Dean Berringer in Alberta, Canada has a 1969 Plymouth Satellite 318/A904 B7/F2Q/V1Q Mod Top.
The Fender Tag as submitted to this Registry:
20130 183168 9A184XXX 865 640 080 1Q 7X B7 B7 F2Q B7 RH23 E44 D31 C03 B06801
20130 183168 = Gate, Base and Line Sequence number from Lynch Road assembly plant; 9A184XXX: Last digits of VIN
865 = Last 3 digits of engine part number; 640 = Last 3 digits of axle part number; 080 = Last 3 digits of tranny part number
1Q = Blue/green floral vinyl roof; 7X = Black longitudinal paint accent stripe
B7 = Medium Dark Blue Metallic (listed twice in succession because this is not a two-tone car); F2Q = Turquoise vinyl bench seats with Blue/green floral material inserts; B7 = upper door frame paint color (dark blue metallic)
RH23 = Plymouth High Class 2-door Hardtop; E44 = 318 2bbl engine; D31 = A904 3-speed auto Torqueflite Transmission; C03 = Build date of December 3, 1968; B06801 = ???.
More info about the car as submitted to the Registry:
- Engine that came with the car originally? – 318
- Engine in the car now – 318
- Tranny that came originally? – 904
- Tranny in the car now? – 904
- Original Exterior color? – Not listed!
- Color now? – EB7 Jamaica Blue Metallic
- Interior seat color – F2Q Turquoise vinyl with mod (floral) inserts
More info from Dean:
This car was purchased in Lethbridge, Alberta by a young couple as their family car. They drove it every day and their daughter learned to drive in the car (although she was embarrased to be seen with her friends in the car). The car was used to tow their trailer on vacations and still had the dealer installed hitch on the car when I purchased it. I purchased the car from the origional owner for $250 because it was overheating, and he was tired of the car. It turns out that he had taken it in to a so-called reputable shop for a tune-up and they had pulled the intake and installed the aftermarket gaskets backwards which caused the car to overheat.
I am the second titled owner of this vehicle, and when I purchased the car, the top and seats were showing the years. I purchased a new top from legendary along with an interior for the car in 1991 and installed them (the door panels were in great shape), buffed and touched up the paint,detailed the engine compartment, and started to show the car. After 2 years of showing the car (and surprisingly taking home 2 trophies for it) it became time to redo the body on the car as rust was starting to appear on the rear edges of the lower quarters. A local Dodge dealership bodyshop was chosen and all of the car was disassembled and removed untill only the rear axle and springs remained.
The car was taken to the shop for repair and unfortunatly, my troubles began. The shop ruined the lower quarters when repairing the rust so badly that the curvature was lost and they were straight on the leading edges. They also painted the car in a blue that flipped to red-purple in the sunlight and was full of dirt and tiger-stripes, and got primer on the new vinyl roof. They agreed to repaint the car, but would not fix the body work or replace the roof. We could not reach an agreement, insurance replaced the vinyl with an NOS one that Legendary had found, and as a result the car sat in limbo for another 9 years (surprising how other projects and life get in the way).
2002-we finally had time to restart on the car, a new shop was selected and this time the car was soda blasted completly to remove all previous work and show any problems. The undercarriage was also stripped, and blasted at this time and all rusty areas sandblasted to remove all of the surface rust. A new MOPAR Only restoration shop was selected and a fresh restoration started. The previous shop had missed 2 spots of rust perforation in the right quarter panel, and as a result a reproduction quarter had to be installed along with a drivers door(previous accident). A custom blended color was made to exactly match the origional “Factory EB7 Blue” and we were off to the races – or so I thought.
The bodyshop was informed that "ALL" body panels must be neutralized with a vinegar solution and then metal prepped prior to applying any bodyfiller or paint. They did a very good job on the outer panels, but did not do well on the inside or undercarriage of the car. Also the paint chosen was from Dupont and requires a Vari-prime of the correct shade to be applied prior to putting on the base coat. I went out to check on the progress of the car (as I did several times per week) and was amazed that in the 2 days from when I last saw the car that the body was completly primed in a light grey primer. It looked very good, and the shop was getting ready to paint all of the internal panels etc. I went over the proceedure with the shop to make sure we had all bases covered and dropped off the Vari-prime and the base coat and clearcoat for them.
I went out 2 days later at the request of the shop to inspect the work and found that they had had trouble painting the small components of the car as vell as the trunk and underside of the hood. It turned out that they had forgotten to use the Vari-prime and had used up 6 of the 7 quarts of base coat that I had provided and had also gotten massive runs in the clear on every component as well as getting dirt on all of the horizontal surfaces. When they were pulling off the tape from the engine compartment, they pulled off primer as well (gee I guess we forgot to neutralize the surface).
To make a long story short, I had fronted them quite a large sum of money and they returned it all, and said they would not finish the car. I attempted to discuss it fruther and agreed to pay more just to get the car finished, however they refused, and I was left again with another shop that could not complete the car. The car was taken back the the sodablasters and all areas of the car where the paint was not adhering were stripped to bare metal once more. The car is currently awaiting time for me to finish the rest of the prep work so that it can go for another attempt at a paint job.
To top this off all of the trim (anodised) was sent out to a plating shop while the car was at the last body shop to be re anodised (this shop claimed to be capable of reproducing the correct finish on the aluminum). When it came back, however, it was dull and had black specks in it. The shop said that this was what I had ordered, however, when they were show an NOS piece that we had previously both agreed on as the baseline for what I required, they decided that they would have it redone. The result was a complety ruined trunk moulding and polished aluminum on all other surfaces(now they said they could not duplicate the factory anodising). $1100 later and now I am without mouldings and still not done. Well this is the "continuing saga" up to this point. I will keep you posted on my progress. Ther is some good points however, the powertrain, suspension, brakes, interior, rims and tires, and all other components are completed. Now all I need is some mouldings and a competant body shop and the car will be done! …
By the way this car came with a 2.76 81/4 axle, 318 engine, power steering, power brakes, radio, 7.75×14 white wall tires, a white body accent stripe, and full hubcaps. I have a bucket seat interior that Legendary reproduced for me along with a center arm rest that may find its way into the car if it is ever finally completed. This would make it the only bucket seat mod top satellite in existance – although not origional.
I have never seen another EB7 Mod Top Satellite. There was one other car sold new in Lethbridge at Fleming Motors and it was a twin to this car, however it was EB5 blue which is more common.
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The only other car that was sold locally that I am aware of was Rob Johnston’s car that is in the registry and is Alpine White and was sold new at Gardiner Motors in Medicine Hat, Alberta.Ironically my 1st car was a Satellite that my grandfather purchased new at Gardener Motors, and it was optioned almost identically to Rob’s car except it had a cloth interior and a painted EB7 blue roof. I owned that car from 1973-1977 and put 90,000 miles on it (it had only 6900 miles on it when I got it). I wish I had it now in the condition that I recieved it in
Last updated 7/9/2005 9:27:41 AM