ChgrSteve67 Charger Rebuild

[A383Wing]

Looking great Steve! You're bringing it to the MATS aren't ya? I've never rode in a 1st Gen before

get off yer ass & come on down.....got 2 of 'em here you could have a ride in

[ChgrSteve67]

Bryan will even let you drive his.

[A383Wing]

Bryan will even let you drive his.

He will have to practice on your car first

[69bronzeT5]

I've practiced on my Duster.....and I'll be practicing on Chuck's '68 during the MATS

[A383Wing]

I've practiced on my Duster.....and I'll be practicing on Chuck's '68 during the MATS

Steve's car is a 5 speed manual..both my 66's are 4 speeds...your Duster a 6 speed?   

[69bronzeT5]

I've practiced on my Duster.....and I'll be practicing on Chuck's '68 during the MATS

Steve's car is a 5 speed manual..both my 66's are 4 speeds...your Duster a 6 speed?   

I've had barely any practice driving manual

[ChgrSteve67]

My Charger does not have power steering, does not have power brakes and does not have a hydrolic clutch so you better start pumping some iron cody.

We would have to find a big empty parking lot.

Got any experience pulling a trailier?

[69bronzeT5]

Got any experience pulling a trailier?

A bit yep.

[ChgrSteve67]

Steering wheel is done and on its way home.

[A383Wing]

Looks good....I'll double my previous offer I made you...I'll give ya $2 for it now that it's all pretty! 

[ChgrSteve67]

Steering wheel is in the house.

Hopefully I will get it installed this weekend.

[ChgrSteve67]

wow I can't believe how long its been since I last updated my rebuild thread.

So here is my latest project and I'm hoping my last.

Time to make the engine compartment look like a mopar and not a Chevy.  Started yesterday taking her apart and preping parts.  There is a lot of other things going on that don't show well in pics like replacing the master cylinder.

Here are pics of my two days of progress.

Oh and the reason the intake was off is my uncle droped a nut and it traveled all the way to the #6 intake valve. And yes I replaced the gasket.











Hope to get more cleaned up and the firewall and inner fenders painted next weekend.

62 Days left till my cross courtry trip to CEMA and Route 66

[stripedelete]

It's like watching open-heart surgery.  Keep the pics coming.  

[FlatbackFanatic]

  looking good!!!

[irish_in_ny]

I went through each page of this thread and all I have to say is fair play to you. The Charger is great. Best of luck with it!   

[ChgrSteve67]

Charger is almost back together.

Items left to do...
Install Master cylinder and blead the brakes.
attach the spark plug wires
Install the grill and headlights
Put the bumper back on.
Install the hood.

Here is a pic I took when I called it quits tonight.

[71 b-body charger]

you should go to the Midwest Mopars in the Park on june 4-5 in farmington mn

[tan top]

Charger is almost back together.

Items left to do...
Install Master cylinder and blead the brakes.
attach the spark plug wires
Install the grill and headlights
Put the bumper back on.
Install the hood.

Here is a pic I took when I called it quits tonight.

nice work looks good 

[ChgrSteve67]

Thought I was going to finish up today but ran into a few set backs.

While bleading the new master cylinder I noticed that the front flex line had a cut in it and was leaking break fluid. Well it took about two and a half hours and trips to 4 parts stores to figure out that I needed a flex line off of a 75 Dodge Dart. the last parts store had two left in stock so I got them both to replace both front lines. Unfortunate for me my cousin never told be what parts he used when did the break conversion on my Charger.

My bone head move of the day was that I left the keys to the Charger at my house, about 25 minutes across town so I was not able to start the Charger up today and look for leaks.

Good news is I only have put the bumper, hood, tires back on and fire the Charger up and look for leaks. Providing I remember to bring the keys with me next time.

Here are a few pics from today.

Before

After

[PocketThunder]

Ya buddy your car is sweet....     

[66chargerkid]

I just read through your entire thread on this AWESOME first gen and all I have to say is KUDOS to you for awesome work. Your build has really inspired my build and I hope you don't mind if some of your idea's get thrown into my first gen. One thing I absolutely love is the M cut into the hood for the hoodscoop. I had already planned to do a hood scoop but that M is AWESOME! I would love to have a stick in my charger but for simplicities sake I am going to stick with the 727 for now. I love the digital gauges too. And the stance of your car is right where I would want mine. I can't stand that saggin look of most first gens and I want a good aggressive stance that the car deserves. I do have a couple questions.
1) What suspension do you have on the car to get the stance you have?
2) What does it take to convert to the digital gauges? I love the stock gauges but some nice accurate modern gauges in the stock housing would be AWESOME!
I love your build and please keep it updated. One day I will have money for my first gen.

[tan top]

   looks a lot different !!  nice work 

[ChgrSteve67]

Thanks for the complements its been a long 12 years since I started rebuilding the Charger. Feel free to use whatever inspiration and custom touches you like on your ride.  Not all of my ideas worked out or were very smart to begin with so if you can learn from my mistakes and save yourself a few bucks I'll feel my time to document my work was worth while.
Lets see if I can answer your questions.

1) What suspension do you have on the car to get the stance you have?

The suspension is nothing special. The rear leave springs are Mopar Performance HD springs.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DCC-4452982/
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DCC-4452983/

I added front a rear sway bars from Firm Feel (Makes a world of difference)
http://www.firmfeel.com/swaybars_b.htm

Tires and rims are 15 inch Magnum 500s with 235 / 604 15s

As far as the stance I had the allignment shop set the ride height to what I was happy with.

2) What does it take to convert to the digital gauges? I love the stock gauges but some nice accurate modern gauges in the stock housing would be AWESOME!

The actual conversion to digital gauges was easy. The only part I actually had to change was the temp sensor. The rest of the gauges connect up to the stock sensors or had an adapter to connect it to the stock wiring.  The conversion price today is not really cost effective.  Gibber over on the 66-67 charger site can repair the stock gauges for a fraction of the cost that the digital setup will cost you today.

Here is the company that did mine
http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=214/category_id=417/home_id=-1/mode=prod/prd214.htm
When I had mine done the custom job was around $500, today it will cost you $1000 for the conversion.

If I was doing my cluster today I would put the stock gauges in, in face I have a set that I will be sending to Gibber one of these day to repair and calibrate so someday I can convert my Charger back to stock gauges. The main reason I converted over to digital is that I was installing a fuel injection setup and I wanted gauges that were more accurate than the stock gauges.


If you really like the "M" PM me your e-mail address and I will find the template I used to make a cutout of the "M". I took the cutout and taped it to the underside of the hood then spray painted it.  Then I had a local shop cut it out with a cutting wheel, then I filed it nice and smooth with a steel file.  I looked into having a water jet company cut it out for me but they wanted $600 to create the program and cut it out.  After that I welded a piece of steel mesh to the hood to make it strong again and then used body filler to build up the sides so it was smooth so I didn't loose a finger or two trying to wash under the scoop.  Piece of cake.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Steve

[twodko]

Steve, top 'o the line work you've done. Nice nice nice.

[ChgrSteve67]

Thanks Tom

I'm trying to work out the Cheese run on the 23rd. Maybe I will see you there.
I need to break in the Charger again after having her all apart.