My '72 Challenger project
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I have all of the hanging panels at my house now.... man that bonnet is stupidly big & crazy heavy, it will be a 3 or 4 man job for sure when it's time to put that on the car without damaging any of the paint..
The plan now is that the engine bay, the door jams & the inside of the car will be painted this week & then the exterior of the car should be painted next week.. exciting times ahead for my overly packed shed...
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The whole engine bay & inner door jams where fully rubbed back ready for paint this morning....
Then several layers of stunning liquid black gold where applied..... the pics don't do the depth of this paint justice....
Next week the body gets this treatment.... can't come soon enough
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Gotta love delivery day... so that's all 8 cars at home for the first time... I've been told that due to the use of slow release hardner not to touch the paint as much as that's possible for a week or so... not a problem as I'll be focusing on putting the car back on her wheels & off the dolly first so that's all under the car work & not impacting the paint.
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I wanted to get the car off of the transport dolly & back onto her wheels today, so fist step was to jack her up & unbolt the dolly & wheel it out from under.
Then I assembled the diff again, putting the springs back on it
Then I very very carefully slid it under & connected the front spring hanger before jacking up the whole diff to do up the rear shackles
I've had to use the old rear shackles as I can't find the box with the good new ones in, but I'll swap them out later when I find them.
Next job was to look at fitting the front K frame...
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I was able to do up the two rear 5/8 bolts for my new QAI tubalar K frame... as they are the same as the OEM bolts but it turns out that the front's need to be 4.5 inches long & they don't come with the K frame from QA1 sadly....
None of my local hardware shops stock much non metric bolts so I spent a long time fruitlessly looking for some 5/8 x 4.5" bolts... couldn't find any so that has stopped play for the day.
I've ordered a set from an online bolt place here but they won't arrive till next week... lucky for me I have other projects to redirect my efforts, so I'm off now to so some work on the GT-Four Rally car.
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It was stupid hot in the shed today, it was 38 C outside & well into the high 40's inside... note to self look into AC seriously for the shed.... anyway I wanted to get the front suspension back on the car, I would like to get her up on the hoist by next weekend. The longer 4.5" long bolts for the K-Frame arrived during the week so I was able to get that all bolted up.
Some of this suspension was already on the car before I took her apart but the tubular K-Frame from QA1 is new as are these QA1 lower Arms
I cleaned up the main pivot as it had some tiny surface rust on it & then greased it up before bolting them on
Then I just popped the ball joint on the old arm to free the spindles
The upper arms have rose joints & as you probably know rose joints are suspect to getting grit & dirt on them that can cause wear & failure so I went with the option of cleaning them off with some brake clean then greasing them up & then covering them in some little rubber boots I found online.
Trying to fit these was a lot like trying to put a swimming cap on a fridge.... but I finally figured out a way to get them easy enough
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On went the spindle
I remembered from the first time I fitted these upper arms that this relocating bracket required some of the body of the car to be clearanced of course this is all new metal so the clearancing needed to be done again, but as I'd done it before it was only one cut & then a test fit needed.
Then it was simple enough to just bolt them in... now there is heaps of adjustment for these arms but that will have to wait till a lot more of the car is back together.
Next up was to install the front struts after fitting a rubber boot to their rose joints too
That's most of the front end that I need in order to get the wheels on & roll her onto the hoist anyway...
I went to bolt the steering box back on, but with the car on stands like this there wasn't a lot of wiggle room under there for me with something this heavy & awkward... I couldn't get it to line up at all, it actually looks like the 3 holes on the K-Frame don't line up with the holes on the body of the steering box... but it's hard to really see or at least it was tonight but by this stage I was well past hot & frustrated so I decided to pull the pin for the night. Plus I actually don't need it fitted to make the car into a rolling shell, I'll just use a length of wood or strap steel to lock the wheels together so that they turn together & then I can work on fitting the steering box with the car on the hoist where it will be much easier to work on & modify if I need too...
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Wanted to get the Dodge back on her wheels tonight as I hope to move her to the hoist on the weekend as that just makes reassembly life so much easier. Figured I'd put the torsion bars back in, so Dodge didn't use springs in these cars but used these long bars, mine are the thicker options from Hotchkis.
They lock in place with one end in the chassis crossmember & the other end goes into the lower control arm & then an adjuster in that lower arm makes it a 1 minute job to raise or lower the car by twisting on the bar & making the bar more or less springy
I'd forgotten that these are a bitch to slide home, both hex ends are a tolerance fit & the bar also needs to be pulled under tension... I was able to pull the bar to line it up but trying to pull the hex ends into their respective homes just had me sliding along the floor & the bar not moving... so I decided stuff it.. I'll do this job when the car goes on the hoist. Probably better that way anyway as if I wait till I have the engine in etc then I can set the initial clocking of the bar for the ride height I want with the weight in the car.
Without the bars installed there is some serious rake angle happening there... so much so that I do think the front might be too low to be able to clear the crossbar of the hoist as I try & roll it up... but that's future Dave's issue I guess.
I have a few tiny jobs left on the GT-Four now to do the next two nights & then hopefully that's kinda finished & I can focus 100% on getting some good progress made on this from this weekend on.
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I haven't had as much time to spend on this as I would have liked since putting her on the hoist... but I got a bit done this weekend. The first thing I wanted to get installed was the torsion bars, I know I've said this before but these old Dodges don't have springs up front they run these thick bars that have hex heads that lock into the chassis & the lower control arms & the weight of the car works against the torsion bars & twists them to give the springy effect normally supplied by a spring...
