V10 Charger (Update 5/25/21)

[GT]

What Part of the great state of Texas ?

McKinney area

[cdr]

What Part of the great state of Texas ?

McKinney area

Cool, I am in the Katy,,, Houston area, very awesome build you got going there. 

[GT]

Since the speedometer on the left and the switches on the right were angled ~20 degrees, it left some interesting areas to fill with metal.  Made some paper templates, carved it from steel and welded them in to fill the gaps.

The third pic you can see it coming to shape (like the 50th time i mocked it up).   The 4th pic I'm working on the framing for the A/C ducts and stereo.  The separate metal piece at the bottom is actually a cover that will be upholster and bolted in place... more on that later.

Last two pics are a couple of shots from different angles in the final mock upon the gage and center sections of the dash.

[GT]

Once i make final selection of the A/C controls, I will make the necessary cut-outs.  Likely i will use the ones in the previous post.  Those and the vents you see are from RestoMod air... nice $tuff.   My main challenge is i did the entire mockup and tabbed brackets for a vintage air system but i love the controls from RestoMod... unfortunately they are not compatible - choices...

OK, one thing i really wanted to do is make the dash appear as factory built as much as possible (tall order).  I wanted to retain the same textures and really do NOT want aluminum panels - even turned aluminum... cool on hotrods, don't think it fits here.

Due to the double Din head unit and needed dash mods, the plastic lower dash pieces in the center had to be modified.  I did not want to cut up my original A/C central dash piece (they are not reproduced), so i bought new lower panels from Classic for non A/C application.  Then i proceeded to cut up and modify the perfectly good pieces 

The section between the glovebox and the stereo had to be modified - i ended up epoxying a new post in order to screw down to the dash (Pic 4).

Finally i had to make the last aluminum panel above the glove box - this was due to the fact the the stock piece was no longer long enough.

Of course, all of these modifications & mockups look pretty quick from the photos, but this about 4 months of weekend work...

[GT]

After 4 months of mocking up, cutting, welding, block sanding, body, tears, blood and sweat,  we have paint...

on the dash

Turned out very nice - quite pleased with it.

[GT]

Last update for now... i expect another 2-3 months of work on the dash to build the wiring harness and cover the Aluminum panels.

Speaking of, i noted previously i wanted the textures on the dash to look as factory like as possible.  If you scroll back multiple pages you will see an early iteration of the dash that used a textured 1/8" piece of ABS plastic.  Hated it. 

I played around with crinkle paint, hammered textures, hotrod flat, even thought about doing leather... nothing looked right and none of it was close to the texture of the gage panel.  I agonized over what to do for months.

Then, one evening i was practicing on my strat and was looking at my Marshall amp and noticed something.  The Tolex on the amp appeared to be a dead ringer for the texture of our gage panels.  With great excitement i bought a role and did some experimental covering with recommended glues/etc. and it's going to look awesome.   I'll get some posts up once i cover the aluminum panels so y'all can see. 

In the meantime here are a couple of pics comparing the Tolex to the factory panel that is above the glove box.  In the second picture it is very close.  The Tolex, while softer, has a little bit deeper texture, but the sizing of the wrinkles is about as close as you can get.

So for anyone wanting to make a custom panel and match the factory texture - seek out some Tolex.  It will take detailed eyed person to notice the difference 

[Bob]

Very nice workmanship/

[RiverRaider]

Nice work and great find on the Tolex!

[ind.controls]

I know this post hasn't been updated in a while, and I'm a noob but I have been reading posts for a while (and following this build) but I would also like to ask for the engine wiring harness diagrams/pin outs... not putting one in the Charger but I am putting a 2005 gen3 from an SRT-10 in my 37 DeSoto... would definitely save me some time !

[XH29N0G]

Holy Moly !    This is wonderful.  I hadn't been looking at this thread for a while. 

I want a dash like you have made.  But with the skill of a tulip poplar I have  , I don't think I am going to get there any time soon.

Really nice work. 

