Chris' 1968 Charger Upgrades 6/13 Bunch of updates, done uploading

[Chris 69]

With engine out , great time to clean up that egnine bay, new coat of paint, bit of detailing , new engine freshly painted will make everything stand out, and you won't have to do it later,
by the way great car, good work going on here,
Alloy heads, headers,  just show dad , or you can send him over to my place, I can make him a list and he can adopt me lol

I've thought about it fy469rtse. So far I've scrubbed down the engine bay, that really cleaned things up. Still have some wiring issues to address.

The entire car needs to be painted, and realistically, that's at least 3-5 years out, so my plan at that time would be to paint the entire car (with engine removed). My ultimate goal is to have a decent driver with strong running gear. That way if it gets a ding or two in the grocery store parking lot, or from my belt buckle, it's not a big deal.

Oh, and the engine will be painted Mopar turquoise, should be an interesting combination with the white engine bay...

Alloy heads and headers, I don't think he's seen those yet, lol. It was very nice of him to provide the brakes for this project. Once I un-bury the boat from the side yard, he's going alot of fishing trips: fly fishing in the Sacramento River, Bass fishing on Lake Shasta, and Trout fishing on Whiskeytown and Trinity Lakes!

[Chris 69]

Well, more goodies arrived today. I ordered the parts from Summit Friday afternoon, they arrived Monday afternoon. In my experiences, Summit has always been great to work with, with very quick shipping. Maybe it's because they have a distribution center in Reno, NV, and it's not too long of a drive to Redding, CA.

Parts that arrived today include:

- Edelbrock Performer intake.
- Holley 750cfm carb.
- Accel distributor.
- Auxiliary gauges. (The Stewart-Warner retro-style gauges look awesome)

Now, this is the kind of shopping I like!

[1974dodgecharger]

you work FAST!!!!  AWESOME job 

[Chris 69]

This thread makes things seem like they are going faster than they actually are. To give an idea of the timeframe:

- March 2013: Bought the 4-speed, pedals, linkages, flywheels from a local seller on Craigslist.
- December 2013: Bought 4-speed parts from Brewers.
- January 2014: Had 4-speed rebuilt.
- First weekend in January 2014: Started teardown of car.
- Rest of January to early February 2014 (3-weeks) in Guam for work (no work performed on car).
- When I got back to present, starting gaining momentum on the car, but spent 4 of the weekends fixing two rototillers and a lawnmower. Did manage to tear down 383, clean and paint car parts, and weld in z-bar bracket though.
- Presently, now we're rolling (no pun intended).
- Next Saturday, working with my neighbor to rebuild the common fence between our houses; would rather work on the car!

[1974dodgecharger]

Oh  I messed up then all I saw was April something and then a later April date and im like OH SHEIT he works super fast and knows the ins and outs of the car.  Either way awesome job 

[Chris 69]

No worries, kind of learning on the fly on this end. This site has been a great resource. By the time this project is over, I'll know the ins and outs of this '68 Charger!

[fy469rtse]

That engine bay looks much better Chris , love the recent goodies, keep posting great thread , can't wait for the 440 engine fire up

[Chris 69]

Thank you charge69! Purchased some 3" Milodon wheel bolts, and they work great!

Had a few hours to work on the car last night and this afternoon.

Pressed in the new wheel bolts (gave me an excuse to purchase a ball joint press from HF).

1. Put the wheel bolts in the freezer overnight.
2. Greased up the holes on the axle flange.
3. Pressed in the bolts. The ball joint press made the process easy.

[Chris 69]

Then re-installed the rear brake assemblies, and ran into an issue with the rotor pressing against the parking brake back plate when tightened down.

I think the wheel bolts that were installed had a knurl diameter that extended past the axle flange, which offset the rotor enough to keep it from contacting the parking break back plate. The new Miloden wheel bolts allow the rotor to sit more flush with the axle flange. Solved the issue by installing 0.060" thick stainless steel washers between the axle flange plate and the rotors (bought 1/2" washers and drilled them out to 9/16"). Then I had to re-shim the caliper to be centered on the rotor per MP's instructions.

After everything tightened down, the assembly spun without interferences!

