A12 - time to get busy

RUSTY Cuda said:
They picked up meso in a scan about 10 years ago, has not progressed, I just wonder which one will end up being my killer?
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I saw a 60 minutes or something talking to John Cougar who smokes like ten chimneys. He had a theory that drinking hard liquor and smoking increases your chance of lung cancer.

That's something else I never got into - good grief man, of all the tasty drinks in the world someone would choose liquid smoke flavored fire? 😖
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
They picked up meso in a scan about 10 years ago, has not progressed, I just wonder which one will end up being my killer?
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Lost an uncle to that some years ago. He said the docs told him that it has a 30 yr incubation period, so you should have a good 20 to go.
 
I thought I posted about getting it back home.

Yes it's here. I've rebuilt the heater box, cleaned up and repainted the pedal box and parking brake mechanism. I shined up and repainted (as little as possible) the tail lights, backup lights, and front turn signals, and stuck the grille in place. I've got two rechromed bumpers but the mounts are still stranded at the body shop (among other things).
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I've installed the brake lines and have a pile of parts to rebuild all 4 drums maybe this weekend. I had to do some trickery to get the brake line from the inside of the frame rail to the rocker but I've got it real close to running in the factory path and in the factory clips front to back.

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See that hole at the top? That's where the brake line is supposed to pass through then go across to the rocker. No way was that happening with the frame connector in the way, but the way I ran it is the way it was to start with.

The fold-over clips on the firewall were all cut off and I didn't realize that before paint, so I had to go with some aftermarket clips on the factory lines from side to side.

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Why is that upside down?

I had to make a command decision to run the fuel line down the inside of the frame connector and even then I had to cut a notch in the frame connector to get it through the torsion bar crossmember. I will also need to insulate the tubing from exhaust heat so that will go in one of those slip over insulation jobs like you would put over a plug wire. I've also got a driveshaft loop on the car so that should guard against a driveshaft failure taking out the fuel line and burning it to the ground.

I've got two fresh rechromed bumpers, but the mounts are still at the bodyshop pending paint. If they don't get to them before I have a chance to take a day off to go get them. Industrial strength Rustoleum will do just as good of a job.

I haven't put the trunk torsion rods back in, mostly because they scare me. It's a fear of either smashing a finger with the rod or having the trunk fall and do a guillotine number on me.

There is something weird going on at the quarter extensions. I bought the right gaskets for them but I can still see daylight between the quarter and the extension. It was not like that originally. I've got to do something there, likely closing the gap with some home weatherstrip tape.

Before
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After (maybe?)
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There's a lot of assembly to do yet.

Need to at least replace the tie rod and ball joint boots and to go over the k-frame and rear end to ensure it's all torqued because those were out.

I've got to find someone to recover the seats. I've got the covers and stuffing ready to go, just need hog rings and know how.

Door glass is a hold up too. I've got the parts I could buy but IIRC I looked at the mechanisms and there are plastic wheels that I should replace and I don't see how you do it and don't seem to have ordered them. Thanks for reminding me to check into that.

I've got a line on a father and son team that does auto glass for the windshield and back glass, and they know how to do a headliner too. That's all waiting on me to get the dash installed that's held up by a pedal box bracket at the bodyshop - they lost it so had to get me another one.
 
Well my seat & headliner guy is out, He didn't even want to drive an hour to do my stripe.
they were father & son too!

On the first car I bought 2 0r 3 different ebay lots of glass hardware, I used more on the 2nd car I guess texas heat was worse than long island salt on the plastic parts.
Jass probably could have sourced me new parts???

Door glass was a battle for me, still not perfect but at least no big leaks unless you point the hose right at them.

First car the glass guy set it too high, trim would not go on, had to come back & do it again.
Second car I got a guy who knew the old cars, he had to go to his own house where he had the right size goop roll. (don't know what you really call it?)

OH I know it's not a weekend project, but isn't it nice to see parts going back on!
 
I bought a goop roll when I ordered interior parts. I think it's called setting tape.

