medic11

Hello everybody. As I said in my intro I just recently bought a 69 Roadrunner and I'm as familiar with it as Paris Hilton is running an airborne operation for 150 Rangers over Afghanistan.
I'm posting a sh*t load of pics, tell me what you see under the hood, and what you think it needs. The original owner recently died and I didn't get a chance to get too much info from him, but I can tell he wanted this machine on the 1/4 mile track.
I plan on driving this occasionally, not at the track but on the open road, turning heads and causing heart attacks. I think I need to find a starting point and come up with a plan of attack.
A few things that jump out at me are: needs some clutch work, brake switch is not connecting behind the brake so the brake lights stay on, needs a new grill, I want to replace the skinny tires up front and match the 15" tires in the back, electrical wiring under the hood looks old and some parts are exposed, needs a new fan shroud, fuel guage doesn't work, I want to upgrade the front seats, I want to upgrade the shifter, rusty brake drums, probably just going to upgrade the whole brake system, replace the steering wheel. Just for starters.
Please feel free to jump in if you see something odd under the hood. I also need some POC's for some trustworthy parts stores, online or in San Anotnio. Hooah.

medic11

Here are a few more pics of the interior and dash.

medic11

These are the rusty tires.

blue 68 gts

Doesnt look to be in too bad of shape. Just needs some TLC.

As far as the engine goes... I'd paint the engine up, tidy up the bay (wiring and cleaning), GET MOPAR HEATER HOSES!!!! And...

Get that air cleaner facing the right way!!!!

mr340

Looks like someone went gear slammin' with the ashtray open.... Otherwise, very nice ride! Welcome to the Forum!

lou3500

Nice you lucky person looks like a good cleaning and some paint in the engine bay and your golden.

PK1

Looks like it is good shape. NICE CAR!!

If she came to my house I would do:

x2 on that wiring. Get rid of those blue butt joint connectors and any other failure splices. No cracks or electrical tape under the hood. Those butt connectors are fine inside the car but not under the hood IMO.

I would do a compression test, read vacuum, change the T stat, inspect all the hoses, fluids and belts, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter, etc... If you are going to drive it it should be reliable. If you don't know the service history then create a fresh one replacing wearable parts. Short money for peace of mind.

Make sure the brakes are good and flush the brake fluid.

Timmoparman

It really depends on if you want it to look stock or not. As i have always wanted to maintain a factory fresh look on my 68'RR - Especially under the hood. I like the factory paint on value covers and intake manifold. Just gives me a real clean look at shows. If you want a real tuff look on the rims, I have center-lines on mine (the older real good ones). But if you want to look old school then maybe go with black steel wheels with chrome lug nuts or magnum 500 wheels are cool. Really it all depends on how you want it to look, because beleave me people will notice what you have on the car for sure and are not afraid to tell you. LOL. Anyway have fun with it and drive it as much as you can, (or sell it to me) hahahaha.......Oh and yes if you can't find the factory black plastic fan shroud, Then run it without one. Because you have got to get rid of that piece of aluminium that is in there now. You may even want to take off the hood and paint the underside of it-the body color of the car.

medic11

I took the vehicle to a mechanic last week, just for an opinion. We found a few issues that need to be resolved. In order of priority:
#1. Wiring under the hood is ancient. Fire hazard. He offered to redo everything, the whole car for about $1500-$2000. I looked at some of his work on other cars and it looks tight and squared away. Really squared away.
#2. Brakes. I'm having to push the brake pedal all the way down in order to stop and even then it barely slows down. Fluid is topped off. It has the old drum brakes, not sure about vacuum and hoses. I'm going with disc brakes up front only. If I need them in the back later, I'll get to it.
I've looked around for wiring harnesses to see if I could do the engine bay wiring myself. I'd like to do it myself if it'll save me some money but I don't have the tools or time to take everything out from under the hood.
Question 1: Can the rewiring be done without gutting the engine bay? Can it be done by working around the engine and not taking out the dash? What brand and site do you recommend?
Question 2: What brand and site do you recommend for front disc brakes?
Hooah.

Timmoparman

Yo mite be able to adjust the drum brakes on all four, That's what I did and now it stops pretty good. Have to make sure your shoes are decent. Or if you really want the disk fronts then that will all you ever need and not on the back. I think you can re-wire the eng.bay, But aren't you only doing a half a job. If you have the whole thing wired (maybe new style fuses) then you have nothing to worry about. All i am saying is try brake drums adjustment first and save some money there and spend
it where it is necessary.

68RNR

Hey mate!
I'm only new to the forum here, but saw your post and thought I could give you a couple of pointers from my experience!

I bought a 68 with the same issue you speak of. Ancient wiring, connections everywhere, bits added on all over the shop. Impossible to work out. I tried for weeks and weeks to iron out the gremlins in it. In the end I bought a full new 12-circuit muscle car loom from American Autowire. 2 weekends later I had it fully wired and I know where everything is. All the wires come labelled.

So this was what I started with:



And this was what I ended up with (obviously some paint too):


Well worth the small outlay for the kit and a few weekends with a soldering iron. If you want wiring diagrams I have everything you need. PM me and I will scan them and email to you.

medic11

Wow, looks 100 x better. Unfortunately I won't be able to do some of the work on it myself. I was looking forward to a father-son project. It's a timing issue. So I plan on taking it to a local shop and letting them have it for a couple of weeks at a time. These pics are pretty much what I have in mind. Thanks.