SRT-8 Daytona Clone

[RIDELIKEHELL]

Saw this on FB This is Stellar Steve  What a build!

[Baldwinvette77]

Coming back to this thread after while to see all the progress is like waking up on Christmas morning 

[tan top]

good video !!   

[Stevearino]

That was awesome.  It would be nice to place a face with that build !!

I am no cinematographer but thanks. And a face? Do you need something to frighten small children?

Nice video!!   

Thanks. I wish I had an actual video camera instead of just a phone.

A well deserved break. You will feel much better when you start back in after.

I hope things go better in the next couple of weeks. I have been a one man wrecking crew over here. Good luck on your Texas adventure.

Right back at you ws23rt.

The last task of the day before I quit early today was to bed the windshield. Also in the picture is the trouble making cowl cover that conceals the wiper motor.

Not sure if it would look right because of the hood lines but... A raised cowl induction (even if not very tall would allow you to extend the hood in the back and conseal the motor. You could alo conceal the washer sprayers under it. Granted it's not OEM but if it's done right you could also include an air grabber in it too. Just not sure how to make the hood scallops follow in.

I am okay with what I have going there. The only problem was when I did not take enough care to re install the panel. Thanks for the ideas though. You never know if I will have the energy to build another.

nice video 

I would have liked to have shot video all along but I still don't have a proper camera.

Saw this on FB This is Stellar Steve  What a build!

Yeah. That is where I started to post the build and it went a little viral back in February and got a little nuts for a while. It has calmed back down now so that is good. Thanks for the compliment.

Coming back to this thread after while to see all the progress is like waking up on Christmas morning 

At least on Christmas morning you know you are done spending money for a while. :smilielol:How are your Mad Max builds coming along? I haven't kept up with your thread lately sorry to say.

good video !!   

Thanks tantop.

Well a small update. I am out of town visiting my mom for here 84th birthday but last week I finally contacted the NCDMV to send an inspector out to look at the car. They said it would be more than a week before they could come out and would call me. Drip drip drip.  On the side glass the bad news is that the guy who sold me the glass is out of business. When I bought them they were extras that he had made for the cars in "Drive Angry" and "Fast and Furious 7". I had hoped he would have an extra I could get. They were $500 each when I bought them. I had wanted to get tempered glass but the best quote I could get was $5000. So I settled and hoped for the best. There is a vendor in Georgia that I talked to at the Auto Fair 2 years ago after I had already gotten the laminated side glass. He said he could make me two pieces of tempered for $1000 a piece. He was an older fellow and seemed like he was semi retired so i have not contacted him as of yet. I did however look up his business on the internet and it said it was still in operation. Then I read two reviews . One bad and the second said" Absolutely the rudest people I have ever dealt with in my entire life".    So there is that. I then went on the hunt for someone who could make me a replacement for the curved laminated piece that I damaged.  2 vendors. One in Pennsylvania and one in Vancouver.......Not good. The one in Pa. wanted $2000 for one piece of glass.  I then found out that Cinema Vehicles in La. had bought out the glass company that had supplied me the glass in the first place. I talked to the glass shop foreman and he said he would look in inventory and try to help me out. I had called him last Tuesday and hope that he will get back to me..........the saga continues.

[taxspeaker]

Like reading a good book-you never want to put this one down. Thanks for taking us along on the ride Steve and keep it coming. This could be a best seller "50 shades of grey Daytona" would sell as a title!

[Mike DC]

 
I'm kind of surprised that removing the vent windows from a 68-70 isn't already a popular mod in general.  Other muscle cars of the period were doing it.  NASCAR guys did it.  It looks good. 

[4spdwing]

Been following your build.. Just incredible.. Looking forward to seeing some videos on the road

[Stevearino]

Like reading a good book-you never want to put this one down. Thanks for taking us along on the ride Steve and keep it coming. This could be a best seller "50 shades of grey Daytona" would sell as a title!

That's a good one.

 
I'm kind of surprised that removing the vent windows from a 68-70 isn't already a popular mod in general.  Other muscle cars of the period were doing it.  NASCAR guys did it.  It looks good.

I am too and a little disappointed I was not able to do it 100% correctly with tempered glass. That would have made me a lot happier but sometimes a compromise is necessary. I should have tried harder to find a piece of standard glass that would have done the job or used the front half of a 71 Charger roof to build this car. That way I could have at least used the side glass from that car.

