origonal owner 73 Challenger build

Darren, it looks like you are doing a great job on the parts you're restored so far. The restoration process can make for more stories than the car had it's whole life. Great history your dad has had with the car. He'll be proud when he turns the key the next time.

Thanks Dave...I can't wait until dad turns the key either. I'll be in the passengers seat re-living my early years.

Just read the entire thread - GREAT story!! It's too bad it costs so much to restore cars....so many have great stories like this with memories and more, especially for sons and Dads.

The other thing I thought was: DAMN - I gotta start doing cars for other people instead of for myself. Instead of spending 6 grand for parts to restore a car, I could make 25 grand a year restoring someone elses in my spare time!!!!

Best of luck and looking forward to seeing the work done!

burdar, is the color A5 silver metallic? I ask because my '73 Rallye 340 was originally A5(now blue). I can't wait to see the finished product. Good luck the rest of the way.

Benny

Well, Tim sent me a few pictures this afternoon. They have gotten more work done than I thought.

another one

If you look at the places where there is primer, you can see what other work they must have gotten done.

There was some rust on the firewall on the passengers side where the inner fender brace meets it. There was also a little rust around the brake booster opening. The sides of the radiator support look to be fixed as well.

This is the last pic I have right now. They are waiting for me to send the jack brakets so they can hang the quarters.

Looking at the picture You can see that the rear framerail sections are cut out as well as the rear filler panel and are laying under the car. You can also see the rusty rocker panel underneith the quarter. New quarters were installed over the top of this rust during a previous restoration attempt by another shop.

Here is a close-up of the rust in the rocker area. This will obviously be taken care of (this time) before the new "FULL" quarters go on.

Great progress! Looks like a really complete approach!

thomas
___________________________________________

cuda blog

Looks like that car is in good hands this time around. That is some nice looking work they are doing.

I went and picked up the fender bolts/studs and trunk bolts I needed this morning. I'll get them cleaned up in the blast cabinet tomorrow so I can send them off on Monday.

The guy I get my parts from here in Iowa has a lot of really nice stuff at his place. I pulled up and he has a 68 Charger R/T and a 70 Barracuda sitting outside the shop. Inside is a red 70 Hemi Cuda with red shacker. In front of that is a 71 Barracuda convertible.(Plum Crazy) It was a /6 car but now has a Hemi in it. In the back is a 70 RR (B5) and another 70 Hemi Cuda (plum Crazy) He once owned Ramo Stott's #7 NASCAR 70 Superbird too. I just thought it was funny seeing all those cars...and there I was getting fender bolts for a 73 318 Challenger. Kind of both ends of the spectrum.

If you look at the picture, you can see that the trunk is still in the car. The bad patch panels that were just placed over the rust(right above the shackles) have been taken out and the rust has been cut away.

I just found out that they are going to save the origonal trunk floor. The owner of the black Challenger R/T that they just finished, has an old 2-piece trunk floor that he is sending out for dad's car. They are going to cut what they need off of those pieces to weld into the origonal floor.

First off...awesome car!! I really wish I could find my dad's old dart to restore! Now Best of Show is a really great place to have your car at! I live approximately 10 min from the place and it is impressive! I think that your car is actually at another restoration shop that is about 15 min from their showroom. Now if you do come in the summer you have to check out the local cruise-in which is about 2 min from their showroom. It is an old diner that has a live-band and great food! I know a bunch of other moparters go there. If you see a pea green charger...that would be mine

Well, six pages of my thread have vanished. Just wanted to say thanks to the mods for trying to figure out what happened. Just one of those things I guess.

It looks like I have some work to do. For those of you who still want to see the pictures that were lost, I'll repost them over the next few days. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement up to this point. It really meant alot.

I wish who ever deleted my thread would have deleted the rear end and trans pics on the first page Those will be redone before finding their way back onto the car.

Early 2009.....

quarter replacement/trunk repair













The trunk extensions are new but the center of the floorpan was saved. The former owner of the black car on the second page sent me an old two piece trunk floor that he wasn't going to use. Those were cut up to fix the bad spots right above the frame rails.

The drivers side rocker was replaced and the front of the passengers side rocker was patched. The rear section of the framerails were also replaced. Once the car was stronge enough, it was bolted onto a roticerie.





Once all the metal replacement was done, the bottom was media blasted to get ready for paint.

Misc rust repair pics.......











Drivers side front floor pan was the only area of the floor that was bad.

April 2009...engine compartment and underside painted


I was given three test samples and needed to OK the correct color. I compared the samples with origonal paint on the bottom of the trunk lid.(under the jack instruction decal) The paint is Spies Hecker.

Awesome post man!

i would have no regrets for sending her out...that's a first class job there!

I have one thing to add...throw a 340 intake and a TQ on that badboy 318! I am sure you're dad won't mind!

Keep up the pics!

Man do I want a chally project to work on...

Thanks Chris. All these pics were posted before but were deleted somehow. I'll get the rest of them up shortly. Hopefully soon, I'll have some new pics to post of the assembly.

Fenders are Goodmarks. They needed a lot of work to fit properly but look good now.

Test fitting the bumper fillers to the new fenders/quarters. Everything fit good.

Getting the car straight....

Polyester primer...







Polyester primer sanded and ready for final primer.





Final primer...

Base coat...





Clear...







Wet sand/Buff...

Vinyl top installed and argent sprayed on the tail panel.

The argent looks like silver paint in these pics but it looks good in person. It closely matches a set of NOS tail light housings I have pictures of.

Stripes are on and it's finally home.

Tim, cleaning it up a bit after the long drive.

Before picture of the headlight buckets.


