There is nothing else in the world that sounds like a Mopar. Good work!

It's the end of an era. As of 6:00 tonight, the Challenger no longer belongs to its original owner. I've been calling it mine for years but it was still in dads name. The original title was "lost" so dad got a duplicate and transfered it to me. In Iowa you can "gift" a vehicle so there were no taxes...just a title transfer fee and tag fees. It looks like we forgot to put the car in storage back in 96 but luckily we didn't have to pay the back license fees. Dad just had to sign a paper stating that the car was out of service during the past 16 years.

Initially reading that I was thinking... "There's no way he could have sold it after all the work he put into it." Luckily it's just going to you and at least it's a 1 family car.

The alignment was done on the 28th and the glass was installed on the 1st. Today I put 120 miles on the car. I drove it to the 2nd annual Mopar Max show at Cedar Falls Raceway. I talked to a lot of people and heard some nice comments.

I made the right choice on the tires. I really like the way the white stripes look.

Congratulations on completing an outstanding resto.
Thank you for many of the techniques and details you've shared along the way

Beautiful, excellent work and I really like the tires!

WOW Darren! That's outstanding. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you on the windshield. Glad you got it in. Your car looks so good. I wish you were doing mine. I would love to see it person sometime.

Joe

Thanks Joe. I ended up loosening the four small bolts on top of the dash. I pushed the dash down while retightening. It seemed to do the trick. I think I might accually loosen them up again now that the glass is in. It looks a little low on the passengers side.

I'm still planning on having the car at the Mopar Nat's next year. I just have to find a way to get it there. There's no way I'm going to drive it that far in heavy traffic.

Great Job man. Enjoy the moment its only new once or maybe twice now.
Lots of work but its worth it..Good Job you should be proud !!!

The MDH code on the VIN sticker says 101218. It looks like the car was built 40 years ago today.

I had the car back in the shop on Friday to have the toe reset because the steering wheel was off center. Everything is good now.

I've had a small exhaust leak since starting the car and it seems to be getting worse. I thought it would be the manifold to head connection since I'm not using any gaskets. It looks like that's not the case though. The PS manifold is cracked down where the head pipe attaches. I have a spare manifold for it.

The jack assembly is almost done. I removed the mechanism and repainted it. The mast was put in some PVC and filled with acid to cleaned it up. It's going to the platers early next week.

Very Very Nice

I have a 72 Challenger Rallye 340 4sp that I hope to get to one of these days. It is a duplicate to the car I had when I was a kid.

I like the white stripe tires on your car, they make it look just right. Nice Job

Thanks! Post some pics of the 72 when you start to work on it. There isn't much love for the 72-74's.

This is probably the last update until the spring. The car is tucked away in the garage for the winter.

Last week I put some 1/4" aluminum blocks in between the trunk floor and the rear muffler hangers. The tips were very close to the rear valance. Under certain conditions, the PS tip accually hit the valance. The 1/4" blocks took care of the problem and make the tips look like they are sticking out a little further.

The trunk area is just about done. All I have to do yet is clean up some of the weatherstripping adhesive around the trunk seal and replace the trunk latch.(which was damaged at the bodyshop back in the 90's)

I just finished up the jack assembly and installed it. It didn't need much work. I spread the mechanism open enough to pull it off the mast. I soaked it in EvapoRust which cleaned up the minor rust that was on it. Then I resprayed it gray. The rubber bumper and the internal parts had gray paint on them so I didn't have to disassemble it any further. The mast was put in some PVC filled with acid. The acid took the original zinc dichromate plating off and derusted the ends. I took it in to a local plating company and had it replated.









original spare tire...

Great to see it finished! Jack looks perfect. Its all in the details, great job!

...and don't forget that picture next to grandma's house

Oh, I havn't forgotten. Once it's nice enough in the spring, dad and I will be going for a little road trip.

I had the car put away for the winter but didn't have much gas in the tank. Since it was a nice day, I decided to drive up to the gas station, fill it up, and put in some fuel stabilizer.
After I got home, I let it idle for awhile while I took a couple pics. Then I backed it in the garage and hooked up a battery maintainer.

I have been quietly lurking watching you restore a historically significant car from your youth. I have to say that you have done an amazing job and the car is stunning. You should be very proud to have that in your garage. Congrats.

Congrats on getting that car done. Car is stunning!