Custom Daytona Project (New Guy)

[VT_Dart]

New guy here, although certainly not new to the Mopar world.  About 5 years ago I sold my last Mopar, a '67 Dart, and decided I didn't have enough time to enjoy my cars along with other priorities (coaching youth sports, starting a new job, etc).  That all changed when a friend called to ask if I knew anyone who might be interested in a Daytona clone project in a fab shop that had recently closed down.  I ended up purchasing the car simply because owning a hemi has always eluded me, and it doesn't get any better than a wingcar.

The car was originally a '70 R/T that had been stripped, cut-up, and gone through a couple owners in various states of disrepair.  All of the Daytona conversion parts are from Dayclona.  The engine is a 528 hemi built by Hensley Performance, with a TKO-600 transmission.  Most of the car was built buy an ex-NASCAR cup team fabricator, and as such it sits on a modified Laughlin-style chassis with a full-floating 9" and is setup to utilize circle-track parts.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the project.  Over the past year I've been plugging away at some assembly of parts and a little sheetmetal work.  Although I'd love to finish the car, I'm much more familiar with stock-chassis cars and this whole oval-track foundation is way out of my wheelhouse.  The motor is not leaving my possession  but the car's fate is still to be determined (hopefully I can talk myself into just biting the bullet and building it).

Anyway, onto some pictures, from where it started when I purchased it until now!

[djcarguy]

    Awesum project,looks like most of sheetmetal an chassis is lined out. With that big hemi this set up should bee safer and more able to handle the power. would bee a real show stopper an wild ride,finished up.
    There is afew guys here that can help with the race car info an questions. Aero426 an cbrestoration are knowlegable guys here.
    Hope you build it an show us the progress.All the best on your build.  ooh welcome,too.  DJ out west.

[farm966]

wow...she is meaty....looks cool for sure.

[Aero426]

Looks like very nice fab work.     Big bucks if you had to pay someone to do it. 

[BigBlockSam]

 

[Hemi Runner]

Great looking project! Keep it and finish it with the hemi!

[500Jon]

Cripes VT, that Daytona is so cool I nearly had an urge to offer you a trade on my Charger 500!

Whoever finishes her will be one lucky guy!!!

[69_Charger_RT]

Wow thats gonna be a sick build when done    Keep up the great work 

[Mopar Nut]

  Welcome aboard!

[tan top]

hello & welcome 

[VT_Dart]

Thanks for all positive comments.  The car probably won't get touched for awhile since I'm helping my son work on his future car right now, but it's not hurting anything sitting in the garage for the time being.  I'm sure I'm going to have tons of questions along the way, so thanks in advance!  Between all the knowledge here, and the very detailed instructions Dayclona attached to all the conversion parts (awesome quality btw), I'll be able to fumble my way through a lot of it.

I know a car like this isn't everyone's preference (it's way more wild than what I would normally do), but hopefully it turns into something respectable down the road.

Here's a link to my google drive with more pictures if anyone is interested in some of the more detailed parts of the build: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1sF4zdKDYwqfmM0RTRWZURiOExPWXcxTjltWG0tVlB6UGNybWNQalRpVUF2R1l6N1hfSjQ?usp=sharing

[Highbanked Hauler]

 welcome,   good deal on the circle track aspect of it as being what it was designed for anyway.

[Dino]

If I had a ton of money to waste I'd try to persuade you to sell it to me. And I have zero use for a car like that! Don't let that puppy go, that car is going to be too cool for words.   

[cbrestorations]

I love it, I'm going to build the same tube chassis Daytona after my daisy project is driving. I've got a Nascar chassis to lengthen and use for the swap and a Nascar r5p7 for it

[Highbanked Hauler]

I love it, I'm going to build the same tube chassis Daytona after my daisy project is driving. I've got a Nascar chassis to lengthen and use for the swap and a Nascar r5p7 for it

   Where do you make a cut in chassis to lengthen it ?

[VT_Dart]

I love it, I'm going to build the same tube chassis Daytona after my daisy project is driving. I've got a Nascar chassis to lengthen and use for the swap and a Nascar r5p7 for it

   Where do you make a cut in chassis to lengthen it ?

Here's a build where someone is doing something similar to a Mercury Cylone:
http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/115005-Project-1968-Roush-Fenway-Cyclone?highlight=cyclone

An another one with a 69 Chevelle:
http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/40261-My-69-Chevelle-NASCAR-Project?highlight=nascar

I'd love to see a Daytona/Superbird done similarly... even more radical than mine will be and an absolute ton of fun.  The r5p7 will be awesome.  I have an acquaintance that does vintage NASCAR racing and wants to buy mine or build one with an r5.

