39,000 mile Petty blue Superbird (part11)

With all the crazy restorations that were going on at this time I couldn't believe how poor the fit and finish was on this car. unlike all the over restored cars there was not much over spray on the bottom side of the car. No blue feathering of factory paint, just a nice coat of surface rust and no undercoat. Remember this car had sat inside a dry garage in northern Ca. for 25 or so years. I really believe if there were all these special features it would have been on this car.

The exhaust pipes were cut near the front of the car. Not for headers as it looks but for easy access to the transmission. The owner said throw out bearings were a real problem to keep quiet in this car. It sounds like he had replaced a few of them.

There is a dent in the front of the leading edge of the nose, this was caused by a cherry picker. The 440 spun a rod bearing early on and the owner was picking the motor out when he realized that to get it high enough to clear the radiator support he had to keep jacking it up. The more he jacked the closer the picker was pulled to the car. Not noticing the dent he had made.

The rear end is a 3:54 Dana and had the ring and pinion replaced. I had found the originals in a box in the trunk. The pinion was broke in half. the rear end still has its decal on the drivers side. that tag is white with red numbers" 3422083"

The original jack was still in the trunk. It looks pretty used on the handle.

The original carbs were still on the car and just needed freshening up. Come on all of us have did this on the living room floor at least once! Right?

39,000 mile Petty Blue Superbird part 10

A few of the details on this car that you might want to see for your restoration. These are the original markings. When the motor was rebuilt I repainted the block, heads, and water pump housing. The valve covers were cleaned up and not touched up at all. the trands was looked at inside but not painted or cleaned with abrasive brushes.

The trans had a light blue 676 in block letters with a green stripe over the castings C99129 H, and a white stripe that ran from the front of the case under the H to the back of the case.

The bell housing was painted orange and had a large N 95 in white on the top middle.

The fuel pump was painted on the motor as can be seen by the paint still in the hose.

I will add more photos and details soon.

39,000 mile 1970 Superbird (part9)

With the motor locked up I started to take it apart. I tried to turn it over by hand. I removed the plugs and filled the cylinders with oil. I went out once a week for six months to try to turn it over. No such luck. I new there would be a lot of pictures of details and things you wouldn't see on restored cars. I will share some of these with you.

The clip on the run on switch was the first one I have seen. I had a '70 V-code Road Runner and a '70 V-code GTX and niether one had this clip. There is so much available from suppliers,

like Year One and great restorers like Roger Gibson, that we forget how it was to search through the junk yards. There really wasn't any other choice. The '70 Road Runner was wrecked in the back and I could not find a doner car to fix it. the GTX gave it's rear clip to save the 4spd dana RR.

This is what the cooling system looked like after so many years. The front of the motor and water pump housing had very little paint on it.

39,000 mile Superbird details (part 8)

I will go over some of the details that really stuck out when the engine came apart. As you can see there is a non oem wire connector on the coil but the coil number is clear. 2495531 and the number over top of that is 2444242. I had never seen a clip intact until I saw this one taped inside the wire loom. I had found the plastic remains before but never the whole clip attatched to the valve cover.

The coil bracket that attatches to the motor was clearly bolted on before paint. the intake manifold is bare under the coil bracket.

39,000 mile superbird (part7) numbers match

Here is the documented proof of this car. Motor number, trans number, door decal, broadcast sheet, and the fender tag. NOTE -Both screws are bare for fender tag.

If I remember the story right, and the currant owner could verify this, this V code, 4 speed Superbird was ordered in late '69 and delivered in Feb of '71. The original owner was contacted several times by the Chrysler dealer to see if he would take a B-5 blue or another colored Bird. The answer was alway no. Why would there be such a late delivery date for this car? Maybe someone out there could help us with this.
The motor and details are real obvious and the interior is perfect except for the drivers side front. It looks like someone sat in the car with a screw driver in there back pocket. All that was done with it was a white bench seat cover from Year One. It shows in the photos I will post next.

39,000 mile Superbird broadcast sheet (part6) Ok come get her.

Jerry asked if I could come and get the Blue Bird that evening after dark. She wanted me to get it out real fast so the neighbors would not call her husband.

I called a friend at a tow company that also did reposessions and asked if he was available that night and if we could use the slide back. He said "Yes, what are we going to steal?" I told him it was a surprise knowing his father was a big MoPar guy.

