Ikbrown's 68 Charger

[ikbrown]

Hey everyone! First post to the forum but I've been a Charger owner for ... over a decade now. Feeling old!

I started to post in the 'Got a pic of your Charger' thread but I have so many pictures – didn't' want to overload the thread for one post. Ha. I will keep this updated with pics of my Charger (and Saabaru if anyone cares) as I continue to work on my cars.

My dad and I bought the car back when I was in high school as a project car and we've replaced/restored/rebuilt just about everything except for the exterior body work since it's a bit of a rust bucket underneath the paint and we haven't had the time/funds to get that project started. At the moment she's a reliable and fun rebuilt 383 Charger and having recently bought a house in my hometown, I'm looking forward to taking her out more and working on some projects! I've been doing a little bit of searching the forum already and looks like there's quite a lot of knowledge on here!

On to some pics of our 68! Don't hate on the Cheese-grater wheels too hard. ha. They're on the list of changes to come. 

Upon delivery, ten years ago...

[ikbrown]

Pulling the engine

Rebuilt engine!

Replaced the front brakes with some discs so it actually stops

Had to replace the trunk and driver floor pans. I had some seriously long hair in high school. haha



Restored interior


Did some rust prevention work on the undercarriage while we were doing the pan replacements and such
Before

And After


With my dad's MGB - quite the size difference


With a buddy of mine at a show in Placerville, CA


On a cruise I helped coordinate last year. 4 68s!!!!

[ikbrown]

I'll also throw my daily in to the mix if there are any import fans as well. It's an 05 Saab 92x Aero (aka the 'Saabaru', aka a rebadged Subaru WRX Wagon). I've done some basic mods to her including lowering springs, larger rear sway bar, short shifter, catless downpipe, full 3" exhaust, and a stage 2 ECU tune to accommodate for the exhaust mods.  It's a blast to drive with the turbo, AWD and suspension upgrades and since the 92x was only made by Saab for 2 years before they axed it, it's also pretty rare which is fun.



Working on her in the shop with my Charger My idea of a good night.

[ikbrown]

Anyone else on here from the Sacramento area??

I will be going to the Mopars in the Park show on the 27th of June - been to the show a couple of times but never parked my Charger in it. Looking forward to meeting other owners and talking shop. 

[Bob T]

Welcome Ik, good looking 68 you've got there, good effort on getting stuck in and replacing the pan sections yourself.
Your Father has a good sized garage and a hoist too! Nice

What disc brake kit did you use?

Cheers

Bob in NZ

[myk]

Welcome and thanks for sharing.  Yeah we're all getting older but that can't be helped.  At least Playboy centerfolds and college girls pretty much stay the same age?  

What other plans or changes do you have in mind for the Charger? 

[tan top]

 hello &  welcome  IKB    , nice looking 68 

[ikbrown]

Welcome Ik, good looking 68 you've got there, good effort on getting stuck in and replacing the pan sections yourself.
Your Father has a good sized garage and a hoist too! Nice

What disc brake kit did you use?

Cheers

Bob in NZ

Ha, ya the pans were a bit of a pain in the ass but was a good learning experience. My dad built the shop before we bought the Charger and it has been so nice to have. It's definitely enabled me to take on more car projects than I would have been able to without it.

I'll have to check on the brake kit - most of the work we did to the Charger was when I was in high school, and that was 10 years ago.

[ikbrown]

Welcome and thanks for sharing.  Yeah we're all getting older but that can't be helped.  At least Playboy centerfolds and college girls pretty much stay the same age?  

What other plans or changes do you have in mind for the Charger? 

The main plans remaining is the body work, which seems like it will be expensive and labor-intensive. ha. It was in Ohio originally, and then Washington so it's got more than its fair share of rust and body filler. No clue what color I want to paint it once we're all done either but I'll be keeping my eye out for other muscle car designs that fit what I'm looking for.

Apart from that I'm also still on the lookout for a wheel/tire combo that fits what I'm looking for. I recently stumbled upon a thread about the largest wheel/tire fitment you can achieve on Chargers here on the forum and a pic of someone's 69 minitubbed with 345s looked heavenly. We'll see ... still dreaming at the moment. haha.

Immediately, when I had it on the lift last weekend to do an oil change I noticed that the driver-side front tire is really worn on the inside so I'll need to replace the front tires and get an alignment but I've got a bad case of, give a car guy a small problem syndrome. Now I want to see what lowering it an inch or two would look like before I go in for an alignment so I'll play around with the torsion bar adjustment in the front and some lowering blocks in the rear to get an even, mild drop. Long term I'd like to do drop spindles and new springs in the back to do it properly but for the interim that could work.

