Re: NHC's 68 Charger resto/thrash-update- it's alive

[bull]

Don't you love that crap? How many butt connectors can we fit in six inches of wiring?

Forgot to ask, did you wire wheel the body to get the paint off? Looks like it. Must've been a tedious job.

[tan top]

  looking good NHC 

[six-tee-nine]

Just read trough this. I was still a few pages behind....

WOW is all I can say. I really love the paint booth part. I'm contemplating something similar. When I see your pictures the only thing I can think is : I have a loooooooooong way ahead of me. I need to buy some hours on ebay to extend my days from 24 hrs up to 30 hrs a day....

[RIDELIKEHELL]

Great work!

[cdr]

lookin great !!! 

[NHCharger]

Bull- I had the doors, fenders, hood, trunk lid and front valance media blasted. When I got them back they were still dull. I went over them with a 3M paint and rust stripper that you just attach to the end of your drill. For the rest of the body I did strip all of it with the 3M paint and rust stripper. Probably went through 15-20 pads. Yes, very tedious.

Six-tee-nine, when I sometimes get discouraged I go back and view this thread. It shows me how far I have progressed working 12-16 hours a week on this.

73Rallye440- forgot to answer your question on the paint. Primer- PPG DP50LF Epoxy Primer. Because I primed it last October I had to sand it with 600 and re-prime. When I primed the last time I cut the primer with a reducer. It made the primer lay a lot flatter. Paint- PPG Deltron 2000 Basecoat ( $600.00+/gallon). Clear- Dupont ChromaClear G2-4700S ($300.00/gallon).

Also like to mention. Bought the tubular UCA's, poly bushing kit, tie rods, pitman arm, idler arm and new steering box from Firm Feel. Great company and customer service, answered all my dumb questions.
Bought the disc brake kit from Fine Line. Still working on the brake system but no complaints so far. I noticed it's the same disc brake kit that several other vendors sell.

[nh_mopar_fan]

Cripes.

How long are you going to milk this project? 

[NHCharger]

Cripes.

How long are you going to milk this project? 

Hopefully not much longer. 

[NHCharger]

Interior about done, except for carpet and seats.

[NHCharger]

Car is done from firewall back.

[cdr]

OUTSTANDING  very good job,i am jealous 

[NHCharger]

The engine was the wild card. I was able to compression test all the cylinders when I bought it except #3 & 5 because the headers were tight against the plugs, couldn't even remove the plugs. Well had a blown head gasket AND cracked head, guess where . Also four of the pistons were damaged. Engine builder said they appeared to have been dropped before they were installed. He said someone did a half assed rebuild just to get the engine back in the car. found plenty of that all over the car.

So since I was going to have a blank canvass I contacted our local engine guru (Ron- Firefighter) and he cooked up an nice engine package that my engine builder said should produce 500-525 HP.

Even the Denzo mini starter was still a tight fit. Had to remove the bolt extensions and even grind down the starter bolt so it didn't hit the block.

[NHCharger]

I used a Pypes 2.5" crossover kit. It's a universal kit so it sure was nothing that fit out of the box. Took a lot of dicking around to finally clear the trans. cross member.

I'm running Dynomax ultra flows.

[bill440rt]

Lookin' good! 

[jaak]

Looks great. Love the color. Diggin' the tuff wheel too.

Jason

[JB400]

 

[NHCharger]

Diggin' the tuff wheel too.

Jason

Another member (JB666?) had one. Thought it looked good in a second gen. Also installed a Flaming River tilt steering column. The one I got was stainless steel so I just polished it up for a bit of contrast in the all black interior. They're pretty simple to install.

[bill440rt]

Are you going to be painting the inside of the door frames black to match the interior or leaving them body color? 

[RIDELIKEHELL]

  What Distributor you running there? Firecore?

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Great work, car looks sweet. 

[bakerhillpins]

WOW, Brian looks fantastic!  Can't wait to see it in person.     

[NHCharger]

Are you going to be painting the inside of the door frames black to match the interior or leaving them body color? 

Uh-oh. I took reference pics of two different 68's at Carlisle. The ones that I used because the lighting was better showed it body color. When I checked my pics of Rarefish's all original 68 it shows it black like the rest of the interior. Too late at this point to change it.

What really irritates me is this. Box says 67-68 gas cap, looks like a 69 to me. I bought this two years ago, so I'm stuck with it for now.
Also when I took the trunk mat out of the box today and laid it in the trunk I noticed it had all the perforations for the cut outs in the wrong spots. They have all the cut outs reversed/mirror image. This is a REM product I bought two years ago at Carlisle so again I am stuck with it.

[NHCharger]

What Distributor you running there? Firecore?

Why yes it is. Purchased the Ready to Run unit from Ron- Firefighter (OK shameless plug  ).
You can see the coil unit mounted to the PS inner fender wall. Like the fact that it eliminates the ballast resistor and ECU with only a minor modification to the engine harness.

[Dino]

Looking good!   

I have the same Firecore system and can't wait to try it out.

The gas cap is correct for '68.  The '69 cap says 'FUEL'.

[NHCharger]

Dino your right I just checked. My car had the 69 cap that says FUEL. I actually like the 69 caps better