1969 Dodge Super Bee
The one that almost got away (twice) survived to shine again
08/23/2018
If a teenage John Hofmann had consulted a Magic 8 Ball about his future with this 1969 Dodge Super Bee, the response might've been: "Outlook not so good."
Of course, the thing is totally random anyway—a 20-sided chunk of plastic bobbing around in a ball full of colored liquid—so, it could've just as easily said: "Reply hazy try again," or "You may rely on it."
The funny thing is, all of those responses would've been correct.
In more than 40 years of ownership, a lot can happen between a guy and his car. Nobody knows that better than John. He's covered the full gamut of highs, lows, and in-betweens: desperately wanting to own this Super Bee, struggling to acquire it, fretting over its upkeep, losing it, getting it back, losing it again…
Today, it's better than new, the product of an extensive two-year project performed by Super Car Restorations in Clymer, Pennsylvania, which wrapped up in November 2016. This car leads a charmed life today, getting driven maybe 100 miles a year and according to John, admired several times a week. It's probably the life that John imagined since first falling in love with the car in the early 1970s. But, as we mentioned, the journey from there to here hasn't been straightforward.
This F3 Light Green Metallic, 383, four-speed Super Bee was purchased new at Ewell Dodge in Glen Burnie, Maryland, in late 1969 by a Mr. Orville Ford. The Fords lived in Baltimore Highlands, not far from where John grew up. Their Super Bee was a regular sight in the neighborhood and caught John's attention.
"I used to see the car being driven by a petite blonde with a baby (and baby seat) in the back, and I was taken by the car's great color, scoops on the hood, and bumblebee stripe around the rear," John said.
One night after dropping off his date, John spotted that very same Super Bee parked in front of the Fords' house. And yikes… it was for sale.
"I came down the road and there was the Super Bee (I'd already named her Beatrice) on the side of the road with a 'for sale' sign in her window. I stopped and looked at her closely. Orville came out suspecting that someone was trying to break into her, and we had a conversation there beside the car at midnight."
John, a college student at the time, commuting to school from his parents' place, had no idea how he was going to make this deal happen. But, Orville needn't know that particular detail. So, John just confidently told Orville, he'd buy it.
"I actually took his for sale sign out of the window and put it on the floor of the car," John said. "Over the next few days, I plotted and planned, scraped my money together and had to figure out how to convince my father to let me purchase the car. I had to convince him that it was a good idea to sell the family's practical four-door '68 Plymouth Belvedere that I was driving and buy this instead."
As you can imagine, John's dad didn't share his son's enthusiasm for buying one of Dodge's low-buck street brawlers and using it as a daily driver.
"My father was not happy with my plan," John said. "He told me that he wouldn't even consider having a conversation about the Super Bee until I sold two of our family's vehicles, one of which was the '68 Belvedere—my only means of transportation."
No problem, John thought, and he found new owners for both cars in one week (which left him without a vehicle). But like any good parent, John's dad was keeping the upper hand in these talks.
"After multiple conversations, promises of a lifetime of lawn mowing, home repairs, and driving my mother to the grocery store, not to mention convincing my father that the four-speed and air scoops would get me better gas mileage than an automatic, he agreed with one last condition."
That condition? John's dad wasn't willing to pay one dime more to insure the '69 Super Bee than he'd paid to insure the four-door '68 Belvedere. This would force John to get a little more creative.
"I impersonated my father on the phone with the insurance agent asking for a quote, telling him that it was a '69 Coronet with a 'stick shift,' John said. "I was able to get a quote that was almost the same as my dad was already paying. At one point the insurance agent said, 'Mr. Hofmann you have a very youthful voice.' I told him, 'Everyone tells me that' and kept on with the request for a quote. I think the insurance agent knew it wasn't my father on the phone, but he had mercy on me. Anyway, I had jumped all the hurdles and was finally able to purchase the car."
In May of 1974, Orville Ford wrote out a bill of sale for $1,200, and 19-year-old John, a sophomore at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, became the proud owner of a '69 Super Bee with 32,000 miles on the clock.
"Proud" might not be the right adjective, though. How about 'mildly obsessed'?
