I got the master cylinder bled and reinstalled. I opened all the bleaders and within 10 minutes had fluid at all four wheels. The system bled out easily.

The exhaust was finished last night. The rear valance was reinstalled and the tips were adjusted. The radiator is done too so I'll pick it up on Saturday.

Time for a small update on what I worked on this week. Like a lot of times, I was just bored so I grabbed something and started working on it.

The door panel woodgrain was in OK shape but the corners were starting to curl. I've had new woodgrain for years but never got around to installing it. The new woodgrain was from Year One.


The original woodgrain was darker but it could have darkened up over the years. The new woodgrain matches the color of the dash so I'm happy with it.


I read online that WD-40 works good at removing the old woodgrain so I saturated one piece with it. I checked it after about 15 minutes and nothing was happening. I got online and did another search. I read where someone used paint stripper with good results. So, I got out the paint stripper and after about 15 minutes, had a look at the decal. It had started to loosen up but it wasn't working very fast. That's when I had an idea.

I bought the wife one of those Shark hand held steem cleaners. I dug it out of the closet, added water and plugged it in. The woodgrain decals peeled right off with very little glue left behind. I couldn't believe how great it worked. For the small spots of glue left on the bezels, I used Un-Du.(Scrapper's Solution) It's for removing stickers and tape from scrapbooking projects. It took the glue right off.

The bezels were in pretty good shape. One of them didn't need any work. The black paint around the edge was still like new. The other side had a few little areas where the paint was scratched. On that bezel, I just misted some SEM Trim Black onto it and wiped the access off the chrome sections. After attaching the new woodgrain decals I turned my attention to the Fratzog emblems. To remove them from the bezels I just used my angle grinder with a flap disc to grind down the pins in the back. I still had a good amount of the pins left for reattachment. I ended up used a very small amount of clear silicone to reattach the emblems. I just put a small amount on a screwdriver and put a daub around each pin. Once the emblems were pushed into place, some silicone pushed out the sides which I figured would happen. I let the silicone dry completely...it would have just smeared if I had tried to clean it up while it was wet. Once it was dry I took a new razor blade and trimmed the excess off the edges. It worked perfectly.

Then it was time to work on the door panels and rear interior panels. The original panels were a little rough. The drivers door panel and passengers rear panel were in the worst shape. Although they will never look perfect, painting them with SEM paints really makes them look a lot better. Since they end up being a uniform color, your eye isn't drawn to any lighter colored scratches. New panels are on my list but that won't happen until the car is on the road.

I cleaned everything four times, used the SEM Adhesion Promotor per the instructions and finally sprayed them with SEM Landau Black.


The referbished door panel woodgrain looks great in the panels but the new arm rest pads look awful. The new pads are from Legendary. I can't remember the brand though. There were two options...one was from Palco. I bought the other brand. They are just a block of wood wrapped in vynal. The original ones use a metal core. The vynal isn't close to being the correct grain and the contour of the pad is not right. I'll definately be cleaning up the original ones in the future. One of the original ones is in great shape. The other one is all torn underneith the inner lip. I think I can glue it back together and it won't be seen once installed.

The new window fuzzies don't stay on the panels either. I squeezed the "U" channel together a little more and that helped. I'll probably have to use some weatherstrip adhesive to hold them tight though.

The past two months have not gone well. I didn't want to post any updates until I got things sorted out. For those of you that saw my posts in the Question/Answer forum, this won't be anything new.

Back on June 9th I picked up the radiator from being re-cored. I spent the rest of the day installing it and adding fluids. I also put an initial adjustment on the torsion bars and set the wheels on the ground. The car was now on all four tires for the first time in years.


I pulled the battery out of my Durango and set it in the Challenger since I didn't have a battery for it at the time. Everything checked out good. I've got a couple bad bulbs but everything else works like it should. All the harnesses are M&H.

At this point the engine compartment was basically done. I just had to start the engine and break it in. A member over on CC.com posted the vacuume diagram from the FSM. It showed that the EGR lines were color coded originally. I went to a craft store and bought some paint pens. I layed the hoses out on my work bench and nailed the ends down so they wouldn't move. Using my finger as a guide, I put the colored stripes back on the hoses. In this picture you can see the red, green, white and yellow hoses.

