We are a Mopar motivated rock band from Seattle Wa. and I have a 69
Coronet 500 with 440 super commando out of a 70 Washington state
patrol car and a 73 Challenger w/340 and a 70 Satellite wagon w/318.
We have free music available on mp3.com and I thought I would join
some clubs on the internet to let mostly Mopar enthusiasts know about
us. Check out our song 426 Hemi maybe. Our CD "Mopar Or No Car" is
available for purchase on mp3.com as well. Thanks and maybe I'll see
you at the Mopar spring round-up in Carnation Wa. this year. Josh

http://www.mp3.com/hotrodlunatics
p.s. If you go for playing any of our songs on mp3.com they ask you
for your email. just put in a fake one and your in. Like
booby@... for example.

Hey Duane,

Yeah it's been cold around here too.

You could send your clock to Performance Car Graphics
(www.performancecargraphics.com). They rebuilt my entire instrument
cluster a few years back. They even repainted and relettered my
entire cluster. Everything works perfectly and looks brand new,
including the clock/tach. They have a rebuild kit for your clock that
you can install or you can send it to them.

Before you hunt down a tic toc tach, know that they are expensive and
not nearly as responsive as your Sun. When I started my Bee in the
fall, the tach worked fine, but it was a little "slow" on the uptake.
That is to say, while it did show the correct RPM, it took it a
second or two before it displayed.

P.S. Take a look at this beautiful Super Bee I finally downloaded
from my digital camera (under df ...).

Jeff

Well we don't have to deal with that winter stuff very often here (it
may snow once in 5 years!) Spring has arrived but most of my spare
time is spent hunting hard to find stuff (parts,money,etc) for the
ongoing R/T restoration. Does anyone have a B-body console shifter???

We have been having a winter burst finally and can't even get
the 'Bee out of the garage. I've got the wipers working again and now
am going to find and fix a minor thing with the dash lights. Now
would be the time to send the clock off for repair. Has anyone done
this and if so, where did you send it. Mine has just the clock, no
factory tach. I always thought that the "Tic-Toc-Tach would have been
a neat addon to my car. I had a Sun Super Tach in it for years. I
have been watching E-bay and have'nt seen one of the old ones go
through. I have a modern electronic tach that I could install.
Well enough about me what is everyone else up to?

Hello Discoverer_25,<br>I looked at your letter
and it is interesting, but not surprising. I bought
our Bee in Sept. of 1968 and the title calls it a
Coronet 400. It was basically a "trim Package" in '68. It
was insured as a 2-door plain-jane sedan. A friend
had a '70 and his insurance was 3 times what mine was
because of this. I think that Dodge was caught with their
corporate pants down and were trying to match Plymouth and
come up with a "low priced" factory hot rod and this
was it. What I found interesting about your Chrysler
letter was that reference to rumbleseat cars. Now that
would have been cool in '68<br>duane

Just to add to the '68 Bee production number
question! Go to my Yahoo profile & under mail attachments
(check "hidden items")I've posted the letter I recieved
from Chrysler in 1976. Makes for interesting reading!

I looked at a 70 Challenger convertible on
Wednesday. Next to a Super Bee, it is by far my favorite
car. I knew by the price that it was a rough car. If
you call a rough car one that has SERIOUS rust in the
trunk, floorpan, inner and outer quarter panels, and
both front fenders, then I have a creampuff for you! I
call it a complete basket case. Once you add up the
cost to replace all these body parts, you might as
well buy a mostly rust free car for $10K more. I guess
if you are a body man with a junk yard of e-bodies
it might be worth it. Otherwise, just save your
pennies until the right car comes along.<br><br>Jeff

This is why these cars get parted out! 500-1,000?Be serious, this is a real Hemi
car! (1 of 74 produced)

How about $500. or a $1000 if it can be fixed and the rust isn't to bad. You are
way over the top in My eyes. Bad rust, he should pay you to tow it off.
Rt_440,Dn

You project is only worth what someone else will pay for it.<br><br>  To me,your
price sounds little high,but a pic is worth a thousand words.  Good luck

Thanks Jeff, I thought the numbers were
interesting also;I will get Govier's books soon. When we
drove our Bee full time, we noticed that every once in
a while we had to take it out on the Interstate and
"blow it out". I run mine now, about every two weeks,
and I take it out on the highway and run 60 to 70 and
get the temp up... once in a while it seems to jump
up much faster than that, I wonder why???