I cleaned them up with steel wool and soapy water. I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I re-applied the paint markings I found when cleaned them.

The marks really looked like they were applied with a brush and blotted on. By looking at Resto Ricks website and reading Dave Waldens posts, it looks like I should have sprayed the paint on the buckets. The dirt was caked on them so bad that it was impossible to make out a spray pattern. Oh well, now I know what to do next time. I'm still happy that they cleaned up as nice as they did.

After...


Installed...

OK, here's something new...

I didn't document the rad blackout spray pattern when I took the car apart. That was a long time ago and didn't know any better. The horn/latch bracket didn't get stripped before the car went to the bodyshop so I did take a picture of that.




The only other picture I had of the front end was this one...





I decided to try and lighten up the picture and see if anything would become visable. This is what I ended up with...



The pattern on the passengers side is what I ended up trying to copy. I don't know how accuarate that is though. I might end up spraying the black up higher before the front end is all back together.

That thing looks SWEEEEET Darren!!

I havn't worked on the car since it got cold. My garage isn't heated and I had to push the car against the wall so my wife could get her car inside. Here are some pics of what I was working on before winter.

The heater box was in decent shape...just very dirty. It was stored for more than 10 years in a hot attic and I think the cover warped somewhat. I had a very hard time getting it back on. It's still not perfect but I think it will work just fine. The cover did have the typical crack by the fresh air opening. I just used a rotary tool and smoothed the edge so it didn't look broken.

Heater box before...




After a lot of cleaning and a DMT gasket kit.




Here's a pic of it installed. It was a major PITA but it's in. The brake pedal assembly, drivers side fresh air door and dash vent were all cleaned up and reinstalled.

Horns blasted, painted and installed. At first glance, the attaching bolts looked like they'd need to be replated but it was just years of road grime. They looked basically new once cleaned.



There was some miscommunication with the bodyshop when it came to some of the smaller parts on the car. Some parts were painted that I didn't want painted. The hood reliece and latch were sprayed with a phosphate looking paint. I ended up blasting the hood reliece lever, latch and safetly hook, then refinished them myself but still need to take a good picture of them. The tail light housings were also spray painted even though they were in great shape. I got lucky and the paint came off pretty easy. Here, one housing is done and the other is still painted.

Here are a couple engine compartment pics. The booster was rebuilt by Booster Dewey. The wiper motor and ECU stand off bracket were restored by Jules. The clear plastic straps that are pictured are accually too short. I bought another strap kit from Dante that has the correct length straps.

The charcole canister is the orginal one to the car and still has its date code stamp on it. The top was in good shape.(just dusty) The side of the canister had a lot of deep scratches and dings on it from sitting in a box with other parts. I wet sanded the entire side, masked off the top portion and sprayed it with Trim Black. It looks pretty good. I probably could have used Landau Black for a little more gloss though.

The washer bottle is new but the lid doesn't have any part numbers on it like the origonal one. I'll probably try to use the origonal lid. The washer hose is origonal and cleaned up really well. The pictures I have of the car before I took it appart, don't show the hose running through the hole in the cowl. I suppose it could have been rerouted at some point. I'll have to see if there is enough length to route it that way. The squirters attached to the hood were replated.

Blower motors were painted black from the factory in 73. This is the origonal motor with correct date code. I took it appart...it looked new inside...painted the case and put it back together.

Great Pictures. You and I are real close to the same spot on our builds. The 73's have lots of common parts. Good job its tough not damaging the paint as you put it together too.

I just went out and took a few pics of the hood reliece, hood latch and safety hook. I ended up redoing them myself to try and save some money. I think they turned out pretty good. I can always send them out to Jules down the road if money allows.

The areas under the mounting bolts were still brown so I knew that was the origonal finish. Don't ask me how I got them to turn brown...it was a happy accident. I also refinished the pop-up spring.

I think you did a nice job on the latches Darren. I noticed that you had the hood on in the photos above and had put in the wiper motor and arm shafts. How hard was that to do with the hood in place? I'm considering bolting on my hood before I start assembly but thought it might be sort of hard to do those things at the firewall with the hood on. I removed all my stuff with the hood off which was sort of nice.

Car looks sweet. Just love it.

Joe

Awsum results here! Keep posting

Thanks Dave...that means alot.

Joe, it wasn't that hard working around the hood but you do have to be extra careful. I accually worked from inside the car to install the wiper mechanisms since the dash isn't installed. With no windsheild in place, everything is right there infront of you. That was a lot easier than working from the engine compartment. Since your hood is going to be black, it might be easier to have the hood off. I don't want to have to worry about touching up painted bolts so the hood is staying on. Your hood bolts are probably just going to be phosphated, so you won't have to wory about messing up any paint.

Right before it got cold, I was working on filling some pitted areas on the underside. Since the bodyshop did this job for a set price, the underside wasn't given the same attension as the top. There was some pretty major pitting on the inside of the rear frame rails among other places. I just couldn't leave it looking like that. I got the rear rails done but it got too cold to continue. In the spring, I'll finish up the underside and can install the brake/fuel lines, gas tank exc...

Since I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to bodywork, I called a local Wheelers(autobody supply store) and asked them how I should proceed with filling the pitted areas. They were real nice and explained everything to me. After purchasing supplies, my best friend from High School and I worked on the rear frame rails on a Saturday afternoon. The car is still on the body stand it was painted on. The painter said I could use it for as long as I need it. It's nice because the car sits up fairly high...higher then the stands I have. Once the brake/fuel lines are on and the wheelwells are undercoated, I'll put the car on my stands.


Here's my friend Paul working while I stay clean taking pictures.


