1972 Charger SE Project by CDN72SE

Hi All, I figured I would record my restoration (it will move slowly) here as I spend a lot of time on the site reading and following others restorations. I am also on the 71-74 site. This is my Y8 1972 Dodge Charger SE Brougham (production date 7-71) that I purchased from Nigel at National Moparts it was a rust-free North Carolina car that was parked due to a bad transmission and brought to Canada. To keep it running and because it was also a 318 car I swapped in my old 318 & TorqueFlite 727 from my first SE and drove it for about 5 years. It was last registered and on the road in 1992. It's traveled with me from place to place waiting for a restoration. I guess it's time to track what I will be doing, I am not a mechanic (or a body guy) but I have enjoyed working on my cars since I was young. I learned a lot early on from not having a lot of money to pay someone else to do the work for me. Funny enough now in my 40s I still don’t have the money.

This is basically how I bought it in August of 1992, I put on my Western Turbine rims that I had on my previous SE. It did come with 14" Rallye's which I sold to a guy with a Challenger. Then I bought a set of 15x7 Rallyes from Motor City Originals. Shortly after getting it home I added the Year One front spoiler, I also added the dual cut-out exhaust rear valence from a '74, it was pretty rusted, I cleaned it up and painted it, thought it looked cool even though my exhaust was nowhere near the openings. I never would have thought that 17 years later there would be new ones being produced, thanks AMD.

I’m not sure on the colour, I could go original but I probably won’t. I’m just adding the parts to it that I like such as the Ramcharger hood, front & rear spoilers, buckets, console with shifter, R/T taillights, hood pins and a tachometer to replace the clock. As far as the engine I will probably go with a 360.

I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions guys/gals.



Those are P275/60R15's on the rear and up front P255/60R15's.


Rattle-can WAL-Mart black primer:




Yes it has the rear spoiler decklid cut-outs and yes it is the original '72 decklid.  :2thumbs:


Here she sits, March 2007 just after me moved to the new house, double-car garage... finally, now I'll have some room to work on it. Don't really have a budget, I'll probably fund some of it by selling some of my extra "back-up" pieces (yes still have a few). This will be a slow restoration that's for sure, I'll be doing as much as I can.


Removed the hood, decklid, fenders, doors, etc.


Not too bad behind the fenders:


Quite a bit of undercoating.


Some rear shots:

The car is pretty much fully covered with factory undercoating:


Couple of my 318 from my previous 72 that I installed in this car:


Rented an engine hoist from my local Stephenson's Rental, took me about two hours by myself (I did take my time) to get it out, as you can see I left the tranny attached and pulled it out as a unit. I had to let the air out of the two front tires to give me enough clearance over the radiator frame. Maybe I could have gone higher with the jack but was a bit fearful that my anchoring bolts on the engine may give way.


Transmission separated:


After 18 years the 318 is out again.


Rolled it outside, you definitely don't see anything like this in my neighbourhood.


Removed the torsion bars, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, really had to whack them though.




Then I removed the 4 bolts for the K-Frame and dropped the whole assembly on to some blocks temporarily.


Here's the front suspension:

Rallye Wheel Center Caps

Decided to do a little cleanup of some '71 Rallye Wheel centre caps (appliques) that I bought off eBay, I have seven in total some are the correct dark (charcoal) colour for '71 and some are the argent silver for 1970. I loosely followed an article that I have from a June 1991 Musclecar Review magazine. Materials I used include: Eastwood's Charcoal Rallye Wheel paint, 000-grade steel wool, chrome polish, 3M masking tape, and new rallye wheel center cap inserts. This is the procedure I followed:

1. Use a fine grade scuff pad like a 3M or Scotch to rough up the area which will allow the paint to adhere. Be sure to get into all the hard-to-reach areas, like lug nut holes.

2. Use the steel wool to to clean the unpainted chrome areas and use a polish to then polish those areas.

3. Mask off the clean chrome areas with 3M masking tape, leave some overhang and then trim off the pieces with a sharp knife or razor blade. Mask the back of the holes to prevent overspray.

4. Then paint the cap keeping the spray approx. 18-30 inches away, remember to turn the cap around a few times to get all the areas and 100% coverage.


Here is the finish product, with a fresh coat of paint and a new center cap insert which I purchased off eBay. I think they look good enough and I spent about 1.5hrs and less than $40. The taping and masking was the time consuming part.