Just ordered new lug studs and nuts and a roll of nickel-copper fuel line. I hope I don't regret ordering summit brand since it didn't have the best reviews, mostly related to bendability). I don't think I need to make any real sharp bends so for half price I gave it a shot. There's 25 feet of it so I can bend it from the back going forward and if it screws up I've got a few shots at cutting it off and starting over. The big bends are in the back - once it's in front of the rear end it's mostly a straight shot to the engine bay.
 
This is curious. Was changing the rear brakes, found the car doesn't have 11" rear drums.

First, that p's me off because I already have a couple hundred $ worth of rear brake parts. Second, all A12s were supposed to have 11" brakes.

The 1969.5 Plymouth Road Runner with the A12 option package (440 Six Barrel) was equipped with 11-inch drum brakes on the rear.
These rear brakes were part of the heavy-duty components included in the A12 package, which also featured a Dana 60 rear end with 4.10 gears, heavy-duty suspension, and 15x6-inch black steel wheels.
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The driver's side park brake cable is about 1" too short. Not sure if that's because of the monkey bizness around the spring mount or because of a difference in the backing plate.
 
Do you have a tubing bending kit?
I think I still have a set in the garage from my A/C days,, but honestly would have to dig around to see if it's still here.
If you can use it I can get it out to you, let me know if you need & I will hunt for it.
Again not positive I still have it have cleaned out the first ton of tools, one more ton to go!
 
I've got a couple of different benders. They're nothing special but they work. I try to buy the soft tubing too.

I bet it's going to be fun finding a set of 11"x2.5" backing plates though. Ebay has some for $300 up.

I don't understand why they were changed? Something to do with doing burn outs without a line lock and big brakes not letting the rears spin? Fuckifino.
 
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I bet the brakes were downgraded when they were racing it as a street car, didn't have a line loc, and couldn't spin the slicks as fast as they thought they needed to. Galaxy brain might have looked at those huge drums and thought hey I can slap smaller brakes on it to fix that.

1977_norwalk_road_runner.jpg1976 roadrunner.jpg
 
It's amazing how the used prices have climbed , just from the 1st cuda to second, things doubled & tripled.
I bet if I searched now they doubled again!
 
When I was 13 or 14 an older guy moved in across the street with a 57 chevy, with a corvette 327 fuel injected engine, we used to wax the moonies for him. The start of my interest in cars.
every now & then we would hunt the junk yards for parts, pick up a chrome tidbit for a couple of bucks.
Most are long gone now.
 
Walking junk yards was our entertainment when first married. We couldn't afford to do anything else.

We bought a complete interior out of a car in Georgia, wife carried baby, while I used the baby carriage to haul the parts.

There used to be small yards all over the place here. In this county they took aerial photos, counted cars, and mailed a tax bill. The portable crusher was busy after that. There are still a few pockets of 60s-70s cars but they're either picked over junk or they don't want to sell anything.
 
I've got an offer on a free set of 76 truck backing plates for 2-1/2" brakes but I'll need to go there and measure them to figure out if they have a chance of working. I sure haven't found any posts with people saying you can interchange them with muscle era cars.

Holy cow - local prices on just a front wheel bearing seal are insane. I'm unsure this is the right one but it's what their web page came up with https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/national-wheel-seal-380025a/18443143-P

$65.99 each.

Back to rockauto.
 
Used them some, also a lot of mancini racing, don't know how much price checking I did but they had what I needed & seemed reasonable ?
 
I've spent an untold number of dollars at rockauto. The only time I had a problem was when they didn't put a magnet in the box.

None of the mopar specific shops sell just the front seals. Dr Diff has a full bearing kit with seals but it's for 73+

Once again and I think I mentioned this recently about rockauto, I put two front seals, and two inner and outer rear seals in my cart. Same manufacturer but for some reason they're in two different warehouses, doubling my shipping.
 
That's nuts, but at least they were small items, shippings gone nuts in the last few years, I buy & sell a lot of model trains,
I was shipping 20+ pounds of tools to Jass for 8 or 9 bucks, now a 3lb box of trains is 13 or 14 for the same distance.

So a full bearing set for 73 & just the seals for 66, I wonder who's a bit greedy!
 
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