This was an NOS set that sold for $1500 a couple years ago

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Nicely done Steve and thanks for sharing the details!
First glance at the pic w/ rear glass on the chair pad I thought ModTop, love Spyders too and can't wait for the end result.
:beers:
~ Pete

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Nice photo! Who's purple 'cuda is that? Needs the red drums and Polyglas'es, though. :-)

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Purple Cuda w/ Spyders just a pic I Googled up, '71 Ragtop as fuzzy pics below.
You're so right on the red drums and Polyglas!
:beers:
~ Pete

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Moving along with the interior. I was able to get the correct interior pant from Herb's Parts for the trim and resprayed all the surround moldings with the right 1970 white interior color.

I gotta say that the reproduction door and rear panels are EXACT fit to the original pieces. I got them from Roseville Moparts. Who'dathunkit possible that you could install a repro interior panel and have the screw holes match perfectly with the existing holes in the door frame and inner bulkhead? Inconceivable! The only modification you have to do is drill the holes for the 'cuda emblem and the remote mirror stalk. But the spots are premarked on the back side of the panels so it was really easy.

I also started cleaning up the seat belts and shoulder harnesses by soaking them in evaporust overnight. It did work great. All the grunge came out and the date labels are a little easier to see thought still rather yellowed with half a century of age. But they'll do.

Next item on the list is to install the rear window. I bought a couple suction cup glass installer tools at harborfreight the other day in preparation for the install. The 5/16" butyl tape also arrived yesterday.

Super nice restoration !!
I bought a '72 Cuda new, but my driving record wasn't very good and my insurance agent said I had to order the, now standard, 318 instead of the 340 or they would drop me...:shocked:


A hint on the glass install...drop the glass in and measure any low areas around the perimeter before setting the butyl on. I've had to use a combination of 5/16 and 3/8 to get a uniform bed.

Looks great Steve!
Did you put that insulation on the trunk divider for noise?

I learned that the Cuda's didn't use jute backing on the divider but since the divider had it on one side, I flipped it so the plain, cardboard side will be visible from the trunk.

Installed the rear glass today. Rather uneventful. I rolled out the 5/16" butyl tape and then applied the suctions cups and plunked the window into place. It touched the tape almost all the way around so I then started massaging the edges to get it to engage the entire circumference. After a while the weight of the glass did the rest of the work and there is a clean engagement line all around.

The problem now is that the rear window stainless is rather mangle-ated. There's only one large ding in one piece but it is all rather too "twisty" to use. I don't want to risk chipping any paint so I am on the hunt for a nice straight set of moldings. There's a few on ebay at the moment.

And before anyone comments, yes it does look like Linda Vaughn helped me install the glass on the passenger side but leaned in a little too close.

Oh ok - I get it.
Still, I can't believe someone is making them like that.
You are doing great work. Loving the white with the purple!

I found an original set of rear window moldings on ebay for the back window. A little polishing and we should be good.

Fantastical, Steve! :burnout: She’s looking pretty sweet! Restification Justification of the purplest kind!:dunno::confused2::hmmm::biggthumpup::tongue:

Nice work!

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Dave, do you recall ever seeing this J-hook contraption anywhere in the parts or did the heater box come in pieces? It's the J-hook that holds it up into the cowl. (Before I order a new one, I figured I'd ask since I don't see it anywhere.)

It goes where the arrow is.

I pulled the steering column and dash out today in order to start working on the dash components.

Good catch Steve!
People never seem to put those back in after removing the box.

Nope... no J-hook Steve. Never saw one when I removed the box.

Cheers
Dave

No problem. Got one on the way.

The used set of rear window stainless arrived yesterday from an ebay seller. Much nicer than described! Already polished, too!

I outlined the entire opening in blue masking tape and then gently snapped each piece in place which is rather tricky since they have to be connected together to do this because you can't get the last piece hooked to the first one if the first one is already snapped in place. Just slightly nerve-wracking.

I also decided to reuse the original dashpad since there were only two minor cracks by the front speaker grill screw holes - a common occurrence. Since it is around $800 plus $200 core charge to get a reproduction dash... and none are available now, I decided there are better things to spend my money on...like vintage mag wheels.

