Back in the saddle!

[lloyd3]

Almost 4-years ago, a golf cart shot across the street in front of the new Toyota pickup that was directly in front of me, driving my '68 R/T.  In a dramatic physics lesson, I got to prove that new 4-wheel disc brakes are far-more efficient than 40-year old drums.  The process of tracking down parts and a very good Mopar man to do the work seemed to take forever and then, because he was in such demand, the process dragged on even longer.  I learned this week that my car was finally close to completion.  It's bitter-sweet in some ways because it was far more money and time than I would have ever figured (and I'm a bit concerned about it being too-nice to really enjoy), but.....a kid at Christmas couldn't be more excited (and I'm well into my 50s now).  I should have it next month.

[Memphis Mopar]

Sorry to hear what you had to go through, but Congrats on getting back you beloved Charger soon. 

[terrible one]

Hate to hear about the wreck but congrats on seeing the repairs through, now there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Any pictures of your car before the wreck or of the damage?

[lloyd3]

I've owned this car for over 14-years now, so I do have lots of photos (both before and after the wreck).  Once the car gets it's punchlist completed and I'm back in posession, I'll try to post them here.   This is a UU-1 car with the stock Magnum 500s, so it's not very flashy (compared to some of the other projects I've seen posted here).  

[Brock Samson]

I've owned this car for over 14-years now, so I do have lots of photos (both before and after the wreck).  Once the car gets it's punchlist completed and I'm back in posession, I'll try to post them here.   This is a UU-1 car with the stock Magnum 500s, so it's not very flashy (compared to some of the other projects I've see posted here). 

congrats on getting 'ol nelly back on the track...  I know a little sumpthing about that..
I'll keep an eye on site suggestions / help desk as you try to post your photos.. (an inside joke, sorry)

[tan top]

  awww man sorry to hear about wrecking your charger    good its sorted , looking forward to seeing pictures 

[lloyd3]

OK, how does one post photography here?  I tried it as an attachment and it was stripped off somehow?

[lloyd3]

test 2

[lloyd3]

That seemed to work allright.  Here's more:

[lloyd3]

Odd, only about 1 in 3 posts seem to get through?  What gives? 

[400/6/PAC]

Everyone has a problem posting pic's at first.
You have to down size them to 200 MB ( If I remember right ) and name the attachment something crazy.
If another member has posted a pic with the same attachment name, It will not post.
Example ( Charger 1 ) or ( My Charger ) Or if You use the same attachment name twice, Only the first will post. Each pic must have it's own unique file name.
Name the pick something like ( My fri@kin aws@me Ch@rger ) Or any outher crazy name, I say this because there are ten's of thousands of pics posted here and all have to have a different file name
Glad Your getting it fixed and no one got hurt.

[lloyd3]

Appreciate the info:

Now I just have to remember how to "downsize" everything and name it accordingly.  Sadly, I have no love for the IT stuff and only learn it when necessary. 

[lloyd3]

As an aside. I just paid my collector's insurance today and noticed that the "agreed to" replacement value for this car is only $20K.  Before the accident that was probably just fine, but I'm way past that number now (in just out-of-pocket costs). Anbody care to venture a guess as to what a fairly-competently restored R/T 4-speed car should be insured for these days?  I know it's been wrecked now and it's not numbers matching, but it is as it was originally built and painted (w/18-spline 4-gear, Dana 60,  & '68 HP-2 motor).  

I see some fairly weak clones going for $30K and up online.

[Brock Samson]

i had mine bumped up to $30K before the '05 peak,.. so if i were you I'd go much higher, will require a estimate by your Insur. Co though..  looking great .  
only four pics allowed per posting BTW.

[lloyd3]

I took your advice and effectively doubled the "agreed to" value on my insurance policy.  All you have to do is look around a little bit and see asking prices for clones or even what are essentially project cars and you realize how hard it would be to replace this car.  Neither the proper parts nor qualified labor are getting any cheaper (and because of "quantitative easing" the dollar has devalued, what?, some 40% since 2000?).  The present claim of only 3% inflation is a serious fabrication (any trip to the grocery store or a gas-station proves that out very quickly).

Another question for you old timers, what percentage of your membership have done the work to track back the history of their cars?  Every car has a story (and while most aren't entirely pretty) they are the product of their times, good, bad or otherwise.  Back before 9/11, this was a much easier thing to do, because every title had the previous title number printed somewhere on it, and if it it had been titled from out-of-state, the previous State was usually identified. Most State DMVs now claim "security issues" or "a lack of resources" and seldom respond to such questions, but in an earlier time it was a fairly simple thing to provide "provenance" for your vehicle by simply writing a letter (remember those?) to the State DMV and asking in a very polite fashion what sort-of history they had for a car.  The name and address of the previous owner was usually forthcoming for either a small fee, or even for "free" (sad, but I simply can't imagine a public servant doing something like that now).  Using this process I managed to track back through four (4) previous owners of XS29L8B449XXX.  In the process I learned just how much a vehicle can get around.  

