What have you done with your Charger lately?

[xoman60]

I bought the console during the last year one sale. I think it was around 280 including shipping. Its just the shell btw. Most of the parts from old console will go on the new one. I did buy 2 new console light bezels or whatever they are called. Old console has a crack in the usual spot and its been painted before.

[twenty mike mike]

Removed the dash harness today. If I ever stop bleeding  , I'll open the boxes that came from Classic Auto Air. 

[Lord Warlock]

Back glass got put back in today, and started cleaning, and polishing the stainless trim that will go back on the windshield and rear window.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Hell yeah Clayton, that looks awesome!  
Completely forgot you had an RPM intake. As you found the RPM is a bit higher.

My vote is either chrome, or painted white to match the body as well.  

Way taller than I expected Bill. I was bragging that I wouldn't have to trim much but I was wrong, big time. But on the bright side, it is a bit lighter now.  

Maybe I will use some white paint on it just to see how it looks, if it looks good I will powder coat it white. If not I can always paint it something else. But I kinda want to do the orange along with the valve covers. Give it the classic style with modern components, so it kinda looks like it belongs there. I can't make up my mind

I really like the hemi orange engine color, but on your car if you could match the red on your stripe that would look pretty cool!  

Yeah the red is definitely one of my choices. The orange is the safe bet, while the red or white might be going too far with the matching color combo? Luckily these parts are easy to remove and paint so I can play with the colors before choosing.

Added a new air cleaner. Wouldn't come close to fitting so I chopped it all up. Took almost 3 inches out of the base to get it to work with the Edelbrock RPM intake. Had to cut a bit more off than I thought to clear the a/c but it all fits great now, should be sending it off to get powder coated next week. Not sure though to keep it orange or go with something custom?  

What other modifications did you have to do in order to get that RPM intake to work?  Aftermarket kickdown/throttle linkages and stuff?  

Hotchkis sway bar set and Hotchkis 1.5 shocks shipped!

All shit just got real.......

I know, right?  Next up will be the Hotchkis torsion bars and leaf springs; I can't wait!

Yeah a taller bracket is used. I got mine years ago off ebay but I do know mancini racing has a bunch of brackets and cables that work with the rpm intake.

Nice choice on the hotchkis parts, you're going to love em!  

[myk]

Yeah a taller bracket is used. I got mine years ago off ebay but I do know mancini racing has a bunch of brackets and cables that work with the rpm intake.

Nice choice on the hotchkis parts, you're going to love em!  

I was going to buy the entire TVS at once, but I decided to do the suspension upgrades in stages because, well, I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with QA1's K-member setup; I figure doing the suspension in stages will give me time to think it through.  So the plan is: 1. sways bars and shocks 2. leaf springs and torsion bars 3. UCA's, strut rods and steering rods. 

Do you have the torsion bars on your car as well? 

[1974dodgecharger]

I think he has them all....I used to PM alot and talk about the setup until I bought my pieces also. 

[myk]

I just thought of something; I still have my stock steering box that's in "good" shape.  Will that be a problem?

[69white hat]

I googled this hotchkis you speak of.  And it sounds interesting. Tuned, balanced, geometry corrected. Wow.  I wish I knew what that all meant. I am all for upgrades. Love em.  I just bought a set of 18x8 front and 19X 10 rear wheels from boze. I'm wondering if this tvs system would be just the next logical step in where I want to take my car. 

How much of an improvement in handling are you expecting to see Myk? It seems like a rather painless way to make a charger into a real maneuverable car. Instead of a leaning to and fro boat. I'd like to ask for the biggest reasons you decided to do it. Maybe I can relate to them. I do need something to do to my car NEXT year. 

[myk]

I googled this hotchkis you speak of.   And it sounds interesting. Tuned, balanced, geometry corrected. Wow.   I wish I knew what that all meant. I am all for upgrades. Love em.   I just bought a set of 18x8 front and 19X 10 rear wheels from boze. I'm wondering if this tvs system would be just the next logical step in where I want to take my car.  

How much of an improvement in handling are you expecting to see Myk? It seems like a rather painless way to make a charger into a real maneuverable car. Instead of a leaning to and fro boat. I'd like to ask for the biggest reasons you decided to do it. Maybe I can relate to them. I do need something to do to my car NEXT year.  

My plans are to one day auto-X the car in addition to having a surprisingly great handling classic Charger.  

