"What I Did on My Summer Vacation" UPDATED

[Recharger]

Thought I'd share a few progress pics since 's finally starting to look like I'm getting somewhere with my 68.   I was hoping to be at this stage of the project back in August, but working a few hours every other Saturday isn't exactly ideal for keeping on schedule.   (It would be nice to actually have a summer vacation.)   There's obviously a ton left to do, so I'm hoping to have it back on the road sometime in the spring.  

Here's the summary of what I've accomplished so far:  
Complete engine rebuild of the #s 383, now a 434 stroker
Complete rebuild of the 727 w/ shift kit and 2200 rpm stall converter
Stripped & repainted the engine bay (along with some miscellaneous brackets & pieces & parts)
Pulled out the dash & interior
Stripped the floor pans, patched up the few swiss cheese holes, Zero-Rusted the whole mess.

So far all the work has been done by my dad and myself, except for the trans rebuild.   He's a machinist, so he did all the engine stuff while I handled the stripping/grinding/painting duties.   We should have the engine back in around Thanksgiving, and then I'll spend the winter working on the grille and interior stuff.  


Some before & after shots of the engine bay

[Recharger]

A few more shots of the engine bay...   I should thank Moparguy01 for coaching me through the chatroom on my first ever attempt at painting...  If I ever end up in North Dakota  I owe you a few PBRs.   

[Recharger]

Some progress pics of my supposedly "rust free" floor pans...

[Recharger]

If any of you are planning on grinding on your floor pans, do yourself a favor and get a good respirator.  Those paper masks with the elastic straps are worthless.   

[Recharger]

And last but not least, some before & afters of the engine...

[BBMoparFreak]

That engine bay looks great!   Good job...
That engine looks awesome!
The floors look good too!

Ah hell, the whole car looks great with what you've done w/ it.  Congrats, and keep it up!

Michael

[67_Dodge_Charger]

 That is verrrry nice.

[70charginglizard]

Very nice.
I love the work you did on your engine bay.
I wish I would have had more time when I was doing mine but I did my engine swap at someone elses place and had limited time, help and supplies when repainting the engine bay.
Of well. Maybe I'll try again when I win the lottery and do that hemi swap....lol

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

hooker headers?-MATT

[Johnny SixPack]

Great work, Re!    

D@mn, that motor is lookin' good.

[Chargerguy74]

Awsome pics, my K frame looks the same right now....bunch of shoe prints from climbing in and out

[6pkrunner]

Very nice indeed. Love the black on the engine. Will really stand out in the compartment.

[4402tuff4u]

Nice job!!! Thanks for sharing. I agree about the mask. I ended up using a 3M double cartridge filter mask when I did the undercarriage on my Charger. What a mess! Keep up the good work.

[Charger4404spd]

Looks great, nice work!

[Doc74]

Sweet !!
That looks great, I love what you did with the engine. Great job Re, keep it up 

[plum500]

Damn that's friggin awesome. Very nice.

[Mefirst]

I give you 

[NYCMille]

Way to go man... it's coming along great, you should be proud.

[BB1]

WOW, what a super nice Charger you have. 

[BigBlockSam]

it's looking great ! gonna be sweet when your done,

[ChargerSG]

Looking really great, thanks for sharing...

[Charger_Fan]

Very impressive!!

[Chargen69]

WOW!!   

I love the engine color!!!!

[Recharger]

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys, I appreciate it.   

Max, those headers came like that out of the box, I didn't do any of the denting...   Those are the TTIs, btw Charger Punk.

[kab69440]

Pathetic, Re. What an amateur you are...






J/K

[moparguy01]

Like your ever gonna end up in ND to buy me a beer. haha

Looks good, and i'm glad i could help.

[Brock Samson]

i thought i posted yesterday about how nice it looks, then today i see no post,.. well,.. Damn! It Looks GREAT!! 

[miamivice]

 

damn dude, that looks great.   

[derailed]

 

[CB]

  both on engine and paint job
great job you did.