You can see above where the C clip goes in to stop the bar from moving back out... the coolest feature of this style of suspension is that you can use the bolt that you see hanging down from the bottom of the lower arm (just below the QA1 sticker) to add or remove tension to the bar & that in turn adjusts the cars ride height up & down in a matter of seconds.
I've taken a guess at the ride height I want... won't know if I got that right until the engine & the panels are on to put the full weight onto the bars
Next up was installing the steering box
I needed to do a little clearance work as the steering box was fouling on the aftermarket lower control arm when the suspension was moved through its full range
Then the steering arms went on
The idler arm needed some shims as the bracket it bolts into has a larger opening that the old stock K frame had...
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Spent the day working on the rear of the car, I replaced the front spring bolts... didn't bother with a pic of that just imagine a new 5/8" grade 8 nut & bolt.. Found the new rear shackles that need to go on.
QA1 shocks went back in
Next up was the rear sway bar, so dog bones installed first then the ubolts to attach the bar to the diff tubes
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I knew I was going to have an issue with the new wheels & the original wheel studs, they aren't long enough when you do a rear drum to disk conversion to the brakes & take into account the thickness of the new 17" wheel. With the original 14" wheel & a brake drum on you have just over 16mm of thread showing... according to the research I've done you need to have the width of the bolt (or stud in this case) as thread engagement to have a secure clamping force... so I'd need a minimum of 12.5mm of thread engagement.
With the brake disk on & the wheel on I had about half of the thread engagement that I need..
I really struggled with aftermarket longer wheel stud options that would fit the stud holes of the Dodge axles, the only ones I could find where NASCAR style uber long studs... but it was this or have the wheels fall off so I went for this as I didn't want to end up in a ditch saying that's not gone well under my breath.....
Clearly thread engagement won't be an issue here
Installing these was a pain as I couldn't pop the axle out & use a press so I had to pull them through.... but job done
Then I installed the handbrake shoes
Then the disk & 4 pot calliper
Then the wheel
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I know you shouldn't do any alignment work until you have the weight in the car, but I decided to get it close now anyway & then I can do it again after the engine & trans are in & the panels are on.
I have a set of aluminium of boards for doing the toe in measurements... they sit hard up against the tyres & have slots cut in for the measuring tapes that came with them.
I have a nice little bit of kit for doing the camber & castor measurements, it connects neatly to the original 14" wheel rims
Annoyingly it won't attach to the 17" wheels due to the design of where the rim meets the tyre.... so when it comes time to redo the alignment I'll have to remove the big brakes so that I can fit the 14" wheels back on unless I can find a way to attach it to these 17" wheels
Put the big brakes & 6 piston callipers on
Fitted the front sway bar up
Wheels on.... I do love the look of these wheels on this car
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Decided because reasons to look at fitting the Hydratech brake booster to the car
When I'd bought the Baer break kit it came with a very cool master cylinder & bias adjuster
Sadly reading the installation destructions that came with the Hydraboost setup they have set it up for a GM length pushrod that goes into the master.... NFI why when it's a bloody Mopar kit & as such the pushrod is too long & when I bolt the master onto it the pushrod is already pushing the brakes on... The below pic is how much of a gap is left when the pushrod first engages with the sleeve in the master
Looking at the back of the master it seems like the design is such that it's easy to unbolt the section where the pushrod goes in & replace just that section... so I'll have to see which is cheaper/easier to replace the pushrod in the booster or the plunger in the master....
I really like where the bias adjuster mounts up under the master here
Looks pretty good in the engine bay if you ask me
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Got a bit more done today in between doing some other house related to do list tasks & having a mini shed tidy up. I wanted to fully seam seal the inside of the car so that one night during the week after work I can do the relatively clean task of installing the sound deadening... some of the factory floor joins are so big you could lose a small dog in them.
I had to go & get some new seam sealer as the two tubes I had didn't survive the hot summer we had & had cured in the tube which is a shame as this stuff isn't cheap
Job done…
I'd also bought a bag of floor gromets as most of the old ones I'd pried out had cracked due to old age
I'm not sure if I can be bothered cutting the sound deadening stuff around these gromets as I don't ever see myself pulling them out to drain the car... I assume that's only reason you'd ever use them? I might just apply the sheets directly over them thus ensuring no leaks coming in to the car from outside.
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I'm heading out tomorrow with a mate to inspect a 1997 Ford F100 pick up truck, but part of that deal is that he's coming here first & we'll look to drop the 6 Pack motor in so I can test fix the new block hugging extractors.... man do they hug the block tight & make sure that they don't foul on the body work etc.
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I lost the original engine mount brackets in a shed tidy up a while ago... so I'd no option but to order a new OEM set
I have an aftermarket set of actual mounts that aren't the soft rubber style of the OEM ones
I had to remove Carbs 1 & 3 from the intake so I'd have somewhere to attach the lift leveller too
This was one of the simplest installs vers my other cars as the torsion suspension set up means that there is no strut towers pushing into the engine bay to worry about
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Next was a test fit of the new Dougs headers, these are a set of block hugger headers so they are much more compact that the OEM style that hangs down so far that the steering arms actually pass through the OEM style. These fitted up so well & aren't close to anything so far.
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