Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
#1077883
09/19/11 12:05 AM
09/19/11 12:05 AM
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336 Ball Ground, Georgia
Dixie
OP
top fuel
|
OP
top fuel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336
Ball Ground, Georgia
|
Hey Guys, I'm excited to announce that after 24 years, I'm finally starting the restoration of a car I bought back in 1987. Lots of cars have come and gone since then, but I've kept this one through the years. We have shared a lot of blood, sweat, and tears together. It's a 69 Charger R/T SE, 440, 4-spd, R6 red with white top and tail stripe. Black interior. Kinda rare combo for a Charger. I first saw this car driving down the road and the owner hammering it. It was Red, primer, rust and Green. I thought, "What a pile". Later there was an ad in the local paper for a Charger for $500. I went to look at the car and it was the same car. It still had the Dana and for $500, I thought it would make a good parts car for another car I had. The owner of the R6 car said he had smoked the clutch. I wanted it for the Dana, so I really didn't care about much else. As I walked down the length of the car looking at the bondoed up quarters, something caught my eye. The sail panel had 2 small holes close together. Could this be an SE? Yes, the owner said he had the emblems in a bag in the house. This was a R/T SE 4spd, R6 Red car. I knew it was something special and decided to buy it. I told the owner I'd be back the next day with the cash. Can you guess what happened? Yep, I was beat to punch. Someone else bought it. A few months later I was sitting at a gas station and an older guy who looked like the main character in Sling Blade approached me while I was in another Charger I had, and started asking questions. He said he had one like mine only Red. This happened a lot and typically didn't pan out, so I thought, "sure you do". Still, he seemed to know about cars and asked about parts. I got his name and number and said I'd see what I could find. Turns out he was a distant relative. I got a kick out of that one. He and his brother were big Mopar guys from back in the "day". His brother had (and the family still has) a 69 GTX he bought new. Several months later, either he called me or I called him about buying the car. Can't remember which now, but I bought the car for $900 with a ton of parts. Sold off most of the parts like an idiot a year later. The car sat untouched for a couple years while I finished college. Then, I sent it to a buddy of mine to build the engine. Three attempted engine builds and several years later I got the call to come get it. It's a long story, but basically the car sat neglected for the better part of 10 years while I played with other cars. My buddy that was building the engine piddled with it in his spare time and something would always go wrong in the engine build to prevent me from picking it up. Like the 400 flywheel on the 440. My buddy didn’t bother to check prior to putting it in the car. Can you say, "beat the bearings out of itself?" Then there was the Mopar 509 cam that self destructed, and the Crane adjusters for the pushrods that would just snap. Anyways along about late 1996, I picked the car up and took it home. 3 engine builds later, it ran ok. Shortly after getting it home, I did a title search through my home state of Tennessee. I got a record of every owner, including the original owners name, address, and MRO for the car along with the bill of sale submitted to the state. It is a bunch of great info. I could not reach any of the previous owners (20 or more) except for the original owner. He still lived at the same address and had the same phone number. He remembered the car and told me he had ordered it optioned the way it was for racing. He originally ordered it F8 and went back and changed it to R6. Whew ! Good move dude ! He said he street raced it and was very successful along with a friend who had a 70 440-6 Cuda. After an engine fire (which he suspects was sabotage from a sore loser) he traded the car on a Roadrunner. He said he always missed the car. Unfortunately, he had no pics or parts left over from the car as he'd had a house fire some years before and lost everything. I hope the guy is still alive, I need to make the time to go meet him. He bought the car new at Burgin Dodge in Knoxville, TN. and lived South of there in Tallassee, TN. Anyway, back to the car. I have had it back in my possession since 1996. I am finally ready to begin the restoration, 24 years after I first bought the car. As a side note, I did have the car at my wedding along with some Mopars of my friends. As you look at the link with photos, I first found her multi-colored. When I got married, I sanded and primered her in Flat Black. It rained the day of our wedding and the fresh paint in the rain actually looks good. LOL. Today the paint doesn't look so good. Time has not been so good to the primer. LOL. Here is a link to the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dixierestorationparts/I'll try and keep this post, the dodgecharger.com site and the flickr site updated with photos as the restoration progresses, and hope to add a section to our own website. I'm a working stiff like most of you, so this won't be a big money OE restoration. I am going to try and build it as correct as possible using a mixture of original, NOS and repro parts I have. My plan is to show it for a couple of years and then DRIVE IT! Of course, any big name parts vendors reading this that want to donate to the project will be much appreciated. LOL.
Last edited by Dixie; 09/19/11 09:48 AM.
