What have you done with your Charger lately?

[Lord Warlock]

Got rest of wiring hooked up today, as far as I know, it is hooked up as it should to run, but it isn't starting, no fire to plugs, so will be working on that after thanksgiving is over, will come home with my dad's timing light or will buy one when I get home.  Also fixed he fuel leak smell,  had to remove filler tube to gas tank and reposition it, was causing a pinch on one side of tank seal, took out pretty filler tube and put in original and it fit better...hard to believe... laid out the trunk mat and installed the trunk seal around filler tube, and smell appears to have stopped. 

Engine is turning over a bit slow, doesn't feel like it has the power to start the car, battery charger is useless, time to get another one.  Looking forward to getting some fire to the car, may have to call in experts. (call the local club for assist)

[myk]

Well it's not much of  hard decision when nothing is selling so you can put your hat back on for now.   

It's bittersweet really.  Selling the guitar is alright, I sold three of them a long while back and this is the last electric that I bought.  I still have my scratch built Telecaster and my classical guitar, both of which I'm keeping.  I also have three tenor saxophones and an alto, I "may" keep one tenor if it doesn't bring enough cash.  The only one that may hurt to let go is my baritone sax.  That was my main sax for many years and I love that thing.  Alas when I shipped it to my current home it got totally trashed.  Repair shops won't even touch it so I tried to fix it myself.  It's about 90% done but I just don't have the equipment to do it right and the tools are super expensive.  At ths point I can only give it away so it's staying, but I'm not sure why.  It almost makes me cry just looking at it.  I think I lot my real drive to play got lost when that sax got killed.  It's funny how these 'things" can affect you.

At this point I think I need to sell as much as I can, remember the good times and let go of the bad.  When the time comes there will be more gear to buy, enjoy, and create new memories with.

Oh ok.  Thinning the herd is different from getting rid of music from your life altoghther, which is what i thought you were doing and that would be truly tragic.  I haven't done crap with my life, but knowing that I can pick up a guitar and play some music somehow makes everything alright.  Carry on brother...

[cdr]

drove 40 mile round trip to the Vet for medicine that my puppy needs.  love drivin on the freeway.

[chargerperson]

Last drive of the year today before putting the car in storage.  It was great to have it for almost three months post restoration completion after having it off the road for 10 years!

Gorgeous car.  Perfect wheels for it.   

Dino: Thanks.  Wheels are 17 inch Yearone Magnum 500s.  17 inch size necessary to fit over the wilwoods. 

[JR]

Modified my driving lights to hold LED H7 bulbs. They were using standard h3 bulbs. Wiring is beefed up and ran thru relays so it should run cool. Can't wait for it to get dark so I can see the difference. ( dont worry, They've been adjusted and straightened up since this pic for the OCD people among us. This was the first test).


I suspect they'll be brighter than the headlamps now. I need to get to upgrading them next. I've done the relay upgrade, replaced the harnesses, checked all grounds, the works. These old style bulbs just don't put out enough to be safe in modern traffic. I'm still trying to decide what to do with them.

I've seen some guys use aircraft landing lights for the high beams, but that still doesn't address the low beams. I'm not a fan of drop in HID lighting. Still trying to decide what to do there.








EDIT: Just did first nighttime drive with the new bulbs. What I found is they put out a ton more light close range, but it dissipates further away than the low beam headlamp. Which I suppose is their purpose, they are fog lights after all. Overall though, BIG improvement over the H3 incandescent bulbs they replaced. Combined with the headlamps, its much safer than it was. Total range didn't increase, but clarity did. I can see clearly now up to the edge of the headlight beams. I couldn't before. I'm pretty happy overall.

[garner7555]

Did some online shopping since it was black friday.   

American Autowire Highway 22 kit - http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aww-500695/overview/

Forever Sharp steering wheel - http://fssteeringwheels.com/#!/14-Polished-Muscle-w-Real-Mahogany-Wood-Half-Wrap-&-Rivets/p/57014231/category=3447041
    I got aluminum rivets instead of brass.
Also picked up some Percy's header gaskets.   

[69wannabe]

Been tinkering with the accelerator pump cam's on my holley carb. Have had a slight off idle stumble but the car has been running really good so I just worked with it for awhile. Decided to dig into the accelerator pump tuning on my holley 850 DP by ordering a holley tuning book and a set of pump cams.

