1969 Dodge Super Bee - Erica's Car
This is a project that I've been working on for the past few weeks and I thought I'd share it although it's very different - in a lot of ways - from what we're mostly used to. On the surface I'd say that this is going to be the evolution of a former drag car to a mild Pro-Touring style build. But deeper than that it's a lot more. Feel free to skip ahead past the back story if you're so inclined, the good bits continue below...
Circa 2003:
The car belongs to a very dear friend of mine named Erica; before it was Erica's it belonged to her father David who owned the car for something close to 20 years. Erica grew up in the Super Bee and saw the car evolve from a rough, raw, project to a legitimate 10-second street car. Back in the day it was black with flames, had Kirkey aluminum seats, and seemed to spend as much time on the back of a hook as it did on the road... David's nickname was Kid Kaboom for good reason. Around 15 years ago David and I started the transformation which, like most, seemed to be a constant process over the course of 6 or 7 years. Nearly every panel was repaired or replaced (at least once) and the black gave way to sublime green (but the flames eventually returned); the 383 was pulled in favor of a well built 440 topped with a couple of stages of nitrous and parts that were historically grenades were replaced with bulletproof pieces. Even the Kirkey's were eventually replaced with custom leather seats. When I last worked on the car - circa 2004 - it was fast, reliable, and obnoxious as heck. In a lot of ways I think that the car defined David and it was always Erica's and David's common bond through thick and thin.
A few years ago David came upon difficult times and title for the Super Bee ended up in someone else's hands on a "temporary" basis; it wasn't the first time but it turned out to be the last - two years ago last month David passed away and the Super Bee was believed to have been gone forever.
2003
It took over a year but Erica's mom (David's first wife FWIW) eventually tracked the Super Bee down and tried to hammer out a deal to buy it '69 back. We all know how cars can have emotional and sentimental value - the 'Bee had been a huge part of Erica's childhood so getting it back was really important to her - and her mom went to great lengths to get the car back. Eventually a deal was reached and the seller committed to getting the car in to "driving" condition for Erica (it had been sitting for the better part of a year at that point) and would ship it in a couple of weeks.
Weeks past and became months with promise after promise being made - parts were being waited on, improvements were coming, but don't worry it was all coming together. Finally, after four months of hollow promises and missed delivery dates the 'Bee was "done" and on its way. It was tuned, test driven, detailed and ready to hit the road!
2003
The car arrived in Calgary a month ago and it didn't take long to see that everything was not as it seemed... Cleanliness (or lack thereof) aside, the first indication that something was amiss came with the first turn of the key... with mild persuasion the car started but there was no throttle. It took a minimal amount of looking around to track down the problem - the throttle cable was broken and not hooked up. Probably because the custom plumber fogger intake and Demon carb had been replaced. En route to finding that we discovered that the hood hinges were gone. The manual valve body, reverse pattern 727 was gone, replaced with a stock piece and the entire custom 8 3/4 rear and had been swapped out for a similarly stock unit. The fuel cell had been removed, the trunk floor "repaired", and a stock tank installed. The old side exit exhaust was gone and a new replacement was put in its place. Some of this had been expected but some was a surprise - all of it was a disappointment.
Engine circa 2003
Regardless, I gave the car a once over in the parking lot to see if it was otherwise ready for it's required inspection (basic safety features... you know, headlights, turn signals, wipers, etc.) which was required for registration.
Headlights... nope. Turn signals... kind of, some times. Wipers... nope. It sucked to tell Erica that not only was there no way that the inspection was going to happen but from what I saw there was no way that I was going to let her drive the car as it was... The decision was made to drag the car back to my house where I would do my best to get the car in shape for it's inspection and make it something that would actually be a ride that she would enjoy.
A couple of days in to looking the 'Bee over and the magnitude of the task quickly became apparent... 20 year old drag shocks front and rear... big leaf springs with shackles... manual steering... manual drum brakes... no sway bars - anywhere... and the list goes on. And that's on top of remarkably poor workmanship that went in to the car over the last 4 months.
And that's how it begins...
2012
Progress will most surely be slow and probably in fits and starts. It's definitely going to be a low budget effort but given some time and some work I think it has a ton of potential.
But it's going to be worth it - as both a tribute to David and, more importantly, as part of Erica's healing. It's been a long time since I've seen someone so sincerely attached to a car and so emotionally vested in a project. It makes the work difficult for both of us at times but it will come around.
I'm not promising that the updates will be predictable, nor will most of them be as amazing or remarkable as some of what we've seen in other posts, but this is a special project and a story that I thought was worth telling...
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1969 Dodge Super Bee - Erica's Car
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