This is where things started going wrong. Dad came over that night to help me get the engine running. We had a hard time getting the fuel pump to prime. I had to take the fuel line loose at the carb and squirt fuel into the line using an oil can. I filled the line up with as much gas as it would take. I also squirted some into the bowl vent. Once it finally took off and stayed running, I brought it up to 2500 RPM to break in the cam. The cam was a used MP purpleshaft 340 cam. I had it in a 360 for a couple hundred miles before putting a 484 cam in it. I still wanted to do a break-in to be on the safe side.

As soon as the engine fired I knew something wasn't right. It was missing badly and shaking the entire car. Since the oil pressure was very good and since I didn't hear any strange noises, I went ahead with the break-in. After 20 min I let off the gas. The engine backfired through the carb and died. I started it up again. As soon as I let off the gas, it popped and died.

I called a friend of mine who had a compression tester and he came over the next weekend. We took some readings and cylinders 3 and 7 had 0 compression. The engine was going to have to come back out.

Of coarse this is when the weather turned very hot. I couldn't work out in the garage very long before having to come back inside. I think I worked in the garage a little each night for three days getting the engine ready to pull. The engine went to the machine shop towards the end of June. They were busy so they wouldn't be able to look at it for 3 or 4 weeks.

The machine shop finally got to the engine after about 5 weeks. They called and told me to come in so they could show me what was found. The cylinder head on that side was the one I had issues with before. Aerohead didn't drill out the oil feed hole for the rockers. It turns out the rest of the head was junk too.

They did a leakdown test and found cylinders 3 and 7 were leaking 90%. There were two sticking exhaust valves and all the seats were cut excessively.(1.88in-1.60ex valves in the 318 heads) That head needed a couple valves, all new seats and all new guides. The other head was working OK at the time but would have had the same work done to it. I ended up bringing in the original heads to have them gone through.

A couple days went by and I went back in to see what the original heads looked like. That's when I was told the original intake manifold was cracked. The crack extended all the way from the choke thermostat to the EGR opening. The manager said, "Now is the time to put a 4-barrel on it." I had a spare 2-barrel intake that I brought in. The casting is a little different then the original one but I doubt anyone will notice. The original intake had the casting date in the front. This intake has it in the back so you won't see it anyway.

I picked up the engine on Tuesday.


Cleaned and painted it on Wedesday.


Installed it on Thursday.


I worked on it Friday night and all day yesterday. I installed the new reproduction battery I got from Fred Gilmore and filled up the fuel line again with gas. It fired right off and sound decent. I was tired so I havn't thrown a light on it yet but at least it runs. Here's a short video I took of it. My wife did a little editing today and added a little production value.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGKhYa6QDfc

I'm sorry you've had so much trouble with the motor. Don't let it get you too discouraged this close to the end of all the nice work you've done to the car. It sounds really good now! Note to self- "Never use heads from Aerohead for anything other than a wheel chock!"

Darren, Great job that baby sounds sweet!. You still got lots of summer left wrap up the small stuff and get it on the road. You did a great job on that car. Another fine mopar brought back to life. Now its time to enjoy it!!

I ordered tires a couple weeks ago. They showed up on Thrusday.


I was worried that I would make the wrong choice. RWL's look great and have a sporty look to them. The WSW are rarely ever put back on and have more of a formal look. I went with the WSW's since it's a 318 car and that's what it originally had. After mounting them up I got worried. They really looked bad. After putting one of the trim rings up onto the wheel though they looked good. The entire wheel being black just looks weird. The trim rings really change the look. The rings will be left off until after the alignment is done. Once they are on, they aren't coming back off without a fight most likely.


I also got the rear bumper assembly installed. Gary(Challenger_1) sent me some really nice bumper guards that he had in storage for years. I still need to figure out what to do with the fronts since the two pairs I have are all pitted.

I worked on the timing and idle a little yesterday. I don't have a dial back timing light so I'm limited until I can get my hands on one. I set the initial timing at about 12*. The marks on the timing cover only go to 10*. I need to find out how much mechanical advance the older MP distributors have in them. I was told the engine probably will need around 15* of initial timing and then to limit the mechanical advance to a max of 35*. Right now the idle is set at 850 in neutral. It idles nice and fires right up when restarting warm. I havn't tried a cold start since the timing and idle have been adjusted.