[GT]

Update time.  Dash progress has been slow due to shipping delays.  After yet another mockup, i decided that the head unit and A/C control positions needed to be swapped.  With that modification done, I completed the applying the Tolex to the aluminum panels.  Two shots of the dash and one of my workspace:

[GT]

The next challenge was to deal with the huge wiper/washer switch for the aftermarket wiper system. I tried to reverse engineer it to utilize different switches but was thwarted since the unit has some processor components within.  Spent weeks considering where to put the unit and in the end, decided to mount it further back in the dash and use a shaft extension.  I'm not really happy with placement, but I've run out of real estate on and behind the dash.   Shots of the bracket i tabbed on how it is mounted, and one from behind the dash:

[GT]

Next up I need to find a place for the power window switches.  Dash location was out, i didn't want a bunch of switches in each door panel.  Decided to put it in the consoled just in front of the shifter. 

This was a new top cover that i had in storage for about 12mo...wasnt happy to see the woodgrain peeling on a new unit.  Didn't matter in the end because i decided to strip that cheap plastic looking fake wood grain and replace it with Tolex:

[GT]

I'm currently working on the glovebox itself... It's about half as deep as stock because of the A/C unit.  The A/C unit was shifted to the right to clear the modified firewall and trans tunnel because of the viper motor. 

Once i figure out a solution for the glovebox, I will start building the dash wiring harness.  And figure out where to stuff all of this, plus a few other controllers/etc.:

[Troy]

Wow

Troy

[Paul G]

The V10 makes 505 hp? That is a lot, but not by today's power numbers coming from the factory. Have you considered twin turbos? Take it to 600 or 700. 

[GT]

That's about right, may make a bit more with upgrades.  When this was started that WAS a lot of power 

I looked into twin turbos early on, but that would require some forged internal upgrades.

I've even been asked why not change to a hellcat/etc. I'm too far into this and NO more scope creep.

[XH29N0G]

I like the plan and have liked it since you first posted it.  Looking forward to seeing it done.   

[GT]

Small update, which doesn't reflect the huge hassle and re-work done to fix the passenger door/quarter panel gap.

Long story short, the door is not original to this car, and after many attempts at setting the gaps correctly I started checking the passenger door, door opening, and quarter panel to the drivers side.  In the first picture, you can see how the top inner edge of the quarter panel does not align with the body.

As it turns out, the top edge of the factory quarter was mis-stamped and was 3/6" narrower than the driver side.  It was also lower by about 1/8".   

So i drilled out some spot welds on the inner structure, then sliced the top of the quarter (that is normal hidden by the trim) to make some adjustments.  Welded it back up and tossed a little primer on it for now.  I'll finish blocking it shortly.

[GT]

While i was at it, i went ahead and drilled holes to mount the passenger sport mirror (because this door didn't have the holes). 

And after the experience with the quarter/door, i decided to check all of the chrome for fit/alignment.  Something i should have done originally when finishing the metal work.

I suspected that the chrome around the rear window would give me problems as the dutchman panel and sail panels were replaced.  The curve of the window channel in the bottom right corner looked off.

I sacrificed a window seal and mounted the rear glass and attached the trim... yeah the bottom left corner trim wouldn't fit.   Here it is marked and you can see how the curvature is off. 

I've already adjusted the window channel - had to make a little slice in it and do some hammer/dolly work on it (didn't get final pics).

[TexasStroker]

Great work on the cluster and console...the Tolex looks right at home.  Glad you swapped the Double DIN and center vents, looks much better imo.

Looking forward to seeing everything in the glove box...The V10 builds tons of torque, will make for a great driver!

[Bobs69]

Very impressive.

[GT]

Winter slowed things down a bit, but progress is still in work.  The dash and wiring for it is about as done as it can be, with remaining to be done after install.   I managed to squeeze in many of the controllers into the glove box.  Any remaining items will be installed on a separate panel behind the dash:

[GT]

Sorted out all of the locations on the V10 for senders/etc. Don't recall if i showed this before or not.  A lot going on on the passenger front side of the motor.  Oil lines, water lines, oil pressure, oil temp, etc.

[GT]

Had a nasty cold snap here, but managed to drag in a few items to work.  Cleaned up and fixed the hood mounted turn signals. It seems the tin/pot-metal turn signal indicators on most 70 chargers warp over time, likely due to over tightening.   Some before/after.

I'll need to source the wiring and likely new lenses...   All of these little things really add up