My 73 Charger SE project (Moved from Car Guy's)

[bigez04]

Well lets start with some history of the car.  My Grandparents bought the car new in 1973, it was my Grandmas daily driver.  She passed away and I bought the Charger in 2001.  Well I was young, it was my first car and I had big dreams for the Charger.  Soon I found out the big dreams come with a big cost.  I pulled the 318 that came in it cleaned it up making it pretty to look at.  Bought headers, a 4bbl carb/intake, bought a cam way to big for the 318 bent the push rods, etc. etc.  So the car has sat most of it's life with me.
It's a single owner car (in the family).  I fell in love with it and am still in love with it.  I still have the same dreams but have been a mechanic for the past 5 years and it has done nothing but good for me.
Ok, enough story time (hope I'm in the right place for this thread), the passed 5 years have been crazy.  Between work, getting married, and having my first child.  The charger found a spot in the back seat.

The Charger sat for the past 6 years, with the 360 I put in the 318's place.  It happened to blow the head gaskets and crack the heads.  Prior to that I have dual 40series flow master with 2.5" pipe hooked up. (Yea I know, I thought i was done with story time)

So 6 years later, as of this last Saturday, the Charger lives once again.

The fix that i was looking for was a set of heads to mount on the 360.  I found a friend of a friend that happened to have a good set of 318 heads the he just pulled off his truck.  I know a lot of guys don't agree with putting 318 heads on a 360, and I have read the pro's and con's of doing this. So I decided to just go with it and take on another learning experience.  So, between dodging the rainy weather and working on the car on the weekends it is running again.

I am on a pretty tight budget right now so it will take some time to get it how I want it.  Right now the only mods I have are 1 5/8 headers, Edelbrock Performer Intake, Edelbrock 600 Carb (My Holley 670 Street Avenger's Accelerator pump is frozen I was told) 318 heads off a 79 pickup.

Goals:
Have the right rear quarter panel patched due to rust.  The left side behind the door has a pretty good size bondo patch that is about 1/4" thick, it got T-boned prior to me getting it.
Once the body work is done, thinking about Candy apple red with a black vinyl top, and black interior.
Still debating on whether or not I want to build up the 360 or put a 440 in.
Rewire the whole car.

I'll post pictures as i get them and keep this updated.  Sorry for the long winded post.
Eric

[bigez04]

UPDATE.  I got the exhaust hooked back up.  Of coarse after firing it back up it smoked like crazy.  It didn't have much fuel left in it so I bought 5gal. and some Chemtool fuel system cleaner last Friday.  Saturday morning with the added fuel and Chemtool I fired it up and let it run through.  The smoke finally started to thin out after about 10 minutes or so.  I noticed that my temp gauge wasn't working.  So I checked my wiring diagram and saw that it was supposed to be a violet wire.  Went under the hood and found the wire go temp. sender and it wasn't violet.  It did have the correct plug on it though  shruggy.  So without knowing what exactly that wire was for I grounded it to see if the temp gauge moved, it didn't.  So i checked the back of the instrument cluster to make sure all connections were good.  They were, so I chased the wire that was hooked up back to the loom a bit (I didn't go too far because I plan on rewiring everything at a later date.  So I found the violet wire where it comes through the firewall and spliced into it.  I grounded it again and the gauge starts to move.  2thumbs So I ran a new wire from the point and hooked it to the temp. sender.  Fired it up again and the temp gauge starts to rise as it should. 
I took it on the first test drive.  It ran great! But it drove horribly! More like a car that has been sitting for 6 years.  The front end needs all new bushing, ball joints etc.  The steering also has about a 1/4 turn of free play  icon_smile_dissapprove. I'm not sure if the steering box is rebuildable or if i just have to get a new one.  Or if it's worth rebuilding.  The break pedal sticks to the floor.
The only problem I ran into was after running the Charger for awhile.  I tried to restart it and the battery is dead.  I forgot my volt meter and light tester at work, so I will have to wait until next weekend to check that.  Or I will just pull the alternator and get it tested.
Nearing the end of my run time Saturday, I leaned on the throttle a bit and it started popping and shaking a lot.  So I shut it down thinking misfire.  I pulled the #1 plug and it was completely black.  I assume all the plugs are in the same shape.  So I will be throwing another set of plugs in it next weekend also, probably another shortly after that.

