71 Petty Charger Restoration pictures

[Stevearino]

Sorry again if this has been posted before but I just came across it and thought it might interest some out there.

http://www.mopardealer.com/petty3.htm

[TUFCAT]

Awesome build....I really enjoyed that!  Thanks for posting 

[ACUDANUT]

Would the 71/72 Charger arrow on the front bumper slow it down? lol

[TUFCAT]

Would the 71/72 Charger arrow on the front bumper slow it down? lol

Only if it was installed upside down.

[Fitz73Chrgr]

Very cool.   

[odcics2]

Sorry again if this has been posted before but I just came across it and thought it might interest some out there.

http://www.mopardealer.com/petty3.htm

That car always looks high to me, with that 'new' body installed.  I guess that shows the original body was 'set down' on the chassis!

[Stevearino]

Sorry again if this has been posted before but I just came across it and thought it might interest some out there.

http://www.mopardealer.com/petty3.htm

That car always looks high to me, with that 'new' body installed.  I guess that shows the original body was 'set down' on the chassis!

I agree. The fact that they chose to use the Magnum windshield bed instead of changing it back to the Charger may have played into that. Then again they may have the suspension set high to get the car on an off a show car trailer. I have seen that a ton of times.

[TUFCAT]

The story says the windshield frame was vintage 1971 and original to the car.

[Stevearino]

The story says the windshield frame was vintage 1971 and original to the car.

My bad .I did not read the info I just looked at the shiny pictures. If that is the Charger windshield bed it kind of informs the roof height off of the chassis so that only leaves suspension height sets.

[TUFCAT]

Not trying to be pretend I know anything about Grand National cars, but I also thought it was a bit high so I went back and re-read the article to confirm the Magnum windshield thing.  

I'm a complete noob when it comes to vintage nascar but could there be some difficulty to achieve the same body fit tolerances the Petty's were using?  As far as body attachment points go, I'm thinking the second re-body could have done away with the original attachment points?

Obviously the windshield header is a critical hard point, but is there any up/down variance as to how the roof and rear body shell can be positioned?  I could be completely wrong, but that's my thought.  For all I know there could have been any number of welding locations, debunking my theory all together.  

[Stevearino]

Not trying to be pretend I know anything about Grand National cars, but I also thought it was a bit high so I went back and re-read the article to confirm the Magnum windshield thing. 

I'm a complete noob when it comes to vintage racecars but could there be some difficulty to achieve the same body fit tolerances that the Petty's were using?  As far as body attachment points go, I'm thinking the second re-body could have done away with the original attachment points?

Obviously the windshield header is a critical hard point, but is there any up/down variance as to how the roof and rear body shell can be positioned?  I could be completely wrong, but that's my thought.  For all I know there could have been any number of welding locations, debunking my theory all together. 

There was a good deal of massaging and sectioning of the bodies back then and the body rake angle could and would be changed relative to the chassis as desired but the cars could also be lowered by adjusting the torsion bars and the rear spring mount points and depending on the track you would see different rake angles. High in the rear for places like Daytona and Talladega and butt dragging low for places like Martinsville to shift the weight to the rear for more forward bit coming off of flat corners. And unlike today you could and would ( maybe not the Pettys) take a short track car to some bigger tracks. The Bobby Allison car that I had the privilege to restore had two sets of jack posts in the rear. One to shorten the wheel base and lower the car and a second to lengthen the wheel base and raise the rear for larger high speed tracks. Without knowing specifically how the Pettys mounted the Charger and what modifications they did though you may be right in assuming that they may have mounted this straight up stock body a little higher than the Pettys mounted it originally.