1970 R/T Black - V1G

[sean257]

I started a thread on the 70 Charger registry, and thought I would put it here too.  I bought the car at the end of July, and work started in August.  Thank you in advance for any advice or constructive criticism that I may or may not follow.  Sometimes I insist on learning things the hard way    For example a lot of people, that are way smarter than me, told me to just buy a car that was already done...

...I sit in my garage on torn up seats, looking through the floor pans at the concrete floor and wonder what in the world have I gotten into now?

1970 R/T 440 4bbl Black with gator grain roof.  Car originally had the longitudinal stripe, but I am going to go with a white tail stripe.

The car is burgundy-ish maroon currently , and hasn't been on the road in over ten years.  The body is mostly straight. The rear quarters were reskinned at some point.  Front drivers pan is holy, rears look ok.  Trunk looks pretty good.  Back seats look ok.  The motor is a 440 4bbl, the numbers on the block indicate that it is from 75.  Not sure about the heads. I think the exhaust manifolds are original to the car.  Starts right up and idles good.  I haven't driven it down the road because of the brakes etc.

It is daunting to read all of the excellent restoration threads on here, because I do not intend to strip her down and put it on a rotisserie.  It isn't numbers matching, and I just do not think it needs to be better than new to be enjoyable. I do not have the skills to do most of the work myself, but know someone who will do the mechanical for me.  My brother in law will help me with the interior, and I have to find a body shop to do all of the body and trim.

My plan is:
Mechanical
New front rotors (calipers are good, but could use a clean up and paint)
New drums, pads, wheel cylinders and hardware in the rear
New brake lines - booster, master cylinder look to be fine
New parking brake cables
All new bushings
New shocks all around
New rear leafs
New ball joints and idler arm
Remove traction bars
Fix slight transmission fluid leak
Fix slight linkage problem with transmission - park
Tires and wheels -
Full length headers
2.5" exhaust and chrome tips
Fix anything that breaks or need attention while performing above...
New front floor pans

Drive the car for a while and make sure it is all good.  Work on electrical so it doesn't burn down.

New undercoat

Modify, reroute around ammeter.  Inspect dash wiring and fix/replace as needed.
Hideaway headlight relay modification
Send out headlight motor to be fixed
Find or have headlight actuator bar fabricated.
Restore gauges and dash switches

Take the car to be sanded, blocked, painted, trim and roof installed.
Re chrome front bumper and get new back bumper.
Paint grill and rear light surround.

Headliner
New carpet
Clean and fix what interior panels I can, and replace what I can't.
New dash panels and wood inserts
Restuff and wrap front seats
Seatbelts with shoulder belts
Stereo

If I make it through all of this, maybe add vintage or classic air.

Here is the car in either from 1971, or more likely 1978 based on the colors of the IL license plate.


Now

[sean257]

Jake looking for filler with his magnet


New stuff showing up


Alli taking out seatbelts and panel so I can fix and grease the window regulator

[sean257]

New Hedman Elite full header on.


Floor pans




Old brakes and stuff


New brakes and stuff



Mandrel bent Flowmaster pipes from Summit

[sean257]

Before and after 1.5" lowering block on rear




Kids wanted a ride around the block

[sean257]

Found the rear number, but a previous owner must have used a red donor car to replace a rusty or crashed core support. (and passenger door, and hinges on both doors, and passenger tail light)



I have noticed that people usually hide these numbers on the internet, should I worry about my cars identity being stolen?


Car came with 3.23 open.  Gears looked good, so just replaced the bearings and seals

[sean257]

Had a bad spot on the passenger side transmission crossmember that needed new steel welded in.



Got the windshield pulled out, and luckily it isn't rotted out.  Mainly just old sealer that they painted maroon over in the 90's

[sean257]

Getting all of the interior out this time before it goes to paint










And, off for body work and paint

[sean257]

The hideaway headlight motor worked, but the gear was shot and the actuator bars were missing. When I opened the gear case of the motor, I noticed that it only needs to use about 1/2 or 180 degrees of the gear, so I figured I could just flip the gear over and all would be well.  EXCEPT, there are stops in the gear, and a notch on the gear hub for the cam.  I used a drimmel to cut teeth into the stops and cut a new notch for the cam.  The limit switch contact plates needed reworked a bit which was kind of a pain.  I ended up ordering rectangular bar from Amazon for the actuator bars.  Everything works now.