Here's the end result. It looks way better than it did.

Time for some more updates. These first few pictures are old but I forgot to post them.

The E-brake mechanism was in good shape but was covered with surface rust. I soaked it in EvapoRust and rubbed it down with some steel wool.


The black paint on the arm was a little worn so I resprayed it. The arm was painted all the way up into the mechanism. I've seen some that have a dip line but this one wasn't like that. I redid the white lettering on the handle using Testors model paint. I just applied it with a brush...when the paint was dry, I wiped the excess off with mineral spirits.


Then my son who was 1 at the time wanted to help me install the front E-brake cable.

In May, the guy that did the bodywork/paint on the car came over to help me with a few things.

The fenders had been drilled for the 72 style turn signal lights by mistake.(the ones ontop of the fenders that came with the A01 light package) The 72 style lights used a stud/nut to attach them to the fender. The 73+ lights just used a philips head screw. So, one hole in the fender was too small and the other one was too big. We enlarged one of the holes from 1/2" to 5/8" so the rubber light socket would fit down into the fender. Luckily we didn't damage the paint.

I went to the hardware store and found a small stainless bolt that had the same philips head as the original screw. Now the light is held on with a bolt/nut but still looks factory from the outside. The headlight splash shield will hide the nut so it will still look factory on the underside too. It does make changing the bulb a little difficult though.

Next we worked on the vinyl top. I didn't send the trim to the bodyshop so the vinyl was left long. We trimmed the vinyl and installed the trim. The new plastic trim clips are junk. They don't hold the trim tight to the body. I'm going to have to drill some holes and use the bolt-on style clips.

Then we worked on installing the headliner. The domb light wiring was installed and the insulation was glued to the roof.


Resto Rick's instructions were a big help. The headliner I ordered was from Dante's Parts. It is made from Yorkshire material and looks pretty close to what came from the factory on the 73-74 Challengers.(Cudas ?) This material doesn't wrinkle at all. It was sitting in a box all crumpled up for a few months before it was installed. The installation couldn't have gone easier.

I have a lot of small clamps so I put them to good use.


I took apart the rear view mirror and repainted the base with SEM Trim Black. I painted the mast with Tank Tone paint. It looks close to the original finish. The mirror was just cleaned up with soap/water. The sun visors were also just cleaned up and reistalled.


The shoulder belts were in decent shape but had been sitting in an open box for the past 13 years. They were very dirty. I put them in an old pillow case and threw them in the washing machine. They came out looking great. They look green in the picture but that's due to the flash. They look good in person.

I cleaned the A-pillar and kick panel trim four times to get them ready for refinishing. Once they were clean I sprayed them with SEM Adhesion Promoter and SEM Landau Black. I'm very happy with how the pieces turned out. The gloss level is very close to the original gloss of the plastic.

Here is a refinished A-pillar trim piece next to an unfinished one.


Before picture of the kick panels...they turned gray over the years.


Finished

I also worked on restoring the grill and "Challenger" emblem. I had three emblems to choose from. I picked the nicest one and cleaned it up. Then I took a Q-tip and applied a thin layer of petrolium jelly to the face of the emblem. I sprayed the entire emblem with SEM Trim black paint. Once the paint was dry, I just wiped off the petrolium jelly which left the face of them emblem free of any paint.

Next, I turned my attension to the grill. It was in decent shape. It wasn't cracked but the plastic was discolored and looked old.


I cleaned it a few times and then sprayed it with the SEM paint. I previously test sprayed a small section and matched it against the area of the grill that was covered by the bumper filler strip. The Trim Black paint matched the color of the plastic perfectly.

The night I sprayed the grill it was very hot and humid. The paint didn't spray very well and left the grill very blotchy. I didn't think I could screw it up any further so I tried very lightly sanding the grill with steel wool. It accually worked very well. It evened out the paint and got rid of the very small orange peel look. It doesn't even look painted now which is good because the original finish was just the black of the plastic.

I masked off the front lip of the grill and sprayed it with Mopar Rallye Wheel paint. It closely matches the original silver color. I used the same paint on the front valance insert.

The front bumper filler pieces cleaned up with a very light wet sanding. They didn't need any paint at all. They are still just the natural gray of the rubber.

Finished grill/emblem


Finally, here are a couple pics of it installed on the car.

Beautiful car and great work!

Darren your car is looking great!!!. Excellent job on the headliner install and the engine compartment really is shaping up nicely. Keep up the good work.. I appreciate your help too on the photo support and emails on my key build issues.

Dennis

Headliner looks great. I tried to save money on mine by re-installing the one I got from Legendary. Even if it was wrong.
Found out that all the stretching I did to put it in the first time made it impossible to make a good looking installation. Now I have to order a new one from Dantes.
Did you get your sail panels from Dantes as well?
It looks great. Keep up the good work.
Craig

Thanks guys! I've got the dash assembly all together except for the gauges. I'm still waiting on those to come back from GCAR. Once I have them back, the dash is going in. Then I'll have some cool pictures to share.

Craig...Challengers didn't use sail boards like the Cudas did. Earlier Challengers used a piece of cardboard underneith the headliner but by 73 the factory had done away with that. I found that out after purchasing new ones. Dante does sell the Cuda sail boards.

Isn't your headliner blue? Did blue interior cars come with blue headliners? I've never seen the Yorkshire headliner in blue. Maybe the perforated headliner was used if the interior color was something other then black? That's something you'll have to look into.

