68 Charger R/T project - Update it runs!

[BLK 68 R/T]

Car looks amazing

Thank you!

[tan top]

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

I have been working on the front end over the past few day. I put the grill assembly back together and installed it yesterday. The grill has repro chrome on it which I was surprised fit actually quite good. The only issue I had was with the curved pieces, the folded in lips on the backside that hold the little studs are not as defined as the factory ones. I ended up squeezing the trim together slightly by hand and reshaping the backside of it by pressing it against a block of wood, all of it was done by hand and no tools were used. The front bumper and guards are AMD and fit really good with no work needing to be done to them. I have a nice set of original core bumpers that I will eventually get re-chromed and put those on the car. The rest of the front end is all original parts, the grill had a crack in one of the headlight buckets and one broken tab for the attachment screws. I fixed the crack by grinding a V into it and then shaved some ABS into a cup and mixed it with acetone until it was like a paste, filled the crack to just above level, sanded it down with 80 grit, put a coat of glazing putty on it, sanded that with 400, primed and painted it. I fixed the broken tab the same way, had a spare grille section that is all broken so I cut one of the tabs off of it and glued it onto my good grill with the ABS method I used to fix the other crack.

[XS29L9B2]

very nice

[BLK 68 R/T]

very nice

Thank you.

I have been slowly working on it over the summer. Had to make some new radiator brackets to install my shroud. I have a C body shroud and figured I might as well cut the brackets off the radiator and make some new ones to adapt the shroud vs buy the correct shroud. Gotta take it to the machine shop this week and have them weld them on.







Also test fitted the new HD short fan clutch made by Hayden. There is a good 3/4" clearance between the fan blades and anything they could touch. I will say the original bolts to bolt a fan clutch on with will not work, they are too long. Had to get studs and start each one of the nuts only 2-3 threads with the clutch pulled out, then once the nuts were all started you can start pushing the clutch in and tightening the nuts as you go. Also had to trim the adapter bushing by about 1/16" to get it to fit flush on the waterpump.





Used a 70 style regulator mounting bracket to mount my fuel pressure regulator

[Fitz73Chrgr]

  This car is stunning.

[crj1968]

Nice work !! 

That black paint is smoooooooooooooooooooooth.   

[BLK 68 R/T]

Nice work !! 

That black paint is smoooooooooooooooooooooth.   

This car is stunning.

Thanks for the kind words!

[Dino]

That looks awesome!

What's that thing on the heater hose right next to the ac filter?

[BLK 68 R/T]

That looks awesome!

What's that thing on the heater hose right next to the ac filter?

Thank you.

That is the water valve. They are electric now in the kits from CAA.

[Dino]

That looks awesome!

What's that thing on the heater hose right next to the ac filter?

Thank you.

That is the water valve. They are electric now in the kits from CAA.

Oh that's cool! No more messing with that old valve on the firewall then! It took me a long ass time to get that thing working as it should.   

[BLK 68 R/T]

That looks awesome!

What's that thing on the heater hose right next to the ac filter?

Thank you.

That is the water valve. They are electric now in the kits from CAA.

Oh that's cool! No more messing with that old valve on the firewall then! It took me a long ass time to get that thing working as it should.   

Yea it is pretty cool. I'm getting anxious to get it fired up and see how it runs and get the a/c working.

I did get my radiator shroud brackets attached. I decided to glue them on with some panel bonding adhesive, it seemed to work really well.

[BLK 68 R/T]

I haven't updated in a while, plus I'm not super great about posting updates in order  so, anyways, here are some random pics from this summer.

[BLK 68 R/T]

Taillights

[BLK 68 R/T]

My shop security 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Door latch parts - if you buy reproduction handles read this. The small difference in height below on the ball attachment point is enough to make the door lock mechanism not work. It took me a while to figure out why with the old handles the door locks worked perfectly, but as soon as I put the new handles on the locks would not work. There is a catch on the mechanism that just barely clears on the originals, with the new handles the rod is held up just enough to make that catch not work. Once I switched the old parts to the new handles, everything works as it should.

[birdsandbees]

Looking GREAT!! Thanks for the tip on the door handles, I bought reproductions from someone, so have printed that out before the resto shop puts my handles and glass back in. 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Much like most of the repro parts; they can get it 85% right, but it's that extra little bit that they are lacking.

[timmycharger]

Door latch parts - if you buy reproduction handles read this. The small difference in height below on the ball attachment point is enough to make the door lock mechanism not work. It took me a while to figure out why with the old handles the door locks worked perfectly, but as soon as I put the new handles on the locks would not work. There is a catch on the mechanism that just barely clears on the originals, with the new handles the rod is held up just enough to make that catch not work. Once I switched the old parts to the new handles, everything works as it should.

First of all, outstanding work, your car looks amazing!



Secondly, regarding the door handles, what a pain in the ass. I have repro handles and ran into the same issue on just 1 side for some reason. I didn't have my old handles to steal parts from so I ended up modifying the "rod" that connects that part to the door opening mechanism.  The hole was off about 1/4 of an inch so I welded the hole closed on one end of the rod, then just re drilled the hole slightly closer.  It came out nice but I shouldn't have had to do all that work to make it fit!

[BLK 68 R/T]

Looking GREAT!! Thanks for the tip on the door handles, I bought reproductions from someone, so have printed that out before the resto shop puts my handles and glass back in. 

Thank you! Your Superbee is coming along nicely as well 

Much like most of the repro parts; they can get it 85% right, but it's that extra little bit that they are lacking.

Agreed. I don't know why it is so hard for them to get things correct!

First of all, outstanding work, your car looks amazing!



Secondly, regarding the door handles, what a pain in the ass. I have repro handles and ran into the same issue on just 1 side for some reason. I didn't have my old handles to steal parts from so I ended up modifying the "rod" that connects that part to the door opening mechanism.  The hole was off about 1/4 of an inch so I welded the hole closed on one end of the rod, then just re drilled the hole slightly closer.  It came out nice but I shouldn't have had to do all that work to make it fit!

Thank you. I wish aftermarket parts just dropped in with no modifications needed. Glad you were able to make them work though 

[Brads70]

Looks fantastic, I'm so envious! 

[hemi-hampton]

Much like most of the repro parts; they can get it 85% right, but it's that extra little bit that they are lacking.

Sad but True.

[68RT440]

Looks great! I noticed your license plate frame. My wife's family lives in Prosser. I was out there last year to visit for the first time, its beautiful there...

[Memphis Mopar]

Nice Job!!! Car looks amazing! 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Looks fantastic, I'm so envious! 

Thank you!

Looks great! I noticed your license plate frame. My wife's family lives in Prosser. I was out there last year to visit for the first time, its beautiful there...

Thanks, that is just an old frame I had lying around. I think the car is from Spokane originally going by what I was told when I got the car. No way to verify it though.