1969 Charger R/T - Journey to get it back on the road begins

[gtx6970]

btw, Here's a better picture to show the gloss level of the booster/master cylinder assembled with firewall plate and redone wire clip. It's sprayed with PPG enamel dulled down maybe 10-15% . Essentially just enough to take the super glossy shine  off of it

[hemi68charger]

 

Good job Bill................

[RIDELIKEHELL]

Nice! Love the color

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I hope he's in line to get one of the remaining headlight vacuum hose kits!   

[BigBlockSam]

 

[gtx6970]

Now that the drivetrain is out an out of the way. Once on the engine stand , I partially dis-assembled the shortblock to degree in the cam  and repair a dent on the oil pan.
While ck'ing #1 piston up to TDC. I found out the aftermkt crank dampner is off by almost 3 degrees . ( glad I ck'd that now )

[gtx6970]

Torn down and the cam is  dialed in at 105 degrees.

[gtx6970]

So while I'm waiting on head gaskets to show uo.
I turned to the engine bay .
The frame rail area was left kind of greasy. And now was a good time to correct this.
The starting point.

[gtx6970]

Everything off and out of the way,, and ready for paint.

[gtx6970]

Now painted, all the brake valves cleaned up, and all put back together with all new Finelines brake lines. Actually every line on the car will be new Fine Lines stuff.

[gtx6970]

Then on to the getting the disc brake conversion pieces ready to go back on the control arms before it all goes back up in the chassis.
Cleaned and painted spindles with caliper brackets

[gtx6970]

With a brief trip in the the glass bead cabinet . I cleaned up the rotor dust shields. Withthese beinge later modle pieces. They are actually glavanized . so thats the finish I tried to repilicate

[gtx6970]

Heres a closeup to show the finish.It's a rattle can paint called Hammertone. And looks real good compared to rusty - greasy bent parts.

[firefighter3931]

While ck'ing #1 piston up to TDC. I found out the aftermkt crank dampner is off by almost 3 degrees . ( glad I ck'd that now )

Sheesh !  Is that a fluid style dampner ?

Torn down and the cam is  dialed in at 105 degrees.

That's where it needs to be !  Do you remember if it's installed on the same keyway/position ? I've disassembled a few only to discover the cam timing was waaay off. In one case it was 14* retarded (off 1 tooth) and as you can imagine it ran like poop. Sure was a different car with the correct installed centerline and a little fine tuning. 


Ron

[elacruze]

Great Color!

My Fluidamper was off by less than 1*...as close to right as I could measure it.

[Shakey]

Wow - this thread sure brings back a lot of memories from a few years back!

Thanks for sharing these Bill - maybe this will prompt me to get back to work.

[gtx6970]

Well, Heres an update.
With  the heads having been machined previously an unknown amount. I decided to err on the side of caution and not go the full .020  as I really don't want to deal with intake sealing issues. So I had them cut down .015 , and with the thin steel type head gaksets installed. so compression should now be in the low to mid about 9.2 - 9.4  range.

Cam all dialed in. all the fasteners cleaned up,  put the missing studs in the corners of the heads for the valve covers.cleaned up all the used plug wire brackets I had, then  installed all the missing brackets with new ones and the missing plug wire shields.
Fixed the dented oil pan., Then put a new negative battery cable on it . Then with several light coats of Plasticote Hemi orange . It's just about ready to go back in the chassis.

But WOW is it ever orange. And will look great in that silver engine compartment. But most of it will be hidden under all the a/c stuff as it's going back on to.

[resq302]

Pictures!!!!!  Pictures I say man!!!!!     

[gtx6970]

Heres on with a flash. Problem is this makes it look more red than it really is.

[resq302]

Guess he didnt want the exhaust manifolds painted like the factory did it?  Also, why is the balancer taped off?  Did he want that to remain black?  All things considered looks      But should I have expected anything less from you Bill?   

[gtx6970]

Brain,
the exhaust manifolds and attaching hardware  will be lightly oversprayed after installation along with the 3 spark plug wire brackets.( heat riser needs attention as it's all broke loose and is going to rattle like a you know what) And the fact the car will be in the located I think it's best to have it and the choke control fully operational

balancer is taped off because it's an aftermkt thats degreed and if painted over will cover all the degree marks. so I thought it best to just leave it black like the pulley that will be attached to it

Also, this is in no way to be an  OE level car. just something thats resembles what it should be - as close as I can within a reasonable effort / expense yet still very very driveable.
The owner has every intention to drive the crap out of it with his wife at his side, maybe even do some traveling in his old hot rod

The car gets some upgrades in the name of safety, convenience and ultimately - reliability, such as later model disc brakes, a mini- starter,  etc

[gtx6970]

Just an update .
With the engine all back together and sitting on the cradle . I turned my atention the trans to make a bit more presenable in theme with the rest of this project.
Trans was done previously so this is more of a major cleaning and exterior beautification, so to speak.
Nothing is left bare metal like a true OE job should be. Everything is painted in colors to replicate the look with a reasonable effort. Case is cleaned, cleaned and cleaned again. Wire brushed and then painted with eastwoods cast blast aluminum paint.
All the kickdown linkages and shifter bracket were done in Semores stainless steel color, along with a new lower bushing in the bracket.
And Yes, I know, the extension hsg bolts should be black phosphate

[41husk]

Great Job Bill !

[gtx6970]

All the A/C parts were next
Major bonus here, I actually found an NOS water valve for a 68-69 A/C car .Along with 2 of the compressor mounting brackets , also NOS

[gtx6970]

Found all of it locally , One of the hoses I picked up will work and is NOS, but if I can find a correct one, the nos one will be returned