I still have remnants of the original liner. It was perforated blue with a corrugated texture. The one I have now is totally wrong. So are the sailboards but at least they were new and went in easily. I just looked at their web site. The prices are not terrible for set so I will order them tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I have to drop the transmission pan and figure out why the transmission is shiftless. I am sure I put something together wrong.
Craig

I received a call from GCAR late yesterday and the gauges are done. I'll have them back next week. The dash assembly should be in the car by the weekend.

The carpet also showed up yesterday. I have it laying out in the basement.

I ordered a new VIN sticker from ECS. I also bought a can of RPM. A few of the bolts I redid with Caswell Platings black oxide kit have some surface rust on them. The bolts were sitting in a tub on the damp concrete. The few bolts that have been installed on the car still look good. The sealer that I bought with the black oxide kit isn't going to be good enough. I'll apply the RPM to the bolts instead of the penetrating sealer.

That thing is looking SO GREAT Darren! I hope I can get my headliner and interior panels to look as nice as yours. Just BEAUTIFUL!!

Thanks Joe.

There was a small package at the door when I got home just now. It was my antenna bezel. I sent the original one out to AIH chrome in Dubuque because the new repop didn't fit the contour of the fender. This one fits and looks awsome.

Very nice job, great attention to detail!

Super nice project.Will follow all the way!!

Very nice... Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming!

I disassembled the dash back in February. I just finished it up on Wednesday and installed it last night. It was a big project and I'm happy that it's behind me. I wasn't looking forward to this part of the build but it was accually easier then I thought it would be. I just took a lot of pictures and made a few notes for the reassembly.

The dash assembly had been sitting upside down on a bench for the last 7 or 8 years so it was very dirty.










The original pad was is great shape up until it was removed from the car. Dad tripped on something in the garage and dropped his end of the assembly which shattered the passengers side of the dash pad.

Dave from Rosevillemoparts.com was having a dash pad sale so I decided to go ahead and send my pad off to be redone. We worked it out so I would get my original core back to minimize any fitment issues.

While the dash pad was being redone, I sent the gauges out to Glen at GCAR. The gauges were in pretty good shape over all. Glen rebuilt the speedometer and relettered the odometer. I didn't want the mileage turned back to 0 so he left the mileage at 96439.(a car is only original once anyway right?) The tach was surprisingly pretty accurate but was recalibrated and cleaned up. The fuel level, temp, oil pressure and alt gauges were still in great shape. The clock was converted to a quartz mechanism.

I got the dash pad back within 3 weeks. There was a lot of extra foam that needed to be removed but that's to be expected with an Ultimate Rides pad. I trimmed a lot of foam out of the light bar area and was able to get that to fit. The drivers side lower dash trim didn't initially fit. I was able to get it fitting pretty good with just a little sectioning of the foam in a couple areas. I wasn't impressed with the fit of the right hand lower dash trim though. The pad was way too thick in that area and didn't line up with the trim.(where the trim and pad come together by the gauges) I should have just heated up the trim with a heat gun and moulded it to fit the contour of the pad...but I didn't. Like an idiot I tried to cut some foam out of the pad and ended up ruining it. I called Dave and told him what happened. I was fully expecting having to buy a new pad again. He got in touch with me a few days later and said UR would fix it for me as long as I paid the shipping both ways. So...the brand new messed up pad went back to UR.

I waited about six weeks and still didn't have the pad back. A couple calls to UR didn't seem to make a difference. Finally, I called Dave. Even though it was no longer his problem, he was nice enough to give UR a call for me to see what was going on. The next day I got a call saying the pad was shipping.

As soon as I opened the box, I knew that I hadn't been sent my original core back. I had engraved my initials in the core so I'd know if I got mine back. I think UR sold my core to someone else...that's why it took so long to get one back. The first pad was accually nicer then this one but I wasn't going to press the issue. I'd had enough messing around and just wanted to start the assembly. It's definatly nicer to be working with the original core because I had to redrill the speaker grill holes as well as the VIN plate holes in order to get those parts to fit.

I mounted the pad on the frame and installed it. I wanted to make sure it fit before I had it completely assembled.


There were a few issues but was able to work those out after talking with a few people and seeing some pictures of original dashes.

Here's a pic of the original heater control bezel.



This was my first time trying to refinish a part like this. It was accually pretty fun to do. It took four different paint steps to get it done. I think it turned out nice for being my first time doing it.

After cleaning off all the original paint, I sprayed the inner rectangle area with SEM Trim Black paint. Once that was dry, I masked off the inner section and sprayed the bezel with VHT Wrinkle Paint. Before spraying that paint, I sprayed a test sample because I'd never used the wrinkle paint before. The test turned out good so I went ahead with spraying the bezel. I sprayed it on a hot and sunny day and left the part in the sun for a couple hours. The heat made the wrinkles tighter and it matches what was originally there very closely. I let that paint dry for two weeks before continuing. The next step was to mask off the entire bezel except for the raised rectangle around the controls. I sprayed two light coats of chrome paint onto the rectangle. The chrome paint isn't very chromey(is that a word?) but it looks a little better then a silver paint pen I think. Finally, I used a white paint pen to redo the letters. After going over them once, they still looked dirty. It took another going over to get the white looking crisp.

The finish looks very rough in the picture but it is accually very fine in reality.


Here is a pic of the entire part. It's a little blotchy but you have to spray the wrinkle paint very heavily to get it to wrinkle. It looks better without the flash. The speaker fader knob and bezel are NOS parts my dad bought 20 years ago.


I redid the AM radio face plate the same way. I sprayed it with SEM Trim Black and sprayed the chrome paint on the raised rectangle area.

I bought a new M&H dash harness even though the original one was in good shape. The only problem area was the white connector at the steering column. The large blue wire melted the connector and had been bypassed a long time ago. I laid the old harness next to the new one and transfered all the secondary harnesses over.

