1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus Project
A "K-Frame-off" Restoration in Progress
Estimated Completion: Fall 2011
Whats New? - Sandblasting and Primer are now on hold. Weather has turned to the cool side. Will continue to cut out rusty areas and make patch panels over the winter. Will also be organizing, repairing, and cleaning parts until Spring arrives. Latest progress is located at the bottom of page 2.
New Member and Hit # 1 on March 19, 2007
Hit # 1000 on November 2nd, 2007
Hit # 5000 on August 20th, 2008
Hit # 10000 on February 5th, 2009
I have added a 71-72 Satellite registry on page 7
Just let me know if you want to add your ride!
Once you have had a look around, please take a minute and Rate my Ride. Thanks.
Page 1) Acquisition and Tear Down
Page 2) Mechanicals, Bodywork and Paint
Page 3) Engine Freshening (eta Spring/Summer 2011)
Page 4) Reassembly (eta Summer/Fall/Winter 2010)
Page 5) Vehicle Details - VIN, Fender Tag, Casting Numbers
Page 6) Much Needed Parts/Tools that have been Scored
Page 7) 1971-1972 Plymouth Satellite Registry
Page 8) 1971 Plymouth Sales Brochures
March 2007
I have been wanting a project car for some time, and finally got serious and did some looking around. I did a search on eBay for pre 1975 vehicles within 500 miles, and ran across this little gem in central South Dakota. With only a few seconds left, I put in my high bid, and came out on top. Now it's time to get busy. For a breakdown of this buggy's VIN, Fender Tag, and some of the more important engine casting numbers, check out page 5.
Pick Up and Delivery
My uncle JP has a much better truck for fetching large items than I do. He also has more experience and the equipment necessary to get these kind of jobs done. So I bribed him with fuel and food and off we went. After mounting some tires and chasing the mice out, we were ready to roll. Now just how are we going to get this thing in my garage when the brakes are not functional? VERY Carefully! Once the rear wheels were down on the garage floor, we blocked them, and gently pulled the trailer out from under. And we got the trailer back to the rental place with 10 minutes to spare. All in all, a good day!
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
First the Ugly
Boy does this grill need a makeover! Going to need a lot of plastic surgery. Wow, what a mess on the inside. Broken glass and crud everywhere. Oooh, is that a custom headliner, that's pretty! This is going to require a lot of elbow grease. Sniff, sniff, I do believe that's the wonderful aroma of mouse pee!
Then the Bad
Uh oh! Now I reveal the dark side of the satellite. Yep, might have to hunt down a fender in the future. Also, the valance under the grill is really bad. Waiter, I'll take one windshield to go. Don't look, we've go a little cancer on the driver's floor pan and behind the rear wheels. Going to have to do a little surgery. I don't think this wire harness belongs in the trunk. Hmmmmm.
Now the Good!
Still has the Satellite Sebring Plus emblems on both sides of the car. The remainder of the inside floor pan and also the trunk pan are good and solid with only a little surface rust. Bought some vinyl cleaner, and with a little scrubbing, the bottom right portion of the door panel shined up real nice. Check out the before and after pics.
Gutting the Interior
As you could tell from some of the previous pictures, the interior upholstery was nasty. I was surprised at just how easy it was to remove the seats from this vehicle. The bottom portion of the back seat just pivots forward, then out, and the back rest is held in place by just a few clips.
Next, it's on to the front seats. These were nearly as easy. Once the 8 bolts on the underside of the car were wire brushed and lubed, the nuts came right off. The middle armrest was just a few bolts also. Once everything was removed, the very stinky floor liner was removed, P and U! Forgot to take pictures of the "custom" headliner when it was removed, but that was fairly straight forward also. Check out the decent floor pan in this buggy!
It's Wash Day!
Gotta love these 75 degree March days in South Dakota! I just happened to have the weekend off, and it was time to give this stinky car a proper bath. Got the trunk area all cleaned out and sprayed out the engine compartment also. One of the previous owners was pretty proud of the "big bad 318" :) that resides in this jalopy. There, the ole car doesn't look too bad after a good scrub down.
