I started this post on another site and just moved it so I had to do a little editing to make it flow better, so please bear with me

I'm in the process of getting a 1974 Challenger back on the road after 10 or so years of neglect including sitting nearly under water for 3 days after Hurricane Floyd in 98 (?). My dad got it in 75 when it was 6 months old. I was 20 then. 3 years ago my folks moved here to Omaha from NC and Dad and I were planning to restore it together but he was struck down with health ailments and died in January of cancer. I'm trying to finish the job with the guidance of his spirit First job was to repair the rust hole in the gas tank. Won't run well when it won't hold gas LOL. Tank is done and reinstalled. Next; brakes. Then body work. I had to strip the ragged vinyl top to slow down the rust around front and rear glass. I’m at work right now and most of my pictures are at home or on the other site, but here’s what it looked like when we got it “home.”
Stay tuned for updates

Good luck Scott Carl. My dad bought my '71 RR for a project to restore with us kids. Years gone by and my dad felt that he couldn't do things anymore. So for Xmas of '06, I got it for my present. We've had it for 23yrs now. I'm taking on the task of doing it but in the spirit of what we talked to dad as to what and how far to go with the restoration.

P.S I'm originally from Omaha(AKA the big "O"). I remember as a kid going to Baxter Dodge with my dad to look at the cars there.

Looks like a fun project i love these posts so i will be checking in here often!

Steve

Stuff I've done:

Patched and sealed the tank with POR15


Da brakes. I didn't turn the drums or rotors. They weren't that bad.

Stuff I need to do just for starters. There's much, much, more

Interior needs a little work. Headliner is in pretty good shape as Dad had replace it b4 the flood. Door panels and back seat panels need replacing.



rust around front and rear glass



Better do something with that top too! ...and I'll probably iron out the rear valance that sitting off to the left here



As I said, I got my challenger from my dad who was the second owner, so that makes me the third. Due to circumstances from spreading himself too thin (he owned and or maintained a couple dozen cars after his retirement from the Marine Corps) to all of his time he devoted to the Shriners and Masons, the Challenger got neglected. It pretty much sat for at least 10 years. Well after 3 years of it sitting here in Omaha, I finally made time to start on it.
Well, Brakes are done and its running!! Not without a little effort mind you LOL First I had to solve the problem of it not cranking with the key. Turns out I have a bad neutral switch so I created a temporary work around by grounding the ground terminal on the starter relay. Next I had to figure out why it wouldn't idle. Remember, this car sat for more than 10 years and sat under water after a hurricane in NC. Dad drained the engine and transmission and got it running again and then had to move on to other priorities. Well I think most of Atlantic Beach had settled in the float bowl Long story short, I bought a carb kit and fixed the idle problem. Had to add some dexron but I was able to drive it around the block. First time for me in 20 years I have some noise coming from the rear end. I shoved as much grease in the axle bearings as I could without taking them off while I did the rear brakes but not sure of their integrity. They didn't look too bad but it could be the input shaft bearing too... or all three. Well I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Next project after I fix the rear end noise is the exhaust. It broke at the muffler while I was working on getting it to run.
"If it ain't one thing, it's another. It just goes ta show ya; its always somethin'!!" Got in to move it one day and saw antifreeze on the passenger side floor mat. Heater cores are too bad in price, but I'm just bypassing for now.
I drove the car to my friends garage to store for the winter and notice a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust. Some, I’m pretty sure is bad valve seals and some may be rings. There’s less than 100,000 miles on the stock 318, but with the neglect, I’m surprised I was able to even get it to run. I have no qualms about an overhaul and when I do it I’ll go ahead and throw a cam in. I have an AVS that according to the digits is a LP off a 71 C body. Freshen up the 318 with that, the cam and dual exhaust, it should be a little less sluggish than stock I don’t plan to race it; Its just the stock 904 tranny with a one wheeler 8 ¾ rear. But It should be fun. Well, Thanks for your interest and any helpful criticism or suggestions
Scott

... and SERIOUSLY Dad! those white walls have gotta go I'm also thinking of using these wheels in place of the stock rallies. I thought I might sell the Rallye wheels to finance another phase of my project, but not sure if I could get that much for them, or just put them away for safe keeping. I'm open to suggestions These wheels are just sitting collecting dust. I got them for some money someone owed me and I think they are from American Racing but I need to find the center caps or buy new ones

FYI those are Ford Ranger/Explorer wheels from the mid 90's

LOL Boy, do I feel foolish Thanks. I was trying to identify them. May rethink the wheel swap thing Are they worth anything??