Interior
I had removed the interior years ago, originally gold with a benchseat. I replaced the bench with one green and one white bucket seat that I had purchased and some panels from my previous SE that had the blue interior. Some of the panels I painted black (bad vinyl spray) and the back seat. I think I'm going to go with a white interior. Still debating the exterior colour.


Some more, I still have one of the Chrysler issued trash bags that came with the car. POR-15, peeled in a lot of places, yes I followed the directions, that was applied in 1992.


Back seat area:


Trunk:


More - really not bad, the trunk has some surface rust and all floorboards are pretty solid.

Valances
That's the original '72 valance on the left and the one on the right is a '73 piece that I picked up NOS back in '92, I painted it in primer black and installed it on the car. It's still in excellent shape, but I'll be using the '72 (as everyone probably already knows they are different). The rear valance I had to buy, thought I'd better buy one just in case they decide to stop producing them.



Here is some evidence of where it was painted with some kind of black paint, even have the running paint to prove it. I often see a lot of these left body colour, maybe some are?

Rear Brakes
Got out the wire brush and the rust encapsulator, these are 10" drums.


I had some red paint kicking around so used it on the drums as I'm using rallye's.


Think I had changed the rear shoes once since I've owned it, not sure if the hardware is original or not, I did order a kit.


Took care of the backing plates, one finished and one unfinished, I did the vinegar, lemon juice and salt method for removing rust on these. Did an excellent job.


I used some rust encapsulator, primer and then some of Eastwood's black steel rim paint that I have kicking around.


Got the wheel cylinder gaskets from DMT, the wheel cylinders from Canadian Tire and the riveted brake shoes from Napa.

Headlight Buckets
Well I've got a few things on the go and trying not to get too far ahead of myself, been working on the rear leaf springs, rear brakes, heater box and headlight buckets. For now I'm concentrating on the headlight assembly and the heater box. So here are some pics of the start of my headlight and accessories re-fresh.

Drivers side fender with assembly attached:


Removed... not much to it, four bolts I'll bag those and clean them up later.


Took a bunch of shots of the position of everything for later:


Before cleaning, discovered the part numbers and paint marks, looks like we have red, orange and blue and I think black on the different cups, I have to record them:


Here's HI-LO-5-RT-.122 after a bath:


Here's one of the mounts after a little sanding and a few coats of Eastwood's Underhood Black Paint.


Next I'll finish cleaning the other parts, install the new headlight screws and hardware, reproduce the coloured stripes on the cups, polish the headlight rings and install the new sealed beams.

Heater Box
Compared my original heater box to one I bought off eBay, hoping to make one out of the two, unfortunately the parts one got damaged during shipping. I should still be able to put the two together.

Original:


Donor:


What I'm working with:


Acouple more:


Last of the many pics I took:


Ordered a kit to do the rebuild, I'll update as I go along.

Front Brakes & Components
Started to take apart the front brakes, I will clean up the calipers, maybe I'll rebuild them. Strip down the dust shields and paint them black as I do see that they had black paint on them. I bought new brake positioners and I have a pair of NOS hub grease caps.



Further taken apart:


Did a little painting:


More to come...

Valances
That's the original '72 valance on the left and the one on the right is a '73 piece that I picked up NOS back in '92, I painted it in primer black and installed it on the car. It's still in excellent shape, but I'll be using the '72 (as everyone probably already knows they are different). The rear valance I had to buy, thought I'd better buy one just in case they decide to stop producing them .

Crossmember
You can see how much undercoating I have on the bottom of this car, I plan on removing it. I guess some options are to just apply more undercoating over what's already there, leave it and patch or... what others have done use Lizardskin and re-cover the bottom. I have noticed in some spots where I have removed undercoating there is surface rust there so that leads me to believe that no everything is not going to be perfect underneath. I had gotten the car rustproofed over the years (Rustcheck) so I think that helped a lot and helped me dismantle the car with the basic tools I've always owned. I don't think I have ever broken a bolt.

The crossmember I'll de-grease and paint with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black. I bought a set of NOS crossmember bolts, they were cheap, mine were ok but all four were not the same. Does it make a difference? No, but hey they were NOS and now I can say I have some NOS parts.  

