Project 50 Charger

[Drache]

Anyone else following this project in Mopar Muscle Mag?

[JB400]

To put this politely:

[Alaskan_TA]

If this is #50, I really do not want to see the first 49.

[Daytona R/T SE]

The drawing is disgustingly hideous.

I'm sure the appearance of the actual car will spiral downward from that point.

The car would be better off going out in a blaze of glory blasting it's way over a creek with the Dixie horns blaring.

Just one more reason to not renew my subscription to that vile rag.  

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The drawing is disgustingly hideous.

And that's putting it mildly.

[GordonGriggs]

I remember when Evel Knievel broke the arm of a writer that said bad things about  him. Where is Justice today for the poor charger that must endure being mutilated like this?

[mightywing7]

Yikes!! 

[RallyeMike]

Hmmm...... Are they angling up the dutchman panel, or just an artists error?

Other than the orange on the wheels, I think its not too bad. It's definitely not a copycat, "that's been done a hundred times before" car.

Anyone know what the "50" stands for?

[polywideblock]

50 lashes to the guy that designed it   

[Drache]

Well, we're at it again. We have decided to undertake another project car here at Mopar Muscle. We must be gluttons for punishment, as there seems to be a never-ending string of cars in disrepair coming to our world headquarters for us to work on. It could be worse -- if we didn't have any project cars, we would be forced to stay in the office all day.

This time, however, it's not going to be built by yours truly, or Tech Editor Dave Young. This time, our intrepid Publisher Rob "Whatcha-mean-left-turns-aren't-always-required" Fisher felt that he needed to experience working on his first Mopar. Cut him some slack -- it might be his first Mopar, but he's the office type, and since he does have a history working with a NASCAR team or two, just guess what the final result of this car will be... From the discussions we've had in the office, the consensus is that when the car is done, things might get a little out of control from time to time.

Since we're letting Rob finally get his hands dirty, in regards to wrenching, anyway -- after all, he is from Jersey -- we asked him what he wanted to build, and this is what he told us: "I always wanted to build a big car that would out-handle a Ferrari, out-accelerate a Porsche, and have a top speed that would make Richard Petty flash his trademark smile in approval."

    In the end this car will be one of the nastiest, wildest builds ever. it will be tested, raced, and driven...hard

Since he knew the completed outcome of his vision (Editor's note: He gets the visions in his mind, and all I get are these voices, but I digress), the plan was to locate the proper car and let him go at it. It turns out, that was the easy part. We'll let Rob fill you in:

"My love for Dodge Chargers started in 1979 when I was 10 years old. That year was season one of The Dukes of Hazzard, and my second favorite part of that show (next to Daisy) quickly became that orange Charger. I fell for that car the moment I saw it flying through the air chasing Roscoe in the first episode. From that moment on, I wanted to own the legendary Dodge Charger.

"Fast forward some 33 years, and Mopar Muscle's Tech Editor Dave Young is standing in my office telling me that his good friend Matt has a Charger for sale. Seems Matt had a project car that he didn't have time to work on, and wanted out of his shop. I went over to look at it and found that what Matt had was a shell of a 1969, along with a 'parts' car of the same year. The parts car looked like something only Fred Flintstone could drive, but fortunately, the shell had a clean title. It was a 318 car with air conditioning, and Matt still had most of the glass. The car was rescued from the crusher (literally) by the guy Matt got the car from, but it was a solid piece. We settled on a price and I took both cars home.

"Feral cats had made the car their 'home' if you catch my drift, prompting me to refer to my new acquisition as 'Pussy Galore' (quit your snickering). Now safely in the Mopar Muscle shop, we sat about putting a plan together. Why not build a classic Dodge Charger with all the modern amenities and performance you can find in a late-model car? Thus was born Project 50 -- a 50-state-legal '69 Dodge Charger. The ultimate goal is to have people walk by the car and say, 'Wow what a nice Charger,' before doing a double take when they realize the car sits just a little lower and the tires are a little wider. When the hood is popped, they are greeted with a modern marvel of power and performance. In the end this car will be one of the nastiest, wildest builds ever. It will be tested, raced, and driven...hard. It's our hope that you guys even learn a few things from this build that can make it into your own projects. This Charger is the perfect vehicle (pun intended). It's a blank slate, a shell, so we are not altering anything of extreme value. Heck, we don't even have the original K-member."