Ever since I cranked down the torsion bars, installed the KYB's and started rolling with 18" wheels I think the car handles very flat, accurate and steady for what it is but from what I keep reading on here I guess there's more.  I'm hoping that with the "geometry correcting"  (whatever the f**k that means, lol) Hotchkis pieces I'll be that much closer to having this car capable of handling an auxo-X course or anyone who would otherwise write the car off as a wallowing, ill-handling dinosaur from the 60's.  The transformation won't be painless though; all-in-all I'll be about $4K into the suspension 'mods before I'm done, and that estimate is WITHOUT a new steering box.

I try not to focus on the costs though.  From what I've learned suspension 'mods are one of those things that always has hot rodders asking themselves why they didn't do it sooner...

[WHITE AND RED 69]

I was going to buy the entire TVS at once, but I decided to do the suspension upgrades in stages because, well, I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with QA1's K-member setup; I figure doing the suspension in stages will give me time to think it through.  So the plan is: 1. sways bars and shocks 2. leaf springs and torsion bars 3. UCA's, strut rods and steering rods.  

Do you have the torsion bars on your car as well?  

Yep, I've got the hotchkis bars. Except the new hotchkis torsion bars are bigger than the ones I got. They used to sell 1.03" and now its 1.10". I got the the old parts    . I did all my installs in stages as well, makes it fun to see how much of an improvement can be done with each piece.    I'd change one thing in your plan, keep your leafs as stage 2 and move the torsion bars to stage 3. It will just save some time since you have to knock out the torsion bar to do the strut install. And might as well freshen up the lower control arms bushings while you have it all apart. 

Your stock steering box will be fine. You might want to change it down the line but you can run the stock box no problem with all the new parts. The steering feel will be more responsive with the new stuff but it will still have that way too easy steering feel.

[myk]

I was going to buy the entire TVS at once, but I decided to do the suspension upgrades in stages because, well, I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with QA1's K-member setup; I figure doing the suspension in stages will give me time to think it through.  So the plan is: 1. sways bars and shocks 2. leaf springs and torsion bars 3. UCA's, strut rods and steering rods.  

Do you have the torsion bars on your car as well?  

Yep, I've got the hotchkis bars. Except the new hotchkis torsion bars are bigger than the ones I got. They used to sell 1.03" and now its 1.10". I got the the old parts    . I did all my installs in stages as well, makes it fun to see how much of an improvement can be done with each piece.    I'd change one thing in your plan, keep your leafs as stage 2 and move the torsion bars to stage 3. It will just save some time since you have to knock out the torsion bar to do the strut install. And might as well freshen up the lower control arms bushings while you have it all apart.

Your stock steering box will be fine. You might want to change it down the line but you can run the stock box no problem with all the new parts. The steering feel will be more responsive with the new stuff but it will still have that way too easy steering feel.

Ok thanks for the tips!  Question though: why doesn't Hotchkis sell a fancy tubular LCA to go along with everything else?  Is it not necessary, or something?  Also, do you think it's possible for these new torsion bars to be "too big" for our applications?

[1974dodgecharger]

depends on what your doing MSRacing has like 1.2inch bars or soemthing like that very thick!!!  I think 1.1 is great for daily street driver which is what I have.  I had to email hotchkis to make sure, but what happened was they had the 1.03inch ones and then discontinued them for awhile until they fine tuned it better and came out with the 1.1s later on.  Some of the 1.03s are still out there so be careful.  Steve Millen racing site has both 1.03 and 1.1 hotchkis bars last time I checked. The 1.1s are tuned for the 1.5 shocks they have before they had blistens I believe and had 1.03s.

[myk]

I see.  Well, I just want to make sure I don't end up with "too much" suspension and have a car that won't respond at all...

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Ok thanks for the tips!  Question though: why doesn't Hotchkis sell a fancy tubular LCA to go along with everything else?  Is it not necessary, or something?  Also, do you think it's possible for these new torsion bars to be "too big" for our applications?

I think the plan for Hotchkis was to upgrade what needed to be upgraded and left alone what didn't. The stock k-frame and lower arms do what they are intended to do and i'm sure it wasn't cost efficient for them to redesign them. For what the lower arms do the only benefit to a tubular setup is the weight savings, they still use the same pivot shaft and all the stock mounting points so the redesign would be nothing crazy. The other problem with a new k frame is they have to market it towards guys in the planning stage or guys who have the proper equipment with a shop. I would love to use a tubular k frame but since my car was already on the road before I got the hotchkis stuff I couldn't justify pulling the motor in my driveway to do it, so a new k-frame was out the the question for me. I think the goal for hotchkis was to aim at the cars on the road to show that with a few bolt on parts that they can be made to handle. And to be able to install all this in a home garage or driveway.

