1970 Roadrunner - again

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Wait.......Del, you mean you were young once? I thought you were born old.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Wait.......Del, you mean you were young once? I thought you were born old.
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If I was I can't remember when, LOL Hell I can still remember the dreary, cold night I got my draft notice. A friend of mine and I had 'lost' a U joint in my 57 Chev. We'd (that is I) had jacked it up, crawled under and pulled the shaft, hiked a couple of miles to my Uncle's Union 76 and change the joint, then hiked back to the car. The cop was there and just had called the tow truck. He was an ***. It was CLEAR WAY off the highway, hell, 15-20 ft off the pavement.

Finally got home, and Mom handed me "the envelope."

I fooled them!!! Six years in the U.S. Navy!!!
 
During the time that we were struggling to make the car run better, my son was researching aftermarket fuel injection systems. As our carb adjustments correlated with performance improvements, he became convinced that switching to EFI would be the best way to maximize the performance we could get.

With the various companies that were now making EFI setups, the next step was to choose which to go with. Looking towards the future, my son thought it was likely that he'd one day replace the 383 with a more powerful engine. So, part of the criteria for the decision he made was based on how much HP the various systems could support.

The FAST 2.0 was what he picked. With the potential to support up to 1200 horsepower he was certain the car wasn't going to outgrow it.

These are pictures of some of the installation process. Although the wiring and plumbing looks messy in these photos, we re-organized it before we finished. The injectors are incorporated in the throttle body housing. - And the throttle body housing is designed to fit on a standard 4150 intake flange.

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The decided to mount the fuel pressure regulator and pressure sensor just above the area where the Roadrunner's hard fuel lines ended. We'd run braided stainless down to them.

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We made up a set of braided stainless fuel lines to run to and from the throttle body.

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One thing I hadn't planned on changing was the water pump housing. But I was unable to remove the original pipe nipple from one of the heater hoses. I had to get it out to gain access to the area that had the water temperature sensor. (the FAST system needs a temperature sensor input) We had a new aluminum housing on the 512 we're building for our '68 Charger so we robbed it off of it. Luckily it had multiple sensor hole locations so we were able to install the sensor for the FAST ECU input and maintain the sensor for our factory gauge.

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The fuel tank was a project all by itself. In order to install an in-tank pump we were going to have to cut an access hole in the top of it.

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In this photo you can see the sending unit inside the tank. The new pump will be attached to it. I drilled holes around the perimeter and installed nutserts. A gasketed cover plate will seal this when we're done.

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An O2 sensor was installed in the exhaust pipe.

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The FAST 2.0 comes with a small computer touch screen that is used to set the system up and to let you monitor things when you're done. My son decided that he wanted to have easy access to it but he didn't want to leave it exposed all the time. It does come with a windshield suction cup mount but my son didn't feel that it would be convenient if he had to constantly pull it on and off. Despite my objection to doing it, he wanted the ashtray modified to accommodate the monitor. Because there was not enough space inside the ashtray to allow the door to close with the screen attached, I had to gut it and rebuild.

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This is a picture of it when it was finished and the door closed.

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And this is with the door open.

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That fool injeckshun just ain't for me but I gotta tell ya, it looks like yall did a fine job at it.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That fool injeckshun just ain't for me but I gotta tell ya, it looks like yall did a fine job at it.
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Thanks Rusty. When you read all the hype about fuel injection it sounds like the way to go. I wasn't a believer myself. I'd always believed that if you properly tuned a carb you'd be just as well off and save a lot of $$. But there were info sources around that claimed that there was no way a carbureted vehicle can perform as well. Theoretically the self tuning aspect will enable a car to run optimally throughout the entire RPM range while at best a carb (they say) can only be adjusted to a point where the air/fuel ratio will only be optimum in a narrower RPM range. I have to say, we did see a substantial increase in power after installing it. But, we had yet to get that 750 Holley dialed in before the swap.
 