[Chris 69]

Put the wheel on, and now the caliper clears the 15" wheel. This is with a 0.310" spacer, and the clearance bewteen the wheel and the caliper is tight. I'm planning to install at least a 0.375" spacer to give a little more clearance.

Might start on the front disc conversion tomorrow.

[D69charger]

That is one slick setup!!  How much did that cost?  I need to do that to my car

[Chris 69]

That is one slick setup!!  How much did that cost?  I need to do that to my car

Here's MP's website for the '69 Charger conversion kits (I would assume it's the same as for a '68 Charger). Prices are shown for the various "levels" of conversion kits.

http://www.mpbrakes.com/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=

Ok, maybe that link didn't work too well. Just select your make/model/year with the drop-downs..

[fy469rtse]

Chris great looking brakes  , that engine bay cleaned up nicely , looking good , love the new parts

[Plum Crazy 68]

Your last rubber brake line should be changed to a steel braid line while you're into it.  I felt a big difference in the brake pedal once I did mine. 
I still want to change to discs on my car so I'm really liking your post.

Thanks for showing!

[Chris 69]

Chris great looking brakes  , that engine bay cleaned up nicely , looking good , love the new parts

Thanks fy469rtse!

[Chris 69]

Your last rubber brake line should be changed to a steel braid line while you're into it.  I felt a big difference in the brake pedal once I did mine.  
I still want to change to discs on my car so I'm really liking your post.

Thanks for showing!

So far I have found only two locations with rubber brake lines: the flex lines to the front drums. Fortunately, the MP kit came with stainless braid lines to replace the existing rubber ones. 

[Chris 69]

Finally got the car back on the ground with the rear discs installed. Here's some shots of the back side of the wheels with the discs.

Driver's side:

[Chris 69]

Passenger side:

[Chris 69]

Today, started on the front disc conversion.

First things first, safety, primary and secondary jack stands.

[Chris 69]

Then removed the drum assembly from the driver's-side front. Had to break out the impact gun to remove the drum break assembly from the control arms (I think that's what they are called).

Hub came off easily.

Also for the 4-speed conversion, note the white z-bar bracket to the upper-right of the wheel. There's the access hole through the wheel well!

[Chris 69]

Here's the spindle assembly exposed. Note the lower control arm (is that what it's called?) is below the spindle assembly. I didn't unload the torsion bar before pulling the bolts. It made the bolts difficult to remove. On the passenger side, I will unload the torsion bar prior to doing any disassembly (bear with me, I'm doing this stuff for the first time!).

To get the lower control arm back in place I unloaded the torsion bar, and used a bottle jack to reposition the arm.

Also ran into another issue where whoever installed the break line rounded-off the flare nut on the rigid tubing; I had to remove it with vice grips.. This will need to be replaced, so I guess it's time to learn how to use a tube flaring tool.

Photos:

1. Spindle assembly.
2. Torsion bar adjustment bolt.
3. Repositioning the lower control arm.

[Chris 69]

Then started installation:

1. Caliper brackets.
2. Rotor.

This was pretty straight forward. Unfortunatley it was getting late, and I need a nut retainer for the spindle nut, so stopped here to do some yard work. I think the retainer was supposed to be included in MP's kit but couldn't find it. I'll call MP tomorrow.

Next step is to install and center the caliper, likely next Saturday.

[fy469rtse]

Good work Chris,
Gives me some options for my brake upgrades later, I have 15 inch rims also, do the calipers look like you could mill some off for clearance to rim

[Plum Crazy 68]

Your last rubber brake line should be changed to a steel braid line while you're into it.  I felt a big difference in the brake pedal once I did mine.  
I still want to change to discs on my car so I'm really liking your post.

Thanks for showing!

So far I have found only two locations with rubber brake lines: the flex lines to the front drums. Fortunately, the MP kit came with stainless braid lines to replace the existing rubber ones. 

There's three lines at the rear of the car.  The third one goes from the chassis to the rear axle and can be seen in your photos of the rear brakes.

[Chris 69]

There's three lines at the rear of the car.  The third one goes from the chassis to the rear axle and can be seen in your photos of the rear brakes.
[/quote]

Ok, I see it now. I'll pull the rubber line off and replace it with braided stainless steel. Thank you for the advice. Now all line will be either braided stainless or rigid tubing.