The map light switch had major problems. The toggle lever didn't move anymore without a lot of force. I believe it was also causing a battery drain. I sent the switch out to Jim at JS Restorations. He rebuilt the switch and even kept the factory date codes intact. The plastic MAP LIGHT bezel was broken and I didn't want to try gluing the pieces back together. I found a metal one from a 70 Cuda that I cleaned up and painted black. I used Testors white paint for the recessed letters.

The factory woodgrain was in OK shape. The main woodgrain piece around the gauges had separated from the metal backing though. I was going to reuse the woodgrain but it just didn't look good enough. I lucked out and found someone online who had new pieces that they weren't going to use. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford them. They came flat and I had to bend them to fit the plastic bezel. I had dad give me a hand with that. We used a piece of pipe to push against to make the bends.

The new pieces look good but there are some differences between them and the original woodgrain piece. The new switch panel piece says "lights" where the original said "head lamps". The new part also has little pictures of wipers and lights next to the switches. The original didn't have those either. The main woodgrain section is a little different too. The brown around the gauges is a little different color and that section is a little too big. I had to put dimples in the metal so the trip odometer and clock handles would clear. Finally, the seat belt light hole on the right side wasn't in the correct spot. I had to grind some plastic out of the bezel to match the hole in the woodgrain piece.

The glove box liner is just a new REM part. The screws that held it together were different then what was on the original liner. I tranfered all of the original screws over to the new liner.

Very, very nice work you are continuing to do.

Darren that car is looking sweet. Keep the pictures coming.

You will be caught up with me in no time. Looking great.
Craig

Darren,
Nice work! Keep the pics coming. You inspire me...
Ray

Thanks everyone for nice comments. It gives me the motivation to continue trying to do my best instead of just throwing it together quickly.

Last weekend my friend Paul came back over and we worked on the underside some more. The car was rusted pretty bad so there are a lot of pits on the underside. I'm trying to fix the most visable ones but there are a lot that I just can't reach. The car was originally fully undercoated so I can always spray it if it doesn't turn out. I've got one more area that I need to fix and then it's done...the best that I know how anyway.

I realized on Saturday that there is no way to install the brake and fuel lines while the car is on the body stand. It looks like I'll be putting it back on my smaller stands sooner then I thought. I had hoped to undercoat the wheelwells while it was still up higher.

I talked to my boss the other day about using a forklift from work to lift the car off the stand. That's the only safe way I can think of to do it.(without hauling the car to a shop and using a hoist) Maybe right after the Mopar Nat's I can get that done.

The dash turned out great Darren. Looks awesome! Funny, the dash stand you built looks very similar to mine. It worked out good for me and looks like yours worked out good too.

Joe

The car came off the body stand yesterday. A guy from work came over with the "donkey" and lifted the car off the stand. I've been waiting for about 3 weeks for them to have a delivery close to my house. Now that the car is back on my stands, I can get the brake/fuel lines and gas tank installed before winter.

My new Accurate Exhaust system should be here today. Once the gas tank is in, I'll install the muffler heat shields. I might even hang the mufflers and over axle pipes.

Wow it looks sweet. Thanks for including the procedure and paints you used on the heater control panel BTW

Over the last week I installed the brake and fuel lines. I also installed the fuel tank yesterday. The lines are stainless and are from Fine Lines. They fit fairly well but needed some tweeking here and there. The tanks straps and J-bolts needed to be modified a little bit to fit in their mounts. Before the tank went in I bolted the shocks to their upper mounts and installed the passengers side over axle pipe hanger.

The exhaust hanger(Accurate) isn't 100% stock looking but it's close enough for me. The differences don't affect the function of the hanger. You can see that the original part used bolts to clamp onto the pipe where the new part uses carriage bolts and nuts. The lower strap is also different.


I preinstalled the vapor separator onto the new tank and made a new tank pad.


fuel tank and vapor separator installed


Once the fuel line connection was hooked up I installed the new muffler heat sheilds from Dales Cuda shop.

Looking good and nice job with the tank pad.

Darren your car is really looking Sweeeet!!!. First class job. You are building a car that is turning heads already. Keep up the good work.. I appreciate your help trying to work out the tough issues as well.

About a week and a half ago I was in the garage trying to decide what I wanted to work on next. I saw the driveshaft sitting there so I decided to work on it. Probably seven years ago I wire wheeled the shaft and brushed on some POR-15. Then I sprayed it with Detail Gray spray paint. Since then I've seen some awsome looking driveshafts restored and left bare metal. I wanted to see how nice I could get the driveshaft to look without using any paint. Well, it didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped since it was extremely pitted but I'll show what I ended up with anyway.

I started by brushing on some paint stripper to remove the Detail Gray paint. It came off easily. Here you can see the POR-15 underneith.


Next, I sanded off most of the POR-15 with 80 grit sand paper and removed the U-joints.


I went to the hardware store and bought some 4" PVC pipe and a cap. I poured EvapoRust in the pipe and inserted the driveshaft.


After a day of soaking, the shaft came out rust free. I still had paint and POR-15 on the ends which required a little sandblasting to clean up.


I was shocked to find a nice looking part number still on the driveshaft.


I sanded on the shaft a little but the pits weren't coming out. I got online and found out that driveshafts are only about a 1/16" thick so I decided to just leave it. I lightly bead blasted the shaft to remove some of the sanding marks. Finally, I rubbed it down with steel wool to get rid of the blasted finish. Once the ends were cleaned up I dipped them in my black oxide solution for 30 seconds to darken them. I rubbed them with steel wool to remove some of the darkness on the high spots.