1967 'cuda said:
The FAST 2.0 comes with a small computer touch screen that is used to set the system up and to let you monitor things when you're done. My son decided that he wanted to have easy access to it but he didn't want to leave it exposed all the time. It does come with a windshield suction cup mount but my son didn't feel that it would be convenient if he had to constantly pull it on and off. Despite my objection to doing it, he wanted the ashtray modified to accommodate the monitor. Because there was not enough space inside the ashtray to allow the door to close with the screen attached, I had to gut it and rebuild.
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I LIKE that idea. Back when I had my 70, I had a "2 meter" amateur radio in the trunk. This was a POS called a "GE transistorized progress line."

I built a little relay control box with 4 push buttons for channel (frequency) control and hid that in the ashtray. Some people thought I was a "narc" LOL

This is the "front mount" version. Mine had been modified into the "trunk mount" version, so there was a small control head up front

51JCYA7%2ByVL.jpg


I had a neon lamp on a little bracket on the antenna loading coil which would glow purple when transmitting----this was the "hi power" 80 watt version. "It impressed" the CBers LOL
 
67Dart273 said:
I LIKE that idea. Back when I had my 70, I had a "2 meter" amateur radio in the trunk. This was a POS called a "GE transistorized progress line."

I built a little relay control box with 4 push buttons for channel (frequency) control and hid that in the ashtray. Some people thought I was a "narc" LOL

This is the "front mount" version. Mine had been modified into the "trunk mount" version, so there was a small control head up front

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JCYA7+yVL.jpg

I had a neon lamp on a little bracket on the antenna loading coil which would glow purple when transmitting----this was the "hi power" 80 watt version. "It impressed" the CBers LOL
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On my original '70 Roadrunner I cut the entire ashtray assembly out. I had bought an under dash PIONEER TP-800 FM/8-track and I installed it in the dash. The front of the stereo was angled up at 45' and it looked great incorporated in the dash. The police always asked me if it was some form of police scanner. lol

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What's with the "fleet" of (twin) Pintoed wagons, LOL?

That thing have a roll bar? Mine also had the air grabber but you could not tell in the ugly old photo
 
67Dart273 said:
What's with the "fleet" of (twin) Pintoed wagons, LOL?

That thing have a roll bar? Mine also had the air grabber but you could not tell in the ugly old photo
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The photo was taken outside of the custom paint & lettering shop where the flames had been done. I assume the pair of orange Pintos must have been there to have some company logo painted on them.
 
chryslerfat said:
Love this thread and the stories.
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Thanks chryslerfat. I put a lot of love into that 1st Roadrunner. Even though the orange car belongs to my son and not me, - it's brought back a lot of memories as I've worked on it.
 
After I graduated high school back in '75 I went to work at WALKER Manufacturing in Seward, Nebraska. They made oem & aftermarket exhaust systems. I may not have been the brightest new hire they made.

I worked the first two days without taking any breaks because I didn't know that there was such a thing. On the 3rd day someone finally stopped and asked me why I hadn't been going up to the lunch room. Lunch room? Nobody had told me there was a lunch room. Rather than admit how naive I was, I let them think that I was just a really hard worker.

Over time I became accustomed to leaving the plant for the lunch period and driving to a bar in town that served burgers and chili. It became part of my normal day.

A snowstorm hit while I was at work one winter evening during the 2nd year I worked there. Although the weather was nasty I still followed my regular lunchtime routine. Visibility was crappy on the way into town but the road was manageable. 20 minutes later when I drove back it had changed.

Now it was a full blown blizzard. Traffic was creeping along and it was difficult to see the tail lights of cars more than about 80 foot ahead. As I approached the plant entrance drive I was barely able to make out the vehicle in front of me as he went down a steep 60 foot embankment. All I could see was the beams from his headlights as they flashed up and down through the falling snow in the sky. I was probably moving about 10 mph at the time. As I attempted to pull over to render assistance my right side wheels dropped off the concrete and the shoulder tried to pull the Roadrunner down the ditch. I eased it back onto the pavement and turned on my flashers.

