Restoration Progress

[jb666]

WOW, you are doing almost as nice a job as BK did on my car!!   

All joking aside, GREAT JOB, your car is looking awesome!!!!!!!!!! 

[CornDogsCharger]

Hey GAS... Your car looks AWESOME!!  I can't wait to get my charger that far along.  I gotta get the Superbird done first.  Don't worry too much about the body man's cost.  I can see where he's coming from.  Whenever we (bodymen) give an estimate on doing something... in our heads, we don't figure in all of the extra time fitting and trimming to fit.  It always seems to take longer to do things than we originally imagine.  Plus... when working on a project for a long time... we forget to figure in the "Burned out factor".  haha.  But anyways, your car looks beautiful and I'm sure it will be an excellent car when completed.  Keep the updates coming.  Love it.

Justin
"CornDog"

[gasoline_24]

I did the vinyl and the stripe my self.  The top took about 3-4 hours and the stripe went on in about an hour or less.  Still some bubbles in the stripe, but the temp here is about 20 so I will wait till it heats up or take the heat gun to it later.  I am going to put on the drip rail moulding next and then finish up the back half of the car.  After that is completed I will start on the interior.  I am still waiting on the rear end to be completed then I will install it.  Lots left to do, but whenever  you do something there is the instant gratification, unlike the disassembly process.  For all of you still working, don't loose your drive you will get it done.  If I ever get it driving I will take you guys for a ride so you have some extra motivation to get out in the garage and work on it.  I haven't driven mine since I got it and the last thing I did drive was my 70 383 Roadrunner about 18 years ago.  Those memories are pretty distant, but I have a good imagination.

[Dan T]

My friend, you have a BEAUTIFUL car!! 
I wouldn't be too concerned about the ost of bodyshop labour when you have aproduct like that in the end.
Very nice.
If you don't mind me asking, which build were you planning on doing for the engine which you referred to Ron's build. I'm looking for a good torque buildup for my 440 as well.
Thanks!!

[69*F5*SE]

Moving right along and she looks great.   

[69bronzeT5]

It's looking great!

[gasoline_24]

This is the build that I am planning.  http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,36197.0.html  We will see how money holds up and see if I can do this engine or just have to build a more stock engine.  I am making some modifications based upon other suggestions from Ron.  I wish Ron didn't live north of the border and could just build me an engine I could pick up.

[gasoline_24]

A couple of more pics of the car.  I have been working in the trunk and moving forward from there.  I do not have any of the drivetrain or suspension done so I am working on the interior first.  The rearend should be here next week and that will be put on upon arrival.  I decided to show some pics of what the trunk looked like when I started and what it looks like now.  I also have a pic of one of my best helpers.  These are the before pics.

[gasoline_24]

and here are the after pics.  I really love how it looks now.  I think I stared at it for about 20 min after I was finished.

[firefighter3931]

Man, is that car sweet or what ! 

Luv the black top and matching tail stripe....simply beautiful ! 


Ron

[gasoline_24]

Thanks Ron.  Someday I will have that engine you designed dropped in her.  I couldn't have done half of this without great guys like yourself to help out.     Someday hopefully we can meet up and have a beer together.

[Rolling_Thunder]

Never been a fan of yellow but I think your car just changed my opinion       That thing is stunning man!  Keep us posted

[runningman]

Sweet!! 

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Your car looks great. Seeing a twin to mine has got me extra motivated.

I spent 20 minutes myself staring at that back end just in the pics.

Cheers,

James

[gasoline_24]

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted some progress pics.  I have been going through some issues and had some set backs which took the life out of me.  I have gotten through those and made some great progress over the past week.  So, I thought I would share some of the progree pics.  These first ones are the third headliner I installed.  The first one tore when I was trying to redo the sailpanel area.  The second one was one of the new legendary ones that they are now sewing themselves.  It had a couple of issues.  One it appeared to be to thick and was very difficult to stretch and get into place.  Second, they put too much fabric between the rear bow and the sail panel bows.  They were pretty good about letting me return it.  I went with one of the REM ones and it went in pretty easy the third time around.

[gasoline_24]

The next set of pics show some of the work under the hood.  You may want to know what they extra wires go to.  These are from the MSD 6al that has been hidden inside of the car.    I do have a question on the hook up of the small red power wire to the blue and brown wires on the ballast resistor.  As I understand it you hook both sides of the resistor, which would be two blue wires and one brown wire to the small red wire.  I was unsure if this was correct or if you just hook the one side of the ballast resistor which has the one brown and one blue wire to the small red power wire.  Any help would be appreciated.  I am still waiting for my A/C parts to be returned from Classic Auto Air so I can hook up the lines and the condensor.

[gasoline_24]

These next set are a couple of pics to show the exterior.  The one of the grille is not great as it was taken at night, but it looks great in the day.  I can't wait until the radiator and condensor are in so it really stands out.  There are also a couple of pics of the rear brakes and brake drums after they were painted.  Finally is a pic of the rear wheels on with the red from the drums showing through.  I think this is my favorite part right now.  You can also see the undercoating I sprayed on last night on the rear wheels.

[gasoline_24]

Here is the final pic of the rear wheel on the ground.  There are also a couple of pics of the front wheel wells after undercoating.

[gasoline_24]

These are some pics of the interior.  I would have this all finished, but I can't get all of the power windows to work.  I have installed new motors and they work if powered at the motor, but they do not want to work at the switches.  I am waiting on my drivers side control and I hope that will fix everything.  If not it looks like I will be removing the entire harness and disassembling it to find the problem.  May even just build a new one.  I wish somebody made and aftermarket one like all of the others.  I decided to go with an aftermarket radio in the dash.  I had to cut the faceplate, but everything else is in tact if I decide to go back to the original AM 8 track.

[gasoline_24]

Finally are some pics of my progress this weekend.  I finally got my LCA back from powdercoat and they turned out pretty good.  I pressed in the bushings and the pivots and away I went.  I think I have all of the front suspension in place and ready to install when I get my engine, which I should have this coming weekend.  I have been saying that for a couple of weeks, but Wayne Smothers is making sure everything is right before he puts it together and fires it up.  Hopefully he gets the right head gasket this week.  Also thanks to Ron and Dwayne for their work on the engine.  Ron for his design ideas and Dwayne for the rotating assembly and heads.  I am glad he talked me out of buying the 440 Source stroker kit based upon all of the isssues that have come up lately.  Also thanks to Ron for finding Wayne for me.  Finally thanks to Dwayne and Wayne for hooking me up with Dale I believe in Virginia to get the rotating assembly right before shipping.  We did have to get a second crank because the first one did not pass Dale's standards.

I decided to upgrade a couple of things on the front suspension, which most of you will see.  I went with the Just Suspension upper control arms, stainless struts and Brembo brake setup.  I also went with the Hotchkiss sway bar and tie rod ends. 

Thanks to everyone that has helped me with advise and parts along the way.  I wanted to have it done to make the all Charger show this coming weekend, but I won't be ready this year.  However, I think I am around 30-60 days away depending on what troubles I run into.

[gasoline_24]

And the final pic for now.

[runningman]

Looks great! 

[OneofNoneRT]

  Nothing left to say..Looks great..

[69*F5*SE]

Nice to see it in it's final stages.   

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Great progress. Very nice job!