I wanted my own Charger thread

[terrible one]

WELCOME back T-one

charlie

Hey man!  Was wondering how you and the car were doing.
Sorry to hear about your mom, my condolences.
Glad you got one problem solved on the car. I bet it was fun tearing it up with the new tranny!

Thanks guys, I'm flattered my absence was even noticed  

[bill440rt]

I noticed. 

Good to see you back, T.O.! 

[terrible one]

I noticed. 

Good to see you back, T.O.! 

Thanks Bill! BTW I made sure to get a Pilkington glass per your advice 

[Charger-Bodie]

Welcome back ! Sorry about your mom.

[69charger2002]

Dang T-O knew it had been a while. Very sorry to hear about your mom's passing. So glad you got motivated on the charger again. Welcome back!  

[terrible one]

Welcome back ! Sorry about your mom.

Dang T-O knew it had been a while. Very sorry to hear about your mom's passing. So glad you got motivated on the charger again. Welcome back!   

Much appreciated guys, thank you. I too am glad to be back on it. Tomorrow I plan to take a good hour or so cruise to really get to know the car better, looking forward to it!

[terrible one]

Well I got to talkin on the other thread about windshields and remembered I hadn't updated this one. I did end up getting a new windshield in. Originally I had asked for a Pilk but next day my distributor called and said they could only get XYG, called another and found a PPG/ PGW but no one in my region had a Pilk, there were some on the west coast but that was going to cost me $250 in shipping.  

So I went with the PGW, figuring that made in Mexico would be better than made in China. Still, the glass wasn't the best quality.  Also a bit thinner, but not much, than what I took out (which was not OE, a replacement that had been there a while, Shat-R-Proof brand.) However, the top corners were a bit different in shape, more dramatic, and I knew this was going to make it hell because that's the hard part about these windshields anyways.

A quick look at the bug on the new glass shows DOT # 540. PPG in the U.S. is DOT 18, Canada 19, France 43 Italy is 325. Looking up DOT # 540 it's not even under the PPG name, that comes back to CRISTAL LAMINADO in Hidalgo, Mexico. My guess is PGW bought the facility to churn out some of the cheaper (or maybe less demanded) part #'s  

All the bottom clips were rusted to shit but I had a replacement set handy.

I know there is a big gap in pictures, but most of it was a 2 man job, especially working the lip over each side up to the top corners, then getting it around the corners/ getting the top started.

Put the gasket in the opening and ran the bedding and glazing compound between it and the body, then laid the glass in the bottom of the gasket, doused with soapy water, and started lipping the gasket over the sides of the glass, eventually after getting up the sides and past the top corners that joker sat on down.

Next, I went around and ran the bedding and glazing compound between the gasket and the glass, then I zipped the lock strip closed and cleaned up the squeeze-out:

Now I just need to round up my trim and reattach it! Compared to the decades old, foggy, cracked glass I took out of there it's like I could reach out and touch the cowl!

Finally I've got an excuse to get a 3 speed wiper motor and have the wipers workin'

[69bronzeT5]

Great to see progress buddy....I'm working on getting a windshield put in mine pretty quickly as well

[terrible one]

Great to see progress buddy....I'm working on getting a windshield put in mine pretty quickly as well

Thanks man, indeed it is! And good deal, I am looking forward to seeing/ hearing about the progress  

Below are some more pictures from the other day: windshield out and the rust that we encountered, really not bad considering some of the other problem areas:

[jaak]

Welcome back, Jackson! Sorry to hear about your Mom's passing.

Windshield looks great!

Jason

[terrible one]

Welcome back, Jackson! Sorry to hear about your Mom's passing.

Windshield looks great!

Jason

Thanks Jason, I really appreciate it! 

[terrible one]

I've been able to put about 800 miles on this joker since I put the transmission in. It's been enjoyable but at the same time now that the glaring issue is out of the way everything else is popping up. Lots of small stuff, some big stuff.