Ramcharger Setup
Well here's some of my Ramcharger parts, looks like I am missing one end cap or flapper or whatever you call it. Think I will be ordering one from PG Classics. I've bought many parts from them and the delivery is quick and the packaging is very good and oh yes the parts are nice as well.  :2thumbs:

Undercoating & Removal

Well, on sunday I got my propane torch and putty knife and decided to start removing the undercoating, I am planning on replacing it at some point. The bottom of the car is starting off very easily, I think mainly because I used to get the car rustproofed so it's kind of supple. I haven't come across any rust yet, I know there is a little bit of surface rust where the gas tank resides, there was no undercoating there as the undercoating was applied after all the components were already on the car. Needed the torch on the stuff in the wheel wells and the front wheel well area. I almost regret removing it but I didn't want to take a chance of their being rust present.

Here are some before pictures showing how much coverage the car has.




Gas tank area with a little surface rust:


You can see the little patch that is missing and how clean it is underneath:


Here are some progress pics, nothing too exciting:


The whole floorpan basically looks like this, I was trying not to scratch it too much with the putty knife.

Rear Axle & Differential

Thought I'd do a little cleaning of the axle, what a lot of caked on grease. I may replicate some of the paint daubs and markings not sure yet. Main goal is to strip it down, prime it and coat it with some of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black. With the differential I think I'll hit it with some Detail Gray.



Differential:


Started to do some detail of the rear.



Took care of the pinion snubber. De-greased it, soaked it in some Evaporust, primed it and then painted it.

Brake Pedal

Here is my brake pedal assembly that I just finished freshening up. Did it over a few days as time permitted. Here it is as removed from the car.





Disassembled:



Gave this part a little bath in the vinegar, lemon juice and salt solution. For the rest I used Evaporust, for light stuff I used the red scotchbrite pad and/or steel wool.



Cleaned up and painted:


These pieces I left their natural colour and coated with some of Eastwood's clear.


Here is a before shot:


Some more:


another, painted the whole thing with Seymour Stainless Steel paint and then sprayed over most of it with Eastwood's Underhood Black. Mine originally faded from black paint to bare steel.



Here it is all back together, wasn't hard to do and I think I'll move on to the emergency brake next.



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What a great job you are doing! Thanks for taking the time to do a step by step process with photos...alot of this info will help me with my Satellite.
Keep it up!
Mark

Thank you Mark, your comments are much appreciated.

I really like your car and what you're doing with it. Keep up the good work.

Sheldon

Thanks Sheldon.

Just picked up one of the blemished Tuff repro wheels from Dale's Cuda Shop, it's the one on the left. Nice part.

Cleaned up and painted the Wheelhouse Vapor Canister & Shields.

Before:



[

After:

Bucket Seats

My car was originally a benchseat model, ember in colour. I replaced that soon after I got the car with a pair of mismatched buckets; drivers side is white and passenger green. Both I painted with some cheap vinyl spray, duct tape and cheap seat covers.

I recently ordered some white front seat covers from Dante's. The plan is to colour match the interior with the front seats, I'll be switching the interior from black to white. Here's the seats as they sit.  :'(




Recently received my covers from Dante, very nice Legendary covers, I'll tackle these myself a little later.



Some interior color change. I lightly went over the panels with a scotchbrite pad on some of the scratches and followed the SEM procedure, here are some of the results:

Not too much to show lately, still removing paint from around the trunk and front & rear window gutters. Not very interesting stuff so I've kind of been starting other little projects as an aside.

Figured I'd take the plunge and buy a new Spectra gas tank, of course it's cheaper to buy it in the States and have it shipped to Canada, even though it's Canadian made there is not much choice as to where to purchase it here and it's more than double the price. Mine is dented quite a bit, so to avoid hassles I thought I'd purchase new.



Here's my new tank, what a beauty.



Test fit the tank:




Started going through my stash of Slapstick shifter stuff, before AMD came out with theirs I purchased some original brackets off ebay. I'm going from column to floor shift.



I also started stripping the front and rear bumper brackets. Will use some rust encapsulator on them followed by some eastwood's extreme chassis black.







Got the rear bumper guard brackets finished up as well, one NOS and the other has some slight surface rust that I removed after soaking in Evaporust for a few hours:


Here they are after a couple coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator and Chassis Black, with original nuts and clips:

Hidden Headlight Grille

I'll put the refresh of my grille here as I work on it. Not a bad set-up does have a bit of the usual pitting but not too bad and nothing broken.



