My Next Project (V Code 71 Roadrunner)

Luke · Oct 19, 2016

that's cool being able to run the bigger rubber ::thumb::. Tuff call on the box, GV setups are a bit of an unknown here in Aus so no comment. The upside is you already have hands on experience with GV and 2000 that's a pretty good saving

There are guys here running turbo LA engines that swear by Passon boxes. But now wait times are a negative and If you can confirm them jumping out of gear that's another worry.

Many pros and cons for sure hard choice.

I have been asking around about the idle solenoid for you as expected no luck the only thing that surfaced was a AC idle solenoid for a Jeep Wagoneer lol

jbojo · Oct 19, 2016

There are a lot of people experiencing the tranny poping out of gear with the Passon unit. I have read that some people have been on the list for over 3 yrs now and I am not sure where I am on the list. Here is the GV link for the Mopar cars. They are warranted to 1200 HP which is 3 times more than the motor will have so it should hold up ok.

http://www.gearvendors.com/hrdodge4sm.html

BTW I have the Solenoid now. I found one with the proper part stamping, they were only a 1 yr part since the 440-6 were only available in V coded cars in 71. Earlier cars have a different solenoid.

Luke · Oct 19, 2016

That's not good from passon. 2 options left really GV or a different gear set in the rear. GV being the most flexible option

jbojo · Oct 20, 2016

That's not good from passon. 2 options left really GV or a different gear set in the rear. GV being the most flexible option

Yeah, I am leaning more to another GV unit. I still have about 8 months before I have to lock down my decision. I like the idea of having the 4.10 rear.

jbojo · Oct 27, 2016

Not much to report, I hope to start getting on with the repair work this weekend.

I got seat covers in today that were originally on the car. Took 3 months to get them and they look really good. It was worth the wait.

Pic of the bench seat cover.

jbojo · Dec 13, 2016

Been pretty busy so haven't had much time to work on the car. I did get the Pedal assembly and the E-brake pedal assembly back and they look pretty good. Right now the Rear tail light assemblies are being refurbished and I just sent the Heater box and the control panel to be redone. This guy removes all the rivets, re-plates all the HW and then reattaches all of them with the same rivets, paints the box in the factory color and puts the part # and date code stampings back on so the box should look new when I get it back. My box had the date code and part number stampings still on it so it should be easy to reproduce. Only thing left will be the gauge cluster, I am going to have all the gauges recalibrated and faces refurbished.

Here is how I packed the heater box. Probably overkill but I didn't want anything damaged. The heater box is strapped down so it can't move. The small box has the left side air vent in it.

Mister 4x4 · Dec 13, 2016

I didn't know you spoke Italian. ::thumb::

"It's a Major Award!" :whistling: rofl

Jeff73Mach1 · Dec 13, 2016

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

jbojo · Jan 5, 2017

Here are some pics of the Heater box disassembled. Going to have to replace the heater fan roll cage as mice chewed it up. The back of the box has cardboard so that will have to be replaced along with all the foam. This box was made on the 244th day of 1970.

Been too cold to work on the car so not much progress. Going to be gone for the month of Feb so I hope to get back to this in March. This car was in worst shape than I expected so its going to take longer than expected to get it back on the road. Except for the tranny I now have most of the replacement items that I need to get it restored.

jbojo · Jan 21, 2017

All of the heater parts have been restored and it is now ready for reassembly. The unrestored pics are in the previous post. The case has also been repaired. The squirrel cage was replaced as mice chewed up the old one.

jbojo · Jan 28, 2017

No progress report. I am heading to Australia tomorrow and will be back towards the end of Feb. Plans are to start up on the project and start getting it ready for all the bodywork and ready for painting.

jbojo · Feb 26, 2017

Back home now and ready to get back into my project. While I was gone I had my rear tail light assemblies refurbished as they were no longer functional and the wiring was bad. The lamp sockets were all corroded and the bulbs could not be removed any longer and the reflective material for the lights were gone. The rear lamp assemblies are completed and tested and they are now working properly. All the fasteners have been replate'd and ready to back on the car when I get to that point. A lot of donor parts were needed to get these repaired. Here are pics of before, after and tested.

jbojo · Mar 4, 2017

Attaching a couple more pics of the light assemblies taken in better lighting. Will be posting the heater assembly, driver side vent and the heater controls soon.

jbojo · Mar 20, 2017

Got the heater box today an it all looks like new. All the fittings, levers, flapper doors , and gaskets have been re-plated or replaced, all the rivets were also removed and replaced too. I had the motor cover powder coated black since is will be visible in the engine compartment and replaced the heater core with a new OEM one. We pressure tested the old one and it checked ok however I didn't want to go in and replace it later on if a leak developed. Lastly all the fastners that held the 2 half of the box together were replaced by the correct ones. The PO used phillips heads screws when the original heater core was replaced. Attaching a coupe of shots of the heater box before and then after. In previous posts there are pics of the box disassembled. The drivers side vent box is also done along with the heater control panel.

jbojo · Mar 24, 2017

Here is one of the lower control arms (LCA) for the car. I believe that they were plated in zinc dichromate for the finish and the closest plating company is in Portland so I was thinking about using this. Has anyone had any experience using this process? Its going to be subjected to a lot of road debris so not sure how well the dichromate plating will hold up.

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-golden-cad-complete-kit.html

Mister 4x4 · Mar 24, 2017

Absolutely gorgeous, J! I'm lovin' the work you're doing, and getting to see this awesome beast come back to life. Thanks for sharing!! :bravo:

jbojo · Apr 8, 2017

Work started on the windshield wipers and they are all disassembled. One bushing was out of spec and will need to be replaced. Also started welding up the holes on the top of the windshield frame and I am almost done. Plans are to just replace the header on the lower back of the rear window instead of trying to repair it. Here are some pics of the wiper assembly disassembled.

Luke · Apr 10, 2017

Thanks for sharing. This is the detail that makes for a great build. So many just show the cool big jobs buts it's this small and time consuming "boring" work that is so often overlook ::thumb::

jbojo · Apr 12, 2017

Thx Luke, this is turning out to be more work than I thought.

Received the exhaust for the car today and as much as I hated to I got the turndown tips to match the fender tag. I figured that I can get the Machine Gun exhaust later if I get the urge to change it again. I did however go with the Hemi muffler to give it less restriction as it is straight through vice a baffled one. The kit comes with all the hangers and are manufactured for the exhaust manifolds that I have on the motor. These are guaranteed to fit and even have the notches on the mufflers that the originals had from the factory. Graveyard Cars use these systems on their restorations and I have heard that these are really good.

jbojo · Apr 17, 2017

The wiper gear assembly is done now. They look new now and are ready to go once I start reassembling the car. The wiper arms will be done soon and I will post those pics later. The before pics are a couple of posts before this one.