1968 Road Runner

BrianS

Promoted Users
Thought a good way to jump into this forum after my initial post was to start a thread on the Road Runner. It is another one of those stories where the car landed in a restoration shop and the owner of the car and the shop had issues and so the car was sold-in boxes. The car had been disassembled blasted and epoxy coated with the exception of the roof and rear quarters. The gentleman I purchased the car from picked it up at the body shop and moved it to his house where he put it on a rotisserie and his son who in the collision repair manager at the local Chevrolet dealership started the body work. Interest waned and other projects took priority so I was able to purchase the car. It came with quite a few new parts but at the same time being moved 3 times in boxes a few parts were lost but I have been pretty fortunate to find them on the internet.
The resto shop was old school that originally blasted the car and the reason they left the exterior bare was so the filler would stick so the first this I did was to take the hood, deck lid and one door that was previously blasted down and have them blasted again, the two front fenders and drivers door were pretty much ready for paint-I know it is a little risky trusting someone else's work but I spoke to his son and felt pretty confident it was done right, I did block them down again and will hit them with primer. The back half the car was a challenge though. The blaster was able to get my parts done in a week or two but it was a 3-4 month wait to get the whole car in so I tackled it myself. I wont go into detail but with the advice of my blaster and a ton of work 100% of the surface rust was removed. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words I will post pics along the way and right now I will bring everyone up to speed of where I am at.
The plan is to keep the car the original W1 (white) with the burgundy interior. I wrestled with that combo but I spoke with a highly respected Mopar Restoration shop (Frank Badalson) and he felt since it was a matching numbers car and such an unusual combo I should keep it that way, so I will.

One last item is that it came with the original 383/727 which was rebuilt by a respected local shop just prior to the sale so that is one thing I will not have to do.
The first couple of pics is me picking the car up and then back in my garage. Then the surface rust removal-didn't take pics of the quarters but they came out the same.
 

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The car is rust free which is one of the reasons I purchased it. It does look as if there has been some repairs over the years. The passenger side floors were replaced as was the trunk pan. The passenger rear quarter was replaced somewhere along the line as well. The quarter is an original panel off another car and was pop riveted in place then brazed on and you can also see where the rear valence has been damaged/repaired so I am assuming that it was a collision repair job from way back when. That panel has been kicking my tail end though trying get it to match the other side perfectly. Here is some of the previous repair work
 

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Here is where I am at today. I have been working on the engine as well assembling the last little bit of it and prepping it for the right turquoise color of paint.

I am very fortunate to have very tolerant neighbors who many are into cars as well and love to watch the progress.
 

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Being a Pontiac guy working on a Mopar has been like learning a new language for me but I am getting the hang of it. I like the idea of putting the engine on the assembled k-member. I can see a real benefit to having that kind of access prior to putting it on the car and like you said it will minimize the possibility of damaging the paint.
 
Being a Pontiac guy working on a Mopar has been like learning a new language for me but I am getting the hang of it. I like the idea of putting the engine on the assembled k-member. I can see a real benefit to having that kind of access prior to putting it on the car and like you said it will minimize the possibility of damaging the paint.
So much truth spoken.
In 40 years, I have only done SL's, GTO's and Vette's
I use to be able to have every exterior piece off an SL in 30 mins
And a corvette body ready to be lifted in 4 hours because I had done so many.
Give me a Mopar or Mustang, and it probably would take me two days to figure out how to open the hood.
 
Don't get me started on the quality differences between MOPAR and GM. ;)
Though I have never done a Corvette so cannot speak good or bad.
 
Finally got the car to the point where I could get a little color sprayed. It has been over 10 years since I picked up a spray gun so I started in areas I couldn't screw up, lol. Overall it came out pretty good. I used the Motobase from Chad and universal clear and for the doors I just went to my local PPG dealer and picked up a pint of base. Ended up doing the doors twice-like an idiot I trusted the cross referenced PPG code for the maroon and it was wrong so I got to do them again the next day with the right color. Second time I took a piece of the interior with me and had them scan it to match-apparently VW uses the same color as the original Chrysler maroon. Looking forward to shooting the rest of the car next week.
 