[cbrestorations]

I love it, I'm going to build the same tube chassis Daytona after my daisy project is driving. I've got a Nascar chassis to lengthen and use for the swap and a Nascar r5p7 for it

   Where do you make a cut in chassis to lengthen it ?

i think majority of it will be added in front of the rear axle behind the drivers seat, basically adding the space where a back seat would sit

[RCCDrew]

That would be an awesome project!

[500Jon]

VT, ditch the 9 incher and and get a 9-3/4!

Real Mopars have err dana axles lol...

[RS23VOA]

That would make a cool drag car.

[cbrestorations]

VT, ditch the 9 incher and and get a 9-3/4!

Real Mopars have err dana axles lol...

dana is too heavy, can get an aluminum 3rd member with light weight gears and billet true trac for a for 9" and housing is lighter too. way more betters...lol

[VT_Dart]

VT, ditch the 9 incher and and get a 9-3/4!

Real Mopars have err dana axles lol...

I'm kind of digging the full floating axle setup on this 9".  Break an axle, pop a new one in without ever taking off the wheel.  In my defense, I've always run an 8 3/4" instead of a 9", never owned a car with the Dana.

[XS29L9B2]

Hello and welcome

[Bad B-rad]

Welcome. NICE CAR.Good Luck!!!!!!

[Highbanked Hauler]

I love it, I'm going to build the same tube chassis Daytona after my daisy project is driving. I've got a Nascar chassis to lengthen and use for the swap and a Nascar r5p7 for it

   Where do you make a cut in chassis to lengthen it ?

i think majority of it will be added in front of the rear axle behind the drivers seat, basically adding the space where a back seat would sit

     So it would be behind the door bar post ??

[qwick68]

Very cool, sits nice

[200MPH]

wow digging this !

[TruckDriver]

The pictures do not load for me 

[bannedbird]

Very nice ! I would love to build one full blown like that. - I'm still keeping (most of) my frame - lol!

Let us know when you start back up on it.

[500Jon]

Dana too heavy?
So is a iron headed hemi engine, but hey who cares, it a MOPAR!
If you wanna go real fast around corners by an old F1 car lol...

A good 8-3/4 will take 600-800hp, a Dana twice that?
Whats a good 9 incher take, 1000hp maybe more...

8.2 sec at 180 mph...on street tyres

[Hemi Runner]

A good fab9 with a strange ultra case or a Mark Williams case routinely takes 3000hp plus in some drag applications. Way more gear ratio choices and much easier to change as well. Once it's all aftermarket why would it even matter if the original design is DANA (which was an aftermarket OEM design, not a Mopar design) or Ford?

[djcarguy]

     some winter,holiday reading?dream a wild ride in this Daytona? 

[chargervert]

The car is in the works.

[chargervert]

I had planned to do a build thread on here about the car,but I had great differculty trying to post pictures here. I had to resize every photo ,and if I used a photo in another thread,it would not let me post the photo again without renaming the file?? It's too bad because this is the best Aerocar forum I have found. So I have threads on Moparts and FBBO on the car. The thread is titled a stock car flaming with a loser at the cruise control,if you want an update on the project. My Hemi is in machine shop jail right now,so the project is kinda on hold,I was making good progress on it,and hope to get back to it in the spring.

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

I had planned to do a build thread on here about the car,but I had great differculty trying to post pictures here. I had to resize every photo ,and if I used a photo in another thread,it would not let me post the photo again without renaming the file?? It's too bad because this is the best Aerocar forum I have found. So I have threads on Moparts and FBBO on the car. The thread is titled a stock car flaming with a loser at the cruise control,if you want an update on the project. My Hemi is in machine shop jail right now,so the project is kinda on hold,I was making good progress on it,and hope to get back to it in the spring.

I agree with you on the resizing of the photos.
Ive been hanging out at the "lowly" www.ramchargercentral.com website for years. I can throw any size picture there and it automatically sizes to fit.
What would it take for this forum site to do the same?
Sorry for the thread jack here, but I'm just starting on my Daytona clone too.
And I would love to start a page documenting it here.

[aerolith]

Yep the re-sizing thing is very annoying, without a doubt!
I never had any lessons about computers and I manage (just about).
Surely some DC. BOFFIN can sort out the re-sizing thing as we is missing out BIG-TIME!!!