Well, sorry for the long post again.  I just like detail, helps me too if say my memory fails me at a later date.
Eric  cheers

[irish_in_ny]

Best of luck with it man! Post some pics when you get the chance! 

[DREDILSKI]

PICS, PICS AND MORE PICS!   

Thanks,
Dre

[bigez04]

Ok, here we go.

[bigez04]

More... "WARNING, WARNING"

[bigez04]

Wheels and tires will be changed out.  I was 18...I had a little money saved up...and wide tires in the back were cool!  haha, well was not so cool is without the air shocks they rub the the inner fender.  So all this will be changed at a later date.  Also the right rear quarter panel is my nightmare.

[DREDILSKI]

You said the car is all original right? Could you snap a pic of the fender tag?

[bigez04]

If I did I am mistaken lol.  It came with a 318 and I swapped in the 360.  It also came with A/C, but yes i will get a picture of the tag for ya.  I'll try to do it this morning before work.
Eric

[bigez04]

Ok apparently my camera takes crappy pictures.  The only time I got a decent pic, it had a huge glare so I just wrote it down.

V78  26 END
M31  M36  N95  R11  VO8
G36  H51  L31  M21  M25  M26
V1W  U  B41  G21  C56  G11
FY1  EGL3  HL4  B13  189047
E44  D34  WP29  G3G  140403

If you decipher this would you mind posting up for me?
Thanks,
Eric

[72Charger-SE]

She is in really good condition from the outside...   how does the underside look?  Are the frame rails solid?  Having sat the past six years.. outside... 

[nvrbdn]

looks like a great place to start. nice looking charger. just watch out, in one of the pic's there was a midget trying to steal the car.

[bigez04]

Well, I'd love to say that I'm pretty sure the undercarriage is in good shape...  but I can't say that for sure.  I will know more later, yes it's unfortunate that it's been outside...but I don't have a garage to put it in at the moment.  Once I get it road worthy I'm going to take it over to a friends house.  He has an extra garage at the back of his property that's not in use.  All in good time, thank you for the comments though   .  Yea that midget thinks everything is hers.  I blame that on her mother.

Going to buy a set of new plugs for it this week.  Gonna charge the battery and check the charging system out this weekend.  I'm guessing it's just a bad alternator but I want to be sure.
Eric

[TK73]

LIKE 

[bigez04]

Thanks TK, I like yours also!  Saw a post the other day on a 73 you had your hand in i assume?  Very nice either way!
Eric

[GOTWING]

My first car was and is a 73 Dodge Charger S/E, i bought it in 1984 off a Ford dealers lot for $1,200.00 it was a local owned garage kept mint little ole lady car.Super low miles, Pale green with white S/E top, 318. The first thing i did was ditched the bias white wall tires and hubcaps for a set of Cragar SS mags , Kelly super charger tires, air shocks, custom bent dual exhaust with Thrush turbo's, Alpine stereo system, and that's about it. The car now is painted lime light with vintage slots on it. She is starting to show her age again, she is what i call a 20 footer. FYI my grandmother also owned new a 73 Charger, tan cream color, green interior, 318. My one cousin turned 16 before me so he got it before me. My grandmother replaced that Charger with a new 82 Thunderbird.

[GOTWING]

FYI , that's cool your car is a factory FY1 top banana yellow car! I have a 73 FY1 Charger Rallye parts car i picked up last summer, when i got it the bulge hood and front fenders were already gone! I'm looking for a bulge hood for my 73 Charger.

