My new patina'd RR1 burgundy 1968 Charger ("Ribeye")...mostly original paint

[moparstuart]

If you want to lighten Rust near Battery Tray & not remove Paint go to Hardware Store & buy Navel Jelly or Zud (mix zud into paste) & spread over Rust. This will remove the Rust & not damage Paint, These 2 Products contain Oxalic Acid which is the best Chemical Rust remover. LEON.

on my Muscle bikes I restore  i use a mixture of CLR and Comet and it makes a paste and does the same thing   

[70B5Cuda]

If you want to lighten Rust near Battery Tray & not remove Paint go to Hardware Store & buy Navel Jelly or Zud (mix zud into paste) & spread over Rust. This will remove the Rust & not damage Paint, These 2 Products contain Oxalic Acid which is the best Chemical Rust remover. LEON.

on my Muscle bikes I restore  i use a mixture of CLR and Comet and it makes a paste and does the same thing   

Thanks!

[moparstuart]

If you want to lighten Rust near Battery Tray & not remove Paint go to Hardware Store & buy Navel Jelly or Zud (mix zud into paste) & spread over Rust. This will remove the Rust & not damage Paint, These 2 Products contain Oxalic Acid which is the best Chemical Rust remover. LEON.

on my Muscle bikes I restore  i use a mixture of CLR and Comet and it makes a paste and does the same thing   

Thanks!

spread it on thick let it dry harden to a crust then take it off   

[70B5Cuda]

With 5 kids, work, school board, etc, I've not been making much progress on this charger. But I've also been trying to be patient as I've been waiting to make a deal with a previous owner for the complete numbers matching 383-4. I've known where the engine was for the last 3 years and the owner was willing to sell it. The engine is in a Satellite he owns and it hasn't run in over 20 years. We even came to an agreement on price three years ago, but I can't get him to take any action. I've offered to pull the engine for him...I've offered more money for it...He has turned down my offer to pull it and he just won't ever get around to doing it himself. After three years, I've come to the conclusion it won't happen any time soon and I'm tired of waiting. I had also completely rebuilt and powder coated all the front suspension. So the direction is changing for the better.

I'm going Gen 3 hemi, A518, Vintage Air, and RMS front/rear suspension.




Also, I noticed that there is not blackout treatment on the front of the radiator support...and the radiator support has not been repainted.

[70B5Cuda]

I'm also going with disc brakes and bigger wheels. Don't judge the wheels just yet. It will look a lot better at ride height, which will be lower. If I didn't mention it earlier, I had my paintless dent repair guy work out the hail dents and door dings.

[hemi-hampton]

Odd no black out on front but I've heard on Dark Colors like Black & B9 dark Blue they may not get it because of the dark Color. BUT, I Restored a Rare 1 of 2 Known (with automatic, 9 with 4 speed) Black 70 T.A Challenger. Even though it was Black the Core Support was still Blacked out flat Black which I thought was odd.  So I reduplicated it. LEON.

[375instroke]

I'm also going with disc brakes and bigger wheels. Don't judge the wheels just yet. It will look a lot better at ride height, which will be lower. If I didn't mention it earlier, I had my paintless dent repair guy work out the hail dents and door dings.

That looks familiar.  Michelin Pilot Sport AS-4 on US Wheel Chrysler OE Series?  Have you tried fitting hubcaps?

[tan top]

  

[70B5Cuda]

RMS 4 link has been mocked up. Will need to pull/paint/reinstall later.

[purple70rt]

nice!!

[70B5Cuda]

Catching up a little bit...

Got the Charger up on the lift to mock up the drivetrain...




Mounted the cast manifolds first, which are from a 6.4L Jeep Cherokee SRT8. These headers are cheap and they actually came factory on Jeep SRT8's which had 485hp, so they can handle the power and won't break easily. I paid $125 plus shipping for them. The driver's side engine mount had to be redone to accommodate the cast headers. The mount was originally straight...now it is curved.
 

[70B5Cuda]

It's kind of hard to see in these first two pictures, but the tunnel had to be clearanced to get the transmission up into the tunnel where it needed to be.




The torsion bar crossmember lips were trimmed down in the tunnel and a plate was welded in.

[6T8440]

Thanks for the update ~ Outstanding build. 

[70B5Cuda]

Exhaust mock up

[70B5Cuda]

Subframe connectors

[70B5Cuda]

I'm going to make a real push to get this thing together and running before summer is over. I sent the transmission crossmember out for powdercoating but took a couple pics first.

[orange383]

Great work.
I may have to copy your subframe connector design for my charger.
Looks solid!

[70B5Cuda]

Kind of silly to geek out about this....but I'm happy with the powdercoating results. lol

[Mytur Binsdirti]

You got skills.   

[70B5Cuda]

You got skills.   

I don't...My buddy Matt has the ridiculous fabrication/welding skills.

[70B5Cuda]

Although the engine bay cleaned up fairly nice, the driver's side inner fender had a lot of surface rust and some rust around the fender tag and under the battery tray. I briefly thought about just having the driver side inner fender painted but knew the colors wouldn't match so I figured now is the time to just do it once and do it right...I pulled everything out of the engine bay and hauled the charger over to my sheetmetal/paint guy. I had him delete the battery tray shelf since the battery will be in the trunk.

[70B5Cuda]

While the engine was getting prepped for paint, I realized that the only areas that haven't been cleaned up on this charger were the outsides of the front inner fenders and the bottom side of the front fenders. I got my needle scaler out and hit these areas to remove the undercoating. If you haven't used a needle scaler yet, you should try it. Just be sure to wear ear/eye protection and a mask. I made a short 3 min video on youtube to show how well a needle scaler does. I've used the torch/scraper before but never will again.

[Kern Dog]

Needle scalers are great. I used a cheap Harbor Freight unit to do the underside of my Jigsaw Charger 2 years ago.
Man, what a dusty job!

[70B5Cuda]

That's no joke. It's a nasty job but at least it goes faster then heating/scraping

[Kern Dog]

I've read from guys that did the heat and scrape method but I hade no interest in trying that. The needle scaler is loud and dusty but quite effective.
I have a thing with fire though. I don't like it. I wouldn't call it a phobia, I'm just not too comfortable with fires.