The CV/VT Daytona is 'OFF THE SCALE' totally mental GOOD!!!

[chargervert]

I got the car from Darrah,almost two years ago.

[Stevearino]

I had planned to do a build thread on here about the car,but I had great differculty trying to post pictures here. I had to resize every photo ,and if I used a photo in another thread,it would not let me post the photo again without renaming the file?? It's too bad because this is the best Aerocar forum I have found. So I have threads on Moparts and FBBO on the car. The thread is titled a stock car flaming with a loser at the cruise control,if you want an update on the project. My Hemi is in machine shop jail right now,so the project is kinda on hold,I was making good progress on it,and hope to get back to it in the spring.

The simplest way I have found is to bring the photo up and press the print screen button. I then open up the simple microsoft paint program. I paste the pic there. I crop it. Save it to my desk top. Then just post it here. It is automatically rendered in the resolution of the screen which is low enough to post here with out any loss of size or quality.

[Stevearino]

If anyone is considering this kind of project the end of this coming cup season will see the end of the current car and all of the components used in the sport. What this means is there will be hundreds of rolling chassis with everything you need coming available for super cheap. There will be no secondary market for most of this stuff because it is all purpose built for the sport today. Literally millions of dollars of custom hand built chassis and components will be flooding the market next year as the current car becomes obsolete.  Also in the coming years there is also talk of hybrid and electric power plants so the current stock of motors will be looking for a home soon. There also ,unfortunately , will be a ton of people who specialized in these cars ( maybe myself included) who will be out of a job as the new car is a carbon fiber body that is a bolt on affair not requiring the skills currently needed to hang steel bodies. It may be easy to find someone to put that body on for you. If you end up shopping for these cars the ones that are most suited for auto cross would be the purpose built road course cars. Not as many of these exist but they will be out there too.

[chargervert]

Another thing to mention is that with the AMD sheetmetal that is available,there is no need to cut up a Charger to build a car like mine. The guy that built my car sacrificed a nice 70 Charger R/T to build it. I am going in the direction of putting more Charger back into the racecar. I modified a stock Charger dash frame to fit into the car. I ended up modifying a stock radiator support to fit,because the whole Daytona nose assembly was designed to bolt right to it. I the used the upper sections of stock inner front fenders,to be able to bolt the fenders,and hood hinges to,and to tie the radiator support to. The builder also shaved the drip rails off,and I am going to put them back on,because I want to put the wind deflectors on the A pillars as well.

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

Another thing to mention is that with the AMD sheetmetal that is available,there is no need to cut up a Charger to build a car like mine. The guy that built my car sacrificed a nice 70 Charger R/T to build it. I am going in the direction of putting more Charger back into the racecar. I modified a stock Charger dash frame to fit into the car. I ended up modifying a stock radiator support to fit,because the whole Daytona nose assembly was designed to bolt right to it. I the used the upper sections of stock inner front fenders,to be able to bolt the fenders,and hood hinges to,and to tie the radiator support to. The builder also shaved the drip rails off,and I am going to put them back on,because I want to put the wind deflectors on the A pillars as well.

The drip rails are coming off my car.
They just look so cobby to me.

[chargervert]

Daytona's don't look right without the A pillar moldings, so I have to put the driprail channels back on. The first time you roll down your window in the rain, you will be wishing you left the drip rails on.

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

Daytona's don't look right without the A pillar moldings, so I have to put the driprail channels back on. The first time you roll down your window in the rain, you will be wishing you left the drip rails on.

Where I live the question is "What is rain?"  
My clone will not be an exact replica Daytona anyway.
I want to drive this thing all over.
My goals are a great cruiser... if I want to go for a drive across the U.S... I'll hop in.
If I want to SCTA at El Mirage and qualify for 200+, I'll hop in.
If I want to go to Willow Springs and beat my ex son in law in his Daytona clone... I'll hop in.  
https://youtu.be/ij9HK2GNTbQ
https://youtu.be/ZIpcxClzfYg

[djcarguy]

 

[chargervert]

I have similar goals for this car. The plan is to build a legit 200 mph Daytona stock car that I can drive on the streets!

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

I have similar goals for this car. The plan is to build a legit 200 mph Daytona stock car that I can drive on the streets!

I'm with you!
I've started to dissemble my '70 Charger.
Going to get it blasted soon, and order some replacement panels that I need.