April 2007
Did some calling around and located a windshield through our local Dakotaland Autoglass for really cheap! Thanks Shane! Snagged it even though it will be quite a while before the body work gets done and its ready to be installed. Couldn't pass up the price.
May 2007
Lets Yank That "Big Bad 318"
Did some shopping around and found a decent 1000 lb engine stand at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $50. One of my co-workers had an engine puller, so on Mother's Day, my uncle JP came over to help me yank this engine. As you can imagine, the wives were not particularly happy, but it was the only day the both of us had the time off. We pulled it fairly quickly, and did a quick disassembly to see what kind of condition the innards were in. Everything looked fairly good, considering the engine had sat for at least 10 years with no carburator. My uncle finally determined the reason why they stopped driving this car. The rod bearings on the number 8 piston had spun. Overall, it looks like the engine can be rebuilt.
June 2007
The Disassembly Begins
Well, I've got the engine out and the interior stripped, so its time to start breaking down the front end. I don't have a close up of the front loop bumper, but it did have a slight bend in the bottom center portion of the loop, and a slight tweak from the hit on the passenger fender. I am amazed at how nicely small bends and dents can be worked out of this old sheet metal. I'll eventually need to do some grinding/sanding before doing the chrome. It won't be perfect of course, but it will be just fine for a driver. The body panel just in front of the hood had a pretty good crease in it, and with just a little bit of work with some body and fender tools, and it looks pretty good now (see above pic). Speaking of the body and fender tools, I was going to purchase these before too long, but my neighbor up the street said I could borrow his to do the work. Thanks Rob! As you can see from the other two pics above, my valance is in pretty bad shape. These pieces are hard to come by in really good condition, and will cost a pretty penny. What do you think, is it salvagable? Check out page 2 to see how this panel is coming out.
July 2007
The Longitudinal Stripe Mystery
"Longitudinal Stripes" is an option that is available for this particular model year, and is coded on the fender tag as V6x, where the x is the color of the stripe. My fender tag has V6W for White Longitudinal Stripes. The above pictures show two white stripes that circle the fender wells, and the same set of two stripes that start from the rear bumper and follow the top crease of the rear quarter panel, on up around the top of the rear window. If anybody knows for sure, please let me know. Thanks.
More Longitudinal Stripes? This is a picture of a 1972 Satellite carcass at Moore's Auto Salvage in Rapid City. As you can see, there are additional stripes that run along the side windows and up over the cab.
The Disassembly Continues
Continued to break the front end down. Got all the sheet metal taken care of, and most of the engine compartment done.
August 2007
Not a whole lot accomplished this month, was on vacation for the first two weeks. I did manage to get the transmission out. I also scored some much needed parts this month. A couple of my marker lights and bezels were broken, and the gas tank, sending unit, fill neck and tank straps were all missing when I picked up this car. I nabbed all of these parts and some other minor things from Mike in Council Bluffs. Thanks Mike! Check out my "Much Needed Parts that have been Scored" page to see what parts I have snagged lately.
September 2007
Broke down the drivers bucket seat. It will need a thorough cleaning, repair of the foam, some fresh paint, and new covers. This seat is the worst of them all, naturally. I will break down the other bucket and the back bench in the future. My uncle JP has been on me to rip out the broken windshield. It finally got done this month. Unfortunately, I have some rust issues in this area also. I also took the time to remove all of the nuts, bolts, and misc hardware off of the inner fenders, and removed the heater motor off of the firewall. The bottom right picture is the inner fender and frame area just in front of the firewall. I am missing a cover/splash guard, made obvious by all of the empty screw holes and the dirt/paint outline.
Oh yeah, tearing stuff up now. Was able to dismantle the drivers door components and went ahead and pulled the door. Now I will have better access to the dash. As you can see from the bottom right picture, I even have rust issues here.
October 2007
Not much accomplished this month, but I was able to tear down the passenger side bucket. I still need to tear down the rear seat. Maybe I'll get to that this month. I did manage to score some more parts off of eBay in October. An inner fender splash guard, a rubber fender guard, a nice instrument cluster, and the sweet music master AM radio. Check out page 6, I will be posting pictures of these items as they roll in from the mailbox.
November 2007
Had a couple of minutes while I was doing some garage cleaning, and broke down the center armrest thingee. The vinyl is not worn or cracked, so it looks like I'll be able to just clean this part up. The vinyl is not very supple though. Does anyone know if they make a product such as an oil treatment or something that will bring back old vinyl to like new condition? Drop me a note if you have any ideas. Thanks.
December 2007
Laurie had a question about emblems on 1971 Satellites. The emblem above the glove box is just a cursive Satellite. The trunk lid has a PLYMOUTH emblem that goes just above the lock. Mine is missing, but you can see the goo left behind from where it was stuck to the lid. This emblem looks very similar to the 1970 Roadrunner grill emblem. (Check out page 435 of the Chrysler B and E body online catalog at www.yearone.com) Then to the right, the cursive Satellite emblem is also stuck to the lid. I am missing the cursive Sebring emblem that goes just to the right of the Satellite emblem.
On with the Disassembly!
Back at it after a little break. Had to finish up some school stuff. I was able to break down the driver's side rear quarter glass, mechanicals, and interior trim. Next, the steering wheel and column needed to come out. Then, after removing a couple of screws, the guage cluster tilted out. Had to remove some wiring for it to come completely out, so took a picture so I could remember where the wires go. Upon closer inspection, the rear silver plate has color codes to tell you what color wire connects to that particular spot. That's pretty handy!
Once the gauge cluster was out, I had access to the rest of the wiring harness and all the other nuts and bolts that attach various things to the dash. Patience is the key here. Take the time to search out all the things that could be attached, and remove them. The body wire harness had to come out, some of the heating/air conditioning vent tubes came out, glove box, and ash tray. Once everything was disconnected, 4 bolts on top of the dash and 2 below were all that held it on. Next task will be to remove the remainng components on the inside of the firewall. Christmas was good! Check out the tools that I scored on Page 6.
January 2008
January was busy, but I managed to squeeze out a few hours to do some more on the car. The January goal was to get the inner firewall cleaned up, and the goal was met. The support bracket for the steering column and brake pedal was removed, along with the brake master cylinder. The whole heating/air conditioning unit came out in one piece. A few other little things were removed, and viola, one bare inner firewall. I have also scored a bunch of parts this month that I needed. Check out page 6. While cleaning the garage and getting engine parts organized, I did a little rocker arm swap. I also have prepped the engine block so it is ready for the machine shop. Check out page 3. Next will be the disassembly of the passenger door and back glass for February's goal.
February 2008
My 2 Door Hardtop is now a No Door Hardtop. Removed all of the innards and have discovered a small amount of body work at the very front of the door. I have also started to play with the front valence. Check out page 2 for some early body work. Scored a few more parts from Jeremy.
March 2008
Scored a set of police wheels! Also picked up a couple of excellent books for guidance. Check out page 6. Couldn't help myself, I had to get a sneak peak of what these wheels would look like on the car. I was able to get the whole interior completely stripped of everything. April's goal will be to pull the rear bumper and valance off, along with disconnecting the drive shaft from the rear axle.
April 2008
Finally got some good weather to go along with one of my days off! Removed the rear bumper and tail light assemblies along with the rear valance. Looks like the rear valance has seen its fair share of abuse, but still not as bad as the front. Hopefully I will find another good day before too long to take care of the driveline and maybe a few bonus items.
May 2008
Not much work yet on the car. I managed a few minutes of time to remove the emblems off the body and trunk lid. Finishing up some school items for finals week. I have scored some good parts the last couple of weeks. They are posted on page six. I also added a couple of new cars to the registry on page 7.
Update: Wow, have found a lot of parts I've been needing on eBay! I'll be posting them on page 6 as they roll in over the next week or so.
Finally got some time to do a little work. Driveline is finally off, and used some very fine steel wool to polish up the lower window trim that came in the mail. I also got some stubborn brake drums to come off. The front wheels had none of the innards left in them. I guess rear brakes are all you need to stop this buggy. :-)
June 2008
The parts just keep rolling in! Scrounged up a few more parts from Jeremy's parts bonanza warehouse. He has also scored a 1973 Satellite that he is going to use as a parts car for his new 1971 Charger SE project. After he strips the parts he needs, I might have a shot at scoring a bunch of stuff I need. If that plan goes through, page 6 is going to get really full!
Scored that parts washer-check out page 6.
My oldest daughter made some pretty magnet thingees for my car. I guess its OK until the new paint goes on. Finally got that back glass out!
July 2008
Forgotten Items
Right at the tail end of this month I got a couple of items done that I had shoved back in the corner of the shed. Broke down the rear bench seat. Frames look to be in good shape. Will have to replace the foam and covers of course. Also broke down and cleaned out the heating and air conditioning unit. That sucker was just filthy with chewed up insulation and mouse poo. Yuk! Both the air conditioning and heating cores appear to be in good shape. I will have to pressure test them of course.
I have made a decision on PAINT!
Thanks to everyone who participated in my poll question. I really didn't think I would like the original paint so I was trying to come up with a different color. I have finally decided to try the original color. I think it will look good with a fresh coat, and maybe a tiny extra metallic. I plan on blasting the bumpers and painting them the same color. The rear bumper and the valance will get the black stripe treatment. The grill will be black like Josh's, and I will probably do some black on the raised ridge on the hood. I plan to buy a small can of new paint and try it out on a section of the car to see how it looks. Hmmm, what should be my next poll question.
August 2008
Pulled out the buggy to turn the power washer on it. Needed to get it super clean to start the body work phase of this project. Bottom left picture is the test area for my paint color. The picture just doesnt do it justice. The fresh paint looks very good, and this was just an enamel rattle can application. The enamel was cheaper, so I plan to use it on interior portions of the car like the engine bay, underside of car, trunk area, and the interior. That way I can get practiced up with the paint gun before I spray on the base clear for the exterior. I gathered up materials to make a body dolly. That way I can remove the K frame and rear axle, and still roll the body out of the garage to sand and paint it. Also scored the proper carburetor for my car. Check out page 6.
Got the buggy up on the body dolly and have begun to remove the underside components. Rear axle and springs, and the K-frame are off! Just the torsion bars and some misc. brake and fuel lines/brackets. One of my leaf spring shackles and an upper control arm bolt didnt make it through the surgery. Will have to put them on my parts list.
Building this dolly was just what the doctor ordered. I can swing it around inside the garage, or pull it out into the driveway anytime I want to get busy on the bodywork. I liked the dolly idea so much that I plan on making a simple dolly for the rear axle. I also need some deep well sockets to remove the u bolts and leaf springs from the axle. I may or may not need to disassemble the K frame components also. If Jeremy decides to sell me the 1973 parts car, I will probably transfer the whole K-frame with disc brakes over to my car, and put my old setup on it to keep it a roller.
September 2008
Made my basic axle dolly and can roll this baby around with ease. As you can see, no more leaf springs attached. U-bolts were a beotch to get off. I ended up snapping one of them, but the remainder came off with a lot of umph and some WD-40. Will likely buy new ones anyway. The exposed threaded ends have taken a lot of abuse from the many miles of gravel roads it has seen in its past on the reservation.
Update 9/25: Took a few hours today and removed some of the remaining minor items off the body shell. Main brake line, fuel lines, rear axle bumpers, transmission linkage bracket, exhaust system brackets, transmission crossmember, and various body plugs.
This pretty much concludes the Tear Down phase of this project. Please turn to page 2 (Mechanicals, Bodywork and Paint) for the next phase.
If you made it this far and didnt get bored, please take a couple more seconds and rate my ride! Thanks!
Page 1) Acquisition and Tear Down
Page 2) Mechanicals, Bodywork and Paint
Page 3) Engine Freshening (eta Spring/Summer 2011)
Page 4) Reassembly (eta Summer/Fall/Winter 2010)
Page 5) Vehicle Details - VIN, Fender Tag, Casting Numbers
Page 6) Much Needed Parts/Tools that have been Scored
Page 7) 1971-1972 Plymouth Satellite Registry
Page 8) 1971 Plymouth Sales Brochures
