1971 Road Runner Help & Questions

[71ChallengerSE]

Yes I know the guy in Danville, he had to change his sales name because of too many complaints of poor service. He is also in in for the money and not the love of the cars. I wouldnt deal with him.

[CoronetRTguy]

check it out good, all the cars ive ever seen with a roof problem have problems all the way through. its had nothing to shed the weather so it runs through the whole car. i looked on a map and harrisonburg va was not very close to danville va however there is a guy down town in danville that comes up with a lot of 71/72 satellite parts cars, his salvage shop is parts unlimited, and he is flexable. i have bought some used parts from him and been pleased i live on the tn/va border so he is a few hours from me as well. i think 20k is low for putting it back together, the car i bought was more expensive, but needed far less work. i was shooting for 20 with purchase price and will hit that a while before i have it running. i have chose to save the engine/trans for last because if i could drive it i wouldnt spend half as much time working on it.

I know where Danville is I think I have been through it a few times. Thanks for the info and if you're ever in Harrisonburg drop me a line lunch is on me.

Yeah I'm looking and asking a lot of questions and this is something that wont happen like this weekend. I have a couple months to make a decision. The guy is busy not only working on a car to make his debut for the shop he is opening up but he works full time as well.

I also have a few things going on one is I do writing and I have one novel done (first draft going out to the editor) and I'm working on my second novel as well and a few others I started and put on the back burnner. So stay tunned I will see what happens.

[CoronetRTguy]

Oh forgot to add I'm also trying to take a class for medical coding and I have a meeting tomorrow and if it goes the way I hope it does it wont touch my car funds but if not it will make me dip into it.

I think after the metal work is done on the car it is well worth the asking price if not more. If I get this class I want and a few other things in place it may be something I just say hey how much would it cost for you to finish it up for me.

So stay tunned the story doesnt end here at least not yet. I was looking for a 68 Road Runner when this one fell into my lap. I also have a 73 Road Runner here local to me that I have followed for the past 20 years and then lost it for a while in that 20 years to only see it on craigslist. I want that car only because I have history with it and I kind of like that year. If I buy the 73 I will hot rod it a little and do what I want with it and drive it like crazy.

[fiddlerfingers]

You are a busy guy... I just finished restoring my 71 RR and I thought I would do it for around 20K. No rust on the car and the paint body work only ran me 5K but....The rest of the car adds up real quick. I am in to it for well over 40K. Engine alone with machine work, everything new right down to the headers...15K+ tranny 1k rear end 1500 with new gears and axles....Thats 22k without interior, tires/rims, exhaust with tips, all new marker/tail lights, stripes, bumper rechrome, trim polished, frame rail connectors, wiring harnesses, alot of misc nuts/bolts, new glass with instalation cost...ect.ect.ect. Its well worth it when you see the finish line. I will never sell this car so im not worried about what its worth on the market, to me its priceless. I say GO for it, I agree with others that the car needs to be restored. If you decide not to buy it pass the info this way, I want to build another one for my wife.

[CoronetRTguy]

You are a busy guy... I just finished restoring my 71 RR and I thought I would do it for around 20K. No rust on the car and the paint body work only ran me 5K but....The rest of the car adds up real quick. I am in to it for well over 40K. Engine alone with machine work, everything new right down to the headers...15K+ tranny 1k rear end 1500 with new gears and axles....Thats 22k without interior, tires/rims, exhaust with tips, all new marker/tail lights, stripes, bumper rechrome, trim polished, frame rail connectors, wiring harnesses, alot of misc nuts/bolts, new glass with instalation cost...ect.ect.ect. Its well worth it when you see the finish line. I will never sell this car so im not worried about what its worth on the market, to me its priceless. I say GO for it, I agree with others that the car needs to be restored. If you decide not to buy it pass the info this way, I want to build another one for my wife.

Thanks and if I can't do the car I will let everyone know and I will pass on the contact info. The guy is really good and cool to deal with and shoots you straight on everything.

Yeah to me the color combo sold me on it and then #s matching made it that much more exciting. I don't care about the market right now because if I do this car its the last one I will own.

[71rm23]

First off Welcome to the 'Nest.
I seldom post, but figured I would this time. The car is very cool. It is at the TOP of my list as far as color combination goes! Should you restore it? Only you can answer that question. Just be REALISTIC on how you want to restore the car---original, modified, driver quality, museum show piece. It sounds like this is not your first restoration rodeo--your previous Coronet. You already know that it WILL be considerably MORE than what you estimate. I know--I finished the GTX sunroof car last summer! Restore the car because you want to, because reality is, you WILL have more invested into the car than you will get back--financially that is. Like I said previously--the car is cool!!

