Wagon Wheels, Is It Ever Going To Stop?

[Ghoste]

I really like your wife's car and I'm not a big E-body fan.  I love the way the whole thing is monochromatic except for the fender gills.  It really makes them jump out.  Very nice.
The wheels are perfect with that as well.

[hotrod98]

The scheme was all her idea. She's been around these cars for years and when we go to the nats, she takes pics of the things that she likes the most. Her other hotrod is a 2000 TransAm with a hardtop conversion, raptor hood, 17" Miglia wheels, LS1 six speed with flames.

I like e-bodies and b-bodies. I have five b-bodies, five e-bodies and one a-body, so I'm not partial to any one body style.

After my 70 chal conv is together, I hope to get started on my Daytona clone. Everyone's giving me hell about using my triple black R/T SE for the conversion. I hope to get lots of help from this forum when I get started. I already have the 70 front sheet metal and a vega hatchback. Now I need to decide which repro parts to buy. As for wheels for the Daytona, I plan to go 15" Magnum 500's with the Magnum 500 spinners.

[dkn1997]

I like the larger wheels, but not any bigger than 17 or maybe 18 at the most.

here is a pic of mine w/16's.  enough to make you notice, but if you were not paying attention, you could mistake them for 16's

[hotrod98]

Your 68 looks great. My motto is "don't ever sell it".
I don't care what the other guys say, I think the new wheels are a breath of fresh air. I've been driving these cars for 33 years and I'm getting little tired of looking at the same old thing all of the time.

[Ghoste]

I tend to still like the older rims but I understand where you're coming from.  The best part is, when the wheels go out of style, you can change them if you want.  A little harder if you do things like cut a car up for a Pro Street look.

[Charger_Fan]

Everyone's giving me hell about using my triple black R/T SE for the conversion. I hope to get lots of help from this forum when I get started. I already have the 70 front sheet metal and a vega hatchback. Now I need to decide which repro parts to buy. As for wheels for the Daytona, I plan to go 15" Magnum 500's with the Magnum 500 spinners.

Daytona Guy could help you out with that, I'm sure.


Your wife's Cuda looks great! Well, the red one does too.
So, you got the engine and tranny from the truck? Was it a semi-painless swap?

[hotrod98]

Swapping the whole engine/tranny setup wasn't that difficult. The 5.9 is so much like the 360 that originally came in this car. I redrilled the original cuda motor mounts and moved the engine forward about 3/4" and hammered the tunnel a little in a couple of places. I had to fab a crossmember using the old crossmember. The crossmember had to be notched as well for the speed sensor.
I found a Dodge factory repair manual and just cut all of the wires out of the harness that went to items that I wouldn't be using. I left the cruise control wires in and used the cruise buttons from the steering wheel. I attached the cruise buttons on the dash near the gauge cluster, but could be mounted in the console compartment just as well. You can buy a ready to install harness from Street and Performance, but it won't have any accessory wires such as cruise, etc. I also kept the overhead console wires intact so that I can install the o/h console later. I used electric fans since the motor doesn't align well with the stock fan shroud. It might not be a problem on some cars. I made aplate to lower the power steering pump to clear the battery tray. Very easy. We also shortened the driveshaft. I used the stock exhaust manifolds to keep the car a little quieter. I had them ceramic coated so they would look a little nicer. I added a sump to a new stock tank and used a high pressure electric pump with a return style regulator. Just added a return to the tank. Dodge uses a returnless system which means that the fuel doesn't flow through the injector rail before returning to the tank which would heat up the fuel. GM just went to the same type system on the new trucks in 2005. I just bought a cable-x box from Abbott industries which converts the speed signal to a driven cable to run the speedo in the original Rally gauge cluster. The easier way to do this is to replace the speedo with an Autometer electronic speedo, but i didn't want to lose the rally cluster.
This might sound difficult but it's really pretty simple and the car gets 25+ mpg and runs like a scalded dog. lol  Starts so easy and runs so smooth. With the flowmasters it sounds pretty good too. My wife loves it.

[Charger_Fan]

Thanks for the excellent reply!
I'm very interested in doing a swap like this. I've been intrigued with the whole factory fuel injected idea since the early 80's, but for one reason or another, haven't been able to act on it.
Just for curiorosity, what year was your donor truck?

Here's another guy in Kansas somewhere that has done a similar swap on a Charger, including the cable-x box idea (seen in front of the master cylinder).
This pic (& a bunch of others) were posted on the now defunct D-C.com site by Todd Wilson, the owner of this site;
http://www.chargerfever.com

I've tried in vain to find where he's got the rest of the pics of this car.





BTW, I can see from this pic why you would need to move the P/S pump.

[hotrod98]

I bought a wrecked 95 Dodge 1500 Ram. I paid the guy $1100 for it , removed the stuff that I wanted and sold the truck to a salvage yard for $1000. Just lucky on that one.
I've been told that the 96 up would be better since the computer is programmable. Not sure. The earlier Dakotas used cable driven speedos which would save $ by not having to buy the cable-x box.
I wanted to keep the battery in the stock location and you would not believe how easy the bracket to lower the p/s pump was to make. You just buy a different serpentine belt. Can't remember whether it was shorter or longer.
I'll take some pics of the engine bay and post them here later.

[hotrod98]

As promised. pics of the 5.9 liter setup in a 73 cuda, would basically be the same in a charger.

