jww69rrpost
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9th Post
None of the SuperBirds are completed cars, for they are all missing their nose cone assembly and wing. These cars were driven onto semi-trailer car haulers for the five mile trip to the Clairpointe Pre-Production facility. Its purpose needs to be explained before we complete assembly of our car there. Its usual function was a training area for assembly of the next-year's models. It was complete with scaled down versions of every major area of an assembly plant, so that the new parts and new technologies could be tried under actual conditions before the "real" cars were assembled. (Clairpointe test cars completed are "pilot cars"). For example, in May of 1969, perhaps twenty of the soon-to-be-introduced E-bodies were completely built at Clairpointe. In late 1969, this facility was not in use because the 1970 models were already in full production (since August 1, 1969), and the 1971 model pilot assembly had not begun. Therefore, it was ideally suited for SuperBird final assembly; its close proximity to Lynch Road was an added bonus.
There actually was little assembly required when the cars arrived in no particular order from Lynch Road. The first car to arrive was RM23?0A149789, on October 17, 1969. It was completed and shipped out the same day. The last car to arrive was RM23U0A172609, which arrived on December 17, 1969, and was completed the next day. (SuperBird VINs themselves range from 149597 to 181274). Several cars were returned to Lynch Road for repairs, which must have meant major parts were wrong, such as a 1970 Road Runner front end mistakenly attached, or the car was seriously damaged in transit. Clairpointe normally could repair normal parts malfunctions itself.
Nose cones were received from Creative Industries fully assembled. All internal nose parts (except hardware) and the interior surfaces of the shell itself had been individually sprayed flat black over bare metal before any assembly. The outer surface of the nose shell was painted with light grey primer, before assembly of internal parts.
Almost all internal structural parts of SuperBird noses were borrowed from the Charger Daytona nose. Despite countless press articles about these cars, the only fiberglass parts of the nose cones were the headlight doors, which do interchange between Dodge and Plymouth. Both cars used the complete 1968-69 Charger vacuum headlight system. SuperBirds used nose parking lamps from the 1970 Fury (clear lens version). Both winged cars used the same small nose cone spoiler, the exact design of which merited more time than any other special part, due to cooling worries. The SuperBird's inward tilted wing uprights result in superior air flow compared to the Daytona's straight uprights. However, the SuperBird's compromised rear window area resulted in an overall slower car.
The primary Clairpointe concern with the nose cones was correct operation of the headlight doors, and proper parking lamp mounting. Precise federal safety rules had to be strictly followed after approval for these designs had been obtained.
Wings and noses were painted in lacquer before installation on the car. The Clairpointe baking oven could not be used to bake enamel paint because the nose cones had to be fully assembled before color-coating. Sometimes the lacquer-colored nose and wing did not precisely match the enamel-colored body of the car! The nose spoiler was painted body color while off the nose.
All of the decorative decals on the car were installed at Clairpointe. The assembly guidebook prescribes these combinations concerning the wing decals and the "Plymouth" quarter panel lettering:
White decals: EB5-EV2-999
Black decals: EW1-EK2-FY1-FJ5
The nose decals were always matt black, using DiNoc material (slightly textured). Only the left headlight door received a miniature version of a wing decal.
The final items installed on the SuperBird were the trunk-mounted front frame rail jack and handle, special jack instruction decal under the deck lid, the loose-shipped nose spoiler, license plate bracket, and the cardboard template to mount it. For those states requiring front plates, it was to be mounted on top of the nose shell, between the headlight doors!
Perhaps a postscript is justified here. While about one-half of the approximately two-thousand SuperBirds found immediate buyers, many of the remainder were almost unsellable. It was possible to buy a dealer-new SuperBird in some locations two or more years after their production. Many were converted into Road Runners by weary dealers. Some of this sad problem was undoubtedly due to the limited demand for so impractical a car. But in large part it was due to insurance rates so expensive that some companies instructed their agents to "write for a quotation."
