My 1968 Charger mods

[TTSaleen]

Quick recap -
I purchased my 68 Charger in December 2020 from the original owners.
The car was stock with the factory, manual drum brakes and original suspension.
The previous owners had upgraded the wheels from the factory 14" to a set of American Racing VN5155765 wheels in 15" x 7" and a set of 235-60-15 tires.

The car rode very soft and the rear leafs had started to sag, to the point the front end was alot higher than the rear.


So far I have replaced the rear leaf springs (1"lower) and shocks.
I installed the Hotchkis TVS (total vehicle system) which has the Sport Leaf Springs, in addition to the Fox 1.5 Shocks.
Shocks - https://www.hotchkis.net/product/hotchkis-tuned-1-5-street-performance-series-shock-4-pack-dodge-66-72-b-body/?mk=40&yr=1968&md=287&sm=20
Leaf Springs - https://www.hotchkis.net/product/1967-1970-mopar-b-body-geometry-corrected-sport-leaf-springs/?mk=40&yr=1968&md=287&sm=20


For the front I am using the Fox 1.5 shocks.
However I decided to use the QA1 upper control arms - P/N 52305 - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qa1-52305
I also have the QA1 tie rod sleeve upgrade - P/N 52325 - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qa1-52325/make/dodge/model/charger/year/1968
I also lowered the front torsion bars to give the car a lower front end so it didn't sit higher than the rear.








After these simple mods, the car handled much better and the ride height looked better.

[TTSaleen]

As you know, I am a mustang guy so that means I have quite a few sets of wheels laying around.
One set in particular is my Mach 1 wheels that are 18x9" front and 18x10.5" rear.
These have a 26mm and 6.1 backspace (front) and a 27mm and 6.75 backspace (rear).  They also have a 70.5mm hub size.
The tires are Toyo T1 275-35-18 front and Toyo R888 305-35-18 rear.
Being somewhat of an old-school look, I decided to fit them onto the 68.

First problem is the hub size on the Charger is a little over 71.5mm.  It's very close, but unfortunately the mustang 70.5mm hub would not clear it properly and allow the wheels to sit flush.
Next problem was the backspace was too much and the wheels hit the suspension and brake components.
A solution was to install wheel spacers to give me a little more clearance and let the wheels fit.
I had a set of 2" spacers and while it worked, it pushed the rear tires too close to the outer fender lip.  I was concerned that when the suspension moved, it would cut the outer sidewall of the tire.
Next I ordered and installed a 1" set of spacers.  This fit much better and gave plenty of clearance.  In reality I think a 1.25 spacer would be perfect.
However the 1" give me plenty of inside clearance to the inner fender well and the leaf springs.

This is with the 2" spacer.  You can see how close the outer sidewall is to the fender lip.




This is with the 1" spacer.  It fits much better and no chance to damage the tire outer sidewall.





Car is still under upgrades now so no pictures on the ground.
I am waiting on my disc brake conversion from Doctor Diff to arrive (next week).

[Mopar Nut]

What color is your Charger?

[TTSaleen]

It's Monotone Racing Green Metallic

[Mopar Nut]

Color looks awesome.

[TTSaleen]

Thanks.

Here's 2 videos of the mods so far -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMFk2kXev24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU1dPAszEtk

[TTSaleen]

Got my brake upgrade from Doctor Diff.
Currently working on the install and will have a video later.

Ryan

[TTSaleen]

Made more progress last night.  Hope to complete by this weekend, but work is keeping me from being able to spend time in the garage.
Got the Doctor Diff kit installed on the passenger side.
Also added new MOOG tie rod ends (p/n ES319L and ES319R) onto my new QA1 tie rod sleeve (p/n 52325).
Then added new MOOG lower ball joints/arms (p/n K783 and K781).







I mocked up how a mustang wheel will look (this is my Bogart Racing 17" front runner from my drag race setup).
And this is with the 1" wheel spacer installed.
I plan to put the Mach 1 wheels on the front, but this wheel was close by.  LOL.  

[TTSaleen]

Got the brakes and suspension completed and had the front end alignment done.
Also my buddy Mike at PhantomBlackPhotography (from Instagram) did a photo shoot yesterday.
He has a 2019 Sublime Charger.

A few low rez pics are from my cell phone, the high quality stuff is all his.  LOL.

[Kern Dog]

Thank you for the updates. The car looks great.
I'm sure that you'll find that the rear tires rub the outer wheel tub as the suspension compresses. The 68-70 B body cars had a strange outer wheel tub shape. They do not directly follow the contour of the quarter panel. See picture.....

[Kern Dog]

I've dealt with tire rub for years with my 295-45-18s on my red car. For my other '70, I cut, reshaped and welded the tubs from underneath.

[TTSaleen]

Now that you mention it, I did notice it was a weird shape in there.
So far the only rub I've had is on the inner wells.  There is an oh-so-slight witness mark on both sides from the inner side of the tire rubbing at full suspension compression.
It appears to only affect the undercoating that was in there.
I'll keep an eye on it and the other side you mentioned.

Now I have exposed my loose steering (steering rag joint) and the super soft steering box.
The 275 tires follow a lot of imperfections and crown of the road more noticeable than the 235's did.
So I plan to pull the steering box and send to Firm Feel for their Stage 3 upgrade.
I also need to replace/fix the rag joint.

[Highbanked Hauler]

 Don't know about QA1 upper control arms but I got a set of uppers from Firm Feel and  couldn't get better than 2 degrees negative camber on both wheels . I had to get a set of adjustable arms and those just got it to .25 degrees which is fine in my situation. Good luck  ..

[TTSaleen]

That is interesting about yours.
My alignment guy was able to get it in spec according to the laser machine he was using.
Now this is different from the QA1 specs that came with my arms, but I decided to use the laser alignment settings to see how it drives/handles.
I may change it later to see how different it drives with the QA1 specs.
I'll find the sheet and post it later. 

Here's my latest video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH0Lf9pzNYc

[Kern Dog]

I also need to replace/fix the rag joint.

No 66-72 Charger was built with a "Rag Joint". They did incorporate them in 1973 or 74 though.
Maybe you mean the coupler?

[TTSaleen]

No 66-72 Charger was built with a "Rag Joint". They did incorporate them in 1973 or 74 though.
Maybe you mean the coupler?

Probably.

[TTSaleen]

Had the car alignment revised.
Instead of using the alignment recommendations on the machine (when it is in the green), I went with completely different settings based on the suspension and tires.
QA1 recommends -
Camber 0 to -1/2 degrees.  I have mine set to -1/2.
Caster +2 to +4 degrees.  I have mine set to +3.9.

A few weeks ago I had it aligned and let the tech use whatever the computer wanted.
The car didn't drive very well and the steering wandered all over the road.
Those settings were - Camber +0.3 and Caster +1.6.

Anyway thought I'd share my results between 2 different alignment settings.
And here's a few more pics.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Nicely done and great photos.      Car looks great!

Yeah all those new parts aren't going to do any good with the alignment set up for bias plys.