{"id":34787,"date":"2020-02-29T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=34787"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:06","slug":"the-road-to-roadkills-zip-tie-drags-the-belvedex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2020\/02\/the-road-to-roadkills-zip-tie-drags-the-belvedex.html","title":{"rendered":"The Road to Roadkill’s Zip-Tie Drags: The “Belvedex”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Abused, abandoned and alone; that\u2019s how\nthousands of Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> muscle cars spend their dwindling days as mother nature\nabsorbs them into the earth. Of course, like most crusty classics left exposed\nto the public eye, this 1968 Plymouth Belvedere had a not-so-secret<\/em> admirer. Mike Cunningham first caught wind of the car\nwhen a friend of his put it together as a weekend cruiser for his son to drive;\nbut like many father-son projects, the beat-up Belvedere was quickly outgrown\nand unfortunately forgotten. The years ticked by, the weeds began to sprout\nand before you knew it, the car was left sitting in vain for nearly an entire\ndecade!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unable to idly watch as this car built to tear up the streets and torment the competition had succumbed to an obsolete existence, Mike began to insist that his friend sell him that poor old Plymouth Belvedere. It took years for Mike to assert himself as the future caretaker of the car, always adamant that he would get it back on the road right away to make up for all those lost years. In the end, his legwork would pay off as the day came when the phone rang and Mike was told to \u201cbring a trailer\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wearing worn High Impact HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Orange paint, factory mag wheels and GTX-style side stripes, the car earned the nickname \u201cBelvedeX\u201d and was warmly welcomed into Mike\u2019s collection of classic Mopar muscle. Despite years of being left outside exposed to the elements, the Belvedere was still very solid and truly only in need of a few tweaks to be put back to driver quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the car\u2019s condition, your average guy would purchase something like this project Plymouth and immediately start hunting down OEM parts, pricing out shops and beginning a full-blown restoration. While we can all appreciate a perfectly polished show car, that just wouldn\u2019t be the Roadkill<\/em> way! Mike has been the \u201cdo it yourself\u201d, \u201cmake it work\u201d, and \u201cgo drive it” type of guy his whole life, but watching as even ratty classic cars are given new life on the Roadkill <\/em>show, he was inspired to get the car back on the road as quickly and painlessly as possible. Instead of prepping for a full rebuild, he began preparing for a road trip.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wasting no time, Mike began sorting through\nwear on the car\u2019s fuel system, ignition, brakes and wiring harness, and with a\nlittle elbow grease and a lot of know-how, he had the car\u2019s 383 big block engine\nand 727 TorqueFlite\u00ae<\/sup> back to life in just a matter of weeks. A few weeks later\nand the battered old Belvedere that had been left abandoned for ten years <\/strong>would be running, driving\nand even cruising cross-country in just a month! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fueled by Red Bull, gas station munchies and\nthe pure exhilaration of driving a completely sketch car at highway speeds\nacross the freeway, Mike and his buddies took the \u201cBelvedeX\u201d through four\nseparate states as they toured the car to shows, cruises and Mopar meet-ups\nacross America. Like any shakedown run, the car may have ended up on the side\nof the road with the hood up on more than one occasion, but to tell you the\ntruth from experience, that\u2019s all a part of the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We caught up with Mike and his friends in\nTucson, Arizona, where the \u201cBelvedeX\u201d had just made another 1,500-mile trek to\nbring some Mopar muscle to Roadkill\u2019s Zip-Tie Drags<\/em>. While the long haul out the event was a simple cakewalk for the\nnow tried and true Belvedere, Mike had concocted plans of swapping in a fresh\n440, 4-speed and Dana rear end so the car could conquer in the Roadkill<\/em>-style racing showdown.\nUnfortunately, the days until the event dwindled and the \u201cto-do\u201d list continued\nto grow; there was no way all the problems that can arise with a fresh powertrain could be worked out before the show. Mike said \u201cto hell with it\u201d and took\nthe reliable (albeit somewhat tired) 383\/727 out for one last hoorah before\nswapping it out for the Super Track Pack combo, unafraid to brazenly beat on\nthat old big block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A lot of people may get their kicks dragging\ntheir pristinely polished Plymouth to a carshow, plopping down beside it in\na lawn chair and watching as the so-called \u201cexperts\u201d pick apart their six-figure\nrestoration; and that\u2019s totally fine. I\u2019ll admit I don\u2019t understand the appeal,\nbut those types probably don\u2019t understand the attraction of feeling the wind in\ntheir hair, the road beneath their feet and the satisfying sight of an\nclimbing odometer as they blast down a desert highway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rescuing this badass old Belvedere was already\ntoo cool, but taking it upon himself to make up for the Mopar\u2019s lost time by\nthrashing out over 3,000 miles worth of adventures in just a matter of months\nis truly Roadkill<\/em>! He didn\u2019t receive any ribbons, participation\ntrophies or special OEM certifications; just lots of good memories in a badass\nMopar, and isn\u2019t that what this hobby is all about? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abused, abandoned and alone; that\u2019s how thousands of Mopar\u00ae muscle cars spend their dwindling days as mother nature absorbs them into the earth. Of course, like most crusty classics left exposed to the public eye, this 1968 Plymouth Belvedere had a not-so-secret admirer. Mike Cunningham first caught wind of the car when a friend of his put it together as a weekend cruiser for his son to drive; but like many father-son projects, the beat-up Belvedere was quickly outgrown and unfortunately forgotten. The years ticked by, the weeds began to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":34823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[547,561],"class_list":["post-34787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-mopar","tag-restomod"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/roadtoroadkillbelvedexfeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34787"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34847,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions\/34847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}