[ikbrown]

hello &  welcome  IKB    , nice looking 68 

Thanks!!!  I certainly enjoy her.

[polywideblock]

 hello and welcome    very nice car     

[ikbrown]

hello and welcome    very nice car     

Thanks!! Love the roadrunners of the generation you have as well. And the purple. 

[68RT440]

Welcome and beautiful '68. My dad and I bought our '68 back in 1998 when I was 15 as a father and son project. We tinkered with it over the years, and now I have it down to the shell doing a full resto on it for pops.

[JR]

Welcome to the forum man, nice ride. I have a similar story to you, I got my 70 back in high school in 99, and have had it ever since. My daily driver and track cars are imports too (I lean towards E36s myself), I can relate. Nice rides. What's the story on the E type in one of your pics?

[skip68]

Welcome to the site.     I'm from the placerville area.   Nice car.   

[Ghoste]

Welcome to the site man, I like the parade of 68's.

[six-tee-nine]

Cool collection of rides you guys have!

Welcome here.

I spot an E type Jag also. BTW, as a European member I did'nt even knew about the Existance of the Saab model..... Does it have a Saab engine or a Subaru flat 4?

[JR]

Cool collection of rides you guys have!

Welcome here.

I spot an E type Jag also. BTW, as a European member I did'nt even knew about the Existance of the Saab model..... Does it have a Saab engine or a Subaru flat 4?

The 92x was literally an Impreza with a nosejob and some upscale features added. It had a more premium feel to it compared to a similar Impreza, and was a little more expensive when new. They are mechanically identical to the subaru, though I'm think some tuning changes were made.

I think they look better than the Subaru version myself and would love to have one as a daily.  Saab was an interesting company, its too bad they closed the doors just as they were starting to get interesting.

[303 Mopar]

Welcome and that is a sweet '68!  The best year IMHO.          What steering wheel is that and where did you get it? 

[johnnycharger]

Welcome and nice cars! I am not too far from Placerville... I am in Napa. I have spent quite a bit of time in the Placer area. My dad has some land in Greenwood by Georgetown so I went there a lot as a kid.
Mopar Alley is a good show hopefully I will be there.
I suggest you check out Capitol City Mopars. They have a show coming up that is actually my favorite one around called Mopars in the park.

[freddyd02]

Welcome! I'm in Sonoma the county area. Ill be heading to the Mopar show in Sac. Ill keep an eye out for you 

[johnnycharger]

Welcome! I'm in Sonoma the county area. Ill be heading to the Mopar show in Sac. Ill keep an eye out for you 

Right next door!

[terrible one]

Beautiful Charger and welcome! Yours is the closest I've come to a twin of mine which is also 33-1 "Charger Red" with no vinyl top. I also went a similar route; drivetrain, suspension, plumbing, electrical, and most of the interior all done and dependable.

For me, it's fun having a patina and not having to worry about door dings, chipped paint, gravel roads, etc. 

[abe1968]

Welcome and thanks for sharing.  Yeah we're all getting older but that can't be helped.  At least Playboy centerfolds and college girls pretty much stay the same age?  

What other plans or changes do you have in mind for the Charger? 

The main plans remaining is the body work, which seems like it will be expensive and labor-intensive. ha. It was in Ohio originally, and then Washington so it's got more than its fair share of rust and body filler. No clue what color I want to paint it once we're all done either but I'll be keeping my eye out for other muscle car designs that fit what I'm looking for.

Apart from that I'm also still on the lookout for a wheel/tire combo that fits what I'm looking for. I recently stumbled upon a thread about the largest wheel/tire fitment you can achieve on Chargers here on the forum and a pic of someone's 69 minitubbed with 345s looked heavenly. We'll see ... still dreaming at the moment. haha.

Immediately, when I had it on the lift last weekend to do an oil change I noticed that the driver-side front tire is really worn on the inside so I'll need to replace the front tires and get an alignment but I've got a bad case of, give a car guy a small problem syndrome. Now I want to see what lowering it an inch or two would look like before I go in for an alignment so I'll play around with the torsion bar adjustment in the front and some lowering blocks in the rear to get an even, mild drop. Long term I'd like to do drop spindles and new springs in the back to do it properly but for the interim that could work.

Cool hey I know that black 68, I Follow Rob on IG.

[F8-4life]

I am really digging that black 68.

[ikbrown]

Welcome to the forum man, nice ride. I have a similar story to you, I got my 70 back in high school in 99, and have had it ever since. My daily driver and track cars are imports too (I lean towards E36s myself), I can relate. Nice rides. What's the story on the E type in one of your pics?