One thing I noticed driving the car around, especially dicking around on the highway was that it was kind of hard to control. I'm familiar with the old car feel but this was extreme and made it kind of unenjoyable. The main symptoms were that the car wouldn't hold a toe setting and would even end up with toe out from time to time. During hard braking especially combined with turns, the car would either violently lurch toward the center of the road or the ditch, depending on which wheel was carrying the most toe out at the time I guess. Lane changes at 70mph (let alone 100!) were extremely sketchy.

The first thing I found was an idler arm with many miles on it and lots of play. I replaced it first. There was a pretty big improvement afterwards but it was just a small piece to the puzzle . . .

Upon further investigation I realized this thing needed some attention; I was tracking down the source of my wandering toe and found a lot of play in the LCA. From there I found that a couple of my UCA bushings looked real bad, both LCA bushings were rough as well. The LH upper ball joint was sketchy. LH strut rod bent, RH is too but hardly noticeable.

After looking at the UCA's I decided they were beyond new ball joints and offset bushings. That combined with my need for more positive caster steered me in the direction of Firm Feel's upper control arms. While I'm here, I might as well give it the works.

I ended up going all Firm Feel; I only read good reviews and have had a positive experience myself, running their Stage II box already. In addition to the UCAs, after talking to the guys at Firm Feel we decided on the suspension kit w/ 11/16 HD tie rods and urethane bushings (LCA's included), 1" torsion bars, HD strut rods, and Bilstein shocks. I've gone back and forth between regretting it a dozen times now, but I went ahead and sent them my LCAs as well for bushings R&R and reinforcement. Definitely steep in price but with no welder, press, etc. anymore I pulled the trigger.

In the meantime I've been able to fix a lot of small things that I couldn't be bothered with because I just wanted to drive it; FINALLY got the fuel gauge reading RIGHT ON and fixed a couple of annoying leaks.

Now we wait  







The first of the pictures below is the LH upper ball joint, at first it looks like it isn't tightened into the arm all the way, but upon closer inspection I could see that the "gap" was material missing from the control arm! Someone has taken a cutoff wheel to these before and really butchered them up. The RH has the same symptoms but less gruesome. Ruined in my opinion.

The second picture is one of the control arm bushings, there was one like this on each side. Again, it looks like the result of a yahoo with a cutoff wheel; a good bit of control arm has gone missing, which threw the whole bushing off kilter when pressed in. Ridiculous.

[72Charger-SE]

I enjoyed reading your story...   I wish to offer you my condolences on the death of your Mother.  With yesterday being Mother's Day I can only imagine the emptiness you feel at this time of the year.   I will keep an eye on your build as I am intrigued with your car and the processes you have been through.  May the LORD Bless and guide you each step of the way...  Thanks for sharing and GOD Bless, Chad

[terrible one]

I enjoyed reading your story...   I wish to offer you my condolences on the death of your Mother.  With yesterday being Mother's Day I can only imagine the emptiness you feel at this time of the year.   I will keep an eye on your build as I am intrigued with your car and the processes you have been through.  May the LORD Bless and guide you each step of the way...  Thanks for sharing and GOD Bless, Chad

Thanks for the kind words Chad, seeing your post puts a smile on my face! 

[terrible one]

Close to exactly 1 month later all the parts came in the mail; I placed the order with Firm Feel and shipped the LCA's out 5/5 and received everything 6/4. WOW!

[terrible one]

Was able to put it together Friday and Saturday. Today I took it to be aligned. I figured I had better snap some pictures while it's all still clean and nice, this is the best it'll ever look under there!


This thing is truly TRANSFORMED. Like I said, I had an appointment at the alignment shop today. The trip there this morning was a blast, better than ever and that's without lining it up. After I picked it up I planned to take the 15 mile trip home but WOW! I couldn't stop driving it, ended up clocking a little over 100 miles before I finally went home.


With the Firm Feel upper control arms I ended up with near 6 degrees of positive caster! Now that's what I'm talking about. I told the alignment guy to give me as much positive caster as possible with 1/2* of negative camber, thinking I would be lucky to get 4-5. After talking with the alignment guy and Dennis @ Firm Feel, +6 positive caster should be fine, aside from the increased steering effort (no worries with power steering, actually I kind of like it). Next time around I will go with closer to 5* of positive caster and maybe 3/4-1.0* of negative camber depending on how the tires wear with the current setup.

