Last updated: 7/9/99

People have been by here since the update

Don't forget to look at my Main Home Page and the Others Page and the '69 bee page and the Frank's rides page too...

BEFORE :

Currently (7/4/99):

One last ride!! (Actually this was at the 1995 Woodward Dream Cruse) He was at the 1996 Cruse too, but I was in Chicago at the time and couldn't get pictures. He plans to have this car done in time for the 1998 Woodward Dream cruse in August of 1998 keeping the work start to finish to about 1 full year. But parts gathering started back in early 1997.

Frank began re-doing this car around his September,1997. The photos of the quarters being hung and leaded in are taken around late December 97 into January 98. I don't get home much so i have missed quite a bit of the work.

The quarters you see here are 100% metal NOS parts.  These by far were the hardest to find parts i have ever seen. lots and

lots of patch panels are out there, but very very few NOS full quarters. Good luck to anyone looking for this type of thing for this year car. Although there seems to be someone in Canada who has a pair, but is un-willing to part with them..

Last April, we painted the car in all the "un-seen" places (i.e. engine well, under side, inside and trunk). The car was striped and media blasted to bare metal, metal prepped (phosphated) and primed with Epoxy primer, then sealed with seam seal, followed by a wet on wet Sealer and then the single stage topcoat was applied. In the trunk, the quarters were coated with the rubberized texture coating and then coated with the body color.

Here

the car is ready to be put onto the Rotisserie,

Masked and ready to hit the booth

Here is Frank in the booth doing the paint in the trunk, like I said before, that rotisserie is the only way to go. I don't know the name of the guy frank got it from but that was really great we could use it, twice!!!

Frank was really happy with the way this part of the paint came out, even with all that cleaning out and blowing with compressed air, we still didn't get all of the sand blasting sand out of the frame but all in all it was an excellent job.

Just a few weeks ago, in late June, I took a few more days off to help with painting all the "Normal" parts of the car. Frank had been working on the blocking and priming and re-blocking and color-coating the undersides of the deck-lid and hood in his garage up until we were ready to hit it with sealer and topcoat. It took quite a bit of effort to get the car up onto the trailer because the ramps are short, so the angle is steep, so i think he is going to make longer and maybe wider ramps after the car is closer to being finished. He intends to drive the car on weekends, and to most shows when he shows it, but i'm glad he has the option to us the trailer to keep the hours down on the car because I hope this is the lats restoration that this car will see, it will always be taken care of and should never need to be done again. This is the car in the booth again to be painted on all the "normal" parts.

Taping off after removing the wheels (to lower the car a bit, makes it easier to reach over the roof and hood). TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!!

Well here it is after the paint... well we had a few sins, but hopefully these will come out in the cut and buff.  I expect they will, with maybe some cut through, which can be expected. I have heard he has some already so he will blend them in his garage. This really isn't a problem, just another step. Although i would have to say, i am not nearly as happy at the moment about the exterior paint work as i was with the interior and under side.

While was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas 1998, we did some other things like removing the front suspension and media blasting the backing plates. I got to clean and scuff the suspension parts which needed to be painted a cast-iron color. The real reason we took the suspension off was to under-coat the front wheel-wells. we put in the plastic and rubber parts that form the inner well, and then undercoated the areas. You can see the undercoating in on of the engine test fitting pictures.

Here is a shot of the block coming back from crack-checking... Looks good!!..

Looks like I haven't been home enough.. the engine has already been assembled and tested on a dyno, looks like the engine runs real strong.

Here Frank is raising the car up to do a test fit of the engine (11/98). He plans to lower the car over the engine and trans. This makes it so he doesn't have to remover the hood (and then re-install it trying to line it up again and risk damage) and tilting the engine and trans almost 90° to get it to go in.

Here he is lining it up to get ready to lower the car. It was a very close fit. The valve covers just make it in, and the only thing to be removed is probably going to be the dip-stick. In this next shot, the car is lowered almost all the way.