I took the driveshaft to my father-in-laws house and he helped me reapply the heat markings from the end caps being welded to the tube. Over the weekend I heated the driveshaft and applied RPM to it so it won't rust again. I also applied some RPM to the new U-joints. While I had the new joints appart I noticed that one of the caps was missing two of the needles. :22yikes: I returned that one today and got a replacement. The only other thing I need to do is have it ballanced.

Here's the finished product. I took this picture without the flash to hide some of the pitting. Hopefully it will look OK under the car.

Driveshaft turned out great Darren. Wish I had done similar to mine now. Getting closer buddy!

Joe

Darren Quite the improvement, Driveshaft looks great. keep up the good work!

Dennis

This car is going to be sweet, great work.

Dennis looking forward to more of your Cuda too

Wow ... Great work and great history on a project with such a family history. I want to see that picture in front of the house when it's done.

I've been busy working on front suspension parts. Probably 9 years ago I wire wheeled the suspension components and covered them in POR-15. Then I painted them with Eastwood paints to try and replicate bare metal. I wasn't very happy with the way the parts looked but, at the time, I didn't know what else to do with them.

This winter I've been stripping off all the paint and POR-15, hoping to achieve a more correct appearance. Regular paint stripper won't touch POR-15 so I started looking for something that would easily remove it. I found that POR makes a product called POR-Strip that will remove cured POR-15. If anyone has applied POR-15 to something and now need to remove it, I highly recommend POR-Strip. It wrinkles the POR-15 almost instantly and makes removal pretty easy.

I started with the spindles and caliper brackets. After stripping the POR-15, I sand blasted them. I darkened them by brushing on some black oxide solution. Before I assembled the pieces I coated everything with RPM. The finished product turned out a little too dark but they still look a lot better then the previously did.

Next, I turned my attention to the center link, strut rods, tie rod ends and adjusters. Everything in this next pic was covered in POR-15 except the tie rods. I just clear coated those piece however they had started to rust underneith the clear.

After the POR-15 was removed I bought a smaller section of PVC and put the center link and strut rods inside. I filled the PVC with a 1 to 1 ratio of muriatic acid and water. Once they were rust free, I dumped out the acid and poured in baking soda and water. I let the parts sit over night. In the morning I rinsed them off and RPM'd them.

I also soaked the tie rod adjusters in acid. Before RPMing those pieces(as well as the clamps)I lightly wire wheeled them.

The tie rods I just stripped the clear coat, rubbed them with steel wool until they were clean and RPM'd them.

I had planned on buying a new idler arm but it turned out to be in perfect shape. I stripped the paint off of it and soaked it in EvapoRust since I didn't want to get any acid down inside of it.


The calipers I'm using are reman pieces I bought a long time ago. They had some slight surface rust from sitting for so long. I removed the pistons and all the seals. I cleaned off the surface rust with steel wool and RPM'd them. I reassembled them and installed new hoses.

The LCA's looked pretty bad. There was a lot of rust scale under the POR-15. I didn't even want to try an strip the paint so I just had them sand blasted. I was surprised how nice they came out. The date codes were still visable on the rivit heads.

I rubbed the LCA's down with steel wool, darkened the cast lower ball joint piece, the rivit heads and the torsion bar socket. I masked off a dip line and sprayed 3 coats of Krylon battery protectant followed by a matte clear. I let them dry for a day before I heated them up and RPM'd them. I went right over the paint with the RPM for some more protection. I think they turned out pretty decent. This pic was taken before the RPM was applied.


Last night the engine/trans were removed from the K-member. The engine was put back on a stand so I can change a few things. I need to remove the cork valve cover gaskets and install rubber ones...all the brackets have been removed and will be redone with a more correct looking black.

The trans is going to get stripped of the AlumBlast paint I used on it earlier and all the fasteners and brackets will be redone without paint. The K-member will be sent out to get powder coated and the steering box will get some new seals and a coat of black paint instead of the incorrect cast blast paint that's on it now.

The original carb is going out to Scott Smith this week. I'll be sending the alt out to Dixie soon too.

I made some good progress on the K-member assembly this week. I had the K-member and swaybar brackets powder coated an 80% gloss. The powder coater was only supposed to blast the swaybar so I could darken it and leave it gray. He ended up powder coating it by mistake.
I put a pitman arm seal kit in the steering box and painted it with Eastwoods Extreme Chassis Black. It has a little less gloss then the K-member which I believe is correct. The rest of the suspension componants are bare metal.(except for the LCA) The dust shields are supposed to be galvanised but I bead blasted them years ago thinking they were supposed to be black. I stripped off the black paint I had put on them and lightly wire wheeled them. I still have to redo the end links and find some new pins for the strut rods but basically the K is done.

The guy that did the bodywork and paint on the car lives about an hour away from me now. A couple weeks ago I gave him my air cleaner, spare steel wheel and 4 Road Wheels to paint. He is going to work on them in his spare time. The air cleaner and spare wheel will be painted about an 80% gloss. I'm not sure what paint we are going to use yet. He said that he can add a flattening agent to the gloss paint BUT, if you clean/polish the parts often, you will bring back the gloss. He might look for a paint that is accually designed with less of a gloss. I don't know how this paint stuff works...I'm just going by what he tells me.

The Road Wheels will be sprayed a semi gloss...a little less gloss then the spare wheel. The spokes are being masked off so as not to destroy the original matte chrome finish. He sent me a couple pictures of some of the blasted parts.

Here's a picture of the rear axle assembly that I posted at the begining of this thread. At the time I thought it looked good but I've wanted to redo if for awhile now.

Previously, everything was painted with POR-15 and cast blast paint.