Right on, sounds like a couple others share our story as well. What E36 do you have? My first car that I learned manual on was a 93 325i. Loved that thing (except for the damn power window motors that were always going out). Lasted me until 3 years ago when it was costing me way too much money at 232k miles which is when I bought the Saabaru.

I'll post some pics of the e-type - my dad had it for awhile back when I was in high school.

[ikbrown]

Welcome to the site.     I'm from the placerville area.   Nice car.   

Thanks! 

Are you going to the Capital City Mopars 'Mopars in the Park' show? I will be bringing my Charger there for the first year. Excited to take part in the show.

[ikbrown]

Welcome to the site man, I like the parade of 68's.

Ya it was cool to have all the Chargers! Reached out to Rob, the owner of the black one and he knew a couple other guys so word spread and we had a good mopar turnout. Was a great cruise!

[ikbrown]

Cool collection of rides you guys have!

Welcome here.

I spot an E type Jag also. BTW, as a European member I did'nt even knew about the Existance of the Saab model..... Does it have a Saab engine or a Subaru flat 4?

The 92x was literally an Impreza with a nosejob and some upscale features added. It had a more premium feel to it compared to a similar Impreza, and was a little more expensive when new. They are mechanically identical to the subaru, though I'm think some tuning changes were made.

I think they look better than the Subaru version myself and would love to have one as a daily.  Saab was an interesting company, its too bad they closed the doors just as they were starting to get interesting.

JR did a good job explaining the 92x, ha, I have to have my elevator pitch ready for folks who give me confused looks at the gas station and such.

It's basically a re-badged Subaru WRX wagon that was only sold in North America for 2005 and 2006. There were I think only 9,000 made. The differences between the subaru and 'saabaru' are mostly cosmetics including:
different front fascia: bumper/headlights/hood/fenders
different rear fascia: hatch/taillights/bumper
roof rail deletes
different seats/door cards for the interior and a tad more sound insulation
steering rack from the 06/07 WRX

Mechanically it is all subaru so it is easy to maintain and there is a lot of aftermarket performance parts that work for it. The only bummer is if you get in an accident the front/rear parts are hard to come by (basically have to wait for one to be parted out) and so insurance is higher for the Saabarus since they're more expensive to repair.

[ikbrown]

Welcome and that is a sweet '68!  The best year IMHO.          What steering wheel is that and where did you get it? 

It's a Grant 4-spoke steering wheel, I think I bought it off YearOne or Summit or something. Just googled and looks like this is the same design as what I have. And of course I got a Mopar center cap for the horn too. 
http://www.4wheelparts.com/Interior-Parts-Accessories/Collector-s-Edition-4-Spoke-Steering-Wheel.aspx?t_c=9&t_s=98&t_pt=3192&t_pn=GRA1180&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping&emlprox=out&ppcfon=1&gp=1&gclid=CIG63IW_78UCFcskgQodDzUAAA

[ikbrown]

Welcome and nice cars! I am not too far from Placerville... I am in Napa. I have spent quite a bit of time in the Placer area. My dad has some land in Greenwood by Georgetown so I went there a lot as a kid.
Mopar Alley is a good show hopefully I will be there.
I suggest you check out Capitol City Mopars. They have a show coming up that is actually my favorite one around called Mopars in the park.

Where is the Mopar Alley show? Haven't heard of it.

Welcome! I'm in Sonoma the county area. Ill be heading to the Mopar show in Sac. Ill keep an eye out for you 

Right on! What do you drive? I will be bringing my car to the Capital City Mopars show this year. Look out for the faded red paint and white stripe 68! ha.

[ikbrown]

Beautiful Charger and welcome! Yours is the closest I've come to a twin of mine which is also 33-1 "Charger Red" with no vinyl top. I also went a similar route; drivetrain, suspension, plumbing, electrical, and most of the interior all done and dependable.

For me, it's fun having a patina and not having to worry about door dings, chipped paint, gravel roads, etc. 

I'll have to double check on the VIN but it's not 'Charger Red', it's RR-1 which is the burgundy color. I didnt make it very easy for you to tell that but the hood hinges are still that color, along with the floorpan in that pictures of the driver pan repair. The previous owner did a cheap-ish red paint job on it. I've had difficulties finding pictures of the burgundy color before, it seems like a rare color or people don't like it so they don't bother keeping it that color when they repaint. Stumbled upon a thread on here with a good example of the color on a 68 that's making me rethink plans of painting it another color. The RR-1 color looks really slick, and the fact that it's not common is cool too.
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,55133.0.html

[ikbrown]

I am really digging that black 68.