Been following your build.. Just incredible.. Looking forward to seeing some videos on the road

Well I am looking forward to driving it also if the NCDMV would cooperate. It took me 2 weeks to get an inspector out for a final look to convert my inoperable title to operable so I could begin the process of tagging it. If you will recall when I started this project the 68 Charger was bought from Georgia which sold vehicles with a bill of sale from the dealers up until the early 80's. No problem. I just had to go to my insurance company and take out a bond in case there was a claim against the vehicle because a possible theft in it's past. I then was able to secure the inoperable title. The inspector that came out at that time (2012) said to call him out again when the car was able to be started and could move under it's own power. I worked very hard towards this goal which took nearly 2 years. In 2014 I called and that inspector had been moved out of this district and I got the number of his replacement. He came out and was not sure of what to make of the car. He never the less took pictures and said when he got back to the office he would send the paper work to Raleigh N.C. and I would have my operable title in 6 weeks. After 20 minutes I get a call from him saying that he showed the pictures to his boss and was told the law had been changed and that the car had to be completely road worthy to finish the titling.  So last Thursday another inspector shows up.........in a 2006 Dodge Charger.....I said to myself uh..oh.   He looked very concerned and puzzled. I explained the build but in the end he took pictures of all my documents and said he would have to consult with his boss about whether or not it should be titled as a 68 or an 06. He was however going from my house straight away to his vacation and wouldn't be back in the office for 10 days.
I have been assured by a guy who recently went through this with a kit car Cobra that the law requires that the body be the indicator of the year the car is titled as. We will see...........

  So after much nail biting I got the rear window trim on the back glass. What a pain that was. I was sure more broken glass or dented trim molding was in my future.

The good news is that the company that made my door glass was sold to a company that still has the mold and is willing to make me a replacement for $500. Hopefully that will go well. I will have to ship the existing glass to them for an exact trim fit but for now I am going to leave it in the car and finish out the jambs and sill work.

The back seat area is done and thank goodness the seat folds down because I have to go into the trunk and replace my fuel filler line. I chose silicone hose on the recommendation of the NAPA salesman for the filler tube  Because it has to travel so far across the wheel tub some gas was laying in the tube and the fumes in the trunk were frightening. Turns out the silicone tube is a bit permeable. I got the gas that was laying in the tube to drain out and the smell went away immediately but some custom stainless steel line is in order.

I also got the front windshield moldings in place. Another nail biter as this was my second windshield.

[Fin Day]

Everytime i look at your pics i find something i haven´t noticed before 
Have you kept book of the hours spent so far ?
There is some true craftmanship in this build....or magic 

[djcarguy]

     

[garner7555]

this thread never gets old...  I'm excited to see it finished but I will also miss watching this build take shape.        

[dave14]

Very nice Steve your doing things I never considered..... new and old is looking pretty damn good Ide be happy with a/c and cup holders behind the pistol grip in the console....but maybe we all gotta do more ?  Keep it up we need to see this thing moving  !!!!

[tsmithae]

What did you use to blackout the trim? I was toying with the idea of doing that on mine...

[Stevearino]

Everytime i look at your pics i find something i haven´t noticed before 
Have you kept book of the hours spent so far ?
There is some true craftmanship in this build....or magic 

Over the top for sure with those remarks but I appreciate them non-the-less Fin Day.

   

Thanks for the string of emojis djcarguy. They are appreciated.

this thread never gets old...  I'm excited to see it finished but I will also miss watching this build take shape.        

I wish I had something lined up to do behind it but it looks like painting my house is next. 

Very nice Steve your doing things I never considered..... new and old is looking pretty damn good Ide be happy with a/c and cup holders behind the pistol grip in the console....but maybe we all gotta do more ?  Keep it up we need to see this thing moving  !!!!

Thanks dave14.  Having the new Charger platform to work with was awesome. I love the way old looks but l really love the way new rides.

What did you use to blackout the trim? I was toying with the idea of doing that on mine...

First I glass beaded the stainless to give it some tooth. I then sprayed it with SEM black self etching primer. I then finished it with SEM Trim Black. Got them both at the auto paint supply in spray bombs. The stuff is really durable and dries to a very uniform satin finish without a build up. Some guys skip the self etching primer but why not go the extra step?

[ACUDANUT]

Steve, when is your first planned road trip ? 

[Charger_Fan]

Congrats on getting your front & rear windows in! I'm sure you are breathing a sigh of relief, now that those are done. Best of luck with the DMV dude.

[moparstuart]

Ian got a package from you today  ,  from Hendricks Way address  he was thilled    THANK YOU 

[Stevearino]

Steve, when is your first planned road trip ? 

That depends non NCDMV. Whenever they get done sorting out whether it is a 68 or an 06 and complete the operable title work it will be at least 6 weeks from that point. I haven't heard from them yet. It has been a week and a half.

Congrats on getting your front & rear windows in! I'm sure you are breathing a sigh of relief, now that those are done. Best of luck with the DMV dude.

