Restoring A 1975 Charger

[Dawn1975]

I just put my 75' Charger in the garage to be restored, but I want to know if anybody can help me with the best recommendations for the car and engine, any type of answers will be a great help.

[JB400]

We sort of need to know what you are asking from the car.  Cruiser, restomod, restored to original, drag racer, ect.   Do you want a big block car or small block car.  Hemi, modern hemi.  automatic car or manual.  4 speed or 5 speed.

[Dawn1975]

I'd really like to restore the car to it's original way cosmetically but with the engine I'm want to make her the best she can be, I'm not aiming for dragons racing, or manual wanted to keep it automatic, she has a 4 barrel carburetor with a 360 engine, right now she is a single exhaust but with the ability to turn into a dual I was debating on it but wanted to get comments on it before, because she's a '75 she does have a catalytic converter the best way to put it is probably I wanted to upgrade her as much as possible but still keep it old school muscle if that helps and she has a 727 transmission

[70 sublime]

Is this going to be your dream car and keep forever ?
Or fix it up have some fun with it and sell it to move on to next project ?

If it is the second option be carefull where you spend your money as it will be hard to get it back when it is sold off

[comet_666]

Also, what type of shape is it in? Pics?
It may be hard to get sheetmetal for it if it is rotted out.

[Ghoste]

Where are you located?  That could be a factor in deciding what to do and how to accomplish it too.

[Kern Dog]

So the Phantom Op does the proverbial Keyser Soze and POOOOF ! Disappears.
If you want help, people are here, willing to do so. We only ask the following:

Make it E A S Y for people to help. Don't pop in to ask questions then fall off of the face of the earth. Don't be impatient. Don't fill your posts full of terrible grammar, poor puctuation or run on sentences. RESPOND when members ask important questions. The more we know, the more we can help.

[Dawn1975]

Ya I know my grammar not to good, working on that. As for the delays phone was dead all day yesterday. Now information about the the car, this is my baby. I am the last owner of it, well as long as I'm not underground. I'm working on posting pics of the car, but every time I go to post some it keeps saying, " error your message can't be sent 200kbps too much data". Something like that. The body of the car is in actually really good shape. Somewhere in her life she was repainted, and someone paint over the charger emblem. I live in New Hampshire about 30 miles from the coast, to give you an idea of the weather conditions. My bad for the delays and the poofing. Your help is really appreciated though. I will try to get some pics posted.

[Dawn1975]

I'll have to try and upload pictures of the car later on my computer the phone won't do it. Sorry about that.

[Ghoste]

There are some tutorials on downsizing photos in the suggestions forum.

[Dawn1975]

I'll look at it thanx

[Dawn1975]

This isn't the exact car but pretty much the clone of mine.

[Kern Dog]

The last of the REAR wheel drive, NON computer, TWO door Chargers!
They can be real comfortable cruisers. A bit heavy and rarely with big block power but still a cool ride. The 360 can be built to run strong. One great advantage of the 318 and 360 is that the overdrive 518 is a much easier swap! While not cheap, it does set the stage for better fuel economy and a more comfortable drive on the freeway.

There are chassis upgrades to make the car handle much better than a stock setup. Stiffer bushings, better shocks. Someone might even make larger sway bars though I'm not as familiar with these year cars. I'm into cornering, not drag racing. You can make a big car corner easier than you can make it do an 11 second 1/4 mile ET. The small block will weigh less than a 440 so it will handle better all else being equal.

Your car is blessed with large wheelwells so you can fit some impressive size tires in there.

Let us know your goals, we will gladly steer you right.

Location matters because of parts availability AND local emission/smog laws sometimes strangle the opportunity to modify or swap engines.

[Dawn1975]

I'm not looking to turn her into a racecar, I do want to upgrade her so she can perform better for even just cruising around town. I have had people tell me to convert to fuel injection, but I really want it to stay as old school as possible, and stay with  a carburetor, I guess I'd prefer to stay as close as possible to original but also get recommended ways to improve. I live in New Hampshire about 30 miles from the coast.

[HPP]

Well, we still need exact pictures of your car or detailed descriptions of it. Judging from what you've posted so far, I'd guess you are a neophyite car builder, so you no doubt will have a lot of questions and we will have a lot more to cover than what we can post in this single topic with the info we have.

So, first is a definition of restore. What does that mean to you? Does it need exterior rebuilding at all? Repaint? interior make over?

You've said it has a 360 single exhaust. What type or rules and regulations do you have to deal with in your area in realtionship to modifications, emissions, and safety? Some places allow many changes, some allow very few.

Old school is okay, and you don't want a race car. Fine.  What is your intended usage beyond that? a regular driver, occasional driver, show and shine plans, budget for rebuild, etc are all important things to consider.

To give you some examples of extremes,  you could have to replace a lot of metal, refub the interior, and rebuild the entire engine, driveline and suspension. It could take you $25-30k just to get to this point.  On the other end of things, the car is overall in great shape and  just needs a few engine performance parts and suspension rebuild. Depending on how crazy you get in the engine departmentd, this could be done for as little as $3-10k.

You will probably wan to amp up the engine performance a bit, definitely want to step up suspension performance some. There are lots of things you could do, but  expectations and  budget are big factors.