So there you have it, the car is acquired, and the outline is conceived. Now all we need to do is carry out this amalgamation of old and new, drive the wheels off of it, and hopefully -- just hopefully -- Rob will let us re-enact his second favorite part of The Dukes of Hazzard with his car when we're done. What could possibly go wrong?

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1309-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-introduction/

[Drache]

When we last saw Project 50, things looked a little sparse. Heck, who are we trying to kid? There wasn't much left of it. We had just gotten it back from the mediablaster, and now we can finally tackle the metal replacement. Since the rear of the car is receiving the most work, we're going to start there.

But before we get into that, I'm sure many of you are wondering how we can cut away so much metal and not worry about the body becoming flimsy. If not properly supported, replacing metal correctly is an impossibility. So, one of the reasons we decided to do the work at the AMD Installation Center in Cleveland, Georgia, is because of their ability to properly do the job.

If you noticed the table/jig in the lead photo, you have seen what it takes to make sure the car is properly "situated" before any metal repair begins. Every car has factory-located points on the body that the factory uses to properly assemble the car to ensure that it's square and put together correctly. What the AMD Installation Center has done is build their own tables that do the exact same thing. This allows the guys to put the body on the table and know for sure that when replacing the metal, it is properly located and installed.

Since we're starting at the rear of the car, the trunk floor is going to be our first endeavor. Getting the trunk floor properly positioned gives a locating point for the rest of the adjoining metal. So we're off. The sparks are flying, the welder is fired up, and Project 50 will soon be a complete body once more.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1310-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-trunk-floor/

[Drache]

We're back again this month, working on Project 50. In case you're new to this project, Project 50 is a '69 Charger that we plan to make 50-state compliant. Yes, we realize that the year of the car will make it exempt from many states that require emissions, but the premise is still the same--build an environmentally safe hot rod. Over the last several issues (Starting in September 2013), we have been in the throes of rebuilding the Charger's body. It's taken a lot of work, but we're nearing the end of the metal replacement phase. Most recently, we finished rebuilding the back half of our Charger by replacing the quarter panels, inner and outer wheel houses, tail panel, and Dutchman panel. We're far from finished, so this month, as much as we wanted to be done, we had to focus on the front end. To put it simply, the car was built in 1969, and over the years, it has developed some damage and rust issues that need some attention. To make it right, we need to cut out the bad metal and replace it.

Just like the rest of the metal replacement, this is a fairly involved job, but since the car is on a frame jig, it does tend to make things a little easier. Like we've said before, the body of our Charger needed a lot of work, and that's why we ended up having the guys at the AMD Installation Center handle the job of replacing the metal. We could have done it ourselves, but it would have taken us twice as long, and these guys really know what they're doing.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1312-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-front-end/

[Drache]

Have you ever felt like you're consistently working on a project, but it seems like you're not really getting anywhere? Well, here we are again, working on Project 50. Project 50 is our '69 Charger that is the basis where we plan build an environmentally safe hot rod. Starting in our September '13 issue, we have been diligently rebuilding the Charger's body with the help of AMD and their Installation Center. We've managed to complete a lot of the required work, but there is still a ways to go. We're far from finished, but like we said, we can see light. Unfortunately, that light is not only at the end of the proverbial tunnel, it's shining through the floor of the car. Over the years, the car has developed some damage and rust issues that need attention. Like we said before, we need to make it right, so we need to cut out the bad metal and replace it.

This month, since we can see light that shines up through the driver's side front floor we'll need to address it. There are a couple of ways that you can tackle a job like this; smear a little fiberglass over the rust holes, cut up a road sign and pop-rivet it over the holes, or actually do it correctly. We've seen the effects of smeared fiberglass, and since taking a road sign to use for metal repair is illegal, we chose to do it correctly. So, a replacement panel from AMD will be installed -- yes, we'll cut out the afflicted area before we put the new metal in. It's not an overwhelming job to repair/replace the floor in this area, but there is a right and a wrong way to do it.

Costs for AMD driver-side floor (1⁄2 panel): $199.95

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1401-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-floor-replacement/

[Drache]

Last month, we were finally able to get the trunk floor put back in the Charger. We started this project back in the September 2013 issue, and it was definitely a rough start. We found out that there was a lot of metal repair and replacement required, so any suspect metal was cut away, the body sent to media blasting, and now it's time for reassembly.

