Another 68 Charger, being resurrected...

[madmike]

I've been secretively lurking here for a few months...anyway, since I was a teenager, I have always wanted a '68 or '69 Charger, thanks to the DOH show, which is probably where a bunch of us got our start.  I have never been able to afford one, these cars just seem to escalate in value, supassing my ability to buy one!  Back in April, a friend of mine spotted this car on Arizona CraigsList, and the price seemed reasonable.  It was at a body shop, and they were making it look (emphasis on look) good!  Supposedly, the car was bought in Indiana.  They had improperly applied bondo and glazing compound on top of surface rust, and had actually obscured or filled in natural body features.  After we got the car to my buddies house, we removed all of the body work.  I was rather dismayed, as I was expecting a perfect Arizona desert car.  In fact, the body was extremely rust free, but someone had replaced both front floor pans and the trunk floor.  Other than that, all of the body panels are original and rust free.  However, there was a lot of evidence of dents (all over the place), that someone had drilled holes in (DOH!!) to pull them out.  Some idiot was retrofitting some kind of solenoid activated door handles, and butchered both doors in performing this 'customization'.  The picture with no front clip shows how I got it, after some bondo removal.

The car came with a supposedly fresh rebuilt 440 and 727, and quite a few of the original trim, interior, and various other 'repro' parts in bags and boxes.  Essentially, it was a rolling shell, with most parts (maybe) there.  The metal VIN tag on the inner fender well was gone, and no build sheet either.  From what I've been able to determine, the car was a basic, 383-2 bbl, auto on floor car, nothing special.  I think this car may have been through at least two previous owners that had intentions of restoring or rebuilding it, but were unable to for whatever reason, and it has been apart for quite some time.

The picture where the car looks somewhat complete is where it is today.  After all of the bondo was removed, we got the car down to bare metal and primed it with an etching primer to seal the sheet metal.  My buddy and I installed the engine, and a four speed as well (I couldn't imagine having fun driving a Charger, without banging gears).  The wheels and tires I got from a member of this Board (thanks Blake!).  While I like the General Lee cars a lot, I have no intention of building yet another one.  Actually, I wanted to run old school solid Centerlines, or stock (widened) stamped steel wheels, but these were such a good deal, I couldn't pass them up.

For now, my immediate goal is to get the engine running, to see what I'm dealing with there.  Since the motor was supposedly rebuilt, but has been sitting for some time, I decided to spray WD40 in the cylinders, and turn the engine over by hand.  The engine is not quite complete, there are no lifters, pushrods or rocker arms.  Anyway, I was doing this one day, and as I was turning it, I thought I heard an unsettling noise emanating from inside the engine.  I kept turning it, and every now and then I could hear a 'tinging' sound.   The more I heard it (randomly intervals), the more I thought it was coming from the timing chain cover.  So, hoping for the best, I pulled the fuel pump off first, thinking maybe it was a stuck pushrod, or pump installed improperly, something easy.  Well, that wasn't it.  Next, I pulled the timing cover off, and I noticed right away that the oil slinger was installed backwards, and it would periodically contact the timing chain.  But, the good news was that everything inside did indeed look very clean and brand new.  Noticing that the double roller timing chain looked nice and tight, I touched it to see just how tight it was.  The cam sprocket damn near fell off in my hands!  Here, the motor 'builder' had installed a bolt and washer, but it wasn't the original thick, large OD special MoPar washer, and its OD was smaller than the hole ID of the sprocket!  What kind of person builds an engine, does something like that, and expects it to work? Now, I'm very concerned that if the guy made these kinds of mistakes, he surely has screwed up something internally in the block.  I can only hope that a professional shop built the long block, and that perhaps the idiot bought a cam and put it in, to the 'best of his ability'.  Anyway, I've been rolling around the idea of taking the whole engine apart and going through it, but I dunno...  I've got three successful builds under my belt, so I know I can do it...but sheesh!