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With the exception of the door color driving me nuts progress is marching forward, nothing like painting on your back, lol
 

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Thanks to all of you that helped me sort out the door issue it allowed me to move forward with the exterior. It was an interesting day with several lessons learned (like don't use cheap plastic to mask). My big struggle is to slow down-the last few years I have been involved in building boats and with Gel Coat time is of the essence so I tend to rush, telling myself to relax and slow down is constant. Overall it turned out good but at times I was starting to wonder. Since I don't have the luxury of a shop and I only paint one car every once in a while I put together a makeshift booth that worked out pretty well. It kept things clean and with 2 fans running on opposite ends it kept the fog to a minimum. I am trying something new for me it's called listening......lol, so I am following the "Perfect paint job" write up on here by only applying 3 coats of clear this go around, sand/block on Thursday and then probably Friday I will shoot 3-4 more coats. I do appreciate the help and advice many of you provided and will be using the sanding method that has been discussed on here, I like the way 68 does it with the oak block.
 

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Like many of us I get caught up on what I am doing and always think about pics after I am past the point where I should have taken more pics. Anyway I have been making progress, cut and buffing took the better part of a week and then another week trying to bolt on as much as I could before installing the engine and K member and lowering the car. Bolting the engine/trans/K member together is the cats meow, lifted the car up rolled it under and lowered it down and wala it was home. Rear end was pretty easy I simply put it on a floor jack with a support under the nose and jacked it up above the springs (bolted the front of the springs on before jacking up the rear end) and hinged the rear of the leaf up and then lowered the rear end down easy as pie. The trunk panel is not bolted on just wanted to get it someplace where it was not likely to get damaged while I am waiting for paint to arrive. That is some expensive paint $25 a can! It better be worth the wait. Check out my rollers I picked up on CL for cheap-kinda liking those old school 50's on the rear, lol. Here are a few pics of the past couple of weeks.
 

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Hey R/T- Been a crazy Summer and have not had a ton of time to work on the car. Ended up in Oklahoma helping my cousin with the wheat harvest and then on to Nashville to do some work with Samaritans Purse. Been bouncing back and forth from Idaho visiting Grandkids so it's been hard to get much done but I have managed to do some. The interior is coming together, rebuilt the heater box with goodies from Detroit Muscle Car Technologies, tried to salvage the original heater core but the shop just couldn't so I had them recore it. I have to say DMT heater box kits are the cats meow made the job easy. Overall the dash looks good I am pretty happy with it although I had my doubts at times (thanks for the paint advice on the dash it really helped). Steering column was rebuilt and I am working on the steering wheel now. Ordered TTI exhaust, it is about 80% installed just had to hold off while I waiting in some trans linkage from DVAP to arrive. Radiator was recored when the heater core was done, came out really nice, the engine compartment is really coming together. Wiring (all new M&H) is complete for the most part, replaced the bulkhead fitting and installed relays in the headlights along with a Powermaster alternator which should solve the Mopar dim headlight issue. When I was in LA a couple months ago I scored a set of cop wheels on CL cheap and got them blasted and painted with black epoxy. Not my first choice of wheels but the price was right, need to get tires on them and get those ugly rollers off! Sorry for being slow to update.
 

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I have not been very good at taking pics of this project or any project for that matter. I had a thread here and over on FBBO and both have been spotty but I wanted to close the loop on this thread at least. The RR is about 99% completed. There are a few minor tweaks to make and the rocker moulding yet to install and some decals but she has passed the shakedown cruise in flying colors and is officially back on the road for the first time in probably 40 years or more. The red interior was not my first choice or tenth for that matter but it is the original color and after talking with Frank Badalson on the phone about it I opted to leave it. Frank figures it is a rare color combo in '68 and in his 55 years of Mopar restoration he has not seen another. Thank you to all of those on this forum that offered help and advice I could not of completed it without your help. Now time to move on to the GTO re-paint.
 

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