My T/A restoration...

[3406pk]

Thank you for the kind words my friend. I use the David Wise/ICCA Restoration & Judging Guidelines for E-body and the David Wise/Byron Fettig E-body Fastener Guide books as well as the factory Mopar 1970 Parts Manual and the factory Mopar 1970 Challenger Service Manual. I also spend time photographing any original/survivor cars at shows or Carlisle, etc... LOTS OF PHOTOS OF KNOWN/DOCUMENTED ORIGINAL CARS - IT IS YOUR BEST REFERENCE!

Thanks for listing ref books. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Gary

 

[1969VADart]

How did you clean or remove the surface rust on a lot of those little parts, like your heater box parts, before painting? Same question for metal parts like your pedal assembly and blower motor casing.

And Merry Christmas!

 

[Grady Cain]

My car has a build sheet with "52" in the frame box. I understand that 52 was for the TA. From what Ive researched, the "52" was for the TA car, but there is no difference in the 52 and 72 k member, only variant is production year. The "72" part number is for cars with 318/340/(cant remember 3rd engine) and the word LATE after it. Since my car scheduled build date was in April of 70, it would put mine possibly getting 71 production k member (hince the late after the part number, and a "72" coin.

Also, all my date codes match up correctly, even on the K member. The coin isnt a big deal, but its interesting to me the differences. Ive heard of one other TA car that had the same thing going on, but I have not been able to verify with the owner, nor do I know who it is. (Found out reading some forums about it.

Ok so here is the listing of all the K-member numbers up to 1971-72 production. There is no reference to a "72" K-member as you can see and I didn't see anything in the K-member section referencing anything about later production T/A's getting anything other than a "52" K-member. I would highly recommend emailing David Wise through the MMC Detroit website with your inquiries. He my have some information for you that has not made it to the reference books. He has gotten back to me on several occasions. Hope this helps...

 

[Grady Cain]

Thanks for listing ref books. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Gary

You're welcome! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family too Gary...

 

[Grady Cain]

How did you clean or remove the surface rust on a lot of those little parts, like your heater box parts, before painting? Same question for metal parts like your pedal assembly and blower motor casing.

And Merry Christmas!

Any of the small steel parts were either hot-tank cleaned or glass bead blasted. Anything aluminum was bead blasted. The round steel flap with the rubber seal was blasted after masking off the rubber seal. I've just discovered the Evaporust product which works great for cleaning steel parts. Google it if you don't know of it - it is something you can use at home rather than spending money and finding someone who has a hot-tank. I wish I had discovered this sooner as blasting is abrasive and you can't really restore a natural/bare steel part back to that original finish after blasting. Dipping (or hot-tank cleaning) just removes the rust and not any of the metal surface. I will use this application as well as more hot-tank cleaning rather than blasting when I do my A12 car.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family too!

 

[Grady Cain]

Another question I have ( currently working on my heater box) Is what and where did you get the flat button style rivets?

As for the rivets, I used blind rivets and did NOT use the correct tubular rivets. Again, chalk it up to lack of knowledge. It was a member here on FEBO who responded to my inquiry on where to find these rivets and explained them to me. They are readily available and you need a special tool to install them. Google "tubular rivets" and you will find them. They are used in many areas of the car and will be a must-use on the restoration of my A12 heater box or anyone else's that I restore.

 

[Jalaska907]

Ok so here is the listing of all the K-member numbers up to 1971-72 production. There is no reference to a "72" K-member as you can see and I didn't see anything in the K-member section referencing anything about later production T/A's getting anything other than a "52" K-member. I would highly recommend emailing David Wise through the MMC Detroit website with your inquiries. He my have some information for you that has not made it to the reference books. He has gotten back to me on several occasions. Hope this helps...
View attachment 46285

Heres a copy paste of the same thing my car has that I found on another forum:

Re: K-frame coins
« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2009 - 07:30:38 am »

Quote from: Alaskan_TA on May 20, 2009 - 11:37:11 pm
52 is correct for T/As, AARs & 318, 340 & 383 cars after about mid-1970 model year. The 52 is on the broadcast sheets, it is the last two digits of the actual part number.

Date codes for these are stamped into the flat vertical surface on the front of the K member.

That would jive with why my car has a 72 not a 52 - it was delivered in April 1970 so would have been manufactured before the mid-1970 model year.


Like said before, not here to argue, just something i found interesting and would like to understand the change. Also helps with documenting the car.

 

[Grady Cain]

I totally get where you're at with this. I am just as curious about it as you! I just don't even see a "72" coin listed up to 1974 model year on this chart so I can't offer any information on this matter. Looks like any 1970 "late" production 340 cars got the "52" "64" or "74" coins according to the chart. I see a "12" coin for early E-body 340's. Now this book has many inaccuracies in it and that's the reason I suggested contacting David Wise. What is the date code on your K-member? What do you mean when you say your car was "...delivered in April 1970." I'm actually emailing DW now as I would love to know more about this too...

