SRT-8 Daytona Clone

[hemi68charger]

This is going to be a great ride......... 

[hemigeno]

You work is amazing. This guy is more than a car builder, he is a freaking artist, and this is his masterpiece.

          

[Charger_Dart]

  X2 - Just amazing work you are doing.

[Stevearino]

Thanks for the thumbs up guys. It keeps me motivated. I just hope the car meets expectations when it is done.

How much did or will that door weigh? 

Dane

The door panel is surprisingly light. When I finished building it and broke it loose I expected it to be much heavier than it was. I only used .023 steel so maybe that is why. Seriously it is not even as heavy as the plastic door panel from the 06 that I am trying to copy. Also since there will be a lexan side window and the vent window is gone it may be lighter than a stock set up. 

By the way Dane you have set a high bar with your two most recent builds.They really hit the sweet spot.

[Mike DC]

   
Lexan side windows, on a car with so much focus on streetability?

[Daytona Guy]

This may have been asked I'm sure, but, how do you find a one piece side window glass to fit this body?

Dane

[Stevearino]

   
Lexan side windows, on a car with so much focus on streetability?

I am not happy about it but as I said before the option of tempered custom glass went away due to DOT requirements for a specific shatter pattern for tempered glass. So instead of just being able to make me a couple of pieces of glass for a reasonable cost the guys who used to do this now have to go through an elaborate testing process in which they must destroy a number of pieces of glass to assure it will break into the proper size pieces. What was going to be about $1,500.00  was now looking at costing over $5000.00 for two pieces of glass. The other option would be custom laminated glass which is very fragile out of a fixed frame.So if I wanted to stay on the path I decided to take  with the vent glass delete my only option left is Lexan.

This may have been asked I'm sure, but, how do you find a one piece side window glass to fit this body?

Dane

The size and arc of the glass matches closely to the 69 Camaro glass. I ordered oversized blanks.

[Stevearino]

Well it is time to back out of another dead end I have driven down. While the Lexan side windows look okay there are several problems that can't be overcome. The windows on their own are not strong enough to seal well against the roof/A pillar gasket. Part of that is due to my insistence on using the 06 Charger window regulators. The regulators are meant to just run small windows up and down in a confined frame. Frameless glass needs something a little more robust. I took a look at some 2010 Challenger regulators and they have the same design but with 2 important differences. The clamps that grab the glass are much larger to torque the window over against the seals and the two vertical runners are further apart to accommodate the longer glass (Better weight distribution) So I ordered a couple of those on the Ebay.  I had a talk with Lee at Alan Auto Glass in Burbank Ca. and he assured me that of the 10 cars they put windows in (6 for F & F and 4 for Drive Angry) there were no breakage issues and he is pretty sure they were somewhat rough with those car. So I have decided to go out on a limb and get a set of the side glass he has left over from those two projects.   Either way I don't think I am breaking any news here to say that the roof seal is kind of crappy and I don't think I will ever be happy with that. I guess that is why the new cars have that feature that drops the window a bit when you open the door and then automatically runs it up into the seal when it is closed.  Remind me to start with a Challenger next time. It has all the right bells and whistles for this kind of conversion.

By the way the pictures show a steel "C" channel I had to run around the perimeter of the Lexan to get it to be rigid enough to hold its shape. It didn't look as bad as I thought but it was not what I had in mind.

[Baldwinvette77]

That does look really cool 

[Stevearino]

That does look really cool 

Thanks Baldwinvette. 

A bit of a hiccup. I got my Challenger regulators and they look great. They are really substantial. The only problem is the motor has a 6 pin connection because it is meant to be hooked up to the door latch mechanism. This allows the window to dodge down a bit when opening the door and pop back up into the seal when closed. Only problem is my door harness is for a simple 2 pin connection. The motors on both the 06 Charger and Challenger mount the same and the look the same otherwise but I am not sure about swapping them out in case the Challenger motor has more torque for a heavier lift.  It might be my only option though.

[Baldwinvette77]

That does look really cool 

Thanks Baldwinvette. 

A bit of a hiccup. I got my Challenger regulators and they look great. They are really substantial. The only problem is the motor has a 6 pin connection because it is meant to be hooked up to the door latch mechanism. This allows the window to dodge down a bit when opening the door and pop back up into the seal when closed. Only problem is my door harness is for a simple 2 pin connection. The motors on both the 06 Charger and Challenger mount the same and the look the same otherwise but I am not sure about swapping them out in case the Challenger motor has more torque for a heavier lift.  It might be my only option though.

Damn... im not looking forward to my wiring nightmare, thankfully i dont have alot of connections.. but im using a universal harness, and electric parts for 4 different cars, from 3 different makes 

[DonC1]

Steve,
I discovered you can run a bead roller over lexan and stiffen up the edge some by stepping it, amazingly it works quite well so this may help you with the side windows...
I often do it on the lexan on my bat cars..great for flush fitting trim too.