With the trunk floor in place, we can now focus on the rest of the rear sheetmetal. When reinstalling this much sheetmetal, you can run into a few variables that will dictate how you can proceed. If you don't have a jig or table to support the body while you cut the rusty metal away, you need to be very methodical about removing and replacing each piece. Let's face it, if you cut the rear end of the car away, and it's not properly supported, you'll end up with a nice piece of lawn art. So, you could work on one piece or section of the car at a time, but what if the rusted panels are connected (i.e. Dutchman and quarter)? If you can't weld the new panel to an already existing panel, simply removing a single panel at a time isn't an option.

In our case, just replacing the quarter panels wasn't an option. The rusty quarter panels were held together by a rusty trunk floor, a rusty tail panel, and a rusty Dutchman panel. We were going to need deep cuts, and deep cuts require the proper tools.

Like we said before, the AMD Installation Center has the tools, and Auto Metal Direct had the non-rusty, brand new sheetmetal that we needed. Since the trunk floor is in the car, let's surround it with some more metal.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1311-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-rear-panels/

[Drache]

Auto Metal Direct makes new Charger fenders, but are they quality made?

When we last saw Project 50, the guys at the AMD Installation Center had just completed the repairs on the floor of the Charger. Now that the car's actual body has been repaired, it's time to focus on the bolt-on pieces.

While we were at the Installation Center, we learned that AMD had just released their new fenders for the Charger, and since we had a Charger that needed fenders, we decided to see how well these fenders were actually made. According to the guys at AMD, "Each fender is manufactured using high quality, heavy-gauge steel on our exclusive new tooling, and features correct-as-original body lines, braces, marker light holes, and antenna cut-out (certain models only). Like all AMD parts, these fenders arrive in a black EDT Coat finish and will require standard prep work prior to paint." OK, that sounds good, but we still wanted to get our hands on a set and see for ourselves.

Our initial impression was good, as they came very nicely packaged, which meant that shipping damage shouldn't be an issue—it wasn't. Once we got the fender(s) out of the boxes, at first glance, we were more than a little impressed. Let's face it, when was the last time you were able to pull a brand new fender out of a box to install on your '69 Charger?

Cost per fender: $749.95

So, before we just bolted them on the car, we wanted to do a thorough comparison between the originals (minus the rust and dents), and the new AMD units, so check this out...

Now, just because we needed to put new fenders on our Charger doesn't mean that we didn't actually have fenders. Although I loosely use the term fenders when I describe what we had, they did resemble them. The ones we did have were so far overcome with rust, and more than a few wrinkles and bends, that the cost of repairing them was so exorbitant, that new fenders were a must.

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1402-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-fender-install/

[Drache]

Ask a car guy what he thinks about modifying a classic muscle car and you will get either a dissertation about why it shouldn't be done, or a thought about how great updating can be. There is no gray area in this regard, you either accept it or hate it. But, if you're thinking about performance, then modifications and upgrades are generally needed. Let's take for instance the Mopar suspension. The stock Mopar torsion bar suspension is a good design in regards to a stock suspension. The torsion bars and shocks absorb bumps, and the steering lets you make turns. But, is that enough? Many enthusiasts would like their classic cars to drive, ride, and handle like their everyday commuters, and the 30 – 40 year old factory suspension just doesn't accomplish that task.

Such is the case with our latest project, Project 50. From the beginning, we planned to build a 50-state legal '69 Charger. The purpose of the project is to build a car with exceptional, modern performance and drivability, while retaining the classic lines of a true muscle car. Now that the basic metal and body repairs are done, it's time to work on the suspension. Since modern performance and drivability are the goal, a modern suspension is required. Enter Reilly Motorsports, and their AlterKtion suspension.

The AlterKtion front suspension is a complete system that is designed to bolt directly into your car using the original K-frame mounting points and bolts. Now, unlike some other aftermarket K-frame kits that use the coil over and the factory shock tower to support the car, (the shock tower was never designed to support the weight of the car), the AlterKtion's shock-tower design is integrated into the k-frame. According to Bill Reilly, "Some of our first systems from 1999 have seen over 60,000 miles and counting, and they're still using the original bushings and rod ends they were shipped with.