I noticed that with the engine running, the brakes were awful. There was about an inch of travel and then the pedal was rock hard. I pushed down very hard and heard a loud POP. The pedal went down lower and then felt perfect. Something in the prop valve must have been stuck. I wanted to move the car a little bit to see how the brakes worked. I put it in gear but it wouldn't move. It wanted to but something was keeping it from moving. I jacked up the front wheels and they were locked tight. I pressed down on the pin that sticks out of the top of the prop valve. The pin went down and the car lurched forward a bit. The front brakes were now relieced. It looks like that valve up top is sticking once the brake pedal is pushed. I have to physically press down on the pin to get the brakes to reliece. I'm not sure what I need to do to fix it. I wonder if some EvapoRust dried inside that valve. When that stuff dries, it gets sticky.

Your in the home stretch... I enjoyed paging through your progress and it gives me hope... Although I see all the time it takes and Im just starting my 73... Im just going to try to enjoy the process.... No rush...

Thanks for the support and congrats on a great project in wrap up mode

either way. great job. every resto is a headache. it takes a while to work all the quirks out these cars after restoration. then the sad reality sets in that it still drives like an old car. (clunks and all.) LOL...... dont give up, you have gone way too far. just step back and take a break, the car will be out in the garage. i hope one day to see this challenger at the nats.

I feel like I've made some good progress over the last couple weekends. Nothing major but a lot of little things that needed to be done.

Last weekend the guy that painted the car came over and helped me install and align the side glass. He also helped me reinstall the hood since I had to removed it when I pulled the engine. We used RestoRick's alignment procedure to get the back of the hood lined up with the fenders and it looks perfect. I installed the door panels later on in the week.

Since I don't have a nice big shop to work in, I got paint overspray all over the car while spraying some small parts. I bought a clay bar and on Friday night, cleaned the overspray off the fenders and the hood. Then I installed the hood DODGE letters. I still need to clean the top of the doors/quarters and trunk lid.

One of my original road wheels has some deep scratches on one of the spokes so Saturday I picked up a different wheel to replace it. I also picked up a different combination valve since I broke the valve assembly inside mine while trying to remove it.(it was rusted solid inside the bore...that's why the front brakes were sticking)Accually, I brought home 4 valves to try because we weren't sure what they would look like inside. The valve on the first 3 I tried wouldn't come apart easily so I put them back together. The fourth valve came right out and almost looked new. After cleaning up the bore in my original combination valve, I installed the new valve assembly.

Today I installed the combination valve and master cylinder. Dad came over and helped me bleed the brakes. I need to take the car around the block to be 100% sure on the brakes but I think they are fixed. We also removed the old bumper assembly we used to lift the car for the engine install. After that we threw a couple bolts in the front valance and hooked up the parking lights to check everything out. Both parking light bulbs were dead with the lights on and only one worked with the turn signal. It turned out to just be the bulbs.

The passengers side fender mount turn signal wasn't working either. It turned out to be a ground issue. The chrome housing is supposed to touch a brass contact on the rubber light socket. The assembly is grounded when the housing gets screwed to the fender. The new housing on that side wasn't making contact with the brass section of the light socket. I ended up placing tiny strands of wire on the brass contacts to take up the gap. Now the chrome light housing makes contact and the ground is completed.

Finally, I put the rear fender splash shields on and adjusted the toe so I can drive the car around the block. Maybe I'll do that this week.

I ended up spraying the bumper guards with a high build primer to fill the pitting. I talked with a couple bodyshops and that's what they recommended. Once the pits were sanded out, I sprayed the guards with SEM Trim Black.





The front bumper and valance is installed.




Door panels installed


Because I want to drive the car a little before this winter, I installed the seats before they were re-covered. I'll pull them back out this winter. The crushed velvet will be going away. The sill plates fit perfectly. They are MP reproductions I bought back in the mid 90's.




The original rear seat is in good shape except for the top of the seat back. I've got new Legendary covers to fix this.

I'm having trouble remembering what brand they are. They aren't Top Cats though. They aren't the PUI ones either. I bought them at the Nat's. There's a guy that makes and sells them there.

So far they are staying on. I did squeeze the U channel some.

Today I set the ride height and tightened the LCA pivot nuts. I started it up and backed it down the driveway. The brakes seemed to work well so I just kept going. I backed it onto the road and drove it around the block. That's as far as I went since there aren't any plates on it...or a windshield. The trans shifted through the gears nicely and it seemed to drive smoothly. I know it was just around the block but this has been a long time coming. I'm pretty excited.

Good for you! That first drive is both thrilling, and nerve wracking at the same time....lol. After a while, you'll stop listening for noises.

Congrats on that first drive. Car looks spectacular!!

Darren Car looks sweet congrats you got it on the road... keep it going your rides ready for the show soon.....