I'm definitely no mechanic, but I do have a
little story. Back in the mid 70's my friend drove a 69
Chevy Malibu. He was a conservative kind of guy and
ususally drove the speed limit. Being a real Mopar owner,
I drove my beat up Barracuda hard. Anyway, I
borrowed his car one night when mine was in the shop. I
drove it like I drove my Barracuda. No need to baby it
even if it was a Chevy! The next day, my friend told
me how his car ran so much better that it used
to.<br><br>These cars need to be "blown out" from time to time. I
think just idling them is not good for the long term
health of the car.<br><br>Just my opinion though. Jeff

That really is interesting Duane. Based on these
numbers, there are 2/3 as many 1969 Super Bees as there
are Super Bees in 1968, 1970 and 1971 combined!
(19,644 to 28,401) I had no idea how rare the 71 Bee was.
Of course that explains why you never see one on the
street. Quite a shame, since that "coke bottle" design
looks really great.<br><br>Jeff

If you have a car that is not run much how should it be run?  Is an idle good or
should it be driven and "opened up" ?

This is meant to be general information, if
anyone wants more on this I would look into
andy440.virtualave.net or buy one of Galen Govier's Books. <br>I was
wondering about, "How Many", a short time ago and I found
some interesting numbers:<br>'68 Bees-7,841 shipped to
US dealers<br>4,783 with the 383M eng. and HD auto
trans<br>2,933 with 383M eng and 4-speed<br>125 with 426 H eng;
94 with Auto trans and 31 with 4-speed; '68's were
all coupes<br>69 Bee-19,644 total for the Hardtop<br>
8,202 total for the coupe<br>69 had more eng and trans
options<br>'70 Bees-11,540 Hardtops<br> 3,966 Coupes<br>71
Bees-5,054 total<br>Some of my next purchases will be Galen
Govier's books. I hope that this will get some curiousity
going. Do some research and find some more
Bees.<br>duane

I can't speak of the entire hemi car market, but
a local friend of mine bought a 69 hemi 4-speed
Roadrunner about a month ago. This car is basically very
clean, matching numbers,dk green,needed the carbs
rebuilt to run along with a tuneup, very clean
interior,etc. The only catches I recall about it are the
exhaust manifolds were replaced with headers at some
point (minor bolt on parts, but expensive) and at some
point it had been backed into behind the passenger rear
wheelwell and the panel replacement wasn't done very
well.I'm sure theres probably a bunch of those little
nickel and dime things that all old cars need done to
them, but a very, very nice car...He's been pestering
the previous owner about the car for around 10 years
now (been sitting in the guys garage-he was afraid of
the car)....at any rate, he got the car for 23K. This
I'm pretty sure does NOT represent the hemi car
market as a whole, but I hope it helps.<br>Richard

I'm negotiating the sale of a 1969 Hemi Superbee
project car & am seeking feedback on a fair price. Car is
ROUGH, rust in just about every panel except hood, but
is original Q-5 Hemi Auto coupe with clear title &
original broadcast sheet. No engine or trans, but deal
includes:carbs& intake,aircleaner,valve covers,exaust manifolds,
radiator,trans cooler etc. I'm thinking around 10K . Your
thoughts & feedback welcome!

I've been doing a little repainting on my Bee
where the original painter messed up. I got the
interior door frames redone - they look pretty good. It's
tough to get the garage warm - thank goodness for
propane heat!<br><br>I pulled one of the doors off to
facilitate painting around the door edge where the antenna
goes. Does anybody have any tips or tricks for aligning
the door once I put it back on?<br><br>Jeff

Thats what I'm hoping for. The internet has shrunk the world. I have a couple of
leads & hope they pan out.

You may never find out anything about this car
unless you run into some old rodders from that area.
Because it was so fast and there may have been bets on
the races you may never know. Did I mension where I
live it is illegal to street race but everyone did it
when I was young. Don

Had a couple requests for some more pics of my 69
1/2 Bee and fianlly got around to posting them in the
photo album. Going to be awhile before this Bee sees
the pavement again, got alot snow dumped on us
yesterday.

