hemigeno's Daytona restoration - a few more tweaks... again!

[WINGIN IT]

Cool.
Don't be surprised if you get some wiseguys come by and start calling you Vin, or asking how do you tell each other apart ... 

[Mopar John]

In preparation for the MCACN show, MoparJohn and I decided to have a sign made up to point out our consecutive-VIN cars.  Here's the finished product (just picked them up yesterday).

Gene,
The display sign looks great! I can't believe move in day is only two weeks away!
MJ

[Mopar John]

                                                   THIS WEEKENDS VISIT TO HEMIGENO'S!
During the MCACN show Gene and I got to spend a lot of quality time talking Daytonas. As a followup we decided that I would make a trip down there and look at some of the parts Gene had. On Wednesday the day before we left I got the latest issue of Mopar Collectors Guide which had the last of a 3 part series. It was about the 3 OE GOLD Daytonas from the Mopar Nationals. Gene's Daytona was in this last issue. I brought it along so My wife Linda could read it on the way down. Then I decided to have Gene autograph it for me while I was there with it! Thanks Gene!
MJ

[moparstuart]

 

[hemigeno]

I'll add that I signed it under protest since all my autograph does is deface a perfectly good magazine copy.  It's also important to note you declined my offer to run over the article page with the Daytona's tires since that's the real subject of the article...

Thanks for the visit John.  It was great chatting with you as always, and I hope it was a productive trip for you from a parts perspective.  Hopefully Linda wasn't too bored.

[Mopar John]

Gene,
It was a great visit! Linda is always prepared when I go to another wing car entusiasts place! She was also happy we made it to Lion's choice for our favorite roast beef sandwich ( thanks to Stuart Sutton for putting us onto this during the St. Louis meet! ). From a parts prespective it has many positive ramifications for our wing cars. The only negative will be trying to find mates for a couple of items. But I for one no longer wait to find a pair if a rare item pops up.
Thanks! John

[3--Daytona]

Hey   Geno,,,, Read your article in M C G . with great intrest,  now I know why the scoops on my green car were painted black.
I allways thought the original  owner did it. I dint know much about the dealer  In ST JOE.  The widow,I got the car from did,'somechecking ,but didn't get much.  I did some checking,,but didn't come up with much.  I think my car sold first.
We should get the two side by side some time,make some observation's

[hemigeno]

Hi Jim!

Yeah the scoops thing is very similar on those two cars.  Just like yours, there was body-color paint beneath the black.  I remember you said you discovered that fact on accident after putting a can of brake fluid down on a scoop one time... sounds like something that would happen to me 

You're absolutely right, your car did sell first -- by 27 days (2/6/70 vs. 3/5/70 according to Missouri's title records).  I always found that a little odd, that the green automatic car would sell before the red stick car did... and this was still after they had advertised this red Daytona in the paper at over a $1,000 discount from the MSRP (the ad ran on 1/17/70).  Probably just a sign of most customers' tastes in color and transmission back then.  I don't know if the dealership ever advertised your car in the newspaper or not - since it was Dave/nascarxx29 who discovered the advertisement on my car in the first place.

It's not surprising that both Mrs. McCall's and your own "checking" efforts came up empty.  That dealership, from what I was told, disappeared overnight sometime around '73 or '74.  Supposedly Chrysler came in and repossessed all their inventory, which from what a current Chrysler zone rep told me, indicates there was fraud involved.  A person I talked with from St. Joe several years back who remembered the dealership had described them as "a bunch of crooks".  Apparently Chrysler agreed...

Hopefully we'll get the two stablemates back together someday.  MoparJohn and I just got our consecutive VIN cars together at Chicago, so this would be another cool "reunion".  Your car is still such a treasure trove of information, since it's the same for all our cars... they're only original once.  I've never gotten tired of looking at it, and usually find something new each time.

[Aero426]

Your car is still such a treasure trove of information, since it's the same for all our cars... they're only original once.  I've never gotten tired of looking at it, and usually find something new each time.

Many collectors would be hot to trot to restore Jim's green car to something cosmetically superior.    That is one car that is in good hands.   