Pic #0003 - Ceramic coated stock truck manifolds and Relay control center from truck.
Pic #0004 - Computer location on right inner fender, used early style wsw bottle for clearance.
Pic #0005 - Cruise control servo on firewall
Pic #0008 - Electric Fans...lots of room now
More on next post

[hotrod98]

Pic #0009 - Plate to lower power steering pump to clear battery tray
Pic #0010 - Cruise Control buttons mounted near gauge cluster, behind steering wheel
Pic #0013 - Sump on stock tank with feed and return lines

[Lowprofile]

Ahem... big wheels work if not over done... there is a LIMIT... you have to know your car and know what that limit is to make it look right.

Wow! Awseome Ride . I am not a fan of the big wheel look, but it seems those 17" wheels work very well. I am Impressed.




But, alas, I fear someone has taken it to the Next Level..............

[dkn1997]

I noticed that the 14/15 inch guys are always the ones to start the debate about the larger wheels.  I have yet to see a post from a "big wheel" guy bitching about 14/15's. 

In addition, the 14/15 guys tend to get a bit nasty calling everything with large wheels "rice" or "bling" and the big wheel guys seem to always just say " I just prefer the larger wheels"  without saying lots of derogatory stuff. 

and yes, I would bet money the old hotrodders bitched about the aftermarket cragers and keystones in the 60's/70'S  some people think that whitewalls and hubcaps are the height of style.  TO EACH HIS OWN......

[hotrod98]

I have to admit that the age of 49, I am a relative newcomer to the big wheel thing, but I firmly believe that there is a place for it. As I have said before, I get a little tired of seeing the same old thing all of the time. If there's two similar Chargers at a car show, it's kind of cool when they each have totally different wheels.
Many of the guys with musclecars today weren't around in the late 60's and early 70's like I was. I've seen and driven these cars since they were new. My high school car was a 69 Chevelle SS396. I found the car in 1998, bought it back and never restored it. I sold it 4 years later and never regretted it. It didn't fit well in the garage with all of those Mopars. lol  If I had restored it, I would not have put Cragars on it again. I've had so many cars with Cragar SS's that I don't care if I ever see another Cragar SS wheel. No offense to anyone, if you like them...great. It's just personal preference. Obviously, I loved them back then, because most of my cars had them.
I just bought new 15" Magnum 500's for my 69 runner and love em. Many people have told me that they don't like them. Okay, I can appreciate that...to each his own. I plan to use 15" Magnum 500's with Magnum 500 spinners on my Daytona clone. I think they look awesome on Chargers, but I like Dane's wheels on his Daytona just as well.

[Lightning]

16's or 17's is as big as I will go.

although to pull of the "racing-only" look for these old cars, I'm gonna dig through the Summit catalog and find the cheap circle-track wheels (they're only about $50 a wheel!)

[dkn1997]

Circle track wheels are very cool.

[Charger_Fan]

Thanks for posting those great pics, Hotrod!
Sorry I took long to respond.

Wow, so you are only into that drivetrain $100? Lucky indeed!
That looks like a really clean swap, you obviously have been doing this hot rodding thing for a while.

[Lightning]

Circle track wheels are very cool.

I'm hoping my sarcasm detector is broken....lol.

[Daytona Guy]

<<<I think they look awesome on Chargers, but I like Dane's wheels on his Daytona just as well.>>>

Thanks man. I love Magnum 500's as well. Great wheel.

[Dale The Bold]

I noticed that the 14/15 inch guys are always the ones to start the debate about the larger wheels.   I have yet to see a post from a "big wheel" guy bitching about 14/15's.  

In addition, the 14/15 guys tend to get a bit nasty calling everything with large wheels "rice" or "bling" and the big wheel guys seem to always just say " I just prefer the larger wheels"   without saying lots of derogatory stuff.  

Well, I can't imagine that many people would complain about something that came stock on a car.  "Ooh, that's so riced-out, using stock rims and all."  Schwinn rims don't look like they could take much in the rough terrain category.  Plus they look scrawny and distract from the look of nice body lines.  That's why they only belong on modern cars, which have no body lines (well, they have straight lines).  Bicycle tires just look way out of place on a car (or truck, for that matter).

To each his own, and I don't go picking fights with guys who do things that I don't like on their cars, but i find the notion that anyone could complain about stock-sized rims kind of absurd.  It would be the equivalent of painting a naked guy on the side of your car and then picking on people who don't have naked men painted on the side of their car.  It would be a weird complaint.

[fearsjlwolf]

You mean you don't get all excited to see sommething like this?

thats just [size=20][/size] WRONG!!!

[hotrod98]

As for the 5.9 conversion, I failed to mention that you have to install an e-body 360 oil pan and oil pump and modify the dipstcik. I did spend around $400 buying components to make the swap as well as the mods to the mounts.  Drove the car just last night and still can't believe how nice it drives.
I've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to like anything that's not stock. After you've owned a couple of hundred muscle cars like I have, you'll change your mind. As I've said before, it's boring to see the same old cars over and over again. Change is good. If every car at the car show was bone stock, I would stay home.
It would be just like the Playboy magazine for married men...same woman every month.

[4forty]

Nothing hurts more than seeing any muscle car (especially a Charger) with 19"or 22"s. leave them for the "pimp my ride" crew. don't have as big a prob with style & size on Daytona Guy or NYCmille. If I were going aftermarket, thats the way to go...their Chargers look awesome but I'll stick with stock for now.

[69hemi]

Beautiful ride man!!

[NYCMille]

4forty -

No Joke... that really is an absolute stunner of a car... sits perfectly too.