Pig tracks I guess I never paid much attention til I started working on the Challenger, My nephew gave them to me cause of some money he owed me. Not sure where I got the idea they were aftermarket. Buddy at work may want to trade me though!! He says he has some Keystone Klassics he's willing to swap. May just keep the Rallyes, however. They are a nice enough looking wheel. 'Specially if I get rid of those dang white walls LOL

So, Scott...do you have anything to update? I know in another post you said that you took the car to a friends house for the winter.

Do you have any more pictures to share? Give us a run down of all the options exc. Looks like the car is a factory black with black stripe car. Very cool!!!

Yeah its on the back burner for the winter. Maily due to money but there's the weather, recovering from back surgery, uh, did I mention money?? LOL Basic black on black with black interior. Really only option was power steering and Auto Trans. Don't even have power brakes. My dad added the Sears AC within a month of buying it. Depending on what kind of cash we all see out of the upcoming Stimulus package, I hope to start on the seats as the next project or dual exhaust. Really want to get started on the engine too, but did I mention the money thing?

I suggets you do what I do when I have no money to invest in my project- work on free things, like inspecting and cleaning up the wiring harness, gauges, etc. You can usually find plenty to do in the dead of winter and once it's done, you can put it in a storage bin and it's ready to be installed once the car is ready.

You've got a great start on the car.

It had black strobe stripes on it right? I think 72 might have been the only year for a stripe delete option on the Rallye. I love black cars with flat black stripes!!!

Yup. Flat black stobe stripes decal Another delema on the finish. If I put the vinyl back on, I surely want to redo the stripes. However, if I go with a bare top, I'm not sure if the stripes would look right. I wish I had thought of this before my PhotoShop trial ran out LOL

It doesn't matter if you put the vynal top back on or not. You HAVE to put the stripes back on.

I've never really cared for the louvers without the stripes. Flat black stripes on a black car look awsome. However it's your car and you can do whatever you wish.

One more "B4" picture then hope to post just "progress" from here This was from the trip to bring it home from NC. Lost a lot of the vinyl on that trip LOL

Well, it was a long winter but she's back home. Started right up! Smoked a bit but I still think the carb's loading up bad. Its mostly a dark smoke, but did clear up quite a bit after it was warmed up. I believe its not as bad as last fall though so maybe the rings are freeing up and reseating? After all it did sit un-run for many years. No worries. I don't mind going through it eventually if need be.
Today, I pulled the back seats, side panels and headliner. I want to get stated on the rust around the front and back glass so that all had to come out. Plan to pull the back glass and start there as its he worst. While I was pulling the bottom seat cushion I found something cool! I read about it all the time here, but I never gave it much though, but low and behold, there it was; the broadcast sheet!! It was tuck neatly between the springs and webbing. I had t carefully pull the springs back as i was so brittle. Remember, it had sat underwater during a hurricane!! I pulled the top of it apart but I have it all I think Gonna try to laminate it or something. It's too fragile to handle otherwise. Well, onward through the fog!!

Black/blackish smoke is from overfueling. Blue would be oil, and white, of course, is coolant typical of a head gasket. What you are describing sounds pretty typical for an automatic choke Mopar, especially if it's not right up to tune. No matter...now the fun starts...and the long process of bringing her back to her former glory.

Good luck!

Finally made some more progress. After pulling the rear glass, I started on some body repair around the frame. Need to order clips for the trim, yet. Vinyl I ordered for the seats is here but I'm waiting until I finish work on the top and windshield/rear glass frames b4 doing upholstery; No room to keep anywhere but in the car when done and I don't want them to get wet soooo Got new axle bearings done and installed. Took it for a test drive today. The rear end noise is gone! That takes a lot of the weight off my mind. I really don't want to learn diff repair right now LOL Also, while driving it, there doesn't seem to be as much smoke as when I first got it running. There's the white smoke at first and a puff when ever I get into the gas pedal after slow cruise, so I guessing mostly head gaskets and the carb loading up. Really need to think about a new fuel sending unit soon too. Before I could go anywhere today, I had to go get gas in the gas can. Fuel gauge no worky and of course, tank was MT. It's always something
Pictured is the area I'm working on currently. Pretty; huh?