[bigez04]

Ty Gotwing.  Bummer about the cousin though...yea I don't plan on getting rid of this car.  I guess I got lucky that I'm the only one in the family that got into cars at a younger age.  Learned a lot since I picked the car up, a shame it was my test dummy but was all worth it and wouldn't trade it for anything.
Eric 
P.S. Post a pic of your 73 if you don't mind.  Thanks

[GOTWING]

Yeah, i will soon, it took me only 8 years to post my Superbird!!

[bigez04]

Haha, well lets try to keep it under 8 years.

[bigez04]

So this weekend I had to figure out the charging issue.  Fired it up and found it wasn't charging.  Alternator has a lifetime warranty on it so I took it to the parts house and exchanged it.  I put the alternator on this morning and still wasn't charging.  So I chased the wires back in the loom and found a broken wire.  Spliced into it and it's charging again, except it's over-charging.  I'll get the Voltage regulator Tuesday and throw it in sometime this week. 
I'm also going to have to pull the thermostat housing off and take it in so they can get me the right thermostat.  The one they sold me, the diameter is way too big.
All in all it was a good weekend. 
Eric

[bigez04]

Just purchased a newly rebuilt 71 383 from a buddy of mine.  It is fresh outta the machine shop and has never been fired.  It appears to have new; pistons, connecting rods, valves, springs, cam, etc.  I kinda got the run-around about what was in it.  It changed builder hands twice and the guy that built it isn't there anymore.  Regardless of what is in it, I got a smokin deal.  It also has 906 heads on it.  Came with 727 trans and all the bolt up stuff (which I'll replace with new).  The trans is the one that was mated up with the 383, it appears I'll be overhauling it before it runs.  Also came with a new Weiand intake manifold which is a plus.  I'll get some pics later, just picked it up last night.

[Wicked72]

Welcome! and more pics!!! 

[ODZKing]

Yep, you've peaked my interest. More pix

[bigez04]

Just put in an order for a Mopar Performance oil pan package and a miloden high volume oil pump from summit.  I'll snap some pics when i get over to the shop to install.

[bigez04]

Ok here we go,

[nvrbdn]

cool. thats different. i almost used a green color on my block. did he paint it or you?

[bigez04]

block was painted that Grabber Green.  I was so close to changing it to orange, but after painting the valve covers and painting the oil pan and timing cover...I am kinda wrapping my head around this.  Guy opens hood, guy blinded by mopar.  That's hat mopars are right? "LOUD"

[gschmidt211]

Not sure if you ever decoded the fender tag.  Here are two screen shots with the codes for your tag.

Ok apparently my camera takes crappy pictures.  The only time I got a decent pic, it had a huge glare so I just wrote it down.

V78  26 END
M31  M36  N95  R11  VO8
G36  H51  L31  M21  M25  M26
V1W  U  B41  G21  C56  G11
FY1  EGL3  HL4  B13  189047
E44  D34  WP29  G3G  140403

If you decipher this would you mind posting up for me?
Thanks,
Eric

[bigez04]

Wow...I did not.  I thank you though!  That's awesome!

[bigez04]

Ok, not much of an update for you guys but i'm excited!  Just got my shipment from Summit, MSD distributor, the CORRECT pickup tube, 1 3/4" headers, Protorque mini starter, plug wires, aluminum radiator (the side mounts on each side are bent to hell, but i'm pretty sure I can bend them back without much of a problem), Adjustable fan temp controller (for the electric fan I haven't ordered yet), Mopar performance black wrinkle air cleaner and valve covers. 

Transmission overhaul kit on the way, should be here Monday. 

Today, I'm going to be degreasing the 727 and buttoning the bottom end up, well..assuming all the correct bolts are there.

So, I finally came across the numbers on the cam and it turns out that it is basically a stock replacement.  Well that's not gonna work, so I'll be pulling the cam and ordering a new one.  I'll probably have to get the dual valve springs but for about 300 bucks I can have it more to my liking.