Or it could be that they knew the Mopar community is too damn stubborn so they only marketed what could easily be removed. It's a tough crowd to market to.

depends on what your doing MSRacing has like 1.2inch bars or soemthing like that very thick!!!  I think 1.1 is great for daily street driver which is what I have.  I had to email hotchkis to make sure, but what happened was they had the 1.03inch ones and then discontinued them for awhile until they fine tuned it better and came out with the 1.1s later on.  Some of the 1.03s are still out there so be careful.  Steve Millen racing site has both 1.03 and 1.1 hotchkis bars last time I checked. The 1.1s are tuned for the 1.5 shocks they have before they had blistens I believe and had 1.03s.

John's right, when the bars came out everyone thought a 1" bar was only for race cars and didn't belong on a street car. I got mine at a point where the biggest you could get was 1.03" or maybe a custom set of 1.06". Then after a few years of better parts being made people found out that these cars can run huge bars and still ride comfortable enough that you wont rattle your teeth out while driving on the street. You'll be good with the new 1.10" bars. I don't think there is such a thing as too much suspension.  

[JB400]

Finally got to check out your gauge rebuild Jaak.  Turned out great.

[jaak]

Finally got to check out your gauge rebuild Jaak.  Turned out great.

Thanks Stroker,

Jason

[jaak]

Spent the last couple of evenings recovering my upper door bolsters with vinyl. Looks very presentable... I'm happy with them.



Test fitted one of them....


Jason

[myk]

Another great garage build by Jason!

Meanwhile, I just got the Hotchkis sway bar set, and MAN this front bar is freaking HUGE!  Will this thing actually fit under my car?!  The rear bar is probably the same size as my stock front! 

[Lord Warlock]

Windshield got installed yesterday, new glass from safelight, much nicer than putting the original glass in, someone may want the original glass one day so it will be stuffed on the top shelf of the garage once i make room.  Today I am supposed to pick up new calipers for the front brakes which will enable me to install the front disc brakes this weekend hopefully.  Then i get to experience the joy of bleeding all 4 brakes.  Maybe i'll order a brake bleeder.  

Today i plan on wetsanding the whole right side of the car to try to get the paint ready for touch up work, have to paint the door lock areas as well as a couple chips along the hood/front fender, applied masking tape last night to prepare for today, but this morning we're having a nice hard rainstorm that the yard needs, but will stop me from working on brakes so will focus on prepping the body for final touch up's on paint.

[JamieZ]

Took 2 attempts, but I managed to get the grille back on. First attempt, the driver's side actuator was hitting the bumper bracket. I had to bring everything back inside, flip the bracket and lug it back outside again. Second attempt got it back on the car, but I had to call into work as soon as I got it buttoned up and the basic wiring re-attached. I also need to install the 4 bolts that go through the wheel wells, but that requires pulling the front tires and I'll probably wait until the car is back on cement to do that.



The hood latch needs to be adjusted to clean up the fit and I need to finish the 6 pin harness connector before I can test it on the car. After that it's just a matter of reinstalling the valance and bumper.

[grdprx]

I put her up on jack stands to search for a tranny leak.   Also need to trace down a left turn signal issue. Rear works, but front and dash indicator don't.

[ChargerD100]

paid off its motor and ordered a gas tank and sending unit, gunna order trunk floor today once I figure out if ordering a goodmark trunk floor is what I should buy  or if I should keep saving and buy amd

[Charger-Bodie]

paid off its motor and ordered a gas tank and sending unit, gunna order trunk floor today once I figure out if ordering a goodmark trunk floor is what I should buy  or if I should keep saving and buy amd

I've put in two Goodmark ones now with no problems. Amd claims they weigh less but it can't be much diff.

[Musicman]

I figure out if ordering a goodmark trunk floor is what I should buy  or if I should keep saving and buy amd

I used Goodmark when replacing my Torsion Bar Crossmember because the Goodmark piece was made from heavier gauge material than the original. The AMD piece was made using the same gauge materials as the original and was selling for considerably more money. No regrets there... I can't speak for their floor pans however... I got mine through Autobody Specialties, so who knows where they got them. They were good quality though.

[Lord Warlock]

Paint touch ups went well today a couple runs below the drivers side lock hole but the rest came out decent, trunklid, sail panel right upper door, tops of both front fenders and flat sections of the hood.  (depressions were taped off) Will have to rest up the arms so i can wetsand and buff the car next week, door locks, handles and mirrors will go back on tomorrow once the paint cures.  Pics are still in the camera, so i'll add those when i move them over.

Have to decide whether i want to leave the body in single stage poly, and buff it out, or to finish sand the nibs off and put a clearcoat on.  Would like a shiny car but too glossy doesn't look right.  But have plenty of dupont clear leftover from another project.  Will decide that in a few days once I know what it looks like.