The first thing I did was have a look at the original center section. The car originaly had 2.76 gears but I had a working 3.23 sure-grip so I decided to use it. The 3.23 sure-grip was a factory option for a 318 Challenger in 73 so at least it's correct for the year.


After cleaning off the caked on grease, not much was visable. I did find an orange mark...


...and a little white mark on the side.


I had some used up EvapoRust and decided to soak the center section to see if anything else would show up. After soaking, two yellow dots showed up on the bottom. Two yellow dots stands for 2.76 gears.


The white mark on the side really became visable...

Next, I removed the axles, backing plates and lines. I bolted on some wood pieces to the ends of the housing to seal it up and had the entire thing sand blasted.


I darkened the center section to get rid of the blasted look. I traced the white stencil from the side of the original center section onto a piece of transparent paper. Then I used some transfer paper and copied it to the other center section. I should have had a stencil made so it would look better but it is what it is. I also put back the two yellow marks on the bottom and the orange mark on the top.


After RPMing the center section and installing a new seal and metal dust cover, I think the center turned out pretty good.

I had the housing powder coated but I wasn't happy with how it looked. I thought the powder would have hidden the pitting in the tubes but it didn't. I ended up taking the housing to the guy that painted the car. He scuffed the housing...sprayed it with a high build primer and sanded most of the pitting out. Finally he sprayed it with a sem-gloss black. It looks a lot better then it did.

I looked at new brake drums at a few part stores and didn't like what I saw. One of the drums had "CHINA" cast into the face of it. It would have been visable through the spokes in the Road Wheels. I decided to just use the originals. I blasted them, painted the faces an orangish red and RPMed them. I don't know how close to correct the red color is...I could have boughten RestoRicks paint but I need to save money where I can. If it ends up being way different, I can repaint it down the road.

The only other thing I'm considering is painting a yellow or white "J" on the center of the housing. It looks like the "J" stood for 1973. The housing was way too rusty to see any original markings. I don't want to add marks that the car didn't have but the "J" looks to be a pretty safe bet. I havn't decided yet.

Here's the finished rear axle assembly...

Your doing a great job and i love the pictures , I have a 73 with same colors and I haven't seen many with this color combo . Keep up the great work

Darren I agree always first class work. Keep the pictures coming.

Dennis

I should be picking up my new MP leaf springs this weekend. I'm not looking forward to disassembling a brand new pair of springs to strip off the black paint though. Hopefully they are assembled first...then sprayed black so I don't have a lot of paint to strip.

I have a batch of fasteners getting zinc plated. When those come back I can reassemble and repaint the engine. It shouldn't be long before the car is back on its wheels.

Big day today! The rear axle assembly is installed and the car is stitting on its rear suspension for the first time in 14 years. I wanted to spray the undercoating first but decided to wait. I just test sprayed some spray can undercoating because I had it and it looks awful. I'm going to get the car on the road and buy some of Resto Ricks undercoating a little later.

I had some 15x8 Rallye wheels sitting around with 235-60 drag radials mounted up so they went on for the time being. They do look good on there but the Road Wheels will look a lot better.

Hey Darren,

Rear axle and suspension stuff look AWESOME man.

What an amazing car Sir.

Darren Its looking great!. Good Job getting that thing on the rubber thats a major milestone!!!. You are doing a fantastic job keep up the good work.

Awesome progress Darren! Keep up the great work.

Did you use gun bluing on the 8 3/4 pumpkin after sandblasting?

I used my black oxide solution to darken it. It looks about the same as your springs I think doesn't it?

I didn't have to do anything to the new springs after removing the paint. I just put some paint stripper on each of the leaves and lightly wire wheeled them. They had already started rusting between the leaves. They were already dark so I just RPM'd them.

The engine is reassembled and painted. I put some parts on for the pictures just to see what they'd look like. I'll get the engine mounted up to the K-member this week and start installing everything else.

Looks Swweeeeet!!! That thing will be on the road in no time.....

I got the steering column done last night. The rebuild went well. It's not very complicated. I just disassembled everything and bead blasted the upper parts. I hand sanded the tube since it wouldn't fit in the blast cabinet. I painted most of the pieces with SEM Trim BLack. The ignition key light, upper and lower mounts and the lower steering shaft got painted with gloss black Rustoleum. The turn signal switch was still in good shape so I reused it. The ignition switch had a burned wire on the connector so I replaced it.

Before...


After...


Steering coupler and shaft before...


Steering coupler and shaft after...

I got my alternator back from Jim Ridge on Wednesday. The original alternator was long gone. While at my father-in-laws house a few years ago, he mensioned he had a couple Chrysler alternators buried on a shelf somewhere. After digging them out, I realised that one of them was a square back and had a casting date of Sept 72. How did that happen? I'm never that lucky.

The engine went in yesterday afternoon. Hopefully things will start moving a little faster now.

Darren Great Shots!!! That car is looking Sweet!!! It makes you a little nervous having that thing in the air so high doesn't it!!. This is a major accomplishment though. It definately is going to be a day you and your dad will both remember. You'll be ready soon to fire that motor up.. Congrats

Darren, you have me cleaning my shirt right now because I've drooled all over it. Your car is sooooo nice. Just Fantastic!

Joe

Thanks Joe! Things are moving a little faster now. I got the steering column and steering wheel installed tonight along with the heater hoses. Yesterday I got the new fuel pump-to-carb lines back from Fine Lines and got that all hooked up. All I have left to do in the engine compartment is install the radiator and hook up some vacuum lines.

Looking sharp !! Darren Do you have a date in mind for firing that baby up?