The website that I looked at with the Super Bee
Ragtop is: <a href=http://andy440.virtualave.net/
target=new>http://andy440.virtualave.net/</a> Has some other
fine photos of MOPARS. interesting site. Glad you
didn't get the snow of some of the places farther south,
we wound up with about 5-6". Not bad. <br>duane

I have a very nice original unrestored set of
small pattern 14" recall wheels (read A-body) I would
like to trade for a set of 15" any leads would be
appreciated. I bought these many years ago from a guy in CA.
the boxes they came in had Chrysler recall program
tags on them probably came out of a dumpster behind a
dealership somewhere or were carried off by an employee as
it's doubtful Chrysler would have required them to be
returned to depot. This would explain why so many wheels
that "don't exist" do.

Welcome to the club Discover25! That is one sweet
RT you have. I'm starting to see a red car pattern
around here!<br><br>Thanks for all the numbers. It
really is interesting to see how few Super Bee's made it
out onto the streets. One of the reasons I like Super
Bees was because a neighbor bought a new 69 when I was
a kid. I just remember that cool stripe with the
bee in it.<br><br>I just received a 1969 Dodge
Coronet Sales Brouchure from a guy on ebay last night.
It's cool! I has lots of information and even models
showing the latest fashion. It also shows those recalled,
cast wheels as an option for the Coronet.<br><br>I've
never heard of a Super Bee convertible. I'm very
interested to take a look at your link Duane.<br><br>Some of
high country in Colorado got quite a bit of snow, but
we only picked up about 5" of the white stuff here.
The big Dodge turbo sliced right thru it!<br><br>Jeff

I've posted a picture of the '69 Coronet R/T I
presently have under restoration. (I know its not a Bee but
it was the closest I could find at the time) I
purchased it in North Jersey in 1977 the guy I got it from
said the engine was blown-up street racing in '71. The
milage and condition seem to back this up. The car was
supposedly street raced in New York & New Jersey and
artifacts removed during disassembly do have addreses in
Mendham, NJ & Staten Island, NY. The car is Hemi,4
speed,R-6 red,w/black R/T stripe,no vinyl,black bucket
interior w/o headrests. Any help filling in the missing
history of this car would be greatly appreciated!!

I just saw a photo of this Super Bee prototype
show car in a website the other evening. I did not
know of its existance until then. You are right about
looking at all the '68 Convertables. Might be a real
"find". I will check and find that website and put the
address in so that others can see this one of a
kind.<br>duane

Thanks again for the info. I have some of the
original paper on my car and it does not call it a Super
Bee, it is a Coronet 440 Coupe with a (number smeared
and unreadable) Package. That is the reason for the
numbers being wrapped up in the Coconet numbers. Also
there were supposedly only Coupes built in 1968. It
seems to me that I saw a hard top or two back then but
I have only my not so infallible memory to rely on.
<br>Thanks again for the interest and the info. <br>(Hey
Jeff did the 4x4 make it off the mountain today? I
heard that there was 2-3 ft. of white , fluffy stuff up
there.)<br>duane

What happened to the 68 "Superbee" convertible
show car Chrysler had?? To the best of my knowledge it
has not surfaced yet. It was probably a retrimmed R/T
or 500 so check out any '68 Coronet convertible you
come across and you may have the rarest Bee of all!

I picked up the latest Govier guide books at the
Garlits show and these are the current stats;'68 Bee
7,841 Seems kind of low but remember the 68 Bee was
only 1/2 year production and for some reason Chrysler
didn't keep production figures on the Bee till 69 so we
may never know for shure! '69 lists 8,202 coupes &
19,644 hardtops with a note that previous records showed
the numbers reversed (my personal experience in my
area it seems like coupes SHOULD out number
hardtops!)'70 shows 3,966 coupes & 11,540 hardtops '71 5,054
total.

Thanks for all the research guys. I will have to
get in touch with Govier. (I found his website the
other nite) I certainly hope that y'all did not let
this most serious of questions interfere with your
Thanksgiving Day. The old former car dealer here says he only
saw about a half a dozen bees and not many R/T's
while he was selling them here in this area of WY.
Interesting note, a local high school kid has just started
driving around a Prowler. Now that should be a fun thing
to run when the snow gets about a-- deep out
here.<br>duane (df68383)