The book has a color chart that show's the cam's and which one pump's more than the other one's, my carb had the pink cam and I swapped up to the red one which was an improvement but it still had a slight stumble. Went up to the orange cam and so far it seems like it took care of the small stumble I had just off idle. It really ran out good down the road so it didn't feel like a jetting issue and the pump squirter's are 31's front and rear and I really didn't think it needed 35's which is the next size up. Turns out the pink cam is the least aggressive pump cam so moving up according to the chart showed the orange to be a good gain over all the other one's and it seemed to work. We drove it around town for about an hour yesterday and it ran great!!!!

We got lot's of thumb's up and one guy got a picture i'm pretty sure!! I have wondered about those pump cam kit's and now I have some experience with them which is really trial and error like most thing's are with these car's!!!

[71charger_fan]

It'll be nice to have A/C again after all these years.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

For me, I guess it would be easier for me to say what I haven't done to the car (yet); reinstall the front & rear windshields.

[Dino]

I finished prepping the grille.  Straigthened one of the headlight doors, repaired the cracks and welded the center section piece back in place with liquid ABS.  Lots of filing and sanding later the grille is ready for primer, the headlight doors are ready for color.  Unfortunately it's too cold to paint so it looks like it'll have to wait until next year unless I can figure out a way to heat up my 2 1/2 car unheated garage.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Most of the pieces are painted for Sinnamon now...

    Needs drying time,  buffing and much more assembly.

[Dino]

Looking good guys!  Sinnamon is looking real purdy there!

We had a break in the clouds, just enough to warm up the plastic grille to about 65-70 degrees so I quickly shot it in primer.  I  used SEM high build primer surfacer.  I had some issues with the can not spraying effectively despite warming up the can, but it worked out in the end.  I also shot the headlight doors in SEM Titanium Silver, those did not need primer.  With a bit of luck I'll be able to paint both colors by the weekend.

I tried removing the anodizing from the trim with Easy Off but no luck, it didn't even touch it.  I'll have to find something else.

[Dino]

Got the SEM Titanium Silver on today and it looks great!  Dead ringer for the stock color.  Hopefully black will go on tomorrow.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Looking sweet Dino! 

[71ChargerMike]

Been working on my 71 Charger since the end of Sept. There's a complete step by step with pictures on the work I've done. So far I've had an exhaust installed on the charger. Hedman headers, 2.5" dual pipe, h-pipe, dual 40 series flowmaster mufflers, dumped just before the rear valance. Drum to disc conversion in the original manual brake setup. New brake cylinder. New upper control arms with new bushings and upper ball joints. New lower ball joints. New front and rear shocks. I have a pair of replacement 15" front wheels since my original set of 14s won't work with the new disc brakes. I'll check back when I something else in the near future.

[Dino]

Looking sweet Dino! 

Thanks!   

Masked and sprayed the Trim Black today.  I shouldn't have, it was way too windy and I wasted a lot of paint.  I had to get another can so I can do the last headlight bezel tomorrow but oh well!

The center section needs the silver redone.  Some paint had bled through the tape and when I carefully tried to remove it I blotched the silver as you can see in the pics.  No biggie.  I'll just mask the black and re-shoot the silver tomorrow.  The bezel and headlight doors need a bit of touching up with silver on the very edges of the silver outline.  The fine line tape didn't stick as well as it used to, it's probably too old as I've had it for a while.  I'll just mask the black edges and use a small soft brush to touch it up.  Once everything's painted I'll cover it all in SEM Low Luster and that'll be that!

Now all I have to do is remove that big dent from the I piece that I put n there last spring, somehow remove the anodizing, and polish the lot.

Few teaser pics of today's work:

[Dino]

A few more

[myk]

That looks better than new...

[Dino]

I wasn't around when they were new but I'll take your word for it.   

I tested the low luster clear on another piece and it's pretty nice.  It changes the silver ever so slightly but I think it'll be worth it seeing I drive this car a lot and it will be so much easier to keep clean.

[71charger_fan]

Broken dash bezel replaced and dash reinstalled.

[NHCharger]

Terry- Looking good. Will you have the 71 at Carlisle this year?

[NHCharger]

Cutting the rot out of the passenger quarter today.

[71charger_fan]

I have already registered for Carlisle, so, barring something unforeseen and very serious, I'll be at Carlisle.

[myk]

Cutting the rot out of the passenger quarter today.

Oh wow, they cut out the same areas on my car when it was in the body shop...

[ikbrown]

Dino, great job so far on that grille restoration!! I'm looking to complete that on my 68 in the next few months. I have been reading through the stickied threads on grille restorations and didnt come across anyone mentioning the paint you used, SEM Titanium Silver. Looks great though! I like that it looks a little on the darker side of silver/grey.  Will have to consider that paint for mine!