[Stevearino]

Steve,
I discovered you can run a bead roller over lexan and stiffen up the edge some by stepping it, amazingly it works quite well so this may help you with the side windows...
I often do it on the lexan on my bat cars..great for flush fitting trim too.

Great to know Don. I am really looking forward to getting my laminated side glass and hopefully that will solve the strength problem. It is nice to have fall back position though.

[Stevearino]

Well I removed the 06 regulator and cut out my support brackets for all of that and re fitted the door with the 2010 Challenger regulator which is designed for a frameless glass application. You can see the vertical runners are spread wider to carry the load more evenly. Also the glass clamps are much bigger. Other features that are built in are the adjustable stops for the glass and the adjustable mounting studs to help angle the window in the opening. Much simpler set up even if it barely fit into the door. I still may have an issue with the upper seal when I close the door as the Challenger uses "Smart Window" technology to bump down and then up when opening and closing the door. Maybe later I will attempt to learn the particulars of that set up but for now I just swapped the 6 pin motor for the 2 pin deal that came out of the 06. 
Talked to Lee out in California about the glass today. He has my Lexan window and he sent pictures of it overlaying the glass from the F&F cars and except for having to cut the front edge off to match mine they are a pretty good match. Probably a couple of weeks before I see them.

[djcarguy]

  howdy , i just went back looked at pages 1,2 an 13,good stuff pix an think it motivates me to get back on my projects. well seeing mikes white s-bird 3 days in arow really stires the wing car bug in the brain..

           man you have skill an patience to do all those door an interior mods,, me i push on getting my toys running on then out driveing, screw the little stuff ,i have ta drive them soon as running an brakes,,,sometime s the park brake...on 4 spd rigs.

           keepup the good ,,great work,,but lets see some more body curves an pixs,haha???the car  not yours steve,,thanks anyway??  haha latter dJ out west            

[Stevearino]

Well I have been horsing around trying to get my daughters house ready to sell while I wait for my door glass. I got the right side inner door shell mounted and the latch and the window regulators mocked in. Can't move on with that till I get the glass so I started tinkering with the wing to distract myself. I cut the very warped center section on my El Cheapo one piece fiberglass wing out and started to spruce up the uprights. I mocked them up on the quarters and found that the base of the uprights were kind of flat and which made them lean severely to the right and left. The guy who sold me the one piece wing said they were like that so that when you bolted them to the quarters they would take the whip out of the cross piece. The only thing they looked like they were going to do if I loaded them to get them level was distort the hell out of my quarter tops. So I shimmed them and modified the bases so they would stand on their own. Also the left upright looked like the two halves had been glued together a little wonky so that the back edge was whipped. I did a little sanding and mud work and straightened it out.

After that I started to build my steel center section. I started by cutting some profiles out of .060 steel. I clamped them all together and sanded them as a unit to make sure they were uniform. I then taped them all together and drilled them out. (2) 3/8" holes and (1) 1/2" hole for tubing to run through end to end and align the profiles.

[Stevearino]

I widened the center hole on the profiles I would use for intermediates and left the two end pieces with just 5/16th holes so I would be able to line them up accurately with the wing bolts. I set two 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" square steel tubes on my work bench and leveled them to the bench and to each other so as to have a flat surface to construct the wing on. I slid the drilled out profiles on to the 3/8" tubes which were cut to the wing width. The 1/2" tube was cut shorter to allow for threaded "T" nuts to be welded into the ends. This would fit behind both end plates.Once the profiles were evenly spaced and squared up I tacked them all into place.

[Stevearino]

I notched a piece of 1/4" tubing to act as the trailing edge of the wing and tacked it into place.
I had hoped to wrap the wing with a single piece of steel but that would not work out for a number of reasons so I broke it up into segments. I covered the flat top section with .035 with a vertical bend at the front to keep it straight as possible.
I then added a piece of 3/8" tube to create the leading edge of the wing.

[Stevearino]

Finally I covered the front of the wing top with .035 steel. I flipped the wing over after priming it on the inside then I tacked it to the rails to keep it straight for the final skin.

[Stevearino]

Finally I mocked it up on the car. For anyone is curious the top wing weighs 12 lbs.

[held1823]

once again, this is incredible craftsmanship

[DC_1]

I am surprised you didn't hand craft your own uprights!.......From what I've seen so far it would have been an afternoon project for a man of your skills!,,...LOL

[Stevearino]

once again, this is incredible craftsmanship

Thank you for the encouragement.

I am surprised you didn't hand craft your own uprights!.......From what I've seen so far it would have been an afternoon project for a man of your skills!,,...LOL

I didn't do that because I am basically lazy.

[panhead]

Samply amazing.    

[tan top]

  this is some awesome fabrication going on  Stevearino     great stuff