[nascarxx29]

I didnt recall running across a daytona ad for Jims car.Will see what I can find.I did find many ads and article for the Black Century Dodge daytona
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,76975.0.html

[maxwellwedge]

Hey Geno

I received my MCG yesterday and I have to say....very cool story! 

Depending on who you talk to - there is a very fine line between being committed to a restoration and needing to be committed! I have been there many times!

I congratulate you on sweating the details for years to get to this level - it is a tireless labor of love and ultimately satisfying to you and appreciative by the hobby. Well done.

I noticed the list of people you thanked.....a very classy gesture by a very classy hobbyist. I didn't do much to get on the list - but if I did help in some small detail - then the hobby is good.

Congrats to John and Tony as well.....Lots of blood, sweat and tears devoted to these 3 machines.

[hemigeno]

Thanks, Jim.  Glad you liked the article, and you most certainly did help out along the way - including a few "counselling" sessions!

One of the best things about going through this whole nutty restoration experience has been meeting and getting to know a bunch of great people in the hobby.  Their combined experience and knowledge has been the catalyst for my own efforts, and I'd have fallen way short without all that assistance.





As for the future of this thread, it is my intention over the winter to start photographing details on the car from bumper to nose and then post many of those finer details not readily visible or otherwise easy to overlook.  I have to get a new digital camera before starting, since my trusty "toy" Kodak Z612 is in the process of dying - I guess 8,000 photographs is it's limit...

[hemi68charger]

Hey Geno

I received my MCG yesterday and I have to say....very cool story! 

Depending on who you talk to - there is a very fine line between being committed to a restoration and needing to be committed! I have been there many times!

I congratulate you on sweating the details for years to get to this level - it is a tireless labor of love and ultimately satisfying to you and appreciative by the hobby. Well done.

I noticed the list of people you thanked.....a very classy gesture by a very classy hobbyist. I didn't do much to get on the list - but if I did help in some small detail - then the hobby is good.

Congrats to John and Tony as well.....Lots of blood, sweat and tears devoted to these 3 machines.

I agree,, Here here.. Guess I need to get a copy and renew my subscription...

[69_500]

Gene you want me to mail you my camera for a while? I think it's up to around 250,000 pictures in the last 4 years.

[ECS]

Hi Gene,
I know that Dave, Tom & myself enjoyed our visit.  The Car looked Fantastic.  Thanks for the Daytona Tour.  If you are in the area tomorrow, please stop by!  We are having a HUGE Christmas Lunch spread for everyone and you are more than welcome to join us.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Congrats Gene! 

[Charger-Bodie]

Awesome ! A reason to buy a magazine.

[hemigeno]

Thanks, everyone!

Gene you want me to mail you my camera for a while? I think it's up to around 250,000 pictures in the last 4 years.

Danny, I'm not type-rated for a fine piece of equipment like your camera.  I just bought another camera similar to my old one, so I'll be good to go for another 8,000 photographs at least.  It took me 6-7 years to kill the old one, so that's what I should expect with the new one even if I do snap a boatload of detail photographs of the car this winter.



Dave, I won't be able to stop by today because of some business commitments (which is a fantastic blessing considering how slow the past few months have been for me).  Are you guys open any next week?

[ECS]

Dave, I won't be able to stop by today because of some business commitments (which is a fantastic blessing considering how slow the past few months have been for me).  Are you guys open any next week?

"FANTASTIC BLESSING" is correct Gene!  We will be in on Wednesday.  If you can stop by you have an open invitation.  Merry Christmas!  

[RIDELIKEHELL]

I just got my copy on Monday! Congrats Gene wicked car and resto..cheers

[hemigeno]

After having allowed my Daytona to sit for what might as well be 2 years, I'm starting to get the itch to drive it - especially with Talladega coming up in a couple of months.  When the resto first started, my thought was to have it all nice and pristine for a while, then ease into driving it around a bit.  So, I've been making plans to upgrade some of the components which were ultra-correct for all that OE judging - but which might cause problems on a cruise somewhere. 

