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My '72 Challenger project

Daved_XB

Ok, so like most have said this is also a project thread I’ve copied & pasted from other forums I posted it in on the interweb & it covers my ownership both in Ireland & now here in Australia & it’s pretty long by now … Also something that will become very obvious to all very quickly is that I am by no means a mechanic & really haven’t got a clue what I’m doing here & most of what I’ve done I learned on the job, so I’m sure that there are better smarter more correcter ways of doing what I’ve done… but I’m having fun playing with it & that’s all that matters.

Right so lets start right at the beginning… this is how she looked the week I bought her & brought her home to my house in Hollystown at the time.. this house had no garage so our time living there post buying the Challenger was very short as we hunted a house with a garage big enough to take the car.

Once I had the car I started to put together a list of the things that I wanted to fix/change & I started to put together a bit of a plan in my head as to what I wanted from the car ultimately & that’s what the US call Restomod & I’ve recently ordered some big bits to kick that change off… but we’