The Air Grabber Hood

I wanted an Air Grabber hood so I looked on eBay, most of the people who are selling parts are NUTS!
They think they are sitting on a gold mine. 4000.00 dollars for a hood that is in only fair shape is nuts. For that kind of money it should be ready to bolt on.

I found this hood on Craig's list. It is complete, but the underside has lots of rust holes. To many to fix.

I figured the best way to fix it was to take two hoods and make one. I separated the skin from the under hood support.

I ground off the spot welds.

and separated the two pieces

Here's the hood skin after it was separated.

Here is a better look at the support, if you click on the picture you'll get a better look at the rust.

 I then sandblasted all of the surfaces

Here's the hood support primed. The silver at the top is weld through primer.

A previous owner had drilled holes at the back of the hood, for hood pins I guess. these needed to be filled.

I squared the holes and cut pieces from the old hood. Then I welded them in.

Here's the hood welded back together and ready for the repair to have a thin coat of filler put on.

Engine Assembly

Here is the block with the forged steel crank installed, notice the billet main caps. I had to get these from 440 Source to replace the 383 caps that came on the block.

The pistons going in. These are Hypereutectic pistons, They are favored because of reduced scuffing, improved power, fuel economy and emissions.

The heads are on, notice the new springs. The timing set is a standard set, but there was a little to much play for my liking.

The heads and rocker arms are on. I used the standard rocker arms. 

The timing  set has been replaced with a Comp Cams double roller set. Much tighter than the stock set.

Notice the gray paint flaking off.

The water pump and housing is installed. They came from 440 Source. I got the one with their logo on it and they gave me $10.00 dollars off.

The valley pan is on and I'm taping the intakes with painters tape to keep the junk out.

I set the intake and valve covers on for this picture. I also test fit the harmonic balancer.

This is an SFI certified fluid balancer from 440 Source.

After thoroughly sanding the engine I painted it with ceramic paint

The carburators and distributor are installed. I picked up the carbs at a swap meet. The throttle shaft bushings were shot. I was able to talk the guy down to $100.00 a carb. I ordered new base plates direct from Holley. You can still get parts for these carbs from them. You can even buy brand new 6 pack carbs from them.

The distributer is an electronic unit that works with the stock setup, no ignition box required. I got it from, ya you guessed it, 440 source. 

The linkage has been added to the carbs. I got The linkage and air cleaner from Fredericks Chrysler Jeep Dodge. They are no longer in business, a casualty of Chryslers down sizing. They got the Dodge dealer here also. I think Chrysler pulled their franchise more on the look of their building than their sales numbers. If you didn't have a new building you were gone. But that is a rant for later.

I put the headers on so I could finish the plug wires.

And the engine is done (for now)

Block

The block on the engine stand. The only bright spot in all of the trouble I had with the block and heads is that the bore was standard. I had it punched out .030 to clean it up. For some reason the machine shop decided to paint it with this gray paint and it didn't go on smooth. This will need to be removed before it is painted.

The Engine

I got the block, heads and 6pack intake from eBay. They were sold by gdmusclecarparts3wng, advertised as "good", ready to bolt on. When I took them off the crate and started to examine them the heads were junk! The valves were rusted open or closed and the exhaust studs were broken off. I had to replace all of the vales, valve guides and 11 of the 16 seats. The block was usable with one exception. IT HAD 383 MAIN CAPS!!!!! When I contacted the seller he said ya they are cores. The ad didn't have the word "core" in it anywhere. He refused to do anything. I contacted eBay and Pay Pal, they were both worthless. So I don't buy anything used from eBay any more. If you see him selling anything on eBay, I'd run,run as fast as you can.
Well, live and learn.

1st I had to build a shop

I knew this was going to take a long time to restore and I had no place to do the work. So I had to build a shop. You can see it in the background Of this picture. It is 20x30. I built it myself with the help of my girl friend and sons. It was to be a steel building. I had the foundation and floor poured for it. There are keyways on the long sides to support the arches, but as we were putting it up we had a very strong wind storm that twisted and tore down the arches we had put up. My girl friend suggested that we build a conventional building. I'm glad she did. I think it turned out better than the Quonset style I had bought. The only thing I wish we had changed was the door location. I wish we had cut the keyways away on one side and put two doors on the long wall. Oh well hindsight.

Getting Started

I purchased this 1970 Roadrunner off of Ebay in 2006. I have always loved cars and have done all of my own work on them. I used to restore cars for other people to make a little extra money. But now I wanted to do one for me. I thought I would buy a 69 and 1/2 SuperBee 440 6 pack like I had when I was in high school, but there were none to be found ( at a price I could afford ) so I looked at Roadrunners. I found this one close to home. When I went and picked it up I was informed that the fender tag was missing. OK so it won't be a numbers matching car. But I thought "why not make it into what I wanted". It started out as a 383/335 automatic in the column. Drum brakes. Other than that nothing special.
 Where it will be when I am finished is:
440 Six Pack
4 Speed
Air Grabber Hood
Dana 60 rear end
Trail Duster stripes.