Got a project 70, now the fun/pain begins

[Baldwinvette77]

Whats the duck tape hiding?  , and i have to say your grille looks pretty good considering it has about 5$ invested in it, if even  

oh its a crack, anyways, why dont you try plastic repair?... its plastic right?, you could grind a v channel in the cracked sections (like a bevel for welding thick metal) put a couple strips of fiberghlass from the bottom, then fill the v-groove with bondo, Paint it, Profit,  

[toocheaptosmoke]

The duct tape is holding the cracked bottom piece of trim together.      5 bucks?  Gotta have less than a buck in zip ties and pop rivets in it.    Need all the beer money I can get! 

[Baldwinvette77]

So its plastic? , Patch it's ass!!!! duct tapes cool, but i think you could fill it

[toocheaptosmoke]

Priorities man, grille trim don't make it go!    I'll get to it eventually.




Took the wipers apart, good thing I did, one of the bushings was fairly seized up.  Nothing a little but of oil and a hammer couldn't fix.





Motor checked out OK






Scored some lug nuts from the bottom of the super discount box at the local parts store. 





Have kind of stalled out a bit at this point, kind of dreading this job... 






Stock harness is so hacked, has broken wire insulation all over, burnt and melted connectors, even the good old foil over a blown fuse. 






Found some motor mounts, but not sure on which way they go on the engine.





Any body have a pic or know which way/side the mounts go on?

[Baldwinvette77]

Whats to dread about Hvac and wiring??? Just pick it up and throw it in the trash, problem solved 

[Baldwinvette77]

perhaps this random google search pic. will help 

[HOTROD]

Dam I like the grill 

[projectanimal]

WOW, great progress!!! 
Love the pictures and the fun ones in between.  I like the tail pipe out of the engine bay!   Great job with the grill.   
Good luck with the wiring!  It's overwhelming when you see the pile of wires, but not bad once you start tracing them to each location and lay them out in the car. 

[Homerr]

Nice progress so far!  Love the grille solution.   


A/C and heater box:  http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,87035.0.html

Nice blog on a '70, some of the pics may help:  http://www.1970dodgecharger500.com/2004present/

[AKcharger]

are you related to McGyver?

[toocheaptosmoke]

Thanks guys, been a lot of work so far but at least it's starting to look like a car again.    I keep hearing about this mopar show out near Carlisle.  I love me a good swap meet, would be awesome to get this thing rolling and drive it out there.    How's that for an overly optimistic deadline?


Those links have some good stuff, time to buckle down and get this stuff licked.  Just need to start it and stick with it, not as easy as the grunt work jobs where you can just work on it an hour here and there when time allows.

Whats to dread about Hvac and wiring??? Just pick it up and throw it in the trash, problem solved 

That thought has crossed my mind before.    Random google image search FTW, I did look a bit didn't come up with much.

are you related to McGyver?

No, but my mom said she got to meet him one time back in the 80's... 

[toocheaptosmoke]

The dash speaker has seen better days.  Wonder if any Funkadelic was ever cranking through there? 






Painted the gas tank, the galvanizing on it seemed pretty thin.






Every dollar counts, recycling some of the brake line nuts.  Got a reman cylinder off a mid 70's dodge truck.







Got a few items from mopar Sal while he was passing through PA.  Front valance needs a little work, but should go well with the rest of the car.  Also got a transmission x-member and some rear bumper brackets.







When in doubt, Bondo out!!









That reminds, I don't think I've posted the rear bumper yet.  I got it from bill440rt, along with a fuel filler neck and a few other little things. 

[Baldwinvette77]

Whatcha gonna do about bumperettes? Hunt them down, or ignore their existence? 

[Indygenerallee]

Nice work on the grille!! 

[toocheaptosmoke]

Whatcha gonna do about bumperettes? Hunt them down, or ignore their existence? 

What bumperettes??

[AKcharger]

Go Blob!