With teeth cut.

[sean257]

The car had a spare gauge cluster laying in the passenger seat when I bought it, so while the mechanical stuff was being worked on, I took the cluster apart and put new decals on from Performance Car Graphics.



The car had 137,235 on the odometer when I bought it, which matches what little paperwork I have, (1981 title with 79,000 miles and a 2006 emission test with 137,000) so I set the odometer at 37,293.  Before sending to paint I drove the car for a while to make sure it was all good mechanically and I ended up with 137,702 on the old cluster.  I'm not taking the new cluster back apart to adjust it forward 400 miles...

My 10th's 0 did not go on perfect, but the rest were good.


I thought I was going to have to buy new switch buttons, but taking them off and cleaning with steel wool made them come out pretty damn good.



Sanding on the cluster lens with 800 then 1500, then rubbing compound then wax.


I put the cluster back together a month ago, but now that I am waiting for the car at paint and have the entire dash out, I decided to take the clock back out and put in a new quartz movement.  The push on nuts are not fun.

[sean257]

I was torn on whether or not to buy a new dash harness.  There were some melted wires I could see under the dash when I bought the car, and some sketchy splices.  Once I had the harness out, and the wiring diagrams in front of me I could figure it out.  The sketchy splicing was where they installed a new cassette player in the 80's.  The cassette player did have a mix tape of Traffic and Hendrix.  The horn wiring is what was melted.  Specifically the horn signal wire, where it plugged into the steering column, and at the other end where it plugged into the horn relay (relay was not present when I got the car).  The signal wire also melted into the violet power wire at the relay end.

I unwrapped the harness to see how far the damage went, and see what the rest of the wiring looked like.



The wiring in the harness looks like new!



I ended up cutting the bad horn wiring out, and relocating where the remaining good horn wiring would plug into a new Bosch relay.  Then I started on the headlight relay modification.



Headlight relays installed.  They will go behind the kick panel.

[sean257]

I am also doing the alt and battery wire modification and bypassing the ammeter.  I will pass the alt and battery wires through the firewall using a separate hole and grommet and splice them together where they used to hook up to the ammeter.  I am also going to run the headlight wires through the new hole.

Here the wires have been pulled from the bulkhead and the spade connectors cut from the alt and bat wires.  I will also cut the spades off of the headlight wires and put bullet type connectors on all four wires.



Cleaned up the dash frame and primed it with self etching primer.

[sean257]

Meanwhile at the body shop, maroon paint is turning to dust.

[sean257]

I've now got the dash completed and reassembled.  Ended up using PG Classics panels and bezels, and a retrosound radio.  Following the advise from others build threads, I used SEM trim black on the dash frame and SEM landau black on the dash pads.  







Used LED bulbs for the dash lights

[sean257]

Alli sanding seat tracks


Jake sanding upper bumper support


Brother in law got my seats refoamed and covered.  Covers are charcoal from Legendary.




Top came in from SMS Auto Fabrics

[sean257]

I also got the grill repainted and reassembled.  There is a gouge in the grill that I will have to live with, as well as a handful of fins missing, but I am happy with it.

Painted silver first


Then masked the silver and painted the black


Son tightening up the bumper frame


Grill back in

[sean257]

Primer and jams









I got a glimpse of what black will look like  

[sean257]

This is where the car stands today - Getting close to paint.

[cdr]

Lookin very good !!!   

[Baldwinvette77]

Im liking this 

[XH29N0G]

I think it looks great, and the plan is sound.  I look forward to seeing more.  Thanks for posting.

[DixieRestoParts]

I think it looks great, and the plan is sound.  I look forward to seeing more.  Thanks for posting.

 

[Lennard]

Great job on the restoration and putting together this topic.  I like how the whole family is involved in your hobby.

[BIGBLCK11]

Lookin good! 

 

[cbrestorations]

I tried to buy that car, it was on Craigslist

[Kern Dog]

Great job on the restoration and putting together this topic.  I like how the whole family is involved in your hobby.

Yeah, me too. I noticed that your daughter was wearing safety glasses while working under the dash. This was a smart move! Eye injuries are a terrible thing for anyone. Even if there were no injuries, avoiding troubles may help retain their interests in the car stuff.