72 rescue operation

[red79]

 I've started the painful process of rescuing this 72 400 4bbl from the clutches of nawz loving chevy builders. These guys were in the process of setting this thing up for nitrous before I saved it... had to pull out the go-switches and fogger plate they'd installed along with slappers and a tranny cooler (losing the slappers, keeping the cooler ).

It'll be a long road... take a look at the interior picture I took, you can see they spray bombed the entire interior black (rallye dash included!) and painted red trim. There's even a cheetah manual valve body--nice, strong shifts--but it's a *reverse* pattern with a factory slap stick!!! I'll really rock those downshifts    It's also got a dual exhaust made mostly of flex pipe that's hung with copper wire and comes out in front of the rear tires.

And don't get me started on that jcwhitney scoop in the hood, complete with chickenwire in the opening. Following in the footsteps of board elders (been lurking for a long time), I ordered a VFN bulge bolt on this afternoon.

Suggestions and moral support are greatly appreciated   

[chargd72]

It might have some extras you're not too fond of, but it looks like you've scored a good, straight Charger 

[68X426]

Man it looks like there is a lot of car to work with there. 

It's a blank canvas, you can make it all yours and real special, and then tell stories forever about what it was like when you got it. Get it to a show now and enter in the work-in-progress catagory, with a big credit to the chevy builders.

[red79]

haha not a bad idea... i'd draw special attention to the welding job on the shifter bracket (seems to have been converted from column to floor shift). these guys probably could have gotten a job at BK resto 

[mikesbbody]

Nice! can't wait to see how it turns out  keep us updated.

[tricky lugnuts]

Does look like a pretty nice car. Good luck. 

What a shame, some of the things they did, to a perfectly good hood; Tuff wheel; to the dash, etc. 

Hopefully you can get all that red paint off without too much trouble! Love the custom exhaust! 

Chevy people! 

[klutch]

It's all fixable, nice score! 

[Foreman72]

thats a great place to start from


i gotta say...seeing that interior almost made me 


can't wait to follow your work!

[red79]

Busy day today... I guess things always get worse before they get better

Broke down most of the interior trim, pulled the cluster out, and got rid of that ratty headliner. Back when I originally picked up the car, the wind from the open windows while I was on the highway tore the back of the headliner and filled the cabin with a choking cloud of forty year old asbestos fiberglass insulation--not fun haha

I also had time to scrub down the door panels and re-dye them. Looks much better than the rattle-can finish that was flaking off. Tried to repaint the rally cluster, but it looks like the shade of brown was a little off... no big deal, it's got a huge butchered hole in it where the radio should be anyway.

[FLG]

Looking Good!

What dye did you use?

[AKcharger]

Go red!

[chargd72]

What dye did you use?

Tried to repaint the rally cluster, but it looks like the shade of brown was a little off... no big deal, it's got a huge butchered hole in it where the radio should be anyway.

I can't believe how often I see these piss poor holes cut in these things. 

[CDN72SE]

Nice rescue and I look forward to seeing your progess. 

[red79]

What dye did you use?

Bog-standard Duplicolor Vinyl Flat Black actually. I've had really good results with it before, especially on flexible surfaces like seats. Doesn't rub off, flake, crack, and the flat version avoids the awful shiny 'painted' look that can come with spray finishes, while keeping the look of the vinyl. For metal trim pieces I'm sticking with rustoleum industrial enamel... same thing, nice and strong, and looks great.

Headliner stuff came in yesterday, so hopefully I'll have more update pics this afternoon.

[Axels73Charger]

Hey looks like you got some work ahead of ya. Not too bad though! 

[AKcharger]

Status?

[red79]

Here's the status after ~3 years of not having space/money to treat her like she deserves...

Butchered flat hood replaced with VFN full-weight fiberglass bulge and their lighter hood springs

Front suspension redone:
Powder coated LCA, UCA, spindles, caliper brackets
New ball joints, poly upper and lower bushings
Hotchkiss weld-on sway bar tabs for LCA
Firm feel greaseable pivot pins
Dynamic adjustable struts with heim joints (what a PITA)  
MP .98 t-bars (after unsuccessful experiment with PST)

New booster and master cylinder
Replaced rag joint in column (have 73 column) with bouchillon billet adapter
Holley 750 DP with spreadbore adapter for stock manifold
Bouchillon throttle cable bracket mount

15x7 255/60 front, 15x8 275/60 rear RWL

Replaced lower rear valence panel with AMD repop w/ tip cutouts
New 2 1/2" exhaust with h-pipe in stock location through welded ultraflows (sounds glorious!) and round chrome tips

Picked up a pair of original seats, one is installed so far. New headliner, painted/dyed all interior panels

Sprayed the whole thing with 99c wal mart flat black spray cans about two years ago, then when started getting surface rust on the roof and pass fender, stripped those parts down and painted with roll-on tractor primer  

So, still has the worst paint, but is much more solid and safer to drive. Looking forward to getting it painted for real in just a couple more months if I can save up the pennies... things are hard with finishing school, getting a place, starting a job, getting engaged, anyway hope to be back with more updates soon!