I fianly got to go back home 4/98, he was getting ready to do the final install on the engine. Here is a shot of the engine with the trans attachted being put onto the K-frame. Our dad stoped by to lend a hand, actualy he does that all the time, but i don't seem to get him in too many pictures..

Like i said, he is going to drop the body onto the Engine alrady mounted to the K-frame and with the trans already on. We were only testing the fit in the upper pictures, he didn't have all the extra stuff attached a the time. Unfortunately, i wasn't able to be there when he did it. We were realy taking our time doing things like doing the last cleaning up of any overspray from both the color and under coating. He also had a few last minute details to do as well. Check these Meats out!!!

Actualy, he has the Red-line tires too, but you can't actualy run it on "those erasers" as he says, they are just way too narrow, and besides, thats just for shows.. these are for the streets.. Well That was the status up to 4/99, I went home for the 4th of July, and found he has basicly finshed the car.

I guess he still would like new emblems, and some other things, but he has already gone to some shows, and dirves it too. He has just put on new pipes, with a dump of course, so that adds to its visiblity.. and he got a new lite package too, i'm looking for an old Taxi meter too for him, but the stuff won't ever be perminatly attached, so he has to watch out not to have it blow off in the wind..

Well thats about all the pictures i have for the moment, i am going to set up a page of some of the shows and such he goes to, but i don't know how exactly i'm going to do that because i know i won't be able to get to them to get pictures.. if you see him at a show in Michigan, let him know you saw his site on the internet, He knows about it, but i'm not exactly sure if i have ever actualy showed him the pages, we'er not inclined too much to hang around a computer when i visit.. Sorry about some of the scans, the real pictures are much better, oh well.. thanks for stoping by, you have a nice day..

About Parts:  Well let me tell you, it was tough getting good hubcaps for this car!! I found a guy that knows his caps: If you need hubcaps, spinners or wires for all cars.. If he don't got it, He'll get it...His name is Mike Kent to e-mail him, just click his name. If that's not working, e-him at hubcapmike@aol.com This guy was great, he has reasonable prices, and is very honest about the condition, and he quotes a price shipped to your door.. just a great guy to deal with.. If you e-him, just let him know where you saw his name.

The Hemi emblems we are looking for seem to be hard to get too, and a PLYMOUTH one also. I don't even seem to find any even in poor condition. we have one that is really shoddy, so we are probably going to have to re-ferb that one, but i don't think we have the PLYMOUTH one. see below for descriptions and we even have a part number for the HEMI tag for the decklid. So if you know anyone who deals in tags, or rims, or interior parts PLEASE e-me so we can check with them. As you can see above, i am more than willing to post e-mail links to people who sell stuff, especially when they are good to deal with. Eventually if i have enough, i would start a preferred dealer's listing as a sort of endorsement and advertising aid.

We have lots of parts we still want or need:

?Black plastic A-Pillar cover for passenger side and a C-Pillar cover as well

?Extra NOS solid metal quarters.. just in case?

?HEMI emblem for the deck lid: has 2 studs with the numbers like this on the back of it: 2840867 55309

?dash pad black only, not one that was painted or died black, and not a re-pro Please

? PLYMOUTH in block letters. Tag for the leading edge of the hood on the driver's side. Its has 3 studs out the back, about 8 1/2 inches from first stud to third stud.. first to 2nd stud is 4 inches (left to right)

? Passenger's side inner fender well plastic piece its up behind the headlight area, in the inner fender well, forward of the tire, rectangular, held on with 2 bolts, is approximatly 8x10-ish will be covered with undercoating so i can't tell you a part number. Need only the passenger's side there is a left and right to these things. And we need the 2 bolts too.

Parts we have available to sell located in Michigan, just outside of Detroit prefer not to ship:

? Decklid from 1968 roadrunner, good condition, minor rust on lip very repairable.

? Hub caps for 1969 stock Dodge

? TorkerIntake manifold for 440

? Carter Thermal quad carburetor

E-me with any available parts for a 1968 Road runner jd455@geocities.com Back up to the home page