Also,

Question, is that flash rust on your patch panel?

No rust. It's just the paint that is discolored from heat. The patch was cut from a door panel salvaged after I replaced a door on my 74 PW. Truck was gold, but when I cut the old door down to "storable" pieces, the paint discolored on the edges. I will buff the paint off before welding begins. I just have it held with magnet for test fitting

ok phew, i made the mistake once and i will never do it again.

One down, about ten more to go and I can put the glass back in (of course, after I do the finish work )

The "Before" picture:

Looks much better Scott!

Joe

Scott that patch is awesome!! Nice work! I'll suggets you strip the interior thoughust to make it easier and not to burn anything useable!

You saw mine - no vinyl top, but strobes - I like it. I decided to prep and paint it without the top, knowing it could be added by me or another owner with little effort.

Keep it going!!

Looking good! I'd keep the Rallyes btw, they look great on it

Well, another season is drawing to a close. Don't suppose it will be finished this year either. Guess that's why its a hobby Rust is all patched around rear glass frame but I won't get the glass back in this year. I have a tarp over it now and my nephew is letting me store it in his garage for the winter. Up side is: its bigger than buddies where I kept it last year, so I could actually work on it. Down side: its a lot further away.
Got bored and pulled out the rotten carpet and looky what I found!! If it were easy I guess more people would be doing it LOL

The car has the typical oxidation on all the door and rear interior panels. I don't see me replacing with new ones anytime soon (unless they quit picking the wrong lottery numbers But I noticed that if you scrape the oxidation off, it doesn't look too bad underneath. OK it doesn't look as bad. OK its at least black plastic instead of gray powdery crud that sheds off every time you touch it. So, on another bout of boredom I sat with a beer (or two..ok JEEZE!! THREE!!!) and a dull knife and scraped down both door panels. They looked pretty rough when I was done so I wiped the down with some vegetable oil (it was handy and I couldn't find the Armour-All). IMHO, They don't look too bad! Gonna do the same to the rear panels but there is some material missing all together on the portion where they meet the rear window shelf. Like I said, I'm not trying to do a 100 point car; I may get new panels someday, but for now I'll live with them and maybe see if I can do something with the leftover seat vinyl in the way of a "cover-up"

Here is a project car I found sitting in the woods since 1972 on my friends property. The car has a 273 commando engine that is seized. Currently I ran out of money for the project and itis sitting until spring (because I am working on my sons 68 cougar xr7). I have a set of front disc brakes from a 66 valiant, replacement gastank, and new fuel lines ready to go in. Anybody know where I can get the brake booster re-built. The hood is sitting in the gararge.

Any help you coud offer will be appreciated since I am not sure what I am doing.You could contact me at anthonyrusso4@comcast.net or just send me a pm.

The owner of the property has a few more mopars there - 66 dart gt, 64 dodge 500, and a few more darts of various years.

Thnaks.

Thought I'd update my progress. I did some welding and pretty much have it all wrapped up around the back glass. Just have to do the finish and paint but I won't be getting that done this season. Getting ready to put it back in storage for the winter, I have the glass in my office (Wife loves the new decoration ) I don't have a pic yet after all the welding was done but here are a few during work. Enjoy!

Here is after I got the rust cut out. Interior bracing I shot undercoat in until it dripped. Should slow down that problem area at least until I die LOL

More:

And more: BTW, NO I didn't weld with the seat still in the back. I just took the pick after I stuck it back in

Also, I'm gathering components for the upcoming engine upgrade. I got this manifold and a pair of magnum exhaust manifolds from my nephew (Thanks again Tony ) The intake is off a mid-60s 273. The AVS my dad already had and is, according to the p/n, off a 71 C-body BB so I will have to drill the base plate to make it work on the SB intake. Window shopping for a cam kit. Looking at the stock 340 cam or one of the milder aftermarket cams in that performance range. Lunati's are in my ball park budget. I can't wait to start on the engine. It's been years since I've done any serious engine work and I'm looking forward to the extra power. It runs pretty good now, however; the rings seem to have loosened up and re-sealed after the years of sitting. Last time I ran it it only smoked on initial start-up. I figure worn valve guides or the valve seals aren't doing their job very well any more. There is only 102k on it but as I said in the OP, it sat idle for many years and there was that flood thingy LOL. Onward and forward

