My '69 charger restoration / conversion to clone R/T / ...

[UH60L]

Yeah, no kidding eh, hehe.  I always thought the right side looked a little different, not quite the right shape to the grill openning of that fender.  Now I know why!

I guess I just thought it was the torque roll, and not the weight of the fender, that was listing me to the right.  

[UH60L]

More pics.

[UH60L]

Trunk is looking good. Here is the new hood.  That guy with the hood is the body guy that did most of the work on my car.  He may look a little bit like Cooter, but he actually did alot of work and for the most part did a great job.

[UH60L]

Coming togeather.

[bsakal]

Looking good!!! 

[UH60L]

Thanks.  More pics.

The fenders, hood, and trunk lid getting painted.

Hemi Orange, without metal flake.

[UH60L]

Corners getting a little "mud" work.  One of the doors, painted on the inside and getting prepped outside.  Top of the hood and trunk lid.

[UH60L]

Orange doors.   

[doctor4766]

Hey.. this looks like my paint job pics.....


Looking good mate.

[UH60L]

Thanks.  Yeah, it will look very similar to yours, only no tail stripe.

Here are pics of the main body starting to get painted.  Trunk and engine compartment are orange.  The floorpans were black, but got a bit of orange overspray.  No big deal, it will all be covered anyway.

[UH60L]

Sometimes it looks more red, but trust me, it's orange!

[doctor4766]

Beautiful colour man, but then, I'm a lil biased...

[tan top]

Sometimes it looks more red, but trust me, it's orange!

awesome work been going on there ,  keep the pictures coming 

Beautiful colour man, but then, I'm a lil biased...

  nice looking 69 Dude

[UH60L]

Your car looks great.  Mine still needs a little work to look that good.

More pics, this was the first night that it was home from the body shop, December 2008.

[UH60L]

Jan 3 2009, it was a sunny day and I needed to work on some stuff in the garage, so, picture day!

[UH60L]

Jan 4 2009, Engine installed, mostly, still missing some parts, hehe.

[knitz01]

Man that looks awsome..... Love the Color 

[UH60L]

I haven't posted in my original thread for  awhile, but figured what the heck.

So, I'm finally making some progress again.

Poor thing has been sitting for years with very little work due to lack of time and money. 

So I'm out in the garage today working on some stuff and I pull out my new flex plate bolts and go to put them in, after 7 years, and something doesn't look right.

My 440 is a cast crank engine and was balanced with the appropriate balancer and weighted flex plate.  The 727b tranny was rebuilt and a new torque converter put in.  So, I hand start one flex plate bolt, then go to start another, and the second hole doesn't appear to be lined up.  So I put a socket on my crank bolt and slowly moved the engine so I could see another hole on the flex plate, and it too does not seem to line up.

So, does the flex plate only line up with the converter in one position, or do I have an incompatible flex plate and torque converter?   

That would suck, the engine and tranny have been installed since Jan 2009...  don't want to pull either one... :-(

[UH60L]

Never mind, my friend showed up and we got it turned 2 holes and lined up perfect...

[Pat1973charger]

Awesome story and car! I have seen that on alot of mopar engines/converters new and old where there is one position for the flex plate bolts. Best of luck on finishing your resto!

[UH60L]

Thanks.  Yeah we found out about the crank pulley having one "off" hole also, fixed it today.

Ran into another issue this afternoon though.  I bought one of those smaller, high torque starters for my Charger, and it appears that the big positive connector stud...is gonna hit/touch the engine block. 

Anyone else run into this?  Is there an easy fix (cut of the stud shorter...) or am I gonna have to get a different starter?

[UH60L]

I think I've decided to just buy a remanned original style starter. 

My buddy and I should have the majority of the engine compartment put back together by the end of today.  It's looking like I might be able to get it started in a month or two. 

The biggest hurdle to that will be getting all the glass installed correctly with the correct parts.  I'm missing some stuff and I didn't take it out so I'm not exactly sure how it goes.  The back window regulator/system is missing a few parts, has some broken rollers etc. 

I'm getting kind of excited, it's been 8 years since I've had it on the road!

[tan top]

 

[garner7555]

Some of the mini starters have an "extension" where the wires bolt up.  Remove it and possibly grind down the studs on terminals.  Should clear after this. 

[CDN72SE]

Beautiful, nice work and story.