[71Charger500]

And last but not least, some before & afters of the engine...

Nice work, espically on that engine.  I'd hate to meet that at a stoplight.

[Headrope]

"The first day on my vacation, what I did on my summer vacation. The first day on my vacation, I woke up. Then, I went downtown to a find a job. Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The second day on my summer vacation. I woke up, then I went downtown to look for a job. Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The third day on my summer vacation. I woke up. Then I went downtown to look for a job. Then I got a job, keeping people from hanging out in front of the drugstore." - Sister Mary Elephant sketch, Cheech and Chong


Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[Recharger]

So, I've decided it's finally time to update my progress on the 68.  (you happy, Brock?)  After 2 years worth of Saturdays, the occasional Sunday and the odd weekday (that my boss doesn't need to know about) my dad and I finally have the Charger done.  Or almost done.  OK, it'll never be done, but at least this stage of the resto is over...except for a few details.    

So I left off about a year and a half ago, let's see...where was I...

1.  Mounted the engine a few days after the last time I posted here, in November of 05
2.  Nickel & dimed the accesory parts and stuff all winter, had several mounted, along with the exhaust system by May of 06
3.  Fired up the engine for the first time in July of 06
4.  This is how it sits as of a few weeks ago.  I painted the air cleaner cover one day with some blue paint I had leftover in the gun, and hadn't intended to leave it blue, but It's kinda grown on me since then...I think I'll pass on the wrinkle paint for now...

[Recharger]

1.  The interior sat in primer for a few months, until I got the seam sealer down and painted on the Cool Car ceramic in May of 06.  It's basically the same thing as LizardSkin, but a few bucks cheaper.  They advertise it as sound deadening too, but I'd probably recommend dynamat or at least the factory syle underpads in addition to the coolcar.  It does work really well as a heat insulator though.

2.  Got the Carpeting down in July of 06. 

3.  Rear seat and side panels installed shortly thereafter

4.  And of course, the front seats.  Did all the seat recovering myself, with the help of my dad.  It really wasn't all that tough, although I realize it's not "perfect."  Close enough for my purposes though..

[Recharger]

1.  Painted the dash frame in August of 06

2.  Mounted it and got the wiring & ductwork sorted out by November.  The clock and speedo were repaired by PCG, I used their decal kit on the small gauges.

3.  Everything on the dash is original except for the upper pad, which is an ebay part that I dyed blue.  I redid the dash panels/bezels on my own for a few bucks worth of rattle can black and Alcad II chrome airbrush paint.  That's an 'incorrect' AM/FM radio that the original owner installed way back when.  I've been tempted to sell it,  but it's going to stay there for the foreseeable future. 

4.  Gratuitous shot of the underside of the dash.  No one's ever going to see it, so I thought I'd show off how clean it was at one point.

[Recharger]

1.  Mounted the steering wheel and finished the last of the steering column by March of 07.  I'll worry about fixing up the steering wheel later....

2.  Finally finished the interior earlier this month.

3.  Started tearing the grille down in January of this year.  Luckily there was only one broken tooth.

4.  Thanks to Terrible One for hooking me up with a donor toof to splice back in there. 

[Recharger]

1.  Had the grille fixed up and assembled by mid March.  I used 69 OUR/TEA's custom mix for the grille silver.  (Thanks again  )  The color is great, and IMO it has a better contrast against the chrome trim than the argent silver, which is a bit lighter in color. 

2.  Stripped & repainted the grille frame in March, which is a major PITA without a sandblaster.  Turns out the same rig I used for dash frame works just as well for the grille frame too.

3.  Got the whole mess installed in late March.   

4.  Added the bumper a few days later and took the car for it's first ride in in 2 years on April 1st. 

[Recharger]

1.  So after the first short drive, I turned the car around in garage and got to work on the tail end.  The dust really piles up over time....

2.  Ended up repainting the whole tail end (long story), the brakelight housings, polished up the chrome trim &  mounted a new bumper.  It's a Goodmark repop and I'm not too happy with the fit of it, but I'll deal with that later.  Now if only I could find the right arrow emblem...