Just a few updates: It was a long hard winter here in the Heartland. With record snowfall, the car was inaccessible for much of the winter due to where I had it stored. Safe, dry, but totally snowed in. Well its back home now. The drive was interesting; engine seems to be getting better (rings getting freer and reseated?) but the trans won't shift into drive. Consequently, I drove the 15 or so miles from my nephew's garage to home in second gear and could only cruise 35 or 40 mph (50 or so coasting down hills;) )All guestamations as the speedo doesn't work either. Checked the kickdown linkage and it seems to be in good working order and I assume the adjustment is correct since its never been removed, so I'm going to drop the pan and maybe the valve body. Maybe so crud clogging things up. I have the BB AVS tore down to put a kit in it and drilled mounting holes to match the SB manifold. Gotta find some jets cuz I boogered one up removing it. Hey! the screwdriver worked on everything else LOL Note to self: check screw to driver match before twisting on brass jets in a 40 year old carb
Also started the upholstery project. I have all but the driver's seat removed and the old covers ripped apart to use for patterns for new vinyl. WOW that was some crusty crunchey vinyl in the sun exposed areas. The piping along the back seat rest was actually fused to the parent vinyl from the years of sun beating through the back glass I couldn't get it apart without tearing up my pattern piece so I will have to "improvise, adapt, and overcome" Well its been too windy and rainy lately to get any welding done on the body so I'm mostly concentrating on mechanical stuff for now. I think I will start on the floor board(s) when I do start welding again, also entertaining the thought of frame connectors while I have the floor out, but that's another chapter...Need to rewatch some episodes of Muscle Car on Spike TV
OK, in the mean time, here's some pics. Thanks for looking.

This is the carb base after drilling new mounting holes:

old vinyl:

The foam isn't too bad but needs some patching where it was exposed when the covers failed. However, all of the foam under the "tuck 'n' rolled" panels will be replaced as I have to sew through it and the vinyl to form the pseudo T'n'R Here's the front bucket cover:

One more:

One of these days I'll start showing some progress LOL. In the mean time, yesterday I pull the pan off the 904 to see why it won't shift into drive and found fluid that looks like strawberry milkshake. I've been told its due to the submersion issue. (see OP)The transmission is basically toast. The amazing thing is that it has any go-power at all (got 1st and 2nd) but I guess I will be spending the cash I had rat-holed for engine work on a tranny kit first
While I had the front of the car at eye level, I took the grill and front valance off and took the cop bumpers off. IMHO, even without the grill and valance it looks better already without those @#$%& shin busters.
Onward and forward

Scott, while you are there, why don't you drill a couple holes in the bumper brackets and move the bumper in. That way you can do away with the rubber bumper fillers. There are a couple square holes in the brackets that you can drill out to 5/8". That will allow you to move everything back to where the 70-72's were. I'm afraid that the bumper will look too far forward if you don't.

I havn't done it personally but have read that it can be done. The brackets that mount to the frame rails have a few square holes in them just forward of the round holes. You are supposed to be able to move the whole assembly back. Here is the link. Look at ResQ911's post.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/favl...amp;postmarker=

Thanks again Darren.
I've been trying to get all my "Before" pictures out of the way and realized I haven't show the engine bay yet. Purdy ain't she?. Plain ol 318 in need of some TLC. Nothing special...unless you count the Sears aftermarket A/C compressor. And if you look real close, you can see I'm totally rockin' the sword handle transmission dip stick

