1970 Roadrunner - again

To prevent having to cut the original plastic radio bezel I bought a reproduction radio delete plate. - (Hard to believe they ask $100 for them.) While I had the dash apart I found an old insurance card that had fallen behind it and was sitting in the dash frame. According to information on the card, the owner was from the Boston area.

Just for the heck of it I decided to see if I could find him. The internet can really be great sometimes. After doing a Google search for his name I came up with a phone number. Although I wasn't certain that I had the right person I gave him a call. After introducing myself I asked him whether or not he used to own a 1970 Roadrunner. He hesitated for a bit (I suppose the question seemed odd to him). But then he said yes. He had bought one new back in 1970. As we chatted he gave me some of the car's history. He confirmed that the tach in it was not original and said that he used to have an aftermarket tach mounted under the dash overhang in that same area. He had used it as a combination street/strip vehicle for quite a few years, during which time the original 383 had been scattered. He'd run several other power plants in it and had gotten it to run into the 11s.

One thing that I had failed to mention when I originally started this thread was that the car had a salvage title. I was hoping that the original owner might know why.

He told me that the accident happened while he owned it. Back in 1982 he was in the habit of parking the car on the street in front of his house. One day a woman was driving by with her kid in her car. It was the child's birthday and she had bought him a helium filled balloon. As they were going down the street, the balloon went out the window. In an attempt to see where it was going she took her eyes off the road. That's when she ran into the front passenger side of the Roadrunner. Although not terribly damaged, the insurance company decided to total the car. When they'd picked it up, that was the last time he'd ever seen or heard anything about it. He had assumed it'd been parted out and crushed.

I sent him what pictures that I had of the car, and send him updates on it as we make progress. He surprised me by telling me that he still had the original owners manual and window sticker from when he'd bought it. He sent them to us. He also sent me a copy of a picture that he kept, - showing him working on the car back in the seventies. He's semi-retired now and spends his time restoring old Harleys.

This is the picture that he sent us.
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