Partying at Holley's MoParty with the Detroit Muscle Crew

(Tommy)>> You're watching Powernation.

(Tommy)>> Hey Guys! Welcome to Detroit Muscle. Today we have quite an assortment of some eclectic subject matter. If you're into bucking broncos, getting your swerve on and jumping some Mopars, you're gonna like what we're doing today. ♪ ♪ [engines revving] ♪ ♪

(Josh)>> Hey, what's going on guys? My name is Josh Mason.

(Daniel)>> And I'm Daniel Boshears. Tommy let us loose out of the shop today, so we could work on this Driveway Rescue.

(Josh)>> We're working on a 1970 Ford Bronco, but it needs a little t-l-c.

(Daniel)>> Now the owner loaned us the key, so we're taking it for a spin. After 50 feet, this thing looks pretty snazzy.

(Josh)>> Now for being a 50-year-old car, the interior isn't in bad shape. Obviously, the owner took car of it. But there's going to be little things we're going to have to address. ♪ ♪ Now, after we've been through a couple of those corners, back there, I can feel the steering is a little bit on the loose side. The owner made it aware to me. Could be a drag link. Could be some tie rods. But we won't know until we get it back to the shop. ♪ ♪ Now, while we we're looking over our Ford Bronco with the owner, he said that the shocks had some high mileage. But when we looked at them, boy did they look it. So, we're going to go ahead and address those as well. We also noticed some leaks. Mainly coming from the transfer case. ♪ ♪ Now, with all these fixes, there's nothing that me and Daniel can't handle, especially with the help of Rock Auto. We'll get this 50-year-old girl, California beach bombing in no time.

(Tommy)>> You didn't think I'd let these guys do all this on their own did you? No, I was back at the shop, giving Tom from Rock Auto, the nickel tour around the shop. Checking out all our old or dead projects. From the retro Javelin, you guys saw earlier this year, to the hearse we know you all love. Now obviously, you can tell what this thing is.

(Tom)>> A practical station wagon.

(Tommy)>> Absolutely! You know, if you need to haul... well you could haul just about what ever you would want to in it.

(Tom)>> Dead or alive!

(Tommy)>> Tom is a fan of these old cars and has a few of his own. It's great having Rock Auto to partner with us to help out with these Driveway Rescues. That gets these old cars back out on the road so people can enjoy them.

(Tom)>> I've seen Driveway Rescue fix everything from... I think there was a GM a-body, front wheel drive car, that's super reliable. Once you put the right parts into it and spruce it up. Cars that have been family heirlooms. Old trucks that have been in the family for generations that said "Hey this really means a lot to us. Do you want to fix it up?". Fun project cars. Someone always dreamed of getting the fun truck or fun muscle car and restoring it. They just never quite got the project going and Driveway Rescue comes along and gives them that kick that they need to get the project done.

(Tommy)>> Rock Auto has been a huge help, providing o-e-m parts for all of our Driveway Rescues. And we've used them a number of times on our project vehicles, like our Javelin. You know, finding elements for a 50-year-old wiring harness can be tricky. Rock Auto had what we needed. And with their help and a little bit of work, we can have this bronco back out on the highway for years to come.

(Josh)>> Now guys, fortunately for me and Daniel, we're doing our Driveway Rescue in house. Which means we get to use our lift that's going to come in real handy.

(Daniel)>> Boy you got that right! Rock Auto had no problem filling our parts list, so that made our job a whole lot easier.

(Josh)>> Now with our parts, we're going to address a leaky transfer case, some suspension components, some shocks and some eyes for our good old bronco.

(Daniel)>> Yeah buddy. Well them parts ain't going to unload themselves, so we better get busy.

(Josh)>> Let's get them. ♪ ♪

(Daniel)>> Here you go.