Sheese! Has it really been nearly 2 years since I last posted? Well, in my defense, last summer, I spent a good part reorganizing my garage to better accommodate my hobbies. No I can't pull in and work in the garage. I haven't been able to do that for 15 years due to my other hobby, artistic blacksmithing and fabrication. However, I do have all (or most) of mine and Dad's tools under one roof now and have all of them accessible as well as my fab machines, i.e. welders, drill press, lathe and such, where before, the garage was a mess to work in; everything buried by the honey-do stuff that gets tossed out there "until I get time". But I digress...
Last fall I swore over a mug of my favorite brew that the engine and trans were going to get done this spring and to commit myself, I pulled them out and tore down the engine and wrapped the 904 up with a tarp and stored it for the winter. Monday morning, I took the block to my engine guy for boiling, decking and boring. Not sure how for out the holes were (not much by the fingernail over the ridge measurement), but we should be good at .030 over. I did some quick number crunching, and then googled a cid calculator, and found that at .030 over, it makes a 318 a 322. No real reason to report that except I’m glad I don’t have to go .060 over because that would yield about 327 cubic inches and I ain’t having no 327 in my Mopar!! Just sayin!
The crank mic'd out to near factory specs and so far, the valves are looking pretty good but I'm at the very least, looking at exhaust guides and of course, grinding. Once I get the heads apart and off the engine guy I will clean house and bring the trans in and get started on that. I bought a complete rebuild kit and shift reprogram kit; all new clutches, steels, bushings bands etc.
Well, that’s all to report for now. Next post, I hope to have something picture worthy to include.
Scott

Well its been a long hot summer but we're making some progress. I had a set back on the block; the original block turned out to be bad. After decking it my machinist discovered a hole in the wall of #5 cylinder. Probably a result of sitting for so long after the flood. (see OP) After finding a donor block, there was another delay as it had a small chip at the top of one of the holes that machinist wasn't sure would come out after it was decked. Fortunately the guy I got it from was willing to trade for another and we moved on. Acid dipped, decked, bored .030" new bearings pistons and rings.

I couldn't find a degree wheel in town to save me so I did some research and found someone had drawn one up on CAD and posted it on another car forum. I printed it out as large as I could on printer paper and glued it to a piece of sheet metal with 3M spray adhesive and then drilled (hole-sawed) a hole in the center.

Couldn't do anything until I made a pointer...
I'm using Comp's High Energy cam kit XE256H-10 with a .447/.455 lift and 256/268 duration and I got the cam withing 1 degree of the 106 degree spec using -4 notch on the crank gear.

Just about done! Ready for paint tomorrow?? (No, it's not gonna be Red )

Had to make a heat shield for the intake...

Before I drilled it for the rivets:

Ready to install:

Finally got it back in the car:

Thanks, Doug. Are those your stock bumpers?

mine is just another 74 challenger too! 26 years and counting.

Nice!

I had them deleted on mine '72 when I ordered it and it wasn't suppose to have a vinyl top, but was ordered as a demo, heads were shaved to 11.75-1, build date was April of '71, got it in November of ,71. It had mostly '71 parts, whole driveline plus extras. Those sly dealerships hopping up their demo models was par for the Big 3. Columbiaparts.com has bumperettes I believe. I have a set of OEM '73 bumpers from a parts car. Brackets for bumpers on late '72 on, were longer and had another bolt in the frame and bracket, can use them for pre'72 by cutting off the second hole. Don't ever use a bumper jack as it will bend the bumpers.....always, any style.

Ive used bumper jack (using proper slot) for years with no issue. Is the reinforcing bar behind bumper missing on the bent bumpers??

Another winter has come and gone and no real new progress as the last month, when weather was nice enough to work on cars, I was recovering from knee surgery. Ready to continue on now though. If I haven't mentioned it before, I am a chronic DIYer. OK, I'm cheap! I am building my own exhaust system from straight tubing. I bought 2 1/2" pipe from NAPA and took it to Mieneke Mufflers and had them make some key bends. When I went to pick them up, they explained that the tubing I brought was too thin to get the "U" bends for over the axle without kinking. What they did was sub my pipe for some heavier gauge stuff they had. I took in pieces that were just the right length to make the bend and I planned to tack and weld on the tail pipes once I knew where I wanted them. They used a full stock length (I think 8') pieces X 2 and let me keep the excess length. Cool Beans!!
I using magnum exhaust manifolds and rather than buying the flared head pipe sections and mounting flanges, I decided to make my own. Simply flaring the 2.5" pipe on the ends like a bell proved to be too loose for the ball end of the manifold. I cured this by rolling the flare back sharper to make the mounting surface tighter. Not as much surface area as stock but I don't think they took a 2.5" pipe as stock. Just hoping they are round enough and flanges are rigid enough. Considering welding some truss like gussets on them to help with that. Here a couple shots of the flanges and flares. I will mount on the engine first before I cut to length and determine where the first bend will start.