The AlterKtion is available in different configurations, all you need to do is contact Reilly Motorsports, and they can get you what you need. We ordered the Street/Handling kit, which comes with a 1-1/16-inch sway bar, a custom-valved power steering rack, and hoses that will connect to the factory power-steering pump.

We ordered ours with engine mounts for a late-model Hemi, but other engine mount options are available, and include complete poly bushed spool-type mounts. All systems are powder coated black, and ready to install. The brake kit is not included, but Reilly Motorsports has several options you can choose from.

A leading concern when many guys modify or upgrade their car is the possibility of irreversible modifications. The only modification required to install the AlterKtion is to remove the factory bump stop brackets from the frame rails. This allows their shock tower to fit flush with the outside of the frame rail. Once these brackets are removed, the frame bolts into place with no additional fitting, welding, or reinforcing.

But, like any aftermarket piece of equipment, it is designed for a particular purpose, and therefore, will have some compromises in other areas. According to Bill, "The compromises for the design occur in leaf-sprung drag cars. We moved the travel range up 1-1/4 inches, so you lose that much rise when you leave. That drops your 60-foot time, which requires some adjusting to get back. Four link and ladder bar cars don't really need the travel, and have a lot of adjustment available, so there's no concern. The other compromise is that 15-inch rims are limited to 6-inches wide. This kit was really designed for cars with 17-inch and up wheels".

Whether or not you feel that your car needs this upgrade, it's tough to argue the fact that the improved handling, suspension geometry, and good ride characteristics, it's an upgrade that you'll be happy you made.

Cost for Alterktion Street/Handling (PN RMS302): $4,240.00

http://www.hotrod.com/cars/project-vehicles/1404-1969-dodge-charger-project-50-suspension-upgrade/

[Baldwinvette77]

The Headlights kinda make it look crosseyed 

[Homerr]

"I always wanted to build a big car that would out-handle a Ferrari, out-accelerate a Porsche, and have a top speed that would make Richard Petty flash his trademark smile in approval."

My prediction is that no matter how much they pro-street this turkey up they'll be disappointed.

They mention "it will be tested, raced, and driven...hard" - maybe this testing will calm some other pro-streeters down on some fantasy they have about throwing $100-200k+ at a Charger in order to get beat by a 2006 Civic around an autocross track.

Then they'll give it away in some contest.

Then the next week it will be on Ebay eternally for some price that no one will pay.

[dyslexic teddybear]

"I always wanted to build a big car that would out-handle a Ferrari, out-accelerate a Porsche, and have a top speed that would make Richard Petty flash his trademark smile in approval."

My prediction is that no matter how much they pro-street this turkey up they'll be disappointed.

They mention "it will be tested, raced, and driven...hard" - maybe this testing will calm some other pro-streeters down on some fantasy they have about throwing $100-200k+ at a Charger in order to get beat by a 2006 Civic around an autocross track.

Then they'll give it away in some contest.

Then the next week it will be on Ebay eternally for some price that no one will pay.

Logical outcome.

Meanwhile.......all of us who appreciate the style of a Charger.......are trying not to throw up.

Not at all against improving the performance of a Charger where it can be done. A torque monster stroker comes to mind......better brakes, etc.

But style......a Charger simply can not be improved. 

[tan top]

 I know each to their own ,  but not for me 

[RallyeMike]

"I always wanted to build a big car that would out-handle a Ferrari, out-accelerate a Porsche, and have a top speed that would make Richard Petty flash his trademark smile in approval."

They might have to re-think the parachute grill opening to achieve that last one... 

[Homerr]

What the heck do they mean by 50 state legal?  Are 69 Chargers not already legal in 50 states?

Legal to 2014 emissions standards?  Crash safety?   

[JamieZ]

Usually # state legal refers to exhaust.  I believe if you drop a modern engine into a car, you also need to drop a modern exhaust (cats, mufflers, emission controls etc) to be completely legal.   A lot of performance exhaust manufacturers (Magnaflow, Borla, etc) have systems that are 50 state legal and those that are not.   California has stricter than federal standards on exhaust so 49 state legal systems do not meet California's standards.

[Ghoste]

Oh good, another Mopar Muscle Multi Issue Infomercial and this time they decided that it needed to be really ugly as well.  Couldn't they have done this to a Neon SRT or something?

[dyslexic teddybear]

 Couldn't they have done this to a Neon SRT or something?

What have you got against Neon's?

There's gotta be something else......that they couldn't really make any worse.......