White top for my 71 Bee

[charger Downunder]

looks heaps better with the white top.

[Graham496_SE]

Hi again Graham,

That S.E of yours.....has it got a pretty worked motor in it ? It reminds me of one I saw out of L.A I think - it was for sale.

Peter

This car is from California so it could well be the same one. The motor in it is pretty built yes.. I'll cut and paste the specs I got from the previous owner. He ran 7.1 @ 99.73mph in the 8th mile with bad traction 3 bent valves and a partially blown head gasket. But all that is fixed now (except the traction) with the extra work on the stage 6's it should run good i'm hoping. It's probably at the limits now of how far you would want to take LY rods. But I can always build another short block for it down the track, the rotating assemblies are quite cheap now. The car came with 2 dana rear ends and the numbers matching 383. Speaking of 383's muscle motors now makes a 4.25 stroker kit to build a 496" 383! One of those would make your super bee move super fast and look stock doing it..  http://www.musclemotorsracing.com/main/  I need to restore the body and interior but it's all there and rust free so it's a good base to work with.


- It's a 71 440 block, .055 over, decked, line bored,
torque plate honed etc
- Old school MM stroker kit welded factory forged
crank (4.15 stroke) and reconditioned LY rods
- Ross forged pistons (bout .020 in the hole) 12:1
comp ratio (measured)
- C&A rings, low tension oil rings
- 1/2" oil pickup
- 7 qt low profile milodon pan
- High volume melling oil pump
- ARP Head and Main studs
- Ultradyne tightlash flat tappet solid cam .597 lift
263@.050 duration 108 LSA
- 3/8 Smith Bro's pushrods
- Crane gold adjustable roller rockers
- MP billet aluminum hold-downs
- Stage VI heads ported by MM then ported additionally
by engine builder then additional chamber and bowl
work done when heads rebuilt 1000 or less miles ago. Ferrea comp plus valves.   Had new guides put in, 3
new exhaust valves (bent valves, old springs were weak
and wrong selection so valves floated) all new
springs, spring cups, keepers, couple new seats, new
seals, competition valve job, decks re-surfaced etc. 
Basically completely gone through, spent 1000$ on that
alone
- .027 Cometic head gaskets
- MP Stage VI extra wide M1 intake (made for Stage VI
heads on RB block), plenum work done to it by engine
builder
- Holley 1000 CFM 4150 downleg booster carb, Pro-form
baseplate (put on after I bought the motor, almost
new)
- TTI 2inch primary 3 1/2 collector headers, re-coated
when I bought motor
- 3 1/2 X 3 inch Dr. Gas X-pipe, goes into 3 inch
Dynomax ultraflow Oval mufflers then exits before rear
end
- Magnaflow 275 quickstar fuel pump with fuel filter
built in
- Magnaflow 2 port regulator
-  -10 braided stainless fuel line from sumped factory
gas tank to fuel pump.   -8 from pump to regulator, -6
to carb bowls.   No rubber lines anywhere, all
stainless
- -6 teflon braided stainless Trans lines from B&M
plate style cooler to transmission

[71 Bee Man]

Pretty sure it's the same car I saw when I was looking for one. I didn't want anything too worked at the time, and really wanted either a Super Bee or R/T. The R/T's were too pricey - or at least more than what I had.

What are you planning on doing with it ? Have you always wanted one ?

Peter

[Graham496_SE]

This car is perfect for me because it's exactly how I would have built it, I wont be driving it much so it doesn't matter if it's a bit of a pig.

Firstly i'm gonna get a dashcap, new steering wheel and what ever other things I need to get it registered/tided up.  The suspesion and engine bay has already been done and looks nice. But I will eventually restore the interior fully back to original and the body and paint to a good driver but non show car standard. I just want it to look nice when I take it for the occasional blast down road, or to the track

I've wanted a Charger since I was about 16 or 17. Was very keen to get a '68 and never really knew anything about the 3rd gen cars, but just looking at mopar muscle cars for those past 5 years I now have a soft spot for the 3rd gens. You just can't beat the side profile.. it's pure muscle!

Graham

[71 Bee Man]

They do have a great side on profile - very fast looking.

I remember reading an old Mopar Muscle magazine and they were talking about the 3rd Gen cars, and they mentioned how these were the cars that were on the drawing boards at the height of the muscle car era in the late 60's. Their point was that these were the shape and design that was on the minds of the guys when all this stuff was happening.

My car only goes out occasionally. I have to run high octane in her and it costs a mint just to go on short trips. I took the kids out last night for a quick run to the local Maccas and it was funny to drive in and see all these little 4 cylinder "doof doof" cars sitting there with all those tacky looking accessories. The Dodge burbled through and got looks from everywhere. Saturday night was a good night to go for a short cruise.

Sure.......it cost me about 10 times the fuel of those little cars, but I wouldn't swap it for the world.

[Graham496_SE]

The petrol thing is kinda scary with the way the prices have headed, but I agree it's worth it especially with the miles we do in the old cars. I think i've only done like 4000 miles in my valiant in the past 3 years and I doubt I will do anymore than that in this charger.

I'd imagine you would get lots of looks in your bee! That thing is mint!!!