks great !  Wish my parts didn't have the pitting.  Eventually I'll find ones that are better.   Yours look great and it's nice to not have to think about changing them down the road. 

Tom,
The original door handles are easy to find and not real expensive to rechrome. The vent window frames is a whole nother story! I think the rechroming bill alone was around $900.00 for all the pieces!
I recently watched a Graveyard Cars issue with your Daytona! Was a great show to watch!
I would like to chat with you about it sometime. The Daytona came out great and you have
caught the make it better bug to boot!
MJ

[Mopar John]

I had Jules rechrome mine handles when I sent him my other plating projects. He said they were still able to actually still get real chrome done in Canada. I have no idea if that's the case or not but they sure look good!

FJ5,
The chrome in the pictures was done here in the states and looks good! I hope it holds up!
Speaking of Jules he did the 2 speed wiper motor on my B5 Daytona. He had advertised a special run of 20 about that time. He normally didn't restore 2 speeds. It came out great! When getting things together for the Superbird I sent off the 3 speed wiper motor way ahead. It came out great also! I am glad that I did that as it was one of the last that he restored before we lost him!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                    PUTTING OUT FIRES!!!!
With the restoration coming close to the end things are picking up speed! Things are going together and the phone calls are more frequent. Not all of them are pleasant! Recently I was informed that my 2 NOS right tie rod ends and 2 NOS left tie rod ends were actually 4 NOS right tie rod ends !@#$%^&*()_! Chrysler used the same casting with the same part number and just threaded them both ways. It's real hard to tell. With the front suspension going together we needed lefts yesterday. My first picture shows some tie rod assemblies I dug out of my 5 gallon bucket to send down to the shop. I'm sending both ends just in case! There was also a question of the correct idler arm being used so I got one off another 1970 B Body K frame and sent it down also! That is the second picture. The I'm told they need better sway bar bracket bushings! I had bought a pair of the superceded ones and they were not correct! So I went back to the pile of extra parts for the 1970 GTX racecar and found an extra swaybar with nice bushings. That is in the third picture. I used a hair blow dryer to heat them up and removed them. The last picture is of a nice original starter relay I picked up with a great 39th week of 1969 date code! Only one question to answer and one part to find today!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                          WIPER PIVOTS AND LINKAGE!
This batch of pictures show what the wiper pivots and linkage looked like when removed!
The first two pictures are of the wiper pivots. You can see the guy who painted the Superbird last time ( ME ) left them in and din't mask them off very well! The third picture is of the the wiper hardware. The last picture is of another view of a pivot with orange overspray on it!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                           SKID PLATE AND K MEMBER WORK!
In a prevoius post I showed where the skid plate on the K member was dented and scratched. Here I show some of the work to repair it. The first picture shows the skid plate removed and a big dent in the corner! OUCH!
The second picture shows the skid plate with the scratches removed and the dent repaired. The third picture is of the K member prepped for the skid plate. The last picture shows the skid plate welded back in place!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                            WIPER PIVOTS AND LINKAGE PART 2!
  Here are some more pictures of the wiper pivots and linkage restoration. The first picture shows one of the pivots taped for bead blasting. The second picture is of all the parts restored. The last picture shows all the parts assembled and ready to install all the Superbird body! These are small steps in the big picture but when the get added to the body they amke for bigger moments!
MJ