Well, after I get the engine sorted out (which will be awhile), I'd like to reassemble the car, basically as is.  Although now is the perfect time (for the car) to undergo some kind of rotisserie restoration, I can't afford that.  This is not a numbers matching car, nor a real collectible one either.  While I admire the perfect restorations to original, and the perfectly detailed 'pro touring' cars, I want a Charger I can jump in and drive.  If I wanna find a vacant lot and do some donuts, or sit at a stop light and bake the back tires, then I can.  If some blue hair parks next to my car, and smacks their Honda Civic door into mine, I don't wanna have a panic attack over a paint nick.  I'd like to re-assemble the car as is, using as many of the parts as I have on hand.  I don't even know what I'm missing yet, but I'm already making a list, and it's longer that I thought!

Anywho, I've really enjoyed reading many threads on here, especially the ones with lots of photos, and I thought I would introduce myself (Mike) and share my car too, even though she isn't at the standards I'm seeing here.  Seems like a nice place to hang out!

[Vainglory, Esq.]

Cool.  Keep us posted.

[JT01]

congrats

[super_dave]

Congrats and good luck Mike, it's a long process, but very enjoyable also. 

[Charger440RDN]

  I have never been able to afford one, these cars just seem to escalate in value, supassing my ability to buy one! 

I know exactly what you mean I have been searching for a 2nd gen in decent shape for 3 years now. Good luck on your restoration and please post more pictures.

[tan top]

hi  Mike  , intresting  project going on there !!  ,    keep the pictures coming 

[PocketThunder]

hi  Mike  , intresting  project going on there !!  ,    keep the pictures coming 

Ya buddy!  You came to the right place Mike..    and we love lots of updates and pictures to get our fix everyday,.   

Paul

[ugly2u]

Nice car! 

Mine looked like that when I bought it in march 2009. 400+ hrs, many nights and weekends and now I drive it daily.

I recently got pulled over so the cop could check out the car. Can't blame him.

have fun!
(where is the burnout smiley?)

[Charger-Bodie]

this one?? 


Welcome to the site.   

[motorcitydak]

Very cool Mike. Just to clarify, is that a '68? I see the fenders but you never said if its a 68 or 69

[FlatbackFanatic]

Welcome!!! good luck on the resto..looks good so far!

[Bob T]

Howdy, good to see another Gen III on the way to making it back to the blacktop. More pics please,,,,and good luck on the rebuild

Bob

[RIDELIKEHELL]

Good to hear another 68 being saved...looks to be in not bad condition.

[Belgium R/T -68]

Congrats with your project and welcome overhere. If I were you I would open that engine
completly to check that rods, bearings and pistons are correctly mounted incl play.
I've seen enough "rebuild" engines to don't trust unknown builders.

Per

[madmike]

Thanks for all of the kind welcome's fellers...

Someone asked if it was a '68 or '69, and it is a 1968.  It is an extremely solid car, very light surface rust only (like interior panels, where I haven't done any primer work).  The passenger side rear quarter has a few pinholes of rust down in the corner, but that's it.  Just lots of dents that were pulled out by someone else, and they drilled holes in the dents to use a dent puller to pull them out.  Sometimes, I guess those can be just as hard to fix as rusted out areas...  I don't have any plans for panel replacement at this time, I just can't afford that.  It looks good enough to be a daily driver.  The last time I even saw one of these cars going down the road, I was doing about 65 in the slow lane, and was passed by one doing about 70 or so.  It wasn't a perfect car, but it looked damn good anyway, and sounded awesome!

It does agitate me, that I probably should tear down a supposedly new engine, and look for further signs of ignorant assembly practice...  When I hear 'rebuilt', it makes me worry, unless it's a known quality shop or individual.

Later!

[Lennard]

Welcome, nice project and the Vectors are 

[Dans 68]

Good to see another one being taken care of. Sounds like it has a good home.    I would take the engine apart and check to see if it was assembled correctly. Peace of mind is a wonderful state to be in. 

Dan