"I changed the oil every 1,000 miles and washed it every day —this is not an exaggeration—when the weather permitted," John said. "I washed and waxed the engine and engine compartment. If I was on a date at a restaurant, we'd have to sit at a table where I could watch the car out the window. And, I really preferred if passengers would wipe, or in some cases remove, their shoes before getting into the car."
Unfortunately, John couldn't keep vigil over the Super Bee every minute and, a year after he bought it, the car was stolen while he was working at his part-time job.
"I had all my college books and notes, as well as a few Christmas gifts, in the trunk. Fortunately, the thief left the car parked in a residential neighborhood four miles from where it was stolen with no damage," John said. The next year, thieves nabbed the Super Bee again and led police on a high-speed chase. Remarkably the car made it through the ordeal in one piece.
In 1977, John pulled the Super Bee off of daily-driver duty and replaced it with a 1971 Plymouth Satellite. Selling the Super Bee was out of the question, and John hauled it around to five different homes. Finally, in 2014, he turned it over to Jamie Cooper and Joe Griffith at Super Car Restoration.
The crew at Super Car began disassembling the Super Bee in early 2015, and stripped the car to bare sheetmetal with a combination of media blasting, chemical stripping, and sanding. While the body hadn't been lost to rust, corrosion had dug into some of the typical trouble spots. Panel work included replacing the quarters and trunk floor as well as front sections of the interior floor pans. The front frame sections and inner fender areas required repair, as did the fenders and doors—much of which was done with hand-fabricated pieces.
The Super Bee's original 335-hp 383 was rebuilt to stock specs and breathes today through its original intake and 630-cfm Carter AVS. Side scoops are 1969-vintage, though not original to this car. Ditto for the hubcaps. The car now rolls on 15-inch steel wheels shod with F70-15 Goodyear Redline tires.
Once the metalwork was complete, the Super Bee's body was shot with PPG DP90 LV epoxy primer. Next, the Super Car crew smoothed out the sheetmetal with Evercoat Rage filler and, after block sanding, applied two coats of PPG VP2100 polyester primer. Once the polyester was blocked smooth, it was followed by an application of ECP urethane primer surfacer. After more block sanding, the body was sealed with PPG ESC sealer. Three coats of PPG waterborne Envirobase, mixed to match the original F3 Light Green Metallic, was then applied, followed by four coats of clear. To bring out the shine, nine grades of Meguiars Unigrit sandpaper were used, ranging from 600 to 5,000, followed by buffing.
As the body took shape, the original 383 was rebuilt to stock-specs by Albert Gilliam at Albert's Automotive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Albert's also rebuilt the four-speed transmission, while Dave Reid, from Latrobe, renewed the rear axle inside and out. The chassis was updated with new rear leaf springs and new shocks at all four corners—the Super Bee's original front torsion bars were restored and replaced.
Inside, a lot of original parts were cleaned up and reused, including the dash pad, door panels, and rear seat. The carpet, front bucket seat covers, as well as the headliner and rear package tray, were replaced in-house by Super Car Restorations.
If we asked the Magic 8 Ball today about John and his Super Bee, we'd expect the response to be nothing less than: "Outlook is good." This show-stopping perfection was a long time coming, but John says it was worth all the negotiating, the worrying and the wait.
"I kept the car through thick and thin over the past 44 years," he said. "Some things in life don't come easy, but if you stay focused and don't give in to discouragement, you can overcome and have a great story to tell."
OWNER'S VIEW
I've never grown tired of this car—it was part of the heart and soul of my youth. It took so much effort and angst to get it, that I never wanted to beat it or do anything to injure it. I babied it and never drag raced it, though I did have one race (which I won) on interstate I-95 with a Camaro coming up from Washington, D.C. I was often accused of granny-shifting and not driving it for the muscle car that it was. That was fine with me. Super Car Restorations is the only place I would consider taking this car to for a restoration. Today, it looks, accelerates, drives, and handles better than new. —John Hofmann
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Rather than a lightweight sports car, the Aston Martin V8 is better considered a GT car, which seems to have a lot in common with American muscle cars. Even with aluminum body panels, the rather substantial Aston had a curb weight just a hair over 4,000 pounds, making it several hundred pounds heavier than a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T. It’s worth noting that despite being measurably smaller than the Charger, both cars share very similar proportions, with their long hoods, fastback rooflines, and short rear decks. An even closer comparison comes in the form of a ‘67 Ford Mustang, again with similar proportions but also the Aston having a wheelbase and overall length, width, and height very close to the American pony car.