My car was ordered as a "stripe delete" model and rolled off of the line at Dodge Main in Hamtramck on July 5, 1968.  It was first sold in Bellevue, Nebraska (Offutt Air Force Base anyone?) and went from there to Missouri Valley, Iowa (for the lion's share of it's life, probably as a drag car).  In the late 1980s it went to Newark, New Jersey for a partial restoration (rust-repair, top of the motor, paint, and interior) and was sold to a military fellow (an Army Major) in Dayton, Ohio.  He drove it and worked on it some more, and then took it to Virgina (Fort Lee).  In 1996 I took possession and had it shipped to Colorado.  Let's see, that's six (6) States in 44-years.  A lot of these cars didn't even survive their warranty periods (which is why insurance companies so-hated them, and ultimately had them legislated out-of-existance).  

[lloyd3]

I've had a chance to go through some of the other restorations either ongoing or in the recent past on this site and all I can say is "wow".  Mine was easy by comparison.  Some very dedicated folks here.

[lloyd3]

Got to sit in my car today and start it. When I started this topic in early March, I was sure I'd be driving it by now, but the gentleman who has been doing the restoration has had several health setbacks (requiring multiple hospitalizations) and only today can I say that it is nearing completion. It needs the vacuum hoses reversed on the passenger headlight door and the front marker lights put in, and he's working on a spot where he buffed through on the driver's door.  My expert/now friend is 70 years plus now and can no-longer walk very far.  He no longer even drives, and I suspect that this car will be his swan song, so I looked it over, sat in it, started it, enjoyed the sound of it at idle, and shut it off.  I told him to call me when he is happy with it because I already was.  

It's been a long wait (wrecked it on June 8, 2008).  My now 8-year old son wanted me to take him to his first day of school in it today, but I'm guessing that someday soon I'll be sitting in car line with it to surprise him.  The Fall is a very nice time here in Colorado to drive older cars, so now is as good a time to get it back as I could hope for. I took some photos with my cell phone, so I'll try to upload them.

[DadsCharger00]

Got to sit in my car today and start it. When I started this topic in early March, I was sure I'd be driving it by now, but the gentleman who has been doing the restoration has had several health setbacks (requiring multiple hospitalizations) and only today can I say that it is nearing completion. It needs the vacuum hoses reversed on the passenger headlight door and the front marker lights put in, and he's working on a spot where he buffed through on the driver's door.  My expert/now friend is 70 years plus now and can no-longer walk very far.  He no longer even drives, and I suspect that this car will be his swan song, so I looked it over, sat in it, started it, enjoyed the sound of it at idle, and shut it off.  I told him to call me when he is happy with it because I already was.  

It's been a long wait (wrecked it on June 8, 2008).  My now 8-year old son wanted me to take him to his first day of school in it today, but I'm guessing that someday soon I'll be sitting in car line with it to surprise him.  The Fall is a very nice time here in Colorado to drive older cars, so now is as good a time to get it back as I could hope for. I took some photos with my cell phone, so I'll try to upload them.

where are you located at in colorado? I'd love to swing by and take a look at the beauty! When mine is here in the fall we should try to get a few colorado people together and have a little gathering!

[ErikH]

Capital idea.  Ought to give me some inspiration to finish the engine swap in mine.

[lloyd3]

I'm in Parker.  My friend can't really even walk anymore (He's has a '68 R/T Coronet Hemi he hasn't driven in 12-years!) so it may still be a while.  Since it's so close, I suspect he'll keep puttering away on it until it's done now. It's about all he can do post-surgery.  I've tried to get him to let me help, at least do some of the simpler stuff (he did let me block sand it, help install some of the glass, and bead blast some of the smaller components), but he's a proud old bird and keeps fending me off for the rest of it.  It sure looks a lot better than 400 parts scattered all over his shop (which caused me no-end of worry when he was laid-up).  

[cdr]

will pray for your friend ,& very glad for you,getting your car back

[lloyd3]

This webpage says I can attach only 200kb photos.  That seems a bit small.  On previous attempts it said 800 kb, what gives?

[cdr]

200

[lloyd3]

I'm fairly certain my previous photography was far bigger than that.  No matter, it's not worth the brain damage.

[lloyd3]

Hate to quit...  08/15/2012!

[DadsCharger00]

Hate to quit...

BEAUTIFUL!

[lloyd3]

Thankyou.  I'll never make it as a geek, I just tried to upload a photograph from 2-years ago of the same shot except the body had just returned from the media-blasters and its just a bare metal shell.  It's something like 63KB and the site won't accept it. Go figure?

