Rocketman's 1973 Road Runner

This is my 1973 Plymouth Road Runner. It's got a low-hour somewhat built 440, 3" headers, Flowmasters, a 727 automatic with bands and a shift kit, a 4.10 Dana 60, a 750 Holley carb, Edelbrock Performer manifold, and various other goodies. The guy I bought it from started working on it but told me that he decided that he wanted to do a small block instead. The running gear was all in good shape. The interior was fair. The chassis was fairly solid and straight. The body was pretty bad with rust around the wheel wells, trunk ledge, trunk bottom, and various other miscellaneous places. It also needed a paint job and new graphics.

I bought this because I always wanted a muscle car, especially a Mopar, ever since I got my license back in 1970. I didn't spend a lot for it, and as the saying goes - you get what you pay for. Since buying it I have learned a lot about older cars and the restoration thereof.

When I bought this car (on April Fools Day, 2004 ha ha) I figured I could spend about $10,000 total (including the $5500 I paid for it) and have it nice looking, solid, and reliable. Well, that figure was way, way, way low. In late November 2004 I finished a fairly complete restoration and exceeded my estimate by a considerable amount. It took way longer than I thought and cost a whole lot more. However, now that it's done it's pretty damn nice, but unfortunately it's questionable if it's worth what I have into it. Oh well, I don't plan on selling it anyhow. If you like these older cars and want to see what I did to fix this one up, I have a bunch of pics of the project. They are all text linked by date. Click HERE to see them.

So what's the bottom line? Beats me. Probably if I had it to do all over I would have been better off spending more money and buying a better car up front. On the other hand, I probably would NOT have spent that money and thus never would have had something I wanted for my whole life. Despite the higher than expected cost, I really do like the car. I'm glad that I bought it and I'm glad that I fixed it up. It's fun to drive a car that you don't see every day, that sounds totally badass just idling, and has big fat tires and lights 'em up if you give it a little too much gas!

Oh yeah, speaking of lighting 'em up, I have a few improvements planned for 2005. What good is a muscle car without some serious muscle, like about 500 horsepower? On the downside, 500 horsepower doesn't come cheap, and it means everything in the driveline needs to be bulletproof and that doesn't come cheap either. On the upside (for you guys at least), as long as I keep screwing around with this car I won't be retiring from the Terminator™ Muskie Lures business anytime soon.

Update - Friday, March 13, 2009 - Phase 2 Begins - Finally!!!

Everything written before this update is exactly as it was on Feb 23, 2005. I had grand plans at the time - but things did not work out. Funny how a divorce, buying a new house, and paying child $upport for four years changes your priorities. At least I got to keep my Road Runner! And my new house has an awesome garage to park it in too! And as of today I am happy to report that I am FINALLY getting back to working on my car. Yesterday I took it to Red's Frame Shop in Howell, MI for some long awaited upgrades underneath. The list is long but highlights include a rear axle rebuild and gear ratio change from 4.10 to 3.54, new heavy duty rear springs and driveshaft, Mancini Racing driveshaft loop, complete steering linkage overhaul, new power steering pump, and new shocks all around. That's the bulletproofing of the driveline I had planned before my personal fiscal crisis. Pics and details of this phase to follow shortly so stay tuned. And then once I am satisfied that my car will go where I point it and can handle a few more horsepower - we'll start working under the hood....

Update - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - Happy Anniversary

Effective today I have owned my car exactly 5 years. It's currently in the shop and it will still be a few weeks since the chassis and suspension work is done. So far, so good. No nasty surprises but a few changes. It turns out my rear axle is not a Dana 60, it's a 9 1/4 instead. Duh - I feel stoooopid! The guys at Red's also recaluclated the old axle ratio at about 3.90, not 4.10. Based on the actual diameters of my tires, and now obnoxious it was to drive on the highway with the 3.90 gears, they recommended that we go with a 3.21 gearset instead of the 3.54. So that's what we are doing. I've started another page of restoration pictures to document this latest round of checking account balance reduction.

Restoration Pics - Phase 1
Restoration Pics - Phase 2
Sources for Parts and Services

the Rocketman