The 1978 Aston Martin V8 is frequently referred to as a Series 3 since it was derived from the DBS, a model that launched in 1967 with an inline-six engine that was followed by the DBS V8, with a fuel-injected V8 engine. Both versions of the DBS were sold alongside each other into 1972, when, during the model year, the simply named V8 model supplanted both. With an updated front end that included a grille shape more reminiscent of Aston Martins past and a pair of headlamps rather than four, these interims V8s were considered Series 2 cars.
In 1973, Aston Martin dumped what had turned out to be a problematic mechanical fuel-injection system, instead opting for four Weber carburetors for its 5.3-liter V8. Multiple carburetion gives it good company with the likes of a Mopar 440 Six-Pack or Pontiac Tri-Power. That carburetor setup required additional hood clearance that resulted in the large scoop worn by such cars, though it was non-functional in terms of letting in any additional air to the intake.
The rest of the engine department takes a big departure from the standard American iron-block, overhead-valve setup. Aston Martin’s V8 featured all-aluminum construction and dual overhead camshafts on each cylinder head, driven by dual chains. Yes, it had hemispherical combustion chambers, even with just two valves per cylinder. Engineers specced a forged crankshaft and forged chrome-moly connecting rods.
Output for 1978 was estimated at 310 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque—pretty substantial numbers for a car built during the oil crisis era and before engineers had leveraged electronic fuel injection to win the battle against emissions regulations. In accordance with its muscle car vibe, most AM V8s of the period were equipped with a TorqueFlite three-speed automatic, complete with Mopar factory ratios of 2.45:1, 1:45:1 and 1:1, along with a limited-slip rear differential. A 3.31 final-drive ratio was standard, with 3.54:1 optional. A five-speed manual was available.
Distinctions from Detroit grow once you step inside an Aston Martin V8, which was essentially a handmade car, with very low production numbers. Each of the four seats was covered in leather, a material that extended to the door trim, steering wheel, shift knob and even the center console surround. Carpets were wool. Given its high price and object of luxury aspirations, each car was also packed with plenty of sound insulation to isolate occupants from road noise. Power assistance for the brakes and steering was standard, as were air conditioning, power windows and power locks.
With a 0-60 mph time of “about six seconds,” according to Aston Martin literature of the time, along with a top speed over 150 mph, the AM V8 was in nearly a class by itself. Torque wasn't quite like that of an unrestrained big block American V8 from the peak muscle car era, but the Aston Martin’s V8 engine still delivered power with a swift rush towards a redline over 5,000 rpm, though no such actual red line is indicated on the tach. Suspension included unequal-length control arms up front with an anti-roll bar and De Dion rear axle with parallel trailing arms and watt linkage in the rear. Coil spring were at all four wheels, as were disc brakes, with the rear disc inboard. Not designed to tackle a tight road course, the AM V8 was still noted as a competent high-speed handler.
This 1978 Aston Martin V8 Series 3 features a silver metallic body with a red leather interior. The selling dealer indicates that it was purchased from the second owner who it is believed purchased it from the original owner as he aged out of driving in his 90s. The car appears to have been very well maintained, with the seller sharing that the engine, transmission, paint, body and interior are all “highly original.”
Other information to note on this AMV8 are a slew of services performed last fall, including a “full tune-up,” rebuilt carburetors, new spark plugs and filters, new battery and an alternator rebuild. Everything is asserted to be functioning properly with the car seemingly ready to drive anywhere.
As one of less than 1,000 Series 3 examples made, this 1978 Aston Martin V8 coupe offers a uniquely British take on big V8 performance in a midsize car—a muscle car, but with a different accent.
Head on over to Hemmings Auctions and take a closer look for yourself.
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