[lloyd3]

Sometime in 2007? The pre-golf cart era and one I hope to enjoy again fairly soon

[bakerhillpins]

WOW   

I love your car!  UU1 is beautiful     Someday Ill get my 69 back to Q5!  So happy to hear you have it back on the road and can enjoy it now.

[lloyd3]

Thank you. I believe there were three different colors of blue available on Chargers in 1968, and it seems that UU-1 was the least popular.  I remember a friend in highschool who had what I think was a UU-1 Coronet, but I don't really remember any others.  Maybe the odd Polara wagon or some other grocery-getter, but nothing really memorable.  This car also has a C6B Frost Blue interior, which wouldn't have been my first choice either, but when I was looking for a good four speed car in the mid-1990s (on a fairly strict budget!) my choices were somewhat limited.  Over the 16-years I've owned the car, the color has grown on me to where I'm fairly pleased with it now.  As a younger man, I was a big fan of the high-impact colored cars (Sublime, Go-Mango, etc.), but time has tempered my tastes to allow for appreciation of the more subtile. It must be a married w/children thing.

[Ghoste]

I like the blue colors but the UU1 is certainly a choice that I can see not being for everybody.  You did good to keep it in my opinion, it looks fantastic.

[ErikH]

Odd that you are from Parker...I'm just South of you in Black Forest.  Your car looks just like mine except mine has hubcaps.

[DadsCharger00]

I'm out in thornton. Give me a holler!!!

[lloyd3]

Thanks Ghoste for the kind words.  Light blue seems to fit my situation, so I just stayed with it. It also works fairly well with the black vinyl roof (and I'm not really a vinyl roof fan normally, I don't think I've ever even owned one before).  I have seen cars where changing the color (and other things) is a value-add, but for mostly original cars I'm a stickler for keeping them that way.  I guess it's also part of the nostalgia for me to open a hood and recognize everything, so mine still has it's factory dual-point and 4428s carb too.  Even my paint is now back to what it should be.  When I bought it the car, it had been painted (most likely in 1990) in a modern base-coat/clear coat style.  My restorer, being the very definition of old-school, likes to paint with the original-type Chrysler sanded primers and acrylic (?) enamels, so I agreed to go with that (I hate it when the clear coat crazes after a few years anyway).  I guess I'm in the Turtle Wax camp again.

DadsCharger00 - I'm game for a get-together, but let's wait until I finally get this car back.  Erik - Unusual that two 44-year old UU-1 cars should end up surviving and being so close together.  How is yours equipped?

[lloyd3]

Finally!  Before paint in 2010.

[lloyd3]

From the front in 2010.  With the new AMD fender and hood.

[ErikH]

DadsCharger00 - I'm game for a get-together, but let's wait until I finally get this car back.  Erik - Unusual that two 44-year old UU-1 cars should end up surviving and being so close together.  How is yours equipped?

My R/T is 440, 727, PS, Power drum brakes, black top (originally white) black stripe (originally stripe delete) and A/C.  Blue interior with console.  Not much else...rear radio speaker (not sure about how stock that is).  I don't know what the stock wheels were but I liked the look of the red-centered hubcaps so that's what she has now.  She needs an engine swap but I'm backlogged with my other cars...but I'm getting there.

[lloyd3]

Here's part of why I believe this was a drag car for many years.  Any excess metal in the interior had been removed (replacing it was quite a process) and there were indications of a fuel pump and battery box in the trunk.  The rear quarters had been reskinned as well.

[lloyd3]

New carpet, headliner and even cats-whiskers for the windows means everything comes out.

[lloyd3]

ErikH:  So yours is a 1968 UU-1 R/T automatic?  Very nice.  Did you ever find your build sheet(s)?  Mine are non-existant.

[hatersaurusrex]

I have to ask the obvious question:  Did you do a disc conversion?

[lloyd3]

Considering my history with this car, I can understand your question.  The answer is no.  Until my accident, the brakes were more than adequate for the way I was using it.  I don't drive the car in heavy traffic very much (if ever) anymore.  Driving in the Denver Metroplex these days is nothing more than wading through a glut of humdrum econoboxes and minivans (LA anyone?), and is way more brain-damage than it's worth (& the car is frankly an attractive nuisance, w/people gawping instead of paying attention to what they should be doing) so.... I head into the great wide open, which is south and east of me.  Nice little two lane roads with only minimal traffic that connect nice, little, two-horse towns.  All I need is a gas station and an occasional watering hole (or a Dairy Queen) and I'm happy.

