"Once the car was sound metal-wise, I began to restore the car. I stuck with my plan, which was to restore the car to original condition and appearance, except I was going to do it to today's standards. In other words, over-restore it. On the '6911/42 Road Runner, I had painted it with enamel and left orange peel, got messy with the overspray, et cetera. That was great for the Nats, but at local and non-Mopar shows, I got real tired of listening to critiques such as, 'Why was this done so poorly?' and the like."
Thanks to help from folks like Gary Brown (paint), Jimmy Johnson (assembly), Todd Kidd (research), and his wife, Mike completed the Road Runner in June 2000. Of course, this wasn't a smooth slide toward home plate.
We asked Mike what the most difficult aspect of the restoration was, and he explained that it boiled down to working in an unfamiliar arena.
"I had never even seen a Road Runner convertible up close, and since I got this one in boxes, figuring out where the unique convertible stuff went was tough. I also found out that convertible parts were scarce and expensive."
Perhaps Mike should have used the same creative and sneaky finagling on these components as he did on the Road Runner purchase...