Chris' 1968 Charger Upgrades 6/13 Bunch of updates, done uploading

[Chris 69]

Next was fitting-up US Car Tool's support to my stock lower core. The process took me about 4-hours of modifying/bending my stock support, and performing minor modifications to US Car Tool's brace.

My stock support was twisted, bent, split, etc. and took alot of "massaging" to get it strait. But I finally got it acceptably strait.

Here's photos of marking up where the welds will take place, and after sanding the paint off with 80-grit sanding wheel on my 4" angle grinder. A Dremel was used for the tight spots.

[Chris 69]

Next was clamping the US Car Tool piece to the stock support (gave me a reason to buy more clamps from Home Depot!)

[Chris 69]

Next was welding....

Still learning to weld thin stuff, right now I'm "Youtube certified". Actually, there's many very helpful videos on Youtube.

Note the grille support bracket is welded-in as well.

[Chris 69]

Next was painting, nothing fancy, just white Rustoleum I had on the shelf.

Painting the entire car is realistically at least 5-6 years out.

It's obvious that the addition of the support has added significant strength to the front end.

[Chris 69]

While the other brackets were out of the car, I took the opportunity to paint those as well. Reassembly will happen sometime this week as time permits.

I'll post more photos when I pick up the motor on Tuesday.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Looking good!

I added the same radiator brace a while back as well. Definitely beefs up the front end.  

[fy469rtse]

Looks great Chris, great upgrades,
Don't feel bad about not being able to paint it yet, once that engine is in you will get to enjoy this car, I envy you, but was scared if I put it on the road in primer would never get paint on it

[Homerr]

Looks great!

Sounds like the next 5-6 years are gonna be some fun times.

[Chris 69]

Thanks guys. This project has been fun and challenging, and I can't wait to get the Charger back on the road!

Big news today: I finally got the 440 from the shop! See photos in following posts.

First, here's a photo of the front end put back together after welding in the lower radiator core support brace.

[Chris 69]

Here's photos of the motor:

1. At the shop.
2. In my truck.
3. In the garage.

Plans are as follows:

Before friday: Install valve covers, distributor, fuel pump, water pump, exhaust manifolds, other stuff...
Friday: Align the 4-speed bell housing.
Saturday/Sunday: Install the motor and 4-speed.

Maybe the car will be running by Monday!

[Bob T]

Big Weekend planned then! Cool.

Its been a good read so far, looking forward to the first set of 11's up the street!

[Chris 69]

Big Weekend planned then! Cool.

Its been a good read so far, looking forward to the first set of 11's up the street!

Yep, big weekend! I'm even planning to take Monday and Tuesday off from work to have more time to get the Charger up and running. I'll provide thread updates throughout the weekend.

[Chris 69]

My dad came up to help, and we spent the last 4-days working on the Charger. The end result is the entire driveline is installed. The remaining work before I can try starting the 440 is hooking up all the wires, tubing, and auxillary devices.

Here's photos from this weekend.

First was a runout check. With the standard dowels installed, runout was out of spec. Which meant the standard dowels had to be pulled, and offset dowels installed. 0.021" offset dowels were required.

[Chris 69]

The standard dowels presented another issue. While the motor was being built, I purchased some standard offset dowels and drilled and tapped them for easy removal, with the assumption offset dowels would be required. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell the motor shop to remove the installed (not drilled and tapped) standard dowels.

After breaking a couple drill bits in the standard dowels, we decided to weld a threaded rod on each dowel to pull them out. See photos. Both dowels were removed and replaced with offset dowels.

[Chris 69]

Then installed as much as we could on the motor with it out of the car, it was ready to be installed!

[Chris 69]

Then pushed the car partway out of the garage to make enough room for the hoist. This was the first time the car has moved in a few months.

Here's photos of the motor install.

Prior to installation, we mounted the transmission to the bellhousing to verify whether or not the transmission input shaft would need to be shortened. Fortunately, the hole in the 440 crank was drilled deep enough. No input shaft modifications were required.