(Josh)>> Awesome! ♪ ♪ [lift humming]

(Daniel)>> Now, one of the first things we're going to do today is stop the leaks in this old transfer case. Now, we did our initial inspection. We noticed it had a couple of leaky gaskets and lucky for us, Rock Auto had exactly what we needed. Typically, you want to stop leaks like this because you don't want you gear box to run out of oil and get real expensive real fast. Now normally, we would drain the drain plug, but due to this custom exhaust system, you really can't get to it. Luckily, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Now, the first thing I noticed when I took the plate off, there's no gasket here and that's problem the reason for the leak. Lucky for us, there's no broke teeth or any other damage inside the transfer case. So, we should be able clean our parts, put our gaskets on and just move on to the other parts in the suspension. Now, here's a quick tip for you... any time your cleaning your gasket surface, like the one on this transfer case, it's a good idea not to spray brake cleaner or carburetor cleaner or any other kind of solvent up into the gear box. What this will do, is prematurely wash the oil out of the bearings and make them potentially fail. Now, what we're going to do, is spray our cleaner on a rag and wipe the surface off until comes clean. Next... dear old gasket sealant on the cover. ♪ ♪ And then on the gasket. ♪ ♪ And then after that, everything gets torqued down to spec. [drill popping]

(Tommy)>> Coming up... the guys finish up that gnarly bronco and carve up some corners on the open road.

(Josh)>> Now that Daniel's taken car of our transfer case leak, we can go ahead and swap out the shocks. Now first thing's first, we've got to get these wheels and tires off. [drill popping] ♪ ♪

(Daniel)>> Before we get started tearing down some of the parts on this 51-year old bronco, it's always a good idea to spray everything with a good shot of Sea Foam Deep Creep. It's a powerful penetrating oil and lubricant that works fast to break metal surface tension and free stubborn parts from rust and corrosion. You can use it to protect metal parts, tools or anything with lubing components. It just makes the whole process easier. ♪ ♪ [lift humming] ♪ ♪

(Josh)>> We're planning to hit the road in our bronco. But now would be an excellent time for some preventative maintenance, so we're going to use Sea Foam's Trans Tune. It helps restore shift quality by cleaning sticky varnish from valve bodies and shift solenoids. It also works great as a trans fluid conditioner by simply pouring some in. ♪ ♪

(Daniel)>> And finally, this old girl will get some Sea Foam High Mileage treatment. You can also add it to engine oil to clean and prevent common causes of oil burning. Plus, it reduces long term engine wear and helps prevent rough performance. It's especially formulated for gasoline cars and trucks, with over 75,000 miles. [lift humming]

(Josh)>> Now that everything is properly lubricated, we can move forward with tearing down the rest of our bronco. ♪ ♪ This guy didn't want to come off with the hand tools. I'm gonna teach it a lesson with the old impact. [impact popping] ♪ ♪ Depending on the manufacturer, sometimes you don't get the hardware that you need but it's always advised to use grade-a hardware for your replacement. [impact popping] ♪ ♪ Now guys, there's nothing wrong with using a zip tie, but it's always good to use a hose clamp, because you know it's going to hold that dust cover tight. ♪ ♪ One down, three to go guys. Don't want to be to a broken record and show you through the process of the other three. But now, you're probably wondering... how do you get these shocks set? Now, with this kind of a shock guys, you're pretty flexible, when it comes down to how soft you want the ride or how stiff you want the ride. Obviously by just the adjustment of a knob. But to get us started and on the road... we'll put it at the half soft half hard setting. Well now that we got our shocks all on guys, next... we've got to address these million mile looking suspension components. But luckily for Rock Auto, they set us up just right with a new steering damper, a drag link and some tie rods. But, before we can put all of our fancy stuff on, we got to get these off. ♪ ♪ [hammer tapping] [drill and hammer popping] How I'm not covered in grease right now is beyond me, but with the old parts off, we can go ahead and assemble the new parts. Now guys, it's always a good idea to always put some anti-seize on these threads. Because later down the road, if you want to take these apart, they'll come off with ease. ♪ ♪

(Daniel)>> Typically, when you're replacing steering components, it's a good practice to measure the length of the tie rods to help minimize misalignment. This speeds up the installation and helps you get it to the shop for an alignment. [ratchet cranking]

(Josh)>> We finish off the tie rod replacement installation with cotter pins. Which is an absolute requirement, because those castle nuts can possibly back out. ♪ ♪ Next is the drag link. Which also requires cotter pins as well, that you see here. For the same reason. [ratchet cranking] ♪ ♪ With so many components that have been installed, it's always good to go back and double check your work, to make sure everything is tight. [drill popping] To finish off our suspension upgrades, our bronco gets a brand-new steering damper that assist stabilizing the steering for better drivability. [drill popping]

(Daniel)>> With everything back together, we hit the road. [engine humming] Well, what do you think?

(Josh)>> Well, this thing's riding a whole lot better with the new shocks we put on it.