Did some masking and used Eastwood's Underhood Black.



Added the DODGE emblem, going for a similar look to the 71 style.



Here's the grille surrounds:


Got the surrounds done, still need to polish the chrome, I'm happy with the results. Here's a couple pics.



another







**Edit, after all that I decided to go with the '71 setup.

...

Got the front sway bar finished.





Used Eastwood Chassis black, Seymour's Stainless steel paint and the bushings are Moog.

Received my set of KYB shocks from Just Suspension, these are to replace the set I last bought in 1991. I was tempted to re-use them because the car has mostly been off it's suspension all these years. I did have to cut the two rears off so that swayed me to buy a new set. They are sort of a dark silver colour, look good but I thought I would paint them black, three more to go.

I paid US$125 for the set, in 1991 I paid CAD$105 just for the front!

EXCELLENT write up! Excellent pics too.

Don't worry about the speed of the progress, as long as you're making progress!

Thanks John and I love that wagon.

CDN72SE – Great project car! We look forward to more updates. What do you plan on doing with the car when you’re done? If you’re going to drive it hard, you may want to consider at least upgrading the front sway bar . Dodge didn’t put great sway bars on their early musclecars, in fact some didn’t even come with one.

Your doing a bang up job!attention to detail is first rate.....its always satisfying to do the hard stuff yourself!keep up the good work....look foward to seeing it come together and on the road...

Thanks a lot Joe that means a lot, I don't get much encouragement on the home front. Alan.

Thanks for checking out my little thread, lol. I have seen your sway bars and I have seen them on a '72, very nice. Don't think I'll be doing much hard driving but I have been considering one when the price is right. I'm also considering a rear bar.

Small update, got the rear drums finished.

Got the wheel cylinder gaskets from DMT, the wheel cylinders from Canadian Tire and the riveted brake shoes from Napa.

Rear Taillights

Decided to take a look at these this past weekend, I have one NOS black and one a nice argent taillight. The plan is to re-finish them both with the tri-colour effect, black, grey (or darker argent) and argent. I am not too concerned with them looking OEM exact. I've got so many different cans of silver, argent, aluminum, grey it's getting nuts so whatever I have on my shelf that is the closest I think I will use.

Here's the black bezel.



and the argent:



Started masking:


Got it painted:


Ready to spray some argent I had kicking around for the outer part of the bezel:


Thought I'd share my mistake, I painted these two bezels two weeks apart and somewhere along the line I mixed up the finishing paint, one I used Eastwood's Spray Gray and the other is Detail Gray. I think the top is Detail Gray, when I have made the correction I'll straighten it out.  :brickwall: Well at least I have two different samples.



Installed:

awesome work

Thanks Darren.

Really impressive you are doing great work! keep the pictures coming. Awesomeeeeee

Dennis

Thank you very much Dennis and I've been watching your build, very nice work you are doing on your '73 I can't wait to see it finished.

everything is looking nice.

License Plate Brackets - Rear

Not in too bad of condition, let's see if I can clean it up a bit, here are some before shots.





After:





Last one:



Front

Soaked in Evaporust & then a couple coats of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator.



Then sprayed with Extreme Chassis Black:

Awesome job your doing my friend.
I'm doing the same to a 71. Nut and bolt rotisserie restoration. Just keep plugin away a little at a time.

Keep up the good work!!

Thanks Rich & John.

Is that silver type paint the rust bullet?


Looks awesome btw

Hey your doing a great job, love the pics I wish I had the time to document my car like you are doing, but I never seemed to have the time. Looks like your starting off with a nice solid car, it will save you a ton of money in the long run, keep up the good work. By the way what color are you painting it.

Thanks, the silver paint is Seymour's Stainless Steel on some parts and the license plate holder I used Eastwood's Galvanized paint.

Quote:

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Hey your doing a great job, love the pics I wish I had the time to document my car like you are doing, but I never seemed to have the time. Looks like your starting off with a nice solid car, it will save you a ton of money in the long run, keep up the good work. By the way what color are you painting it.

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Thanks, much appreciated. I only have the time because I probably won't have body and paint done for at least another year so I'm taking my time with the small things. I'm going back and forth on color but I'm leaning toward B5 Blue or Y9 Tawney Gold Poly.