[Chris 69]

Then installed the pilot bearing in the crank. In hindsight, it would have been easier to install the bearing with the engine out of the car. Once the bearing was in we test-fit the transmission again to make sure there were no issues. Everything fit fine.

One problem became apparent when test-fitting the the transmission. The exhaust balancing pipe was located under the transmission, and the location conflicted with installation. Ended up cutting out the balancing pipe. Ill weld plugs on each side for now, but a visit to the muffler shop will be required.

Then installed the clutch.

Photos:
1. Clutch pressure plate.
2. Pivot point for the clutch fork.

[Chris 69]

Next was transmission installation.

1. Installed the throw-out bearing. Found it challenging to install on the clutch fork, but once we figured out the proper "technique" it was easy to get the bearing retainer clips to snap onto the fork.

2. Had to remove the hurst likage to install the transmission. As a result, once the transmission was installed, we had to re-setup the linkage. One thing, I am planning to not weld in the 4-speed hump. For future adjustments of the shifter linkage, I'm planning to figure out how to make it removable, but not look like a jerry-rigged installation. Any Suggestions?

3. We got the transmission close to the bellhousing, then used the mounting bolts to pull it the rest of the way in.

[Chris 69]

Then decided to add transmission fluid, and found out the hard way that the driveshaft has to be installed in order to seal the back end of the transmission. (Ended up pumping in the gear oil then found myself laying in the pool of oil that drained out the back of the transmission  )

After that episode (and a shower), installed the drivesaft loop from US Car Tool, then the driveshaft.

Note that to install the driveshaft loop, I had to cut off the automatic transmission mounting piece on the trans cross member.

Here's the driveshaft loop.

[Chris 69]

Finally this morning, we bled the brakes. Other than finding a couple break lines I forgot to tighten during the disc brake conversion, brake beeding went fairly smooth.

As of tonight, I've got about a day or so of work to install the wires, accessories, etc. before starting the motor.

[fy469rtse]

Good job Chris , ye are now christened in the royal fluid, don't worry we've all been there, last time for me was trans fluid,
If you want make that trans hump removable, I would copy the mating surface of hump, that then would be the ring that would reinforce that hole , re welded in , sit hump back over , drill through both and then install riv nuts,
That way if you wear out any threads or accidentally cross thread any , easily cut off and new one installed,
I loved the dialling in of centre line of trans , don't see that enough 

[Chris 69]

Good job Chris , ye are now christened in the royal fluid, don't worry we've all been there, last time for me was trans fluid,
If you want make that trans hump removable, I would copy the mating surface of hump, that then would be the ring that would reinforce that hole , re welded in , sit hump back over , drill through both and then install riv nuts,
That way if you wear out any threads or accidentally cross thread any , easily cut off and new one installed,
I loved the dialling in of centre line of trans , don't see that enough  

Thanks fy469rtse, that is a great way to attach the "removable" hump. Plan is to install the hump once the car is running. After adjusting the linkage with the trans installed, that area is just too valuable to lose access to by permanently (welding) installing the hump.

If I get a full day next weekend to work on the car, I should be able have the car ready to run.

[Chris 69]

Finally, the motor and transmission are ready to run!

I have a friend coming over tomorrow at 7:00am to help get the car going. Haven't tried starting it yet.

[Chris 69]

Almost had today completely derailed by garage door failure though...

[Chris 69]

Well, the Charger is up and running and I've been driving it for a couple weeks! Only stalled it twice so far - both times in my driveway.

Starting the motor went "fairly" smoothly. Had a friend come over to help. Went through my pre-start checklist, tried to fire it, wouldn't start. After some investigation, we determined that I had the distributor 180 degrees out. Flipped the distributor and the charger fired right up.

Here's a video of the motor running for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqoYxpeldzM


Here's a photo of the Charger out of the garage for the first time since mid-January earlier this year