Dennis

It depends on what I can get done next week. I'm not looking forward to installing the exhaust on my back. That's probably going to take awhile. The radiator isn't done yet. I'm hoping I'll get a call today so I can go pick it up. If everything goes smoothly...maybe I'll break it in on the 9th.

It is really nice to see a '73 getting love. Looks nice!!

Thats looking really good! Moving along quickly now. You're going to have to change your signature picture soon!

Yes, things are moving quicker now. Yesterday morning I slid the torsion bars in and hooked up the upper ball joints. I got the rotors and calipers installed too. Later on in the afternoon I installed the driveshaft and dad came over to help me install the exhaust.

Things were not going smoothly trying to install the exhaust from the back to the front. We ended up starting over from the front. It went together much nicer that way. By the time we got the passengers side hooked up it was getting late and our arms were both hurting quite a bit. We'll work on the driver side in a few days.

Exhaust is fun. Its the joy of doing all of this while your laying on your back that makes it a fun few days. On your brakes Did you go with Dot 5? or Dot 3 Fluid?

I'm going with DOT5. I need to find some of those plastic fittings so I can bench bleed the master. I've thrown away a lot of those fittings. I never thought to toss a pair in the tool box.

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.....

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!

My new plates showed up over the weekend. I found two sets of 72-74 Iowa plates at my grandparents estate sale. I thought one might be the original set to the car but that wasn't the case. I found the correct numbers on the original title though. I had some repro tags made with the same numbers the car originally had.

There are a few differences but overall I like it. The color should really pop against the body color.

Iowa allows you to run a year of manufacture plate as long as you keep the state issued tags in the car somewhere. I e-mailed the Iowa DOT about this because I couldn't find anything in writing. They sent me the Iowa code section that says this is legal. I printed it off and will keep it in the car just incase I need it.


Original 72-74 Iowa plate on top...

Beautiful car!
Scott

Took the car out for a little drive tonight. I've got some issues to work through but that's to be expected. It's nice to look at peoples faces when you drive by. I got quite a few looks and thumbs up.

If I can get a few things sorted out, I'm going to try and make a cruise this Saturday.

Glad to see you're getting some wheel time Darren.


BTW, did you ever get a poster for your garage that shows the 73 brochure car thats identical to yours? Your walls looked a little bare..

That would be cool. The walls definately need something. Accually I really need a thrid garage stall. That would let me park everything inside and have a space for some automotive wall art.

Very nice and the white stripe tires look just right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ANN7TQrIg

Car looks fabulous Darren Great team effort! Enjoy it!

I pulled the seats out last night. They went to the upholstery shop today. I heard a few people talking about the crushed velvet seat covers last weekend so I thought it was time to have them recovered.

The rear end was making some noise so I pulled the center section out tonight. A friend is going to go through it for me. I'm going to pull the rear e-brake cables off tomorrow and compare them to the originals. I'm pretty sure they are why the intermediate cable seems too short. We will see.

The seats are back in. They feel a lot more firm now. They weren't very comfortable before. Looking at the back of the old seat covers, they are stamped 6-72 and 7-72. The outer vinyl was original...the inserts were just replaced with crushed velvet in the late 70's.





The rear end center section is back in after getting all new bearings. I ordered a longer e-brake intermediate cable so hopefully I can get that hooked up in a day or two.

Interior is looking great Darren! I can't wait until my car is at that stage.
Scott

Nice seats

Finally got the e-brake hooked up last night. What a nightmare! I ended up using Fine Lines front and rear cables, Inline Tubes intermediate cable and the original S-hook. At least that job is done.

The only thing I have left to do is undercoat the wheel wells.

I posted some pictures in the general section awhile back but never got them put in here.

Back in June I think, my friend Paul and I went for a drive and took some pictures at a state park near where I live. The day was perfect for taking pictures and I think we got some cool shots. I really like how the old style plates look on the car.

Very nice!

A lot of restos look great but there's the odd one that takes you back to a Mopar dealer in 1970 or 1974, this is one of those cars. Well done indeed.

Sheldon

Looks really good.

I decided to bring this thread back from the dead. The last time the Challenger saw the light of day was in October 2013. For the last year and a half it's been under a car cover in a heated shop. After getting it running in the fall of 2012, life got in the way of fixing some bugs and enjoying it. I needed a break, so it was parked. Now it's time to fix the bugs and make it a reliable car. For some reason, storage was not kind to the car. The engine compartment looks awful and some suspension parts have a light coating of surface rust on them. It will need a lot of work. I'll post pictures of the problem areas in the coming weeks.

Here it is with the cover off after sleeping for and year and a half.


It's dusty but the paint still looks good.


I've had the resto battery sitting in the corner of my garage this entire time with a $10 Harbor Freight "tender" on it. I didn't know if it would still be usable or not. After setting the battery in place the engine cranked over strong. Those "tenders" must do their job. After a couple squirts of gas down the carb, the engine fired right off. While the engine was warming up I installed the battery hold down hardware. After the car was off the jack stands, I spent the next 1/2 hour/45 minutes maneuvering the car out of the shop. I had to squeeze it between the shop door and my cousin's camper. I don't think I had 2" clearance per side. Eventually, I got it out without scratching anything. I don't want to do that again though.

Rain showers were supposed to develop in the afternoon so I wanted to get home before the weather got bad. All was good until I got about a 1/2 hour from home when the rain hit. On the bright side, I got a chance to test out the wipers. Also, no water found its way into the interior or into the trunk so that's good. The car is very dirty now though. It will need its first hand washing very shortly. So, while it needs a lot of work, it's safely at home in the garage...with some company.

Take her on a roadtrip before you clean her up.