Well it is certainly good to know that  new Vega glass can be had for about $300 if something should go wrong but lets hope this glass has another 40 years in it.

Ian got a package from you today  ,  from Hendricks Way address  he was thilled    THANK YOU 

Wish I was closer to get in on the fun that project is going to be. I think it needs a rat nose and wing


Well this weekend was a challenge that I was going to give up on except for the fact that even when the passenger seat was run all the way forward there was no way to get into the back seat. I had determined that I was going to make the seat tilt forward but when I looked at it I wasn't sure it could be done. After seeing that access was impossible without a tilt forward I took it back out and gave it a second look.

The seat back is held on by two bolts on each side. By removing the lower one the upper one becomes a pivot point. Since it was designed to be tightened I replaced the top bolts with sleeve bolts and nyloc nuts so as to leave the pivot loose while still tightening the bolts.

I then clearanced the lower bolt hole so that the lower bolt threaded partially in would act as a stop when the seat back was in the upright position.
I put a lock nut on the back side of the partially threaded lower bolt to keep it from backing out.

There are wires running up into the seat back so I drilled a couple of holes and tie wrapped them in such a way as to not get them caught in the pivot.

[Stevearino]

I then made up two brackets out of 1"x 1" steel angle and attached them to the lower seat back.

I had some spiral return springs that would slip nicely over some .125 wall 3/4" steel tube.

I then made two end pieces that could be bolted to the "L" brackets out of 2 bolts that sleeve nicely into the tube.

On the bolts and on the tube I welded tabs to capture the spring ends which I had been bent to 90 degrees.

[Stevearino]

The bolts ended up being a little two long in the tube and were causing a little drag so I shortened them up to about 2" and then place the assembly between the "L" brackets.

Once I was satisfied with the location of the tube I welded the ends to the "L" brackets to keep them from rotating leaving the center section to rotate and return with the springs.

I then welded another 3/4" tube with brackets to the lower section of the seat. After that was done I cut two hooks out of 3/16" flat steel. I rotated the center shaft to put it under tension and welded the hooks to the shaft.

I then added a "U" shaped handle so the whole thing could be rotated.

[Stevearino]

With the hooks in a locked position I welded in a piece of 3/8" tubing to act as a stop on the rotation of the hooks so that when the seat back is lowered the shape of the bottom of the hook rolls the hooks open to then grab around the lower bar.

I then removed the entire device to paint it.

There is a side cover for all the switches to the seat which had to be modified in order for the seat back to rotate past it. I trimmed about an inch off of the rear side.

There were three attachment points for the plastic side cover and the rear was attached to the seat back so the plastic stud that located the screw had to be cut off.

Using a little double stick tape I placed the cut off stud temporarily to its old screw location.

[Stevearino]

Using the plastic stud as a guide I made a new steel tab for the attachment point which was welded to the seat base . I then removed the plastic stud.

A bit of plastic had to be trimmed from the top side of the plastic cover in order to allow the side of the seat back to rotate forward without pinching the upholstery.

The seat belt catch is attached to the other side of the seat and so that the wires for that would not catch in the pivot I had to create more slack by moving the plug for those wires closer to the back of the seat.

I then put the painted seat catch assembly back on the seat back.

[Stevearino]

Finally the seat was installed in the car. This picture shows it all the way forward on the rails but I ran it back and I can still get into the back seat area .

So I never gave it much thought but the car did not have a spare and jack set up. I thought it went missing before I got the car. Nope. Turns out the SRT-8 came with a small air compressor and a can of fix a flat. There is not enough room in the spare tire area for a 20" spare. 17" is max. Problem is the 17" will not fit over the front brakes. There are several solutions to this problem that I read about but the one I chose is to get the 17" spare and if a front tire goes flat put one of the rears on the front and use the donut for the rear. It is really funny to me that I am trying very hard to be diligent in trying to keep this car to factory standards ,as much as that is possible, only to find out that the factory cut corners.
Another surprise to me during the exploration of what to do about the front seat tilt was in looking at a Challenger the only way you could sit in the back seat is if you were a double amputee. There is about 4" between the back of the front seat and the front of the lower cushion.

Also one of the few things to go smoothly was me finding short enough wiper blades to attach to the modified arms I had made. So shocked.

I put in a new battery. $200 for that sucker but that is what doctor Dodge prescribed.

[cdr]

Your talent to re engineer  things & then actually make it work is amazing, GREAT JOB !!!!!            

[Stevearino]

Your talent to re engineer  things & then actually make it work is amazing, GREAT JOB !!!!!            

You don't see all the stuff that goes into the trash CDR or you would not be so amazed. Thanks again for the compliment.