1973 Plymouth Satellite/Roadrunner Conversion

First a little history about this car...

This car was made in Windsor Ontario of Canada back in 1973. This was a 2 door coupe Satellite Sebring with a factory original 318 2 barrel engine. Its production number for the satellite series was 153247 which means it was the 53,247 satellite manufactured and that's just what the vehicle identification number number tells us!

It all started with a road trip up to Manitowoc, WI where the car was garage kept.

Home at last we start recording the original configuration and deciding what we want from this car.

	Dash is cracked and needed to be repaired
Original 318 2 barrel engine 87,000 original miles
	obviously not orginal speakers in the rear
	dual exhaust
	possible amp mounting location
	the jack instruction sheet in good condition kind of rare to see on a 73

The teardown (interior only)
I think my Dad and I were surprised how quickly this car could be dismantled. The first project on our list was to change the interior color and repair the dash.

Vinyl dash is out and off to the repair shop	all metal dash remaining all the trim peices comming off
Tons of wires some that lead to nowhere looks like we have some cleanup to do		where the backseat used to be	all the seats out
carpet doesnt look too bad		some of the parts	the rest of the trim peices before they are cleaned
the seats out of the car front seats are in the back by my boat	empty door found out that this door is not the original note the blue paint only on this door	dash tore apart	bare metal looked like someone tried to convert to bucket seats but gave up after drilling a few holes
		painted some the metal base black
The original headliner	one of the last steps dash is gone and paint is started on the steering column
not much left in the car at this point	Dash back in after being painted	who said you cant paint cloth looks pretty darn good to me	needs one more coat on the headliner but looks pretty good
my dad after we painted the headliner

So far we have been really satisfied with how the interior is going my dad is the man behind the paint mask or bandana in this case. I cant believe how much the white changes the car my parents have done an amazing job cleaning and painting the parts.

03/23/08

Started putting some of the interior trim back in. The white looks amazing in the car, just wish we had all the pieces to go in were still waiting on the dash and carpet. We also took those ugly seat covers off revealing the original seats in amazing condition. We were deciding which color to go with on the seats but after testing the white paint on the cloth insert realized it would take a truckload of paint to get it to look good. We decided to test out the black on the cloth and white vinyl to match the rest of the car.

03/27/08

Painted until we ran out of paint again.  The front seats are almost done and the back seats are started. Still waiting for our dash and carpet to get in. Hopefully we will have the dash at least 03/28/08 so we can put most of it back together and start it up again.

03/29/08-03/30/08

We have almost everything back in the car. All the trim pieces and door panels are all in the seats are painted. We temporarily put the counsel and seats in so we could start it up again. Still waiting on the dash cap and carpet other than those 2 pieces we are all done redoing the interior.

03/31/08

Finally the dash is done!!! Picked it up late afternoon and we went to work putting the guts back in the dash while verifying every bulb and switch works.  Started cleaning the paint up as unfortunately dirty hands and white don't get along some of our panels were getting marked up but most of it came of with a little scrubbing.

04/05/08

The carpet went in along with a new fuel filter its really nice looking with all the pieces back in and together. We ordered and installed the official roadrunner horn as well Meep Meep.

04/28/08

Engine is painted and looking good the whole engine compartment saw paint amazing that everything not all blue. We took the car into Mark's Shop to put it on the hoist and replace the transmission pan filter and gasket. Mark gave us some words of encouragement on where we should be heading with the car and what we need to do.  Also had both universal joints replaced took the whole shaft right out.  We have the emblem for the dash now too just working on painting the decal to match. Everything is really starting to come together and look great.

The Reassembly (interior only)

all done for now just waiting for the new carpet and the dash to be repaired then work will continue	its starting to come together still waiting on some key parts though	the white really changes the car cant wait to get the carpet and dash in		testing the paint on the back seat
started the cloth inserts on the rest of the seats first set of coats here	front passanger seat starting to look really good		the paint booth (formerly my room)
			white and black is a good combo	seats are in
its almost back together
				new paint on the engine compartment

The First Days Racing

finally after getting the car about where we want it we shipped off to Earlville, IA to see what it could do on the track...

First run down the track	Looking good behind the wheel Kevin (driving) Andy (passenger)	Blue 1974 Roadrunner	bad time to bend over
	Dad gets to take it for a spin	Dad improves his time
Dueling Roadrunners
			thats a nice pair of cars
this car was made for me

Updated as of 01/15/2009 02:12 PM CST