By the way, here are a couple of corrections to your fender tag codes: R51 should be H51-Air Conditioning, and H21 should be M21-Drip Rail Moldings.
Good Luck to you!
Jeff

[CoronetRTguy]

First off Welcome to the 'Nest.
I seldom post, but figured I would this time. The car is very cool. It is at the TOP of my list as far as color combination goes! Should you restore it? Only you can answer that question. Just be REALISTIC on how you want to restore the car---original, modified, driver quality, museum show piece. It sounds like this is not your first restoration rodeo--your previous Coronet. You already know that it WILL be considerably MORE than what you estimate. I know--I finished the GTX sunroof car last summer! Restore the car because you want to, because reality is, you WILL have more invested into the car than you will get back--financially that is. Like I said previously--the car is cool!!

By the way, here are a couple of corrections to your fender tag codes: R51 should be H51-Air Conditioning, and H21 should be M21-Drip Rail Moldings.
Good Luck to you!
Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I agree I'm sure I will have a lot invested in it and really I want a driver so I'm not to worried about doing showroom but want it to be were it wouldnt take much to do just that.

Thanks for correcting the codes I was looking at a cell phone pic of the fender tag and it was hard for me to make out. I'm shocked it has air and something kept telling me it was an air car when looking at the pics.

Thanks

[NOrrTH]

I think you would be 35-50k to get this car done. This car needs everything and .... "is only" a bench seat, 3 on the tree, 383". As others have said, if the roof is gone..and entire floor..chances are more than good its ready to turn to dust in other places, inner fenders, trunk drip rail, rear window, bottom of doors, fenders, quarters.. etc etc If he paid you $10k to take the car you would still be upside down. Dont walk away from this car, run. A quick look around on the net should yield already completed cars from $10 - $25k.

[71ChallengerSE]

It amazes me how many people are afraid of rust, its a mopar they all rust. This car is damn solid if you ask me, and a great candidtate for restoration. Sounds like she will be perfect for what you are wanting to do with her.

[CoronetRTguy]

It amazes me how many people are afraid of rust, its a mopar they all rust. This car is damn solid if you ask me, and a great candidtate for restoration. Sounds like she will be perfect for what you are wanting to do with her.

I agree I'm not scared of it and with a replacement roof, floor pans and he also said any other rust he finds while doing the roof like the cowel area he would fix for the $4619.00 price.

I also asked about if he did the paint (He said he would do the graphics by hand) and do that with the metal work and buying the Road Runner its another $6000.00.

I also asked about the motor he if he did that work, he has a guy that does all that and I could get a price for that if I wanted to.

I can have him do as much or as little of the work as I want and right now just the metal work is all I want. I may get him to sand and prime the car and when I get put the paint on it after I go over it again.

The good news my dad (legally blind) had a doctors appointment the other day and they made some glasses for him that allow him to see a lot better. He said get the car find me a paint booth and I will shoot it for you. He said I will get the car done and ready for paint no a big deal.

My dad and I are serious on this car and I'm going to have a second party look at it before I buy it but its the one.

[NOrrTH]

The rust is only a portion of the restoration. I have $15k in parts alone on my car and it was an "ok" rust free driver to start with. This does not include any drive train parts. This car will take many months/years, hundreds or hours in labor, and MANY thousands to finish. Buy an already done car and enjoy it now. GL

That said, spending time restoring the car with you dad is priceless.

[CoronetRTguy]

The rust is only a portion of the restoration. I have $15k in parts alone on my car and it was an "ok" rust free driver to start with. This does not include any drive train parts. This car will take many months/years, hundreds or hours in labor, and MANY thousands to finish. Buy an already done car and enjoy it now. GL

That said, spending time restoring the car with you dad is priceless.

Yeah I'm sure I will have a lot in parts. I know just the seats and door panels I'm close to a thousand. I'm still looking at doing this car but if I come across a good restored car and I'm back to work (at the end of these classes about 8 months) I will buy one already done....Maybe.

My dad and I keep talking about a project and having some fun together. The last project we both got sick during and never got to finish it.

If anyone sees a good 68-72 Road Runner or GTX I'm open. I'm also open to the 73-74s as I do like those but I would hot rod those out a bit. I still have the 73 in my area thats under black primer and I'm sure hiding a lot of problems. I may go and look at it but my thoughts are to save and keep going on this blue car unless I find something different.

