Look what I found under the vinyl!

[brianosaurus]

I've finally had enough of "fixing" the electrical system  , but only long enough for it to burn to the next bad ground. 

My wife is tired of the house smelling like gas for a few... several hours after I get back from a drive... and the CO detector going off "for no reason." 

I'm ready to not drive it for a while  and put in the time, money, and effort to make it what I want and outperform that little German thing next to it.

To kick it off last night I pulled the vinyl off the top, to see how bad the rust bubbles really were, and found the General Lee paintjob.  The layer of orange visible through the chips in the paint and the Dixie horn should have tipped me off, but you should have seen the grin on my face when I peeled back the vinyl to reveal "AL LEE".

The good news is that on the passenger side, the rust is just on the surface.  Most of the bubbly part pulled off with the vinyl.  On the passenger side, I could scrape with my fingernail to expose bare metal.  The rusty-looking stuff on the top is the glue remnants, and perhaps superficial rust, but the paint still looks clean (aside from the adhesive), except where it has flaked off to expose clean bare metal.

The bad news is on the drivers side.  There's a few small holes, but its pretty localized and will probably just need a small patch, rather than a whole new quarter.  Not so bad, but until I start cleaning it up with something other than my "built-in tools" I won't know for sure.  Other than the rusted trunk floor (which I expect to be able to take care of with a wire brush and POR-15), the rust under the vinyl was the worst looking part on the car.

Now its time to pull the rest apart, and rebuild it.  This is going to be fun.


Oh yeah... In case anyone is curious... originally a 318 car, it currently has a 383, 4bbl Carter 600cfm (pretty sure), 727, 8-1/4 4.10 with auburn gear (replaced the 2.71s at the end of summer to have some fun before I took it down for a while).  no idea what cam, etc, is inside the motor, but after it bogs off the line it pulls really hard.  Polygraphite front suspension.  XHD rear springs.  245x65R15 up front and some mostly bald 275x65R15 out back.. uhhh... "rare" (not in any good way) bendix 4-piston discs up front, stock drums in back.

As for my plans, I want a fast, fun daily driver.  I'll take it to the drag strip every once in a while, but I'm not going to try to out drag all of my mechanic buddy's friends.  Some, but not all.  I'm sort of reluctantly thinking about sticking with the 383, but I want a 440, so I should probably just save the grief and get a 440, huh?

After driving more or less the 2 extremes of streetable gears, I need to do something with the transmission.  I'll probably take a step or two down from the 4.10s and add an overdrive.  With a little (heh) more power from a properly tuned 383, or better yet a 440, 3.73s would probably be just as fun around town as the 4.10s are now, without having to run 4000RPM on the highway.

I want to add a roll cage and subframe connectors.  After reading the recent thread about it, I want that stiffness.  After rebuilding the front end with poly bushings and a big fat sway bar last year, I've been amazed with the drivability of this car.  But I know all that force that used to go into body roll is going somewhere in the body, and probably not somewhere good.

My rear tires are a tad too big (diameter) for the wheelwells.  The passenger side is particularly close, and more than a few times when I've hit a bump the tire has grabbed the trim.  I want to go with 17" wheels, and a slightly smaller diameter tires, but keep the same widths.

On the outside, I'm thinking dark.  Like black.  Does black look good on a Charger?   

[bull]

That's hilarious. Now you have to polish it up and leave it, right?

[Wakko]

That's pretty neat.  If you're going to redo the entire motor anyway, other than buying the core engine it won't cost you more to do the 440, so I'd do that.  You can get some power out of the 383, but there's no substitute for cubes.   

[AKcharger]

Yeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwwwww

[694spdRT]

Any chance Warner Bros. might be a prior owner?   

[BigBlockSam]

Any chance Warner Bros. might be a prior owner   

thats pretty funny

[brianosaurus]

Any chance Warner Bros. might be a prior owner?   

Perhaps, but I doubt it.  I bought it from a guy outside Modesto, CA.  I didn't get much history from him, but someone before him had converted it to an RT clone (or at least put the R/T badges and the stripe around the butt).  It had a 1969 Cali plate (black and yellow) until I moved to Oregon, so it could easily have been in LA at some point.

The body and frame are in good shape, so it probably didn't jump any creeks.  The paintjob is pretty cheap-looking, which very well could have come from the studio's GL shop, but the flag and letters are painted on with the white traced by hand (and not by the skilled hand of an experienced pinstriper)... I thought they used decals for the TV cars?  Gonna have to dig out the article from last year.

It has the screw mount for a CB antenna on the rear deck, but no CB wiring.  Its possible the wiring has been removed, but based on what I've seen poking around in this car, no one ever removed any wires... they just added more.  So seems like the CB antenna was just cosmetic.

And it has a Dixie horn.  No reason for WB to install a Dixie horn, unless the car was for public appearances, and the paintjob wasn't for any corporate sponsored appearances.  Granted, the horn could have easily been added by a later owner.

Inconclusive data...

[cudaken]

 Quick, get a new top on it

                             Cuda Ken

[miamivice]

Any chance Warner Bros. might be a prior owner?     

unlikely, the flag is a bit smaller than it should be

[BB1]

Could be a very early clone, possible 80ds version before they made all the decals for them. 

[73rallye440magnum]

thats pretty cool, good luck with the project!

[golden73]

Looks like a classic chip foose 2 tone paint job 

[73ChargerSE]

Well there's somethin' you don't see every day 

[Spartan]

too funny.

[AirborneSilva]

Quick, get a new top on it

                                           Cuda Ken

I'm with you Ken, cover that thing up as fast as you can 

[mopar0166]

I actually like the white with the Dixie top 

[polywideblock]

wow talk about resurrection      just  like" time team "

[tan top]

blast from the past  , I remember that !! some reason thought it was on the old site though 

[Patronus]

HA! That is funny.
Put some orange steelies on there and your done.