I wound up using some JB-Weld epoxy and gently pushed it in to the cracks with a tiny screw driver. Once it was filled, I waited for it to cure and then sanded. I then sprayed the entire dash with SEM Landau Black interior dye (I LOVE that paint - I put that s@$& on everything!). Here's the results.

Not bad from a foot away or so and now I don't have to mess with transferring the vin tag to a new dash pad (Stupid Chrysler design - lets rivet the vin to a removable part!!!)

I also got the dash carrier assembly disassembled. There was a lot of crustiness on the underside so I rigged up the pool cover siphon pump and a short hose and have it circulating the Evaporust solution via a spray tip, onto the dash frame. It all drains in to a sheet of plastic that ends at the bottom of a 7-gallon bucket. The siphon pump has to be fully submerged to work, so you want that at the bottom of the bucket inside the plastic sheet which acts as a funnel to direct all the runoff back to the bottom. I got the aquarium heater in there too. The kiddie pool is there as an emergency backup in case it all springs a leak.

What car is under the floral blanket?

My Grampa's 1971 Golden Anniversary Lincoln Continental Town Car.

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=123890

My birthday present arrived a couple days early!

Thanks to my undercover operative LYNN down in Oklahoma, who just happened to have the perfect alibi for being in Dallas, for an alleged wedding, he was able to circumvent the ebay crazy who blocked my bids because I asked too many logical questions about the set of wheels.

Lynn purchased the wheels and then had another sub-operative pick them up and transport them to his villainous lair in Oklahoma.

It took a few days since there was a early storm and power outage in town but he was able to get them packed up and after paying a fortune to the UPS store on his town, they arrived safely up here in Jersey this afternoon.

A beautiful set of 14x6 1969 dated Motor Wheel Spyders. They were complete with a set of original center caps and 20 right hand lug nuts. With the brand new set of center caps and 10 lefties and 10 righty lug nuts I got from the guy in Wisconsin, I now have a new pair of shoes for the Cuda.

Here's what they look like after I washed and scrubbed them in my front yard. Next step is cleaning the aluminum with some chemical stuff I have coming soon. The chrome is amazing! - must have been installed on a central Texas car for the past half century.

THANK YOU LYNN!!!

I can't wait to see those on the car.

Way to go Lynn! What a cool gesture.

Those are gonna look GrrrrrrrrrrrrEAT!!!!!:biggthumpup: Way to go Lynn!!:3gears:

Great story! That’s what the “hobby” is about!

Lynn :biggthumpup:

I can't say how many guys on this site have helped me out. Many of you would have done the same thing. Glad I could help out a fellow car guy.

Way to go, Lynn! :biggthumpup::worship:

Well done!

Nice repair job. Weird that Mopar riveted the vin to the dash,although rivited to the metal carrier on my 68 Dodge Charger it too is a removable part.

Well I took a couple days off the tinker with the new wheels.

First I had to wait for the Aluma-Brite to arrive. http://www.k-chem.com/msds/AlumaBrite.pdf
Its a hydroflouric acid detergent solution used in the detailing trade to brighten up raw aluminum - like boat pontoons and big rig fuel tanks. After carefully donning all my PPE, I sprayed it on the wheels full strength and let it sit on there and foam for about a minute. I then hosed it off with cold water. It repeated it a couple times and then really washed them off with soap and water for around ten minutes.

I then moved on to the shiny parts of the wheels. It took eight hours or so of hand-sanding to get the polished finish back on the spokes. The five holes are supposed to be in an as-cast finish.

Starting with 800, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000 wet paper. I hand sanded the hub area spokes and the outer small hub spoke sections that touch the chrome rim. VERY CARFEULLY, trying not to touch the chrome with the sand paper.

I have no finger tips left at this point but the rims came out great. I then masked off the outer area and painted the black out section with Rustoleum Matte Black paint.

Here's the finished set with the Polyglas F70x14s mounted. Sorry I couldn't pull it out of the garage but there's no steering wheel or dash in it at the moment.

Looks great Steve!!

Wow

That car looks incredible. Did you use the alumabrite on the as-cast areas of the wheels, then?

Awesome.

Yes, that was the main purpose of using the Aluma-Blast - to clean the cast areas since there really isn't anything you can use on it that won't alter the appearance of the cast areas - I guess you could media blast it, but you'd have to mask off everything around the cast areas. It was hard enough masking the center portion to spray it black.

Looking good!!!

Very nice Steve!