Resurrection of the (72) Demon

LH23H2R said
Years ago -- mid-90's to be exact -- my friend and I found a 1973 Scamp in the local pick-a-part , which had a factory sunroof ! It was the same metal-panelled version that the Dart Sport / Duster got from '73 - '76 .
Thankfully it was without that damned vinyl-covered roof ( yes , California cars DO rust ! Just in a different manner than 'snow belt' or north east vehicles ) , as it was going to replace the rust-free-California-rust-laden roof of his otherwise clean '73 Swinger .
We sawzall'ed the roof at the lower-portions of the "A" and "C" pillars , leaving a lot of meat to work with in order to align the roof-to-body at the factory weld areas . A local body shop did the actual face-off surgery , and finished the job with a liberal application of etching primer / sealer , as my friend and I were going to paint the roof ourselves ; the vinyl top's trim was retained , and the roof was shot in an off-white .

I would like to have a metal sunroof, too. One has yet to appear in my searches. Like you, I left plenty of "meat" for the body shop on the A pillars. On the C pillars, I didn't leave as much because the package shelf and the rear corner of the rear quarter windows make an excellent guide. The outside cut was great. Due to some deflection of the Sawzall blade, the inner structure was cut a bit close for comfort in some places.

LH23H2R said
I recognised somewhere in this post , that there was a '69 & earlier small block swap , into a '70 & later car ; the cast iron water pump and the left-side ( driver's side ) radiator hose outlet gave it away .

The motor is a '68. Since the car was originally a /6, I had to put a radiator in it. I wanted the higher compression of the early LA 318 anyway. It has worked out well.

LH23H2R said
By the way , "TB3" is , indeed , Petty Blue .
Originally , in 1962 ( henceforth the "T" as the paint code's prefix ) , it was a special order colour , and limited to the south east sections of the U.S. ; it remained that way until 1972 . For 1972 , TB3 was renamed : "Basin Street Blue" for Plymouth , and "Super Blue" for dodge .
My '73 Duster was factory TB3 , a beautiful colour !

No arguement about TB3 being "Petty Blue". This particular Demon is close to a replica of one I shared with my siblings during my last two years in college. It was a TB3 car with white stripes, rallye wheels, and a /6. Since the car I drove was spec'd out by Dad, I took the liberty in this recreation of getting closer to the way I would have set it up.

The issue for me is this: Is TB3 or (72 Ford) J paint code, "Grabber Blue", closer in hue to the cars that rolled out of Level Cross, NC. A friend and I made a trip to NC when he was rebuilding an old Talladega Ford as a tribute car. With paint samples made up by the same PPG outlet, using the same brand (Delstar), using the same mix recipes for each code from PPG, we determined that Grabber Blue was the closest. We compared our samples with the Ford and the SuperBird in the museum at the time. We took all of the variables we could think of out of the equation so we could get a fair trial with results we could easily duplicate. That is why he went with the J code then, and I plan on using it on this car.