Before the accident, I knew the brakes weren't working as well as they once did, but I was having issues in other areas of my life and didn't feel up to dealing with them.  That certainly contributed to what was an expensive mistake (about $26K now and counting). Now that my brake booster is refurbished and the shoes and drums are up to snuff, I'm hoping my big 11x3s are up to the task again (a job they've done admirably for 44-years now).  With that said, if my next sojourn makes me feel uneasy about braking performance, I'll certainly revisit that option.

[ErikH]

ErikH:  So yours is a 1968 UU-1 R/T automatic?  Very nice.  Did you ever find your build sheet(s)?  Mine are non-existant.

I believe I did find it.  It's in my parts manual...I haven't researched it much though.

[lloyd3]

Erik:  Do you know where your car was made (Dodge Main?) and when (i.e. the born-on date)?  Mine is very late in 1968 (July 5th).

[ErikH]

I'm not sure how to find out that information.  My parts book/build sheet is back in NM at my Dads house.  My car has the earlier type (slide down) of ash try.  That is my only bit of data.

[lloyd3]

Erik: It's been so long since I've done it, I've forgotten how exactly.  The information on the fender tag identifies where a car was built and when (using a variant of the Julian Calendar system).  Information on the pad near the distributor does the same for the engine block.  Four speed transmissions have stampings on a pad near the shift arms and automatic transmissions have stampings on the passenger-side top of the bell-housing (I believe) that even includes part of the VIN of the vehicle they were originally installed in. Someone will either remind us here how that is done or I'll end up searching through my stuff (or the internet) to find it again.

[ErikH]

I have my restoration guide which can step me through the decode.  I'll have a go at it this weekend.

[grizparker]

http://www.stockmopar.com/mopar-fender-tag-decoder.php?vin=AAA

Easy peezy

[lloyd3]

Grizparker:  Thanks!  Much quicker than Galen!  I just finished going through "the 1970 Hamtramck Registry" which has been included in another post here, and learned a few things (that I might have already known but had somehow forgotten).  Chargers were made in only two places in 1968, St. Louis or Hamtramck (IE. Dodge Main).  The 7th digit in the VIN identifies where a car was made.  "G" is St. Louis and "B" is Hamtramck.  R/T cars are XS29, anything else wearing R/T badging is a clone.  R/T cars had only two engine options, 440 or 426 Hemi, all R/T 4-speed cars were Dana 60 equipped... What else, oh yes, the codes for blue paint in 1968 were EE, QQ and UU which were Dark Blue, Bright Blue and Light Blue respectively.  This is yesterday's news for some of the old-timers and die-hards here, but some of the newbies might not know this dogma quite yet.

[lloyd3]

Tomorrow is the big day.  Long in coming and with many setbacks and false alarms.  Plan is to get it home and then settle in for the long "inspection". The final payment is over twice what was quoted 18-months ago, but somehow seems insignificant. 

[bakerhillpins]

So?  Did she come home? Were you able to get her out on the open roads?   Hope everything is buttoned up nicely! 

[lloyd3]

Thank you for asking. She's home but.....lots of problems.  Serious paint issues and interior issues, minor electrical and transmission issues. Still sorting it all out. I guess $30K doesn't buy what it used too.  I'm pretty disappointed.  It could be worse, but not much.

[69charger2002]

Dang hate to hear that after spending $30k. I hope you get the issues sorted out and they make good on the problems. Hang in there. 
Trav

[lloyd3]

Nobody will be available to make good on the "issues" for a while. He went into surgery today.  At least I'm not dealing with his estate for a pile of parts.

[lloyd3]

One of the many issues I'm facing now is a problem with a torn seam on the driver's bucket seat back. I will likely have to replace the front seat covers on this C6B interior and I'm not seeing that as an option on Legendary Interior's homepage anymore. The seats are a light blue with darker blue panels in the pleats.  Is anybody still re-poping these items?

[lloyd3]

I've had some time to drive and assess the car and I'm not as floored as I was.  The cockpit is tight and windless and she tracks down the road just fine. The new glass and stainless looks really good, as do the cats-whiskers on the side glass. The car is noticeably quieter on the interior. The front end is nice and tight and lines up beautifully, and the brakes haven't worked this good in years.  From 10-feet away she looks stunning, the sides are straight as a pin and the new/old grill looks great. It's on closer examination where you start to see the problems. Fish-eye, orange-peel, and multiple buff-throughs are on just about every panel.  I'll have to re-paint because I can't live with it like this. 

[JB400]

Can't wait to see the results   You might as well enjoy it the way it is until winter.  It'll let you have some fun with it and accumulate some funds and research for a good shop to paint it, unless you're painting it yourself.

[lloyd3]

I'm no painter. I've got a shop lined up that's more Chevy than Mopar, but the owner is very competent.  He put a door on my '01 Off-road Dodge truck last year that was a first-rate job.  He says he can still shoot acrylic enamel, so.....we'll see.