 

[Jalaska907]

I totally get where you're at with this. I am just as curious about it as you! I just don't even see a "72" coin listed up to 1974 model year on this chart so I can't offer any information on this matter. Looks like any 1970 "late" production 340 cars got the "52" "64" or "74" coins according to the chart. I see a "12" coin for early E-body 340's. Now this book has many inaccuracies in it and that's the reason I suggested contacting David Wise. What is the date code on your K-member? What do you mean when you say your car was an, "...April 1970 delivery." I'm actually emailing DW now as I would love to know more about this too...

My K member
0850 1 "72" Coin
3/26/1970 1st shift

 

[Jalaska907]

Ive seen the 72 part number before, just cant remember where. Im still digging for it

 

[Grady Cain]

Very cool - this stuff is very interesting to me and I'm going to dig into it. I love the research part of this hobby - thanks for the info!

 

[Grady Cain]

Curious - how do you know your car was "...delivered in April 1970?" I know my car was built on March 19, 1970 (per my build sheet) but I have no idea when it was actually delivered...

 

[Jalaska907]

Heres a copy paste of the same thing my car has that I found on another forum:

Re: K-frame coins
« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2009 - 07:30:38 am »

Quote from: Alaskan_TA on May 20, 2009 - 11:37:11 pm
52 is correct for T/As, AARs & 318, 340 & 383 cars after about mid-1970 model year. The 52 is on the broadcast sheets, it is the last two digits of the actual part number.

Date codes for these are stamped into the flat vertical surface on the front of the K member.

That would jive with why my car has a 72 not a 52 - it was delivered in April 1970 so would have been manufactured before the mid-1970 model year.


Like said before, not here to argue, just something i found interesting and would like to understand the change. Also helps with documenting the car.

This was a copy paste from another forum I found that referenced the 72 coin., not sure how they got the delivered date. This was a discussion between AlaskanTA (not me) and another gentleman

 

[Grady Cain]

I just heard back from David Wise who said he has never seen a #72 coin on a k-member and would love a photo. Could you email it to me at markomopar@gmail.com so I can forward it to him? And your VIN as well. We may all learn something here! Thanks...

 

[Jalaska907]

emailed ya

 

[MN74]

Loving this thread...Great work GC!

I like the fact your keep the dealer installed radio....That is keeping the originality of that car intact IMHO!

 

[Grady Cain]

Happy New Year to all. It's a good day to be inside as the temp just finally came up to +2 degrees at 10:00AM. I'll post some more pics of various components...
Wiper transmission - Before:

After: Disassembled, cleaned, blasted & painted...

Carburetors - These are the originals and were found in pieces in a box. I can't seem to find photos of them completely disassembled but for some reason, the last owner thought it would be a good idea to take them all completely apart. I pieced them back together to take inventory before sending them to Bill Overcash for restoration. I learned of Bill through members of FEBO & FBBO after posting photos of the carbs for my A12 that I had "restored" by Holley. That venture has proven to be the biggest waste of money on that project as the finishes aren't even close to correct. Anyway, after getting the carbs to Bill, he noticed the center carb had an incorrect metering block. The correct block for the T/A would have the vacuum nipple at a 45 degree angle rather than straight out (see photo.) He used a favor with one of his friends to find me the correct one. The end result of Bill's work speaks for itself plus he is an outstanding man to work with. He also restored the original dual point distributors for my T/A and A12 cars. Before:

After:

 

[Grady Cain]

Details, details... I actually found a reasonably priced set of original GE headlights still in their boxes with 1969 date codes!

Taillight restoration - the mice made a home in one of the housings and damaged it pretty badly.

Original pot metal trim was in need of rechroming.

Original lenses were really good - just needed compounding and buffing so I reused all of them, side markers too.
Here we go - Housings glass bead blasted and the exterior surfaces matte-cleared with Eastwood Diamond Clear for bare metal...

Insides etch-primed and painted with the silver semi-reflective paint...

Masked off to paint the flanges black...

All new seals from DMT...

 

[Grady Cain]

Trim (and my other chrome parts) rechromed by D&S Plating in Holyoke, MA. It's no surprise if you don't know of them as they are a relatively small facility buried deep in a group of old mill buildings in the city. But, their resume includes chrome and nickel plating for some of the most famous cars in the world (Google 'Count Trossi Mercedes Benz' - one of D&S's masterpieces) 1930 Mercedes-Benz SSK - Count Trossi– Ralph Lauren Collection Art of the Automobile – RoadandTrack.com and they have plated parts for several Pebble Beach winning cars as well as a Pebble Beach Best-Of-Show car recently. Their chroming is the best I've seen anywhere. As you can imagine, it is not cheap but it is perfect...

It pained me to have to sand the lips and paint them black! SEM self-etching primer first and them SEM Trim Black...

End results...

The look and fitment of these original parts could not have been better. I was extremely pleased with this process and the outcome...

 

[Grady Cain]

I even managed to find the proper wire looms that go on the left tail light assembly in my pile of hardware. Cleaned and plasti-dipped the ends...

Side lights - original lenses...

2 lenses on right look good after buffing.

More details - found this missing loom for the left rear side marker from Byron Fettig. Wouldn't have known about it without the DW books. Cleaned and re-dipped...