As I opened the driver's door to step out, I noticed headlights coming up fast from behind. I dove back into the car and braced against the steering wheel with both arms. The pickup had spun around one and a half times before striking the back of the Roadrunner in the middle of the back bumper. It was estimated that he was doing around 65 mph at the moment of impact. My rear bumper was pushed half the distance in towards my rear window. Somehow nobody got hurt (other than a severe whiplash on my part). My roll bar supports had limited the impact damage. Without it the car would have buckled beyond repair.

The pickup driver was the son of one of the Seward county sheriff deputies. They tried to sue me for damages because I was stopped on the highway. It was thrown out of court when my insurance company's lawyers pointed out that Nebraska state law required that I stop to give assistance as first person on the scene or be subject to legal ramifications. Although I was found NOT to be at fault, Seward county law enforcement harassed me relentlessly for years afterwards. (the stories I could tell)

I think I began to have a bit of a darker personality after my experience. When it was time to have the car fixed, I decided to change the color from Go Mango to black. Eventually I added the flames.


 
As time went on I found that if I didn't give the cops a reason to pull me over, they would invent one. At first all I had to do was to be a few miles over the speed limit. Even if other traffic was passing me I was singled out as the one to be stopped. One night I was driving 5 mph under the limit and was pulled over for impeding traffic. - Even though the only traffic around me was the police officer that ticketed me. - And he had obviously been speeding to get behind me to stop me. I don't hate law enforcement. Some of 'em are damn nice people. But there are others I'm not a big fan of.

I've always felt that I've held myself to certain standards that prevent me from doing harm to others. I detest vandalism. Heck, I may read what's written on bathroom walls, but I've always felt that it was pretty crumby for someone to deface that property that wasn't theirs. I try to be honest. I don't think anyone's ever thought that I'd cheated them and I know I don't steal. I don't do drugs. Most people would say that I probably don't drink enough. But I do have a bit of a wild streak. I love most forms of racing. I love to go fast. (I rarely do now anymore, but I do still love the power)

As I wrote in the last post, I think that getting to see the less scrupulous side of the law made me 'darker' in some ways. I began to realize that anyone in power has the ability to use that power as they saw fit. - And that although there are those out there committed to 'Serve and Protect', there are also those out there that choose to intimidate and bully or to use the law to skirt the law. I became more of a rebel. - Hooked on the adrenaline rush of going fast and quickly becoming addicted to it. The sound of the big cubed Mopars with a rough idle was music to my ears. Sometimes as I drove down the highways I'd turn the music off just so I could enjoy the sound of the motor. Cars may not have been the only thing in my life, but I had made the transformation into full blown gearhead.


 
The 'darker' side of me wasn't a bad person.

But I think I felt less inhibited by non-car people. My car shook while standing still and the unspent fuel had a tendency to burn your eyes. I had stopped feeling like I needed to apologize for these facts.

I was young, my hair was a bit on the long side and I got in the habit of wearing black pocket T shirts and Levis. - Not exactly goth, but definitely not colorful.

I spent more time working in the garage. In some ways I probably seemed reclusive. I still rarely engaged in street racing. But I'm sure others may have thought I did it all the time.
 
Late one night (about 3 A.M.) I had decided it was time to head home to the farm by David City. I had spent a few hours cruising around Lincoln, Nebraska after I'd gotten off work and was driving back through Seward. Home was still 25 miles away. As I passed through the city streets I could see they were deserted. Everyone else had called it a night too.

Seward is not a very large city. There are only a few stop lights. When I approached the second of the two that I had to pass through, it was red. I sat at it waiting for the change to green but it didn't come. I must have been there for almost five minutes. - All the while, the town seemed empty. - Not another moving vehicle in sight.