Went with an all aluminum radiator (old one wasn't worth refurbing). Also going to run a thermostatically controlled electric fan.

Update: Close to finishing up exhaust. I fabricated hanger mounts to bolt in place of the factory shipping tie-down brackets on the rear frame rails

mounted:

Then, I made the pipe hangers to work with universal rubber biscuit style hangers:

Another view:

And the passenger side:

Next step is to re-attach the valance so tailpipe locations can be established. Should be fun I will be making cut-outs for the yet-to-be-determined exhaust tips as well as covering the cut-outs for the soon-to-be-history "Nader" bumper pads. I also have to do some ironing out of "storage dings" Sorry in advance, neighbors. Its gonna get noisy!!

Body work continues. Goal: re install glass before first snow

Ready for spot putty but Gonna get some paint in the frame. I'm not putting plastic over the hole again this year

Those exhaust hangers are cool! I've never seen anyone do that before. That's pretty slick. I'll have to remember that one. Good job!

Thanks, Darren! I wanted something I could pick up at any parts store and install without modification. Turns out the universal rubber biscuits are virtually identical to the stock ones on my 98 Ram! I'm pleased with the results. Among my other hobbies is blacksmithing and fabrication. I like seeing what I can make myself rather than have to spend $$$ on stock parts. Allows more for LOL

Scott

Started putting color on: Main idea here is to get the rear glass back in before winter, so while I would like to paint as much of the car as possible, the top is the only real area ready for it. I ran out of primer so this is all I was able to coat so far. I am doing the "Paint Job on a Budget" plan and one of the bennies of this method no worries of paint dust and wasting a lot of paint in the wind. I figure the spray bomb primer I was using negated this benefit so I'm going to roll the remainder of primer as well as the finish color. I have been following the budget paint thread for several years now and while most have had good results, I was really pleasantly surprised with how good it looks albeit this is just the first coat. I was especially surprised at how well it leveled out. At first I had a fair amount of orange peel and I expected it; the main gripe about the method from antagonists is orange peel and the required sanding and leveling. My paint was pretty self-leveling, but again, its just the first coat.

Scott

One more. If the final work turns out satisfactorily, I suppose I will be obliged to add to the Budget thread

Just read through your build thread. Nice work. I wish I had the fab and welding skills that a lot of you guys on here have. I will be following this one for sure

Thanks for your interest. I hope you are patient as I, as winter has reared his ugly head once again and work is slowing down. I put the trim clips in today and went and bought butyl tape, but I don't think its going to be warm enough to put glass back in for awhile. Looking like another winter of duct tape and plastic

Scott

Good work! It seems to be never ending details until you get to do something significant doesn't it? You are a lot farther along than me. Keep it going. I hope you have some place inside for the long cold winter to work on the car.

Well Its been a while since I updated this thread but progress has been made. The engine is ready to start and we made an attempt last Sunday, but no joy. Without re typing all the gory details I'll just offer this link to the thread about it.

P.S. Where'd all my pictures go??

I was thinking the same thing!

They were all uploads. No hosting so IMHO, its a site issue The link seems to work on some of them. Just no thumbnail Grrr

Dang it! It seems to be a trend; posting every two years! Well, its running!! (Got it started last summer) I ended up running with the GM HEI module and e-core coil. Seems to run well, although I have to iron out some timing issues. I have never driven a car with a shift kit in the tranny; Wow! Talk about SOLID shifts!

The main project over the winter was to work on the bumpers. I only got the rear done but Im happy with the result. I knew I wanted to pull them in 2", so I used 2" square tubing for the job of modifying the stock bumpers. I know; There goes another stock part, gone for ever...

Here's some pics:

Still needs a little tweaking but that's the final profile

And make slots out of the holes...

tack in place

Welded

Trimmed

Finally, I ground them flat so they'd mount solid and painted them for corrosion prevention

Just realized I never got around to posting pic of installed bumper. I need to do a little shimming to set the bumper square in the fender recess, but I am happy with the results Now to finish the valance and trim exhaust to length and then on to the front bumper. (Actually they're done but I haven't installed it yet so I'm waiting to post until its on the car.) Just so much honey-do stuff and so little Scott these days. I need to put my grandsons to work LOL

Edit: Guess I did post pic earlier

looks much better

Thanks, I'm happy!