[toocheaptosmoke]

So last night after a couple beers I decided the car needed to become a rolling chassis again, threw on the wheels and dropped it down.    The front torsion bars were set really light, so the front end was pretty low.  I might not set it that low when I get it together, but it definitely needs a little bit of rake. 





Good old ferd axle. 

[Baldwinvette77]

That looks awesome!!!!, only things i did today was fab a piece for my trans tunnel, create a glove box liner from 16 ga. steel, and made a glove box door from 18 ga. a gate hinge and a 76 vette turn signal lever for a handle... yeah i was simply bored 

[toocheaptosmoke]

Had to put the seat back in, so I could visualize where the shifter was going to go.  That included sitting in the seat and making engine noises, for an accurate representation...






Started getting things ready to drop the motor in.  Was going to do some more plumbing and wiring, but I had some help available on thursday so I figured I might as well do it when I had the chance. 






So yesterday it occurred to me that maybe I should try mocking up the tranny, before attaching it to the engine and putting it in.     My laser calibrated eyes said it should fit, but you never know.   Luckily the nv3500 is fairly light, had to wrestle it into place myself.  Wonder how many new cars can take a transmission sitting on the fender? 






Things were close, but encouraging.







Stink-bug approved!




Clutch going on.






Tranny on, still missing a few parts though







So today I had some friends coming over to help put the engine in.  Figures that it hasn't rained much in the past few weeks.  Until today...  Then my boss had me staying late, prospects of getting the engine in tonight weren't looking good.







Luckily, I finally made it home, and there was about a hour break in the weather.   Got the car wheeled around to the garage (no brakes) and into position.  Had to work out of the garage because that's the only place with concrete.






Next time I need to have a bit more tilt on the whole shebang, it didn't go in that easily.  Lost a bit of paint on the radiator support and firewall.







Success!!!  Finally went in, but had to take the distributor off to do so.  It's very close to the firewall, but may clear once the tranny is fully supported.  Otherwise the heavy wrench will have to come back out and make some clearance.

[projectanimal]

Very cool!  Will be running in no time!!   

[Baldwinvette77]

looks good, i dare say a stick shifted 318 is cooler than an automatic hemi 

[Rosco]

Had to put the seat back in, so I could visualize where the shifter was going to go.  That included sitting in the seat and making engine noises, for an accurate representation...

Of course. Strictly in the interests of science and driving-conditions accuracy!

looks good, i dare say a stick shifted 318 is cooler than an automatic hemi 

Agreed! Manual Transmission Master Race!

[Hemidog]

Subscribed 

[toocheaptosmoke]

Well, I haven't gotten much done in the past week, was up in canada on a fishing trip.  Fishing was real good, caught tons of pike and pickerel.  Also managed to catch a peak of this beast, 

http://youtu.be/l1iln3X3YM0



Did size up a new set of rear tars, you know, for when the going gets a bit rough.   Anybody have any favorite mud terrains they run?






Here's a good one, I think I've found the bermuda triangle of transmission output shafts.  My nv3500 2wd model trans. is already a fairly rare bird, and hardly anyone puts them in much else but other dodge trucks.  I can't find a straight answer on what slip yoke I need to fit this thing, other than a "dakota driveshaft"   I talked to Denny's driveshaft shop and they want me to try and test fit a 727 slip yoke to see if it fits.  Great, now I need to find one of those.   I was just going to have them make me a whole new driveshaft, but now not sure if they can get the correct slip yoke.  I read as much as I could and it appears that in the early 90's most chrysler transmisions changed the spline angle on the output shafts.  Some say they went to involute splines, but I think the more likely thing is they changed the spline angle, as involute type splines were already the standard spline type.  Straight cut splines would not be a good choice in an application like that.  Of course there's no information on what the angle is on what slip yokes, and the only hard part number I can find is a mopar number for like $300 for just the slip yoke from chrysler...   Always the "little" things like this that cause the most headaches.  Of course, it would be nice if I test fit a 727 slip yoke and BAM, fits perfect, but I doubt my luck could be that good? 

[JB400]

Sounds good.  Where's the vid of it in action?