Selling SuperBirds proved to be of little difficulty for performance-wise dealers, however. First Avenue Plymouth, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sold fifteen, more than any other dealer.
BROADCAST SHEET NOTE: In our tour of Lynch Road, we encountered broadcast sheets from at least every major area of production. There was no legal reason to include with the completed car any of the sheets. In fact, in later years they were actively eliminated because the paper was not in compliance with government standards of cloth fire resistance.
There actually was little assembly required when the cars arrived in no particular order from Lynch Road. The first car to arrive was RM23?0A149789, on October 17, 1969. It was completed and shipped out the same day. The last car to arrive was RM23U0A172609, which arrived on December 17, 1969, and was completed the next day. (SuperBird VINs themselves range from 149597 to 181274). Several cars were returned to Lynch Road for repairs, which must have meant major parts were wrong, such as a 1970 Road Runner front end mistakenly attached, or the car was seriously damaged in transit. Clairpointe normally could repair normal parts malfunctions itself.
Nose cones were received from Creative Industries fully assembled. All internal nose parts (except hardware) and the interior surfaces of the shell itself had been individually sprayed flat black over bare metal before any assembly. The outer surface of the nose shell was painted with light grey primer, before assembly of internal parts.
Almost all internal structural parts of SuperBird noses were borrowed from the Charger Daytona nose. Despite countless press articles about these cars, the only fiberglass parts of the nose cones were the headlight doors, which do interchange between Dodge and Plymouth. Both cars used the complete 1968-69 Charger vacuum headlight system. SuperBirds used nose parking lamps from the 1970 Fury (clear lens version). Both winged cars used the same small nose cone spoiler, the exact design of which merited more time than any other special part, due to cooling worries. The SuperBird's inward tilted wing uprights result in superior air flow compared to the Daytona's straight uprights. However, the SuperBird's compromised rear window area resulted in an overall slower car.
The primary Clairpointe concern with the nose cones was correct operation of the headlight doors, and proper parking lamp mounting. Precise federal safety rules had to be strictly followed after approval for these designs had been obtained.
Wings and noses were painted in lacquer before installation on the car. The Clairpointe baking oven could not be used to bake enamel paint because the nose cones had to be fully assembled before color-coating. Sometimes the lacquer-colored nose and wing did not precisely match the enamel-colored body of the car! The nose spoiler was painted body color while off the nose.
All of the decorative decals on the car were installed at Clairpointe. The assembly guidebook prescribes these combinations concerning the wing decals and the "Plymouth" quarter panel lettering:
White decals: EB5-EV2-999
Black decals: EW1-EK2-FY1-FJ5
The nose decals were always matt black, using DiNoc material (slightly textured). Only the left headlight door received a miniature version of a wing decal.
The final items installed on the SuperBird were the trunk-mounted front frame rail jack and handle, special jack instruction decal under the deck lid, the loose-shipped nose spoiler, license plate bracket, and the cardboard template to mount it. For those states requiring front plates, it was to be mounted on top of the nose shell, between the headlight doors!
Perhaps a postscript is justified here. While about one-half of the approximately two-thousand SuperBirds found immediate buyers, many of the remainder were almost unsellable. It was possible to buy a dealer-new SuperBird in some locations two or more years after their production. Many were converted into Road Runners by weary dealers. Some of this sad problem was undoubtedly due to the limited demand for so impractical a car. But in large part it was due to insurance rates so expensive that some companies instructed their agents to "write for a quotation."
Selling SuperBirds proved to be of little difficulty for performance-wise dealers, however. First Avenue Plymouth, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sold fifteen, more than any other dealer.
BROADCAST SHEET NOTE: In our tour of Lynch Road, we encountered broadcast sheets from at least every major area of production. There was no legal reason to include with the completed car any of the sheets. In fact, in later years they were actively eliminated because the paper was not in compliance with government standards of cloth fire resistance.