(Daniel)>> Man it's driving a lot better too because it's not darting left to right, now that suspension's all tightened up.

(Josh)>> I can see that. I believe the owner's going to be real happy with the improvements we made on his bronco.

(Daniel)>> And all thanks to Rock Auto, we got everything we needed to make this Driveway Rescue happen.

(Josh)>> Absolutely! Let's go back to the shop.

(Daniel)>> Yeah buddy, we gotta get some work done. ♪ ♪

(Daniel)>> Coming up... We check out Holley's Moparty, where it's all Mopar or no car. [tires squealing}]

♪ ♪

(Tommy)>> Well, you guys know, I'm a big fan of the Mopar, so what better place to check a bunch of them out than here at Holley's Moparty.

(Josh)>> What'd you get me into?

(Tommy)>> A dang good time brother. ♪ ♪

(Bill)>> Moparty, it's a party. It's just like the name says. At Holley events, our whole thing is, not just a car show. We bring in autocross and drag racing at the same time. And a chassis dyno going on at the same time. We'll bring in... the Dodge Thrill Rides are here giving people rides in their Hellcats and the General Lee will be here, jumping from ramp to ramp and going up on two wheels. When you come here, we want it to be action packed from the moment you get in till you're ready to leave. We've got a nice vendor row, about 60 plus swap meet vendors here. If you've got a car that you don't really have the parts for, there's now aftermarket parts for them, we got a swap meet. Many of our staff members and team bring their own cars out, and we build them for these events, just like everybody else does. We're car guys at Holley and we want to put these events on like when we want to do these events.

(Tommy)>> You know brother, I always like checking out the swap meets, almost more than the car shows because you never know what you're going to find.

(Josh)>> It looks like we can build cars or we could build antique art with all these parts that we're looking at.

(Tommy)>> It's kind of crazy what you see at these kind of things.

(Josh)>> Well, I'm sure like a guy could come down an aisle like this, that he's been searching for this part for years but then some other guys that's had it in the back of his garage, he's just got it set up the table for sale and win win scenario.

(Tommy)>> She's a beaut.

(Josh)>> Look at this thing. Well, tell me Tommy, what am I looking at?

(Tommy)>> What we have here, is a fine example of some pure Mopar muscle. It's a 1969 Dodge Superbee. These were built for high performance. Back in the day, you could simply walk yourself into a dealership, and more or less, buy yourself a racecar. And... this one appears to have a kind of rare and odd option if you will. Which, really makes it sought after, if it's actually the real deal. What I'm referring to, it appears to have an A12 package.

(Josh)>> When you say it's an A12, what's special about an A12? Is that from factory, like their racecar or something?

(Tommy)>> That means it has a lift off fiberglass hood. It's doesn't have any hinges or even a latch. It's held in place with hood pins on all 4 corners and this was another thing that Dodge did, to lighten them up. Which we both know means speed.

(Josh)>> Does this thing have a special engine? A special transmission, rear end anything?

(Tommy)>> It's big block or six pack is what they call them. 4-speed or automatic. More than likely a 4-speed. Let's just check it out and see what it's got. Now this thing is bare bones. This does have a 4-speed but check out even the plainness of the vinyl on this thing.

(Josh)>> There's not a whole lot of detail I'm seeing in the interior. Are they trying to like save weight?

(Tommy)>> Well you got to think back in the day, more options, more expensive. They were trying to put a lot of performance in the car. Not put stuff in it to make it heavy and make this thing fast. Now the old car is kind of dirty and you can tell by this emblem, we could call this one the nipped wing bee in a way.

(Josh)>> It's kind of crusty.

(Tommy)>> But you know, it's just kind of cool to see the old cars that they dug out of the weeds or barns or any of that kind of stuff.

(Josh)>> I do kind of like that they still got the bees nest on the roof over here.

(Tommy)>> If we get some showers, this old car's gonna look a little bit different though. ♪ ♪

(Josh)>> You know, with all these old Mopars here, you think we're gonna see Daisy Duke?

(Tommy)>> There's a pretty good chance. I've seen a couple of good ole boys running around here.

(Josh)>> I'm excited for that. There's so much to see and do here.

(Tommy)>> And what's great... it's all Mopar.