I'm not sure what came over me. I was bored. I was tired. I was ready to go home. I just sort of thought F*CK it, and matted the gas pedal. Normally this might not have been a big deal. But the Seward police station was a block behind me, the town was quiet, and my car was not. The tires immediately went up in smoke. For a second I enjoyed that adrenaline rush again as the engine roared and the tires wailed. But then as I looked through the smoke in my rear view mirror I could see the cops as they came out of the station. They looked like bees leaving a hive. Although there were about a half dozen steps going down from their door, I don't think they touched any of them.

I had never ever gotten into any real trouble with the law before. But I had just layed down a block of rubber and there wasn't anyone else around to pin it on. I started thinking "What the h*ll did I just do?'

Maybe it was because I was tired or maybe it was because I was a bit rebellious, or maybe it was because I was just stupid. - I don't know why but I kept my foot in it.

In the rear view mirrors I could see the cherries come on. I could see their headlights bounce up and down as they backed out through the dip at the entrance. There were two of them.

Oh sh*t, Oh sh*t, oh sh*t!!! - Was all I could think. I kept it to the floor. About eight or nine blocks ahead the street followed the landscape downward. It was gradual, but probably sixty foot lower than the top. As I got close I glanced at the 150 speedo. The needle had passed the 150 mark and was pointing down at the numbers on the odometer. My car was airborne all of the way til the bottom. It didn't land harsh and my foot stayed down. Ahead the road rose back upwards. I was in a small valley. Back up the road I went, airborne again once I got to the top. My foot didn't budge.
 
I was literally moving like the proverbial 'bat out of h*ll'. It was bad enough that I had made a lot of noise and that the cops had come after me. But they had already shown me that they would pull me over and write me tickets whether or not I was doing anything wrong. What would they do to me for this? I knew I was in deep. I cursed myself for my stupidity but I kept going.
 
There was a jog in the highway ahead as the road curved to the left and then back to the right. I took the inside of those curves and slid the car through them. I had finally reached the edge of town. The pursuit vehicles were so far behind me that I couldn't see them now. The two curves put me on a different line of sight.

On the Northern edge of Seward lies a cemetery with lots of trees around it and an intersecting country road just beyond. It suddenly occurred to me that this could be my getaway route. I flipped the headlights off as I approached the intersection and hit the brakes. CRAP!!! My brake lights seemed to light up the entire county! The brakes locked and I slid through the intersection at close to 100 mph. As it whizzed by I nailed the throttle again. I would have to hit the brakes sooner if I was going to turn off.
 
It wasn't until about a half mile later when I finally saw the lights of the police cars again. I had put quite a distance between myself and them. The next intersection was coming up fast. Once again I hit the brakes. Although I had tried stopping much sooner I still slid through it way to fast to turn. I began to think that stopping to turn off didn't make much sense. At the rate I was pulling away from them I might as well keep going.

I began to think about what I needed to do once I got home. Do I go home? If I go home do I put the car in the shop? I was sure they knew who I was so would I still be in trouble if they didn't catch me in the act? Ya, I wasn't a genius but I was beginning to see that this was not going to end well. For one thing, my folks were going to kill me.
 
I kept going. The lights behind were barely within sight. As I approached the turn off for the town of Staplehurst I saw headlights coming towards me from the North. I wasn't sure. But at this time of night it wasn't a good sign. There was a good chance that it was a state patrolman. I had been struggling with what to do for several miles. Now I was faced with the possibility of the car ahead being driven by a local state patrolman that had a reputation as being 'far from clean'.

I won't mention his name, but amongst the area car enthusiasts he had become infamous. He was known to brag about some of his exploits at one of the garages that serviced his patrol car. - Often talking about egging people on to try to get them to try outrunning him. - And making it clear that he thought hotrodders were scum.
 
just out of curiosity, is anyone reading this other than the SWAT team that's being assembled outside my garage?
 
I am, hoping you were able to pull something
good out of your hat and get away.
Manys the time I've beat the law, but when I
was caught it was fair and square on their part.

I too had a 70 RR, it was a 383 4spd with an air grabber.
I loved that car.
 
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