For my 3rd gen brethren...KWS's 1972 Charger!

[MaceDew]

I know it is completed, I meant a complete set of pics.

[BROCK]

I know it is completed, I meant a complete set of pics.

+1

It's been over a year & I kinda kick myself for not going out of my way to find the mags
that covered KWSs car.  It aint easy to hunt this stuff down in Louisiana.  I'm usually
disappointed in magazene pics though.  Used to be the photographer was all about the
car when he shot it.  Now days they are all about their creativity & you never really
get a true sense of the car itself.  I would love a strait side view from about 2 feet off
the ground & a strait front & a strait rear & a & a..............

[Foreman72]

here ya go

[KWS]

Guys, FYI I hate to say it, but we are still working on the car LOL! It's nothing horrible, it's just that we are trying some new stuff with it, and I want it to be perfect. We are taking our time trying to get it right. A lot of rushing was done to get the car ready for Hot Rod TV and SEMA and the car wasn't right.

We have since torn the car down and started over with a lot of the car. We are doing some more body mods. We have welded and smoothed the whole rear end. We had some issues with the bellhousing and the tranny, so we have been working on that too. The clutch we had was tool stiff for heavy traffic, so we replaced that. We are working on getting the A/C working because we didn't have time for all of that before.

No magazines have had a chance to do a real story on the car because we don't want to do articles until the car is right. When it's all said and done this car will be a reliable show car/ daily driver that anyone could get in and drive across the country without a second thought, and then follow it up by taking it to the track and flogging the crap out of it too.

I'm going to show you guys a few pics of the interior and the body work that's being done to the rear. These pics have never been seen before. Some were taken with my cell phone, so the resolution isn't that great, but you get the idea of what's happening with the car. I'll keep you updated as the car progresses.

Here's a gold stripe I designed for SEMA. The problem was the material wasn't true vinyl. It was metallic and looked like brushed aluminum. It had foil like properties and therefore was a nightmare for the decal guys to apply. There was too many flaws in it, so we ripped it off at SEMA and had the MOPAR guys apply a flat black one instead.









Here's the flat black one at SEMA:





Here's the cars current condition with the rear being redone:







Brakes and front suspension:



Motor:



Here's some of the interior:

[Charger74]

Thanks Kenny,

Interesting idea on the rear end.   I'm sure some won't like it but I think it's different.   Keep us up to date on this when you get the chance.

[Magnumcharger]

I like the molded bumper...has an "RTS Caravan" look to it!

It also reminds me of this green Roadrunner I saw last year.

[ACUDANUT]

Looks tough to me.

[oldrock]

very cool looking charger! Love those fat tires. Whats up with that shifter though? Never seen one set up quite like that before. Regardless, it is a very tough looking charger. THanks for sharing all the cool pics.

[Road Dog]

Are you planning on doing the front bumper like the rear? Molded into the body look?

[mopar73]

that's some neat blending on the rear   can't wait to see the finished result

[KWS]

very cool looking charger! Love those fat tires. Whats up with that shifter though? Never seen one set up quite like that before. Regardless, it is a very tough looking charger. THanks for sharing all the cool pics.

The shifter is a custom piece that a company made for me. It's a result of a small oversight when I got all the parts for this car. I didn't realize that the shifter for the viper tranny was much more forward than the stock location of a shifter in a manual B-body. This car was originally an auto, so we fabbed a new tunnel to fit the viper tranny under the car and just cut the hole in it's stock location. When I tried to put a regular pistol grip for a 71-72 B-body on there I had to lean all the way up to the dash just to be able to reach it. It made shifting comfortably impossible. We were so far along in the build for the TV show that we couldn't re-do the tunnel ot the center console in time, so we opted to have a custom shifter made that would place the handle in the drivers hand comfortably.

This is the first car I have built with a stick, and we did a bunch of things in this car that haven't been done before, so I guess you live and you learn.

   

[KWS]

Are you planning on doing the front bumper like the rear? Molded into the body look?

Not on the front. It would have made it impossible to work on some parts of the front end having both front fenders welded to the bumper like that.

[MaceDew]

Thanks for the update KWS. That thing was awesome before and not it is just getting better and better.  
Is that suede on the inserts in the seats and door panels?
Keep us up to date on the progress and all.

[Foreman72]

agreed...that has always been one of my favorite 72s...also, in other news, shotgun blues has been spinnin like crazy on my ipod...great great song...he was dead before he hit the ground

[KWS]

Thanks for the update KWS. That thing was awesome before and not it is just getting better and better.  
Is that suede on the inserts in the seats and door panels?
Keep us up to date on the progress and all.

Yeah, it's perforated suede.

[KWS]

agreed...that has always been one of my favorite 72s...also, in other news, shotgun blues has been spinnin like crazy on my ipod...great great song...he was dead before he hit the ground

HAHAHA! Thanks!

[mikepmcs]

Thanks for the update Kenny, looks great!  What size throttle body you runnin?

[jaak]

Hey Kenny....Great looking cars, I know this is a Charger site, but I'd like to see more photos of the Duster .

Jason

[MaceDew]

Was looking over the pictures again, and was checking out the gauge cluster.
What type of gauge did you put behind the ralley dash?
I noticed that the odometer was digital on the speedo pic.

[Bill Howell]

Was looking over the pictures again, and was checking out the gauge cluster.
What type of gauge did you put behind the ralley dash?
I noticed that the odometer was digital on the speedo pic.

I remember reading the article Hunkins did on the car in Popular Hot Rodding and got these folks contact info
http://www.redlinegaugeworks.com/default.asp
They redid the factory stuff to work with the modern motor. I used them also on my car, great work and reasonable.

[ACUDANUT]

Hey Kenny....Great looking cars, I know this is a Charger site, but I'd like to see more photos of the Duster .

Jason

BOO HISS

[NYCMille]

Hey Kenny -

I more I look at that car the more I want to do a custom 3rd. gen... 

[Foreman72]

Hey Kenny -

I more I look at that car the more I want to do a custom 3rd. gen... 

DO IT

[mikesbbody]

Hey Kenny -

I more I look at that car the more I want to do a custom 3rd. gen... 

DO IT

I agree!  come to the "Dark Side" Mike...

[Silver R/T]

very nice 3rd gen