1971 Road Runner

[ct71rr]

Hello all, long time lurker first time posting my own thread. I’m currently restoring my 1971 Plymouth Road Runner. I was led to this site by a few members that i follow on other sites; ‘68 Coronet R/T, JimKuenenman and a few others. This is my first time restoring a car and I’m learning as I go. I’ve replaced the driver’s side front and rear framerails, crossmember, front and rear floor pans, firewall, trunk pan, right and left wheel wells and am currently working on getting my new quarters installed. Before installing the quarters, I wanted to coat the inners with epoxy and Lizard Skin and also coat the inner structure with epoxy, as well. This is my first time spraying any kind of two-part automotive finish. I used a Fuji Q5 HVLP and with a lot of help from getto82200, I sprayed some epoxy.

This is what I started with:

First light coat:

Finished:

Sorry, not the best pics. I didn’t have the lights on. I’m going to let the epoxy dry for 48hrs then spray on the Lizard Skin.

 

[Kawickrice]

Will you be using the Fuji for the lizard skin?

 

[Chad.S]

I love projects like this, nice work..
I've never heard of Fuji, can you share a pic or two?

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

I love projects like this, nice work..
I've never heard of Fuji, can you share a pic or two?

It is a 5 stage Turbine spray gun. I have never seen one other than in advertisements but a friend of mine, who does remodeling, bought one for spraying clear on cabinets.

 

[ct71rr]

Will you be using the Fuji for the lizard skin?

Hi, no, I have an undercoating spray gun for that. Like this: https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Global-U...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

[ct71rr]

I love projects like this, nice work..
I've never heard of Fuji, can you share a pic or two?

Sure. This is the one I have:

It sprayed fine right out of the box with hardly any overspray. I also updated the cup to the 3M PPS 2.0 system.

 

[Chad.S]

Well that's interesting!! Would be fun to try.

 

[ct71rr]

Hi all, I welded my quarters on. I still need to grind the plug welds.

The Lizard Skin and epoxy came out nice, I think anyway:

 

[ct71rr]

I made some more progress. I sprayed epoxy on the inside of my cowl and on the top part of the firewall. I then welded it in. I also sprayed the inner fender supports with epoxy and welded then on, as well. Before installing the cowl, I had to remove the top flange, at the windshield, from the firewall. The AMD firewall I have is for an E-body. It is almost identical to the B-body with only a few minor differences. One being this flange. I removed the flange from my original firewall and spliced it on after cutting off the AMD flange.

Flange tacked-in:

Epoxy:

Epoxy:

Cowl welded on:

Epoxy:

Inner fender brace welded in:

Other side:

Thanks for looking!

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Big project but you are doing a great job.
I hope to start welding in some replacement panels on my GTX soon. Your post just reminded me of how much work that is going to be. LOL

 

[MJM]

This has turned onto a mopar website!, lol

Looks great !!!, OP. You're doing a great job. From my short time here, about a year or so, I've learned many things, mostly that there are a lot of really experienced folks here with helpful, trustworthy answers.

Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.

 

[ct71rr]

Big project but you are doing a great job.
I hope to start welding in some replacement panels on my GTX soon. Your post just reminded me of how much work that is going to be. LOL

Thank you, I’ve been following your builds on the other site, patiently awaiting the restart of your GTX!! You do great work and I’ve learned a bunch from you. I’ve already learned tons from members on this site from the few months I’ve been on.

 

[ct71rr]

This has turned onto a mopar website!, lol

Looks great !!!, OP. You're doing a great job. From my short time here, about a year or so, I've learned many things, mostly that there are a lot of really experienced folks here with helpful, trustworthy answers.

Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing.

Thanks! I’m kind of learning as I go - and from members here. Your build is coming along nicely, as well!!

 

[ct71rr]

I’m still working on the front end. I decided to replace both rocker end caps. These are not reproduced for my car so I had to make my own. I also had to replace a section of the driver’s side rocker near the front. The lower splash shield on the driver’s side was dented pretty good. I tried hammering, pulling and heat to fix it but no success. This part is not reproduced for my car either. Checking AMD’s website, I found that the E-Body part looked pretty close to mine. I took a gamble and purchased one. Turns out that they are pretty much identical. I did have to add some material to the top flange as it was a bit short and tapered off at an angle. I also replaced the radiator support with an AMD piece.

Rocker end cap:

Replacements fabricated:

Welded in:

Need to replace this area:

Welded in:

Radiator support replaced:

Lower splash shield - New and old:

Flange extended:

Welded in:

 

[ct71rr]

And I received some supplies:

 

[DanMcG]

Nice work on the patches ct!

 

[123pugsy]

Yep, good job alright.

 

[MJM]

Great job on the fabrication for the lower splash guards. I know it's a lot of work what you've taken on but, your picking away at it and before you know it, you'll be ready for paint.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ct71rr]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

 

[ct71rr]

Hi all, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thread. I’ve been plugging along. I had to find a replacement for my trunk as my original was a bondo-filled mess. I also had to patch several areas on both doors and both fenders. The front section of the driver’s side fender was crushed at some point and a crude attempt at “repairing” it was attempted by someone - slide hammer and bondo, about an inch thick in spots. I cut the end of the fender off and replaced with a section from a donor. I also had to repair much of the inner bracing to both fenders, as well.

Doors: