Superbirds 1976
 

I found these in a car in a boneyard in the early 80’s

A buddy of mine has 5 of them. A Petty blue one, green one, a yellow one, an orange and one more I haven't seen but I think he told me it was white.

I love Superbirds! They're probably my favorite car from that era.

Same here- so obnoxious snd over the top.

I can just hear the designer pitching this to the execs ending his presentation with ‘bet you won’t’!

Said exec then says ‘hold my beer’....

I'm more partial to the Daytona

My buddy with the Superbirds was going to buy a Daytona that was on Ebay a few years ago. The car was real rough and some other guy in NY (with more money than brains) bought it and sent it to that goofy Mark guy that restores MoPars on TV. They did a whole series on the restoration of that car. I wasn't impressed with their work, especially when I saw 36 grit grinding marks on the bumper to core support panel that he painted an incorrect "high-gloss" black.

One of my mom's friends was a Chrysler company car driver back then. He tried talking his wife into letting them get one for the family. She did not want a car with a clothes line on the back. He regrets not getting one now. They were not fast sellers back then. They stayed on dealers lots for a long time.

Interesting about the work from that guy Mark in OR. You can never really tell how nice the cars are on TV. I was curious if he was as good as he says he is

I've only watched the show a few times here and there as well as caught most of that Daytona build. I can't stomach the guy.

The very first thing I noticed on that Daytona was that the paint was wet sanded to a mirror finish. This? From a guy that supposedly lives and breathes originality?

Anyone that knows their MoPars knows that they had some of the worst finishes in the industry. If you are restoring a MoPar to concourse originality, like this Mark guy claims to do, you need to lay out the paint with a lot of orange peel.

I will give him one thing.... He fixes some of the worst cars I have ever seen. Some of those cars (IMO) don't even make good parts cars. The Ebay Daytona was so rough, by buddy thought his $5500.00 number was more than it was worth. The guy that bought it paid 23 or 28 grand for it.

These pix are so cool for a few reasons!

I had a close encounter with a Superbird in the mid 80's.
A friend of mine called me up and told me of a SB sinking into the ground, and he spoke to the guy too. He wanted to sell her for $5000. I got the address and went up for a look see the next day. I found the SB, but no one was home. I left a note on the car, and stuffed another one in the front door. I went back the next day...same thing. After several trips to try and catch this guy, nothing. It was obvious that the property was going to be developed, with all the pink flags around mapping out the road and new homes.
About two weeks went by, and the next time I went up, the SB was gone and the house was leveled.
I tried like hell to catch this guy, but that's my story of the one that got away!

Some one probably remembers this SB from NJ off rt287 near Edison.
She was white with a black vinyl top. A very basic standard SB with a 440 with a 4bbl carb, and a column shift auto. and black interior. The nose was damaged as well, with the side of the nose on the d/s pushed in.

Thanks for the flashback "Grandam1979" : )

Picture #5, I know that car well :) Trunk paint still shows where the CB antenna was.

That’s probably the same car in picture three? Custom paint by 1976

I took this picture at Elmira Chrysler Plymouth back when this bird was new. I wish I could get this pic to the current owner.

The custom painted 'Bird is from the 1984 Mopar Nationals at Indy.
The in car shots & the Green car are from the 1976 Talladega 500 when those were just late model used cars!

I have often wondered how much the "owners" of these TV build cars get paid or not charged for these completed builds.

I heard 2 stories.

I heard he paid 120 grand and I heard he paid nothing.

Knowing how rough the car was, I'm not buying the "free" story. My guess is somewhere in the middle (60 or so). I'm basing it on that he probably got the parts and chrome at no charge as a trade-off for TV advertising endorsements. But, other than the shop and the owner, who knows.

I too have heard different stories, it seems to me that in some instances you see the cars that have been already built in the background of some of the TV shots as new episodes are filmed, I have seen this often on of the Kindig show. I am sure there is some trade off or discount if your car is chosen to be a TV build and have always wondered how much. It would explain why someone might be willing to pay well over the value for a basket case.

Superbirds
 

A guy in my car club has a car that he has put over 700,000 miles on and he drives it almost every day like an ordinary car. He is on his 11th engine.

Apparently, this car has a wide reputation since I've talked with Pontiac people from several states away that have heard of it.

The guy in the white tee shirt is the owner.

The current episodes of that TV show, are showing a red Daytona with Ohio collector plates. That car is local to me, it was original but worn.

Now that is cool!

Dang a new motor every 63K miles :eek:

I saw a Superbird roll out of my neighborhood on a rollback this weekend.

When I first moved to Apex in 1992, I occasionally saw an orange Superbird drive out of the neighborhood and come back about ten minutes later. The paint was dull and the car looked a little tired, but it was solid. All of the homes are on big lots, and the owner lived in a house with a nice garage at the back of the subdivision . One day I was at my mailbox and I saw the Superbird coming, so I flagged him down and we talked. He bought the car new right after he got out of college.

I haven't seen him or the car in probably 10 - 15 years, pretty much forgot about it. But this weekend I saw a rollback coming out of the neighborhood with the Superbird on the back. There are several car guys in my neighborhood who have tried to buy it over the years with no success. I don't know him personally, but he's probably at least in his 80s. I've been meaning to ask some of the neighbors how he's doing. I hope it's just going to a mechanic for some repairs.

Yesterday I had an email from a man who has a '68 R/T Charger in need of work. He's in South Carolina, and he bought it new. He is 79 years old.

Now that's a cool ride !
Does he want you to work on her ?

Growing up, my grandfather had a lake cottage in SW Michigan. We would drive through Cassopolis MI on the way up there. This town had a Dodge dealer.
Remember seeing a new Daytona sitting on the lot. Bright red, with a black stripe around the rear of the car. I know that car sat at least a year, before it disappeared.

I learned to parallel park in a Superbird.

OK, no I didn't.

About '80/'81 (I was 12) Spokane WA on my way to school one morning. There was a yellow Superbird parked on a plowed snowbank. Side streets were plowed but icy snow pack. Never saw the car again.

Around 1977 (I was 9)Minot ND. There was a Petty Blue Daytona that lived across the street from a friends. Car was beat into the ground and rusted out. The owners looked pretty wild and rowdy. One day there was a for sale sign in the 1/4 window.. $2500.

1974.. Hardin MT. Petty Blue Superbird. Car was filthy dirty... people in the car looked pretty wild and rowdy..


Kinda odd some of the things you remember.. As a kid I always thought those cars were cool so they stuck in my head.

In the mid-70's when I lived in Camp Hill, Pa our next door neighbors had a friend with a yellow Superbird that would be parked along the curb once in a while. At the time (8-10 years old) I thought it was some crazy custom.

Around 1983, one of the first issues of Classic Sixties magazine featured a red Superbird. I remember reading that the car sat unsold on the dealer's lot (new) until 1972 when the dealer finally traded it for some paving work.

In 1984 or 85 a friend and I were cruising aimlessly near Fogelsville, Pa. Lo and behold we saw a blue Superbird approaching in the oncoming lane. My friend whipped his car around and followed the bird up Rt 100. The car belonged to Willard Kressley, who owned a used car dealership and one of the most scenic junkyards I've ever explored. We stopped in and briefly visited with him - car was pistol grip 4-speed. I read that Kressley died last year. As I moved from the area in 1990, I don't know if he still owned the car or sold it along the way...