[Baldwinvette77]

That must feel Awesome 

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Great work and nice choice on parts! Looks sweet! 

[projectanimal]

Close to exactly 1 month later all the parts came in the mail; I placed the order with Firm Feel and shipped the LCA's out 5/5 and received everything 6/4. WOW!

Looks very familiar, didn't go with the same UCA, but we added the same boxed LCA,  bushings, tie rods....boy what a difference!   
Keep up the great progress!   

[Charger-Bodie]

What boots did you use on your front shocks?

[terrible one]

I appreciate it guys! 

Yep I could go on forever about how great the car feels, and am 100% satisfied on choice of parts/ vendor. Obviously, with the butchered parts I found, I was not experiencing the stock suspension as it was meant to be. Still, this blows away the old combo of stock small block torsion bars, monroe shocks, rubber bushins, etc. regardless.



Brian,

Firm Feel has the Bilstein shocks drop shipped by Race Car Dynamics in California. If the front shocks don't normally come with boots, then RCD must be sourcing them from elsewhere. I wish I had a picture of the boots, but they came with what RCD called "stem adapters." They fit in the top of the boot and then slide onto the stem before the washers/ bushings. There was a small c clip already on the stem that keept the boot from sliding down.

Speaking of, a few days after I got the shocks I got an additional package from RCD with 2 extra stem adapters just in case they had failed to include them. I have an email address for the guy at RCD if you want to maybe give him a shout for more info about the boots.

[Charger-Bodie]

I appreciate it guys! 

Yep I could go on forever about how great the car feels, and am 100% satisfied on choice of parts/ vendor. Obviously, with the butchered parts I found, I was not experiencing the stock suspension as it was meant to be. Still, this blows away the old combo of stock small block torsion bars, monroe shocks, rubber bushins, etc. regardless.



Brian,

Firm Feel has the Bilstein shocks drop shipped by Race Car Dynamics in California. If the front shocks don't normally come with boots, then RCD must be sourcing them from elsewhere. I wish I had a picture of the boots, but they came with what RCD called "stem adapters." They fit in the top of the boot and then slide onto the stem before the washers/ bushings. There was a small c clip already on the stem that keept the boot from sliding down.

Speaking of, a few days after I got the shocks I got an additional package from RCD with 2 extra stem adapters just in case they had failed to include them. I have an email address for the guy at RCD if you want to maybe give him a shout for more info about the boots.

That would be great.

[terrible one]

I appreciate it guys! 

Yep I could go on forever about how great the car feels, and am 100% satisfied on choice of parts/ vendor. Obviously, with the butchered parts I found, I was not experiencing the stock suspension as it was meant to be. Still, this blows away the old combo of stock small block torsion bars, monroe shocks, rubber bushins, etc. regardless.



Brian,

Firm Feel has the Bilstein shocks drop shipped by Race Car Dynamics in California. If the front shocks don't normally come with boots, then RCD must be sourcing them from elsewhere. I wish I had a picture of the boots, but they came with what RCD called "stem adapters." They fit in the top of the boot and then slide onto the stem before the washers/ bushings. There was a small c clip already on the stem that keept the boot from sliding down.

Speaking of, a few days after I got the shocks I got an additional package from RCD with 2 extra stem adapters just in case they had failed to include them. I have an email address for the guy at RCD if you want to maybe give him a shout for more info about the boots.

That would be great.

Sent you a PM 

[terrible one]

Before I left the collision center I was working at I had the tech who does the bedliners shoot my new AMD fender liners. Recently I outfitted them with new seals from DMT and installed them since I'm actually driving the car now and have already gone through the hassle of new pins and bushings for the door hinges.

I included a close up to try and show the texture . . . at first I thought it might be too "aggressive" and worried about the rubber seals, etc. actually sealing against it but the bedliner coating ended up being PERFECT for what I wanted and free of charge to boot thanks to the kindness of the owners.

[Charger-Bodie]

Why did you leave the collision center? Did you find work in a resto shop?