[DixieSatellite]

Hi,

Probably not going to be a popular post, but I am going to throw in my 2c worth. This is my car here.

http://www.roadrunnernest.com/forum/vie ... f=1&t=3216

i won't bore you with the details here - please read the above thread link if interested. Basically, I bought my '72 SSP in 1991 and drove across the US (twice) after school finished, second time w/ a 6 mth pregnant wife. Akt the time and in the ensuing years I had so many plans for my car, spent so many hours rebuilding every nut and bolt in my head as I stood on the subway traveling into work, mentally visualizing the color combos / repaints / mods to create exactly what I wanted. This is what kept me motivated at work, but of course life happens / jobs change / family commitments come up and and every time I had some spare money, it needed to go for something else, some emergency or doctors / house move etc. After a a number of years it became very clear to me that I was never going to be able to perform the nut/bolt restoration I wanted - I was not going to have the time / funds or space, despite having the mechanical skills (I am an aerospace service engineer). As I had to go overseas for work, my only option if I wanted the car done was to pay someone else to do the work for me while i concentrated on other things.

This is the result as of 2011 and this was starting out w/ a roadworthy car (not great, but a #3, certainly). Labor for things you cannot do yourself is by far the biggest cost, but even without that, the cost of all the medium and little parts required / needed to return to functioning (never mind showroom) condition is simply staggering (I have the invoices to prove it). After all, the reason any of us want to restore a car is to produce at the very least a nice driver. You can create a 50 footer and perform all kinds of shortcuts under the hood, but that is really more what the Brand X guys' speciality. Granted, my car is based on me not even being in the country to work on the car, but as it stands, it owes me about $30K. This is without bodywork (minor rust and repaint) and interior - once those are completed, I will consider the car done, but realistically I am still looking at another $15-20K for that, which is why I am currently on hold. Like I said, this is for a car which was a driver with practically all of its original equipment intact....

The other thing which is a factor is time. We tend to think we have all the time in the world when we do not. I have had my '72 SSP for 20 years and it is still not finished. It will be, but it is not the top priority it once was (again, due to other life commitments). That does not mean I do not love driving the car or get a thrill every time I run my hand down those sleek quarter panels, or the guy next to me at the lights looks over over the car with obvious envy. The car has 20 years of memories which are hard to replace.

HOWEVER.....if I had to do it ALL over again, I would buy the BEST car I could / my budget could stretch to and get on and enjoy someone else's $ and hard work. If you want to work on a car, great - but there is a lot to be said for spending time (and $) fixing the smaller remaining items another owner just did not get around to doing. There are some of beautiful cars / bargains out there at the moment with this economy, which at first might seem expensive, but pale in comparison to the incremental and often staggering costs of raising old cars from the dead. I know not everyone one will agree (or even strongly disagree) and that is fine - but the road to the car in your head is generally a long and very expensive one.

I would recommend biding your time and resources and keep searching - beautiful cars can be had for much less than it would cost to restore your '71 RR find and you can use the money / time saved to enjoy it.

Best of luck to you, whatever you decide.

Ian B.

[CoronetRTguy]

Thanks for taking the time to reply and share your story and the link to your thread. I'm going to check out your car and read over it all.

I do agree it will be a lot of time. I do not know if I can do it all right now if ever and I am looking at that. I have seen some nice cars going for $23K or $30K but you just never know what you are getting with a bid on ebay.

My 70 Coronet R/T would have been done if I had not gotten sick and my dad had not gotten sick as well. I did some small things like pulling a part off here and there before I went to work and if I got a day off I would pull a part off. I worked 80-90 hours a week and there was times I never slept.

I took two weeks vacation not back to back but I took the car apart and my dad and I hung the panels. I had one last week of vacation left and I was saving it for some cooler weather to get back on the car and weld the panels up and then move on to the rest of the body work.

I went into work for training on a new computer system and I noticed I couldnt type or remember the keyboard. I left training and went home to grab some sleep before I had to be back in at work. I got home looked at my mom and started to have a seizure and then I had a stroke.

My Coronet R/T sat for nine years before I sold it know that I wouldnt be able to to finish the work on it myself or afford to pay someoen to do it being disabled. I also had ever magazine known calling wanting to know when the car would be done so they could be the first to get it in their magazing.

I'm now getting back to being able to do somethings as is my dad. I know we can handle the remaining body work, paint prep and if we can rent a paint booth he will shoot the paint.

The motor and trans will be farmed out and I do have some good places in the area and I'm going back bone stock. They guy who owns the car right now has also given me prices on doing a lot of the work if I can so I'm just weighing my options and saving some of my money back up from paying for school. When done with that and back to work I will be able to afford the car.

[CoronetRTguy]

Up date on the 71 still waiting to buy it....If I can. I went back to school and I thought it wouldn't dip into my car fund money but I had to buy a few things to start the classes. I had to update my computer system.

I have since found a 73 Roadrunner that I may go and look at. I did make an offer for it of $1000 and the guy has not budged yet on it.

So with that said I'm still working on getting this 71 and if all goes well I will.

I thought I would check in as its been to long and I have been really busy, but have been on a few Mopar boards.