On the way to get the car the driver said he needed a few minutes to get the chains and slide back half way down for a quick get a way. A block from the house I got out of the truck and into the car with my wife and rode the rest of the way with her. We pulled up at little after 8P.M. I opened the garage to push out the car far enough to get the cable on it. My wife was inside doing title and payment. The slide back made its way into the driveway and the driver started doing his repo thing. I went into the house to make sure all was well then back out to the garage.

Wow it was less than 5 minutes and the Blue Bird was loaded and ready for transport home. The garage door went down and off we went into the night. Please read next post. "The Beat Goes On"

39,000 mile Petty blue Superbird (part5) Reference Original

The little details that were still on this car after the initial cleaning are amazing. The paint is in great shape except for the drivers front fender and a scrape mark of 3 or 4 lines running down the passenger side Plymouth decal. The nose has a dent in the top and is pushed in a little from a cherry picker that was used to replace a bearing in the bottom end. As I recall the gears in the Dana were also replaced after breaking the pinion doing a burn out in the Gallo parking lot.
All the different wheels kinda made me wonder what came on this Bird. In the back yard was a set of 15 inch rallye wheels but the centers were wrong. In the garage was a set of black pained rims standing against the wall. I pulled one out to look at them and noticed the Petty Blue paint inside the barrels. 4 perfect 1970 Plymouth hub caps stacked on the work bench. I took these home and a bit of paint thiner and a few rags the rattle can black was gone and the original blue was in great shape. Please read next post. "The Beat Goes On"

39,000 mile superbird survivor (part4) The Call of a Life Time

I have had the Daytona at home for about 6 month when I got the call.

Come down this weekend and put some air in the tires and lets push it out and take a look.

This will be the first time since late '72 that this car has been out. From how I understand it The owner had taken here kids to the local A&W for rootbeer and when she backed out clipped a short pole on the left from fender. Her brother said he could fix it and tried to beat it out with a ball peen hammer. The results were less than acceptable. Her husband was beside himself. He pulled the Bird into the garage disabled the distributer and told his wife "You'll never drive this car again." He was right, she never did.

We aired up the tires and pushed it into the sun. The dust and dirt is visable. I washed this car for an hour. The glass is perfect, the head lights are original, the dash and guages are brand new looking, the air filter has never been changed, and the interior was really dirty but in good shape. Please read next post. "The Beat Goes On"

39,000 mile Superbird (part 3) 12 Years Later

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If I left one note about buying the Daytona I must have left 100. On this perticular day I stopped by and left my usual note and phone number. After a 30 mile drive home I listened to the only message on the phone machine and it was the owners wife(the new owner) asking me if I could come get the Daytona and if I would still give her $800.00 for it?

Wow! I could barely dial the phone. I told her yes I would still give her the $800.00. The next question she asked kept me awake at night for 6 months. "What about the other one?"she asked. Well I'm not sure which one? She told me the Superbird would be hers in the divorce and she was trying to get the Charger also. All I could say was yes.

The next day we brought a trailer down to get the Daytona. I noticed that the car was pushed forward to make room for '73 Charger 318,auto, green with green interior. The only way they could close the gate behind the '73 was to push the Datona into a tree and crush the nose.

6 months later I got the call I have been waiting for all my life! Please read next post. "The Beat Goes On"

39,000 mile Superbird survivor (part 2) Long Time No See

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Sitting in this garage with stuff stacked all over them were two of the coolest cars made.
The first car I had to get around was a 1968 Charger R/T. A low mileage 426 Hemi, 18 spline Hemi Box, and a Dana rear end. I recall the Charger was stripe delete with the R/T emblems on the rear quarters, no center console, maroon interior, black top, and a tunnel ram sticking through the hood. This car hasn't been out for years.
The second car hidden in this small dark garage was the "Blue Bird" as the owner called it. Covered in years of dirt, dust, boxes, and used for shelves for whatever did not fit on the floor was a 39,000 mile 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. I did not see these cars again for almost 12 years and I don't think anyone else did either. Please read next post. "The Beat Goes On"

39,000 mile Petty Blue Superbird

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Part 1 of 15

I was told about this car in 1984. Not true, I was told about the Daytona in the back yard. I knocked on the door one afternoon and asked if the wing car in the back was for sale, the answer was no. I asked if I could go home and get a camera and come back in a short while, the answer was yes.


The side gates to the backyard was locked and it was easier to take me through the house and lead me into the garage and out the rear door. The garage was a small two car and inside was a lot of stuff piled on two of the coolest cars built. I'm not sure but I think he really wanted to show these cars off also. Please read next post "The Beat Goes On"