3.  Installed the new tail stripe in late April...

4.  And finally put on some new wheels & tires just last week.  I'll get to the exhaust tips eventually.

[Recharger]

And here's a few more recent shots.  (I think I might be going a bit overboard here  )    There's still some work to be done and some details to attend to, but for the most part the project is over.  Finally.  Now it's time for the   

In the last pic, you can see all the original documentation that I have with the car:  the original window sticker, the build sheet, the owners manual & certicard, and even the customer care booklet which shows the records of all the service that was performed on the car for the first 2 years.  Stashed away somewhere else, I also have a copy of the original title showing just my name and the original owner as the only 2 owners of this car.  I'm not sure if it adds much value, since it's not an R/T and it's not 100% stock anymore, but it's still cool to have.


Thanks to everyone here for the help with questions and parts along the way.  

[Lowprofile]

The car looks awesome bro! Great Job! And just in time for those summer nite cruises!!

[Shakey]

 

Looks fantastic and an excellent series of update posts.  You've really done a great job.   

Makes me want to scrap the family weekend plans and head out and work on mine.   

Cool. 

[plum500]

VERY nice work. That is one beautiful Charger.

[Brock Samson]

Congrats Re!
I've been awaiting this/these updates,.. you know im a big fan of yours!

i dont like the wheels by the way.. 

We'll talk.. 

[miamivice]

looks great!  congrats

[aone415]

Car looks outstanding!  I do however, agree with Brock, I would've chose some different wheels but that's simply a personal preference...

[Charger-Bodie]

very cool car and nice work ...now go have some fun with it!!

[tommymac]

Great looking Resto,I think I skipped a few stages!that I should have done,too much of a hurry to get done,after 20 years of sitting there,Ill get back to it THE GRILL. THE MOTOR Great Job...

[chargermick]

Really looks smokin!!! I wish I could do that kind of body work. Where in Chicago are you? I'm in Tinley Park, just south of the city. Maybe hit some shows together?

[Recharger]

Thanks guys!

The car looks awesome bro! Great Job! And just in time for those summer nite cruises!!

That was the plan all along Lowpro...although I was originally aiming for last summer.   

i dont like the wheels by the way.. 

We'll talk.. 

That really hurts, especially coming from a guy with tiger fur seat covers.    haha, j/k...  Actually, I figured the wheels would get, well...mixed reviews, but I like 'em so screw it.  And they were cheap.   (ebay deal)  I personally just wanted to do something a bit different than the Mag500/TT2/steelie routine that you see on 90% of the Chargers out there.  To each his own....

Where in Chicago are you? I'm in Tinley Park, just south of the city. Maybe hit some shows together?

Sounds good to me.     I'm in Brookfield, just a few miles up from you off of Rt 45.  I actually just got rained out of my first planned 'show' yesterday, a cruise night in Frankfort.  They do it every Thursday and yesterday was Mopar night, but the weather didn't cooperate.  It's a weekly event though, so I'll have to show up another time and irritate all the brand x guys.


And if anyone's interested, I've got a few more pictures posted here.  http://home.comcast.net/~68charger   I realize it's a crappy website, but it's all Comcast offers for 'free.' 

[Charger1973]

Dude that car is looking awesome.  I really like the "standard" 68s more than the RTs for some reason.  They just look better to me.  I really like what you did on the interior too.  The floors especially, im definately thinking of going the same route you did with my floors that stuff looks like it would work really well. 

[chargermick]

I usually go to the Frankfurt show every Thu. Last Thu. was a bummer. Can't go this week cause we'll be out of town, but I'll be looking for you from then on.

[Brock Samson]

 what i dont like about the rims is the lack of depth, that plus they are so damn shiney they look like hubcaps...
and I'll have you know, it's a genuine tiger skin seat "cover"... singular... 
seriously though,.. i really admire the amount of work you did yourself... AWSOME!!!