Father/son 1972 charger restoration project

[Finn]

Very cool project!

[oldrock]

here is the latest pic of it after stripe. Josh would like to hear what you guys think... keeping in mind this charger restoration was done on a very limited budget.

Now we are working on the interior and trying to chase down some electrical stuff such as no blinkers, brake light stays on, no gas gauge, etc.


car after clearcoat and stripe which was just freehand taped off with the looks bout right method

[Foreman72]

thats pretty sweet guys...

[Finn]

Awesome! Love the wheels he picked out too. Personally Id black-out the hood too.
Once money allowed Id also install hood-pins and lower the front too. Ahh now I'm getting carried away and thinking about how I would build a third gen haha. Good job on the progress!

[jaak]

Keep up the good work oldrock (and son)....I think you guys are making good progress and have a good looking 72 there to be on a limited budget, I know your son will be tickled driving that machine to school!!!

Keep it up guys,
Jason

[terrible one]

I agree with Finn. Black out the hood, add the pins, lower the front, but then add a spoiler! 

[chargergirl]

Looks like a sleeper, which is always good. Very nice ride! Seat covers for the quick fix but guys in here will direct your electrical problems. We're gonna' need that help in a bit as well.

[Foreman72]

hye if you haven't already make sure you hit up your local craigslist for parts...they're often quite inexpensive

[oldrock]

thanks for the comments, Josh is really anxious to get the car inspected now so he can start driving her. We still have to chase down the electrical stuff. Blinkers not working is biggest thing,others can probably wait. Any suggestions on what might cause the hazards to flash but not the blinkers? I already tried swapping out the signal relay which I was told was the one mounted under the dash by the ashtray and didn't do anything.

Re the hood, it definately needs something. Josh was thinking a low cost aftermarket hood scoop but I looked online for them and nothing really made for the charger. With the way the hood comes to a point in the center, you almost have to do a dual scoop to fit right and didn't know if that would look right on a charger. Anyone have suggestions on an aftermarket hood scoop that would work on a 72 hood? Also we thought about painting hood black but didn't think painting the entire hood black would look right. THen thought about just painting a portion of the hood black (which I liked the idea) but based on the contours on that particular hood where it peaks in the middle, we couldn't come up with a game plan. So up for suggestions on the hood and do agree it needs something.

Re: pins for the hood, we already have them! Just need to get the cotters to hold them down but they are on there. Least I ssume you mean the pins we have near the front of the hood. We didn't bother taping over them when we shot paint so they are currently painted white but we will wipe off the paint on them so they show up again soon.

Re: lowering, I like that idea but have no idea how to go about it. Also sounds like it might be more expensvie if it requires changing out suspension parts. 

[Foreman72]

Re: lowering, I like that idea but have no idea how to go about it. Also sounds like it might be more expensvie if it requires changing out suspension parts. 

well you could do some of it just by lowering the tbars

[oldrock]

by tbars do you mean just rotating the torsion bars a few notches to drop the front end that way? Is that the easiest way to get it done and how tough is it to do on the old chargers?

[lisiecki1]

if you look at the lower control arms where the torsion bars go into them you'll see a bolt sticking out towards the ground.....loosening lowers, tightening raises.  May have to have the alignment checked afterwards.

Randy

[alcusswhen]

next up we decided to clean up the front grill. Here is the before shot after we wiped it down but that is about all.


and then a shot after we used 4x steel wool to strip off all the faded paint to bring it back to black

grill has red paint fill on the faded arrow emblem and dodge. notice the blue antifreeze jug for temp rad overflow

next up was some general cleaning of the interior. The original stuff was sorta there but very, very dirty. It all got a serious scrub down and vaccuum out. We also fixed a few simple things such as fishing out the original shoulder belts and adding screws to the glove box.

still needs alot of work cleaning up the interior but that will have to wait

Then we moved on to another mechanical issue. We put car on jack stands and learned all brakes were all in need of work. The back drums just needed some adjustment but the front discs were sticking and we decided they both needed to be replaced so off to the auto store. This time we had to order them but in a couple of days we got the newly rebuilt calipers and installed them. About $70 and Front brakes work much better now!

If you don't replace the rubber brake lines your brakes are going to start sticking again. The lines break down inside and clog up, you can push fluid though them but it can't return on its own. Over 30 yrs working at a Dodge place doing brakes I'd refuse to do calipers without new lines. I knew damn well the job would come back on me if I didn't replace them.

[oldrock]

thanks for the tip on the torsion bar adjustment that sounds simple enough.

Also thanks for the tip on the brake lines. You are the second person to tell us that. I never had to do it with my old 60s car but then again, my lines weren't nearly as old. I looked at the ones on the charger and they looked fine but better safe than sorry. Will pick up new ones today and throw them on there. Hassle to bleed again but better than sticking brakes.

[mopar73]

Looking good.  It's great to be able to work together with your son on a neat prodject like this.  If it were me I would put some sort of accent on the hood also, IE stripe or scoop

[oldrock]

quick update to announce we finally got the stinkin blinkers working! Ended up we had bad wiring and a bad relay so had to rework that and finally we got it all to work like it should. Now we are just about set to get that inspection. Picked up new plugs and tried to get wires today but they were not in stock so I guess I am going to have to look around and see if I can find a set for that engine or if not, get a generic set and live with some extra length on the lines. Any suggestions on plug wires from the forum? keeping in mind Josh is broke student 

[oldrock]

thought we would add a pic we took this morning to show the car from drivers side after some buffing on the finished paint job to add a bit of gloss to it. More time we spend on it, the better it is looking. Just can't throw too much time on finish stuff since we have work to do on the engine to smooth things out. Still exciting to realize we are just about ready to get her inspected and street legal!!!

[jaak]

Looking good! 

Jason

[Foreman72]

Any suggestions on plug wires from the forum? keeping in mind Josh is broke student 

the cheapest ones you find 

the mopar performance ones are 35 bucks...pertronix has some cheap and summit has their own brand...

hey so what have you done with it under the hood so far?

[mikesbbody]

That looks great! 

[1969chargerrtse]

Great job, one cool looking car. 

[jbweems]

That is a great looking car.  Can I bring mine over when you are done with yours?? 

[oldrock]

hehe, I already have my next project lined up. Josh agreed that after I got his ready to drive, he would return the favor and help me restore a muscle car for myself 

[dukeboy_01]

You can't beat that deal!  I wish my ol' man would have been into old cars...he had his fun before he had me.  He was always into farming and working on stuff that made $$$.  He had some cool cars in his day, they were all chevys, but I would have loved to help him build one, in fact I still would.  He is more into tractors, and I am too as far as that goes.  We have had some great times building pulling tractors.  I am glad to see you and your boy doing this together.  He will appreciate it more than you'll probably ever know.  I really enjoyed this thread, and I hope you guys continue working together, and posting progress on here!   

[jaak]

hehe, I already have my next project lined up. Josh agreed that after I got his ready to drive, he would return the favor and help me restore a muscle car for myself 

Dont keep us in suspense......what project you got lined up for you???

Jason