Decals

[sunger]

I have a 68 hemi road runner which recently had a frame-off restoration. The work is absolutely perfect, but there is 1 thing I am questioning. I believe there should be a decal showing the image of the Road Runner on the side of the drivers door, but the restoration place said my car was a decal delete. Is their such a thing, and how do I check? There are no decals on the trunk lip or air cleaner lid either.
Thanks
Steve

 

[1967 'cuda]

I don't know about the decal delete but our '70 was a stripe delete car.

 

[Photon440]

Never heard of decal delete for '68, it shopuld have the black and white bird. \

But I'd love to see some pictures of the frame while the body was off....

 

[4spd69RR]

Post a good picture of your fender tag.

 

[69hemibeep]

Put a decal on it. There is no place on the broadcast sheet or fender tag code for the decals to be added or deleted that Ive ever seen. If you have the broadcast sheet they may have wrote something on it. For example mine shows 6 way seat, I think as a reminder because it is coded on the broadcast sheet to get one also.

 

[sunger]

Never heard of decal delete for '68, it shopuld have the black and white bird. \

But I'd love to see some pictures of the frame while the body was off....

My hesitation is this guy only restores Mopar's, and is naturally very knowledgeable on them. I don't remember ever seeing any without them though, but I'm gettin old and the mind is a bit crusty.

 

[sunger]

Put a decal on it. There is no place on the broadcast sheet or fender tag code for the decals to be added or deleted that Ive ever seen. If you have the broadcast sheet they may have wrote something on it. For example mine shows 6 way seat, I think as a reminder because it is coded on the broadcast sheet to get one also.

No broadcast sheet, but thanks for the advice.

 

[Basketcase]

no such thing a sa bird decal delete

 

[Smokngun]

Entirely possible that the car did not have them "installed" from the factory but came in the glove box for the owner to install.

Just read an article/interview about the origination of the Roadrunner in the August 2014 MoPar Muscle magazine. The interview was with the original Program Manager of the Roadrunner, Jack Smith. It's a great article, but the section pertinent to this subject reads as follows:

"Not everyone in the notoriously conservative company [Plymouth] was enthused about the idea. Dick Macadam, then Chrysler-Plymouth's styling director, wasn't having any part of it, emphatically telling Robert Anderson in an impromptu hallway meeting: "Nobody, but nobody will ever put a cartoon bird on one of my cars." according to Jack Smith. In order to provide decal maker 3M, a Chrysler part number in time for production, Jack suggested to Macadam and Anderson the idea of having the bird decals come packaged in the glove box, with instructions telling owners how to install them. Macadam reluctantly agreed to this-as long as he could pick the particular image to be used on the decals." The article then goes on to state that at a 68 model preview at the Highland Park headquarters the decal was installed on a pre-production Roadrunner being shown to a group of Plymouth dealers and they loved it. The decision was made at that time to put the decals on at the factory and not include them in the glove box.

However, word traveled slow back then and all production facilities may not have received the directive to install them before some cars snuck out of the factories.It could be assumed that being a very early production car, that this reference was being seen as fact and that through common knowledge, early cars may not have had the "Birds" installed at the factory and that some dealers/owners might have never put them on the cars. All of that being said, I wouldn't believe there to be a "decal delete code", it was simply practice.

 

[mahoney0_00_3]

put them on if you like them---looks wrong without them!

 

[Basketcase]

some '68 guys have put the '69 birds on because they don't like the black and white ones.

 

[Smokngun]

I actually think the black & white 68 decals are cool. They hint to the spartan nature of the whole concept of the Roadrunner.

 

[mcmopar]

Entirely possible that the car did not have them "installed" from the factory but came in the glove box for the owner to install.

Just read an article/interview about the origination of the Roadrunner in the August 2014 MoPar Muscle magazine. The interview was with the original Program Manager of the Roadrunner, Jack Smith. It's a great article, but the section pertinent to this subject reads as follows:

"Not everyone in the notoriously conservative company [Plymouth] was enthused about the idea. Dick Macadam, then Chrysler-Plymouth's styling director, wasn't having any part of it, emphatically telling Robert Anderson in an impromptu hallway meeting: "Nobody, but nobody will ever put a cartoon bird on one of my cars." according to Jack Smith. In order to provide decal maker 3M, a Chrysler part number in time for production, Jack suggested to Macadam and Anderson the idea of having the bird decals come packaged in the glove box, with instructions telling owners how to install them. Macadam reluctantly agreed to this-as long as he could pick the particular image to be used on the decals." The article then goes on to state that at a 68 model preview at the Highland Park headquarters the decal was installed on a pre-production Roadrunner being shown to a group of Plymouth dealers and they loved it. The decision was made at that time to put the decals on at the factory and not include them in the glove box.

However, word traveled slow back then and all production facilities may not have received the directive to install them before some cars snuck out of the factories.It could be assumed that being a very early production car, that this reference was being seen as fact and that through common knowledge, early cars may not have had the "Birds" installed at the factory and that some dealers/owners might have never put them on the cars. All of that being said, I wouldn't believe there to be a "decal delete code", it was simply practice.

I can confirm this as Jack Smith (father of the road runner) related the story at the '05 Mopar Nats. One of the dealers being shown the cars was from New Mexico whose state bird is the road runner. He loved it! The decals were put on the cars with rubber cement clandestinely while the dealers meeting was taking place. When Jack showed Anderson and the rest of the dealers the bird decals on the car after their meeting they loved it so Jack went for broke and asked Anderson if the decals could be out on the cars and Anderson agreed. BTW the only reason the bird decal was not in color in '68 was because that was the decal Macadam approved. They had all kinds of decals for him to choose from. For reasons only Macadam knows, he chose the black and white standing bird.

 

[A12]

What's the "Scheduled Production Date" (SPD) or your road runner and which plant? Most of the Hemi road runners (and Super Bees) I've seen (just me though) usually had December and January+ SPD's. If it is a real early SPD then there's a (slim) chance the were not put on BUT that little fact or folklore is going to have to be explained again and again.... I think it would be easier to tell the story to someone that knows road runner's about the "in the glove box and never put on at first release" then to explain 90% why they are not there or "is there something missing?"

Where they missing before the restoration and any "before photos"? Even if so that's a pretty big assumption that they were never there. Again just me but as stated I've never seen any promo or early photos of a '68 road runner without the black and white standing road runners on the door. The later RM23 hardtops with the standard décor trunk finish got the full color running bird decal.................is you car a coupe (thinking it is if it's a '68 Hemi, again just me).