As mentioned in this thread, we've already replaced all those 40-something-year-old NOS exhaust components with ECS's great reproduction set between the manifolds and the exhaust tips.  That eliminated a major concern of mine, where condensation from just starting the car is causing damage whether the car is driven on the road or not.  There were a couple of other major concerns of mine which I wanted to address before getting out on the road, but they took some advance planning & yet more parts.  You'd think that after 10 years of scrounging parts for a single car's restoration that I'd be done by now   

Anyway, shortly after the resto was completed I realized that before driving it on the road the original 055 2-row radiator needed to be replaced.  It was surprising to me how quickly the car overheated with that skinny excuse of a radiator.  Both the original and second owners of this car relayed that they too had problems with it getting hot, so it was that way from Day 1.  Several years ago as part of the overall restoration, I had Bob Schimer at Glen-Ray Radiators re-core and detail the original 055 radiator, and he did exactly what I wanted him to do... which was to keep the same # of cores and fins-per-inch as the OE radiators had.  Bob actually found a good original 055 core, which is what he used to rebuild my original for OE judging purposes.  It's now outlived its usefulness, and needs to go on the shelf in favor of a "real" radiator.  So, back in July I asked Bob to build me another radiator which looks correct up top, but with an industrial-strength 3-row core below the top tank.  It arrived a couple of weeks later.  Changing out a radiator isn't all that difficult, but along with that I also wanted to change out the OEM K-member seal (the one made with genuine Asbestos fibers for reinforcing).  That one already had the beginnings of a crack in it just from how hard it is, and I didn't want it to be further damaged by rock chips while driving down the road.  Since that part gets overspray, it seemed easier to enlist Vance's help to do the swap-out and detailing work. 

Meanwhile, this past March I (or rather, the Daytona) was invited to attend a Concours d'Elegance event in Southwest Michigan, and that seemed like a perfect time to head back to Michigan and take the "shortcut" past Vance's shop to do the changeout.  So, last Friday I headed north.  Here's a picture of the car on display the following day.  Vance drove the 2 hours to attend the show, and we both enjoyed watching the reactions the car elicited. 

[nascarxx29]

Still looks good as ever 

[hemigeno]

Once all the festivities were over, and after having to idle around in lines plust taking a couple of passes across the red carpet, the car was starting to get hot.  Really hot.  By the time I had it back at the trailer for loading, it was puking antifreeze all over the ground.  There was at least a 2' diameter puddle beneath the car, and it was maybe 80 degrees outside.  If I wasn't convinced about the need for changing out the radiator before, that pretty much sealed it.

Vance and I unloaded the car Saturday night, and got an early start Sunday morning on the changeout.  These first three pictures show the overspray pattern visible on the crash bars and other undercarriage components once the K-member seal is removed.  

[hemigeno]

Still looks good as ever 

Thanks, Dave.  I'm looking quite forward to driving it around too.  Just the little bit of travelling done between the park and trailer, I discovered it scoots out pretty good.   

[hemigeno]

These are two pics of the new Glen-Ray radiator.  It has a reproduction 055 top tank on it, primarily because Bob has seen original/vintage brass tanks start to crack just from age.  He would have built me one with a vintage tank on it for the same price, but since this is intended to look right but be trouble-free, going the reproduction route was by far the better choice.  You can't see it well from this small of a pic, but there are three rows and a TON of fins-per-inch.  Bob was right, this is an industrial strength core.

If you've ever compared a 2-row 055 and 3-row 054 radiators, you will quickly notice that the top tanks are physically the same dimension.  It's the core itself and the bottom tank which are different.  So, from the top side (which is about all you can see on a Daytona anyway, once the K-member seal is installed), this will look identical to the OEM 055 it's replacing.  The bottom tank on the new radiator is a reproduction he normally uses on 054 3-row radiators, and it's a really nice piece.

Vance changed out the "Weatherhead" petcock and transmission cooler plugs from the old into the new radiator, because there are markings on the heads of those OE parts and the repro's didn't have the marks.  These vintage parts aren't likely to fail anytime soon, so they'll work just fine on the new radiator.  

The last photo shows the date code Bob stamped on the flange.  It's the same date as my car's original radiator, although I told him he didn't have to add that detail.  055 radiators are different from 054's in that the date code is stamped on the side of the flange whichs faces the radiator yoke - which means that once it's installed, you can't see the date at all.  I wasn't worried about it, but since Bob had already documented my original radiator's date, he went ahead and stamped it on the flange.