Cool hey I know that black 68, I Follow Rob on IG.

Ya, Rob has a great looking 68. I actually met him through IG as well. Add me if you want to as well - my name on there is ikbrown, although I post my pics of my Saabaru than the Charger but that may change if I start working on her more 

[ikbrown]

In the process of changing my oil a couple weekends ago and having the car on the lift I noticed that my driver side tire is seriously worn on the inside so I'll need new tires on the front and an alignment. In a case of 'while I'm here' I decided that I should lower the Charger a bit before I have the alignment so I can have the lowering accounted for in an alignment as well. Lowered the front end 2 1/2 inches using the torsion bar adjustment. No more gap and the fender sits a bit lower than the top of the tire. I'll have to look at it from further away to see if I like the raked look or if I should lower the rear a bit too using lowering blocks

[Troy]

A little late but, yes, RR1 is pretty rare. It's an awesome color though! (In my opinion of course.) I'd have a hard time going with a different color. If you type "1968 Charger rr1" into Google there will be some decent pictures come up in the "images" part. If you leave out the Charger part you can see what some of the other models look like.

Troy

[ikbrown]

A little late but, yes, RR1 is pretty rare. It's an awesome color though! (In my opinion of course.) I'd have a hard time going with a different color. If you type "1968 Charger rr1" into Google there will be some decent pictures come up in the "images" part. If you leave out the Charger part you can see what some of the other models look like.

Troy

Ya, that's what I was thinking. If it was a more common or boring color stock I'd just find a new color to paint it but after finding some better pictures of that paint color, I think I'll go with RR1 when I repaint it down the road. (With a white 68 bumble bee stripe as well as opposed to the 69-70 stripe that they painted on her) 

[ikbrown]

Been off the forum for a bit but got the Charger lowered to where I wanted her finally . Don't know I didn't do this sooner! I think it looks great.

Ended up lowering the front about 2 1/2" and the back 1". Since the front tires were worn from a lack of alignment I replaced those w/ 245s (those will be the front tires once I get wider wheels/tires for the back) and put those on the rear.

When I had the tires installed I was going to have the shop do an alignment as well but they said they didn't want to do an alignment until I replaced the pitman and idler arms since there was a ton of slop and it wouldn't have held the alignment. Grrrr. Pretty sure we replaced those when we re-did the frontend, but that was about 8 years ago.

Here's a pic of how she sits now..


And... a pic of the show car winner! haha. Won 2nd place in the 'Under Construction' category at the Capital City Mopars show in June. Was a nice surprise to win something with my faded rust bucket

[303 Mopar]

Been off the forum for a bit but got the Charger lowered to where I wanted her finally . Don't know I didn't do this sooner! I think it looks great.

Ended up lowering the front about 2 1/2" and the back 1". Since the front tires were worn from a lack of alignment I replaced those w/ 245s (those will be the front tires once I get wider wheels/tires for the back) and put those on the rear.

When I had the tires installed I was going to have the shop do an alignment as well but they said they didn't want to do an alignment until I replaced the pitman and idler arms since there was a ton of slop and it wouldn't have held the alignment. Grrrr. Pretty sure we replaced those when we re-did the frontend, but that was about 8 years ago.

Congrats!  Do you mind me asking the specs for the wheels and tires?

[ikbrown]

Congrats!  Do you mind me asking the specs for the wheels and tires?

Not at all, but this isn't what I'm going to be running forever. Currently I have:

F: 235-60-15
R: 245-60-15

both over 15x8 inch wheels - not sure the backspacing, they came with the car when I bought it and I haven't measured.

Ultimately my goal is to go with:

F: 245-60-15 over 15x8 wheels - 4 inch backspacing
R: 295-50-15 over 15x10 wheels - 5 inch backspacing

[JB400]

Congrats on the trophy   What car got first?

[303 Mopar]

Congrats!  Do you mind me asking the specs for the wheels and tires?

Not at all, but this isn't what I'm going to be running forever. Currently I have:
F: 235-60-15
R: 245-60-15
both over 15x8 inch wheels - not sure the backspacing, they came with the car when I bought it and I haven't measured.
Ultimately my goal is to go with:
F: 245-60-15 over 15x8 wheels - 4 inch backspacing
R: 295-50-15 over 15x10 wheels - 5 inch backspacing

Thanks!  Sounds like you are going in the same direction as I am.   

[ikbrown]

Congrats on the trophy   What car got first?

Thanks - I'm actually not positive what kinda car it was. It looked to be an early 60s B-body of some sort, I only talked to the owner briefly. I'm hoping when they post pictures of the show I can find it - was a good looking car.