(Scott)>> It's awesome. Second time here. I was here for the last year. Didn't experience the autocross. I just watched it and I did the ride-alongs with the professionals. Then I decided with my friend Natalie, we've decided to do it this year and drive the cars. If you've never done it, it's an experience and you got to do it. You got to bring your car out here and do it. I just love Mopar. I always have since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I saw a Superbird one day, when I was probably about seven and I said I love that car and I've always been a Mopar fan ever since. Don't even think about it. Just come. That's what you got to do. Just get in the car and come. It's a great experience. It really is. It's awesome out here.

(Tommy)>> Coming up... our pilgrimage to Moparty turns up a cornucopia of Chrysler history. ♪ ♪

(Josh)>> I've been walking around Moparty here, I thought I was going to see a bunch of chargers and challengers but, I found this very awesome '34 Plymouth, that is owned by Gary Conrad here, that he built himself. Gary, tell us about this ride right here.

(Gary)>> Found it after searching a bunch on the internet and with a rolling chassis. Showed it to my wife, told here I was going to buy it.

(Josh)>> And she allowed you to buy it? (Gary))>> Told here I was going to strip the fenders off of it and make a fenderless coupe. The she told me, no it's got to keep the fenders. So, I figured that was permission to buy it.

(Josh)>> How long did it take you to build?

(Gary)>> I spent about the last 3 years building it.

(Josh)>> So about 3 years. Tell me about the engine, transmission, drivetrain.

(Gary)>> The engine is a 1955 Chrysler 331 hemi. The transmission is 1990 Dodge 4-speed automatic. So it has overdrive, plus it has lock up convertor. It's got a narrowed 8 and 3/4 Mopar rear end in it. It's a stock frame that's been boxed in. I did the boxing on it. And I also z-d it 3 inches in the front to give it a lower profile in the front end. To get the front end down. It's got a mustang 2-type front suspension. It's all on coil overs, 4-wheel disc brakes. Handles like a go-cart.

(Josh)>> This car looks like it's a driver. This is not something that you just park in your garage.

(Gary)>> We drive it everyplace. It was nothing to put on 700 miles in one weekend with it. And it gets 17 miles to the gallon.

(Josh)>> Walk me through the interior a little bit.

(Gary)>> The interior, it's got the stock seat in it that's been reupholstered. The suicide doors are factory and it also has what they call smoker's windows in it. which, when you roll up the window, you just flip this lever and then this window rolls down and then that window will open up. I've got the other one set up that way. But if you want the full a-c, you roll them all down, roll out the windshield, roll down the back window and it's good. It's got all the factory gauges and they all work. I've had to send some of them out to be repaired.

(Josh)>> How hard or easy is that to make those gauges work with this type of an engine.

(Gary)>> It really wasn't that hard, because of this engine being so old. Being a 1955 model. All the gauges are mechanical.

(Josh)>> That's awesome! I really love this car. It stands out and I just love that you drive this thing. That's super cool. I would love to take this to a local town and cruise on the back roads. This is too cool and I even love that you still kept the patina look but yet you updated with all the modern stuff. This thing's awesome Gary. Great job.

(Gary)>> Thank you!

(Kurt)>> My dad was a Mopar guy back when I was young. Brought that up. I'm a 33 veteran of a Chrysler dealership. I'm Service Manager at Iverson Chrysler in South Dakota. We travelled 907 miles for the Moparty because of the autocross and the grand champion competition. We do a lot of autocross outside of this. SEC at Good Guys. So we thought, why not put come put on here if Mopar's going to put that on and it's been great. It's awesome to be able to race against like cars, because that's what we are. We're Mopar. If they are a Mopar person through and through, they have to be here. I would agree with them, they're trying to make this the premier Mopar event. And I think it's completely possible. From the drag racing stuff. I saw drag racing. I saw autocross. As you can see, this autocross is getting bigger and bigger. And seeing more Mopars autocross racing. And you're going to see everything. Anywhere from a little 4-door GLH Dodge Omni running very well times, to a Viper. And then head over to the dragstrip and see a 7 second Challenger that runs in the drag pack class. It's crazy. There's something for everybody here.

(Tommy)>> Well brother, I don't know about you, but I've had a real good time.

(Josh)>> Same here. I've had a great time checking out all these Mopars. Thanks for taking me.

(Tommy)>> Sure man! We'll have to come back next year. Maybe that time, we can bring something of our own.

(Josh)>> Absolutely.

(Tommy)>> If you like what you've seen on today's show or if you have any questions, go to powernation t-v dot com. And until next time, you all have a good one.