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1077884
09/19/11 01:10 PM
09/19/11 01:10 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 209 Carlisle, AR.
mdwyer
enthusiast
|
enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 209
Carlisle, AR.
|
Randy you really are slower than me when it comes to restorations mine only take about 10 years. good luck with it and call if you need anything. mike
1970 Challenger T/A 1970 Roadrunner RM21 Vcode 1971 Gtx 1971 Satellite 1971 Charger 500 GB5 383 A54 car 1972 Satellite 1997 Dodge 1500 hunting rig 2014 Ram 2500 Mega Cab
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: mdwyer]
#1077886
09/20/11 06:49 AM
09/20/11 06:49 AM
|
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 22 Indiana
RagtopChallenger
member
|
member
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 22
Indiana
|
It's NEVER too late! I have owned my A66 Challenger Convert since December of 1971 and have not restored it yet. In fact it has not seen sunlight this century...... Great story on the car and am looking forward to see your photos! Rusty
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: dan9]
#1077900
02/24/14 01:49 PM
02/24/14 01:49 PM
|
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,028 NB, Canada
moparfan53
super stock
|
super stock
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,028
NB, Canada
|
Quote:
What a nice project/color combo. Just curious what comes with the SE package on a Charger?
Here is info from the dealer data books at hamtramck-historical.com.
Trivia note: The SE package did not stay the exact same from '69 to '70. One change was that the "light group" was added to the SE option for 1970.
1969 dealer data book
1970 dealer data book
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: 71birdJ68]
#1077902
02/22/15 12:45 AM
02/22/15 12:45 AM
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336 Ball Ground, Georgia
Dixie
OP
top fuel
|
OP
top fuel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336
Ball Ground, Georgia
|
Well, I started this 4 years ago and am still working on it. My body shop has worked on it off and on in between other cars. Which is fine, I agreed to it. It's finally getting close to being painted. Unfortunately the body shop lost many of the pics of the body restoration. They recently sent me some recent ones which I added to my flickr account. You can see them there along with some of the first pics of the car. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dixierestorationparts/I wish I could say I'd spent this time wisely and had all the sub assemblies ready to go, but no such luck. I did do a few, but still have a lot of work to do before reassembly. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1077903
02/22/15 08:24 AM
02/22/15 08:24 AM
|
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,852 KENTUCKY
69CHARGERMD
master
|
master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,852
KENTUCKY
|
Nice car,,,,,,, I have a 69 Charger RT / SE 440 4 speed Dana car as well,,,, Mine is supposed to triple green, stripe delete,,,,will restore someday,,,, currently triple black,,,,,,,,good luck with yours,,,great story on your car,,,,, Doug
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: 69CHARGERMD]
#1077904
02/22/15 01:47 PM
02/22/15 01:47 PM
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336 Ball Ground, Georgia
Dixie
OP
top fuel
|
OP
top fuel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336
Ball Ground, Georgia
|
Quote:
Nice car,,,,,,,
I have a 69 Charger RT / SE 440 4 speed Dana car as well,,,, Mine is supposed to triple green, stripe delete,,,,will restore someday,,,, currently triple black,,,,,,,,good luck with yours,,,great story on your car,,,,,
Doug
Thanks Doug! Btw, I also have another one that sounds like a twin to yours. It's an R/T SE Trak Pak car. F3, stripe delete. I've had it since High School and plan to restore it after the Red one. Although, it'll be restored as a driver. Attached is a pic of it way back in 1983 at the Charlotte MMCI show. First car show I ever went to. Drove over from TN the day after my Senior Prom. Yeah, my prom was that boring.
The Triple Black is a much better color combo.
|
|
|
UPDATE Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1929293
10/09/15 10:17 PM
10/09/15 10:17 PM
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336 Ball Ground, Georgia
Dixie
OP
top fuel
|
OP
top fuel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,336
Ball Ground, Georgia
|
Well, she's finally painted. Pretty happy with the results. Now the fun/hard part starts, I have to reassemble. The pics aren't that great as they are from my phone and the booth was kinda dark. But you get the idea. I'm picking it up Sunday and I'll take some when she's in my garage. I'm pretty excited. Bought her way back in 1987, originally intended as a "donor" for my Green one. Then when I was looking her over, I realized what she was. Score!
Last edited by Dixie; 10/09/15 10:20 PM.
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1930883
10/12/15 02:58 PM
10/12/15 02:58 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 27,471 So Cal
autoxcuda
Too Many Posts
|
Too Many Posts
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 27,471
So Cal
|
Just to wet your whistle....
Here's a pic of a R6 440-4 with red interior in So Cal that comes to Spring/Fall Fling.
Last edited by autoxcuda; 10/12/15 03:01 PM.
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1931752
10/14/15 12:05 AM
10/14/15 12:05 AM
|
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 11,836 Florida
mopar346
Let me tell ya about fat chicks!
|
Let me tell ya about fat chicks!
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 11,836
Florida
|
Awesome, although the red interior might be a little much, I like the black much better.
Careful, your character's showing!
|
|
|
Re: Starting the restoration of my R6 1969 Charger R/T SE
[Re: Dixie]
#1932441
10/15/15 02:58 AM
10/15/15 02:58 AM
|
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 192 Georgia,Douglasville
streaker
member
|
member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 192
Georgia,Douglasville
|
That looks great. Now is not the time to slow down. Git'er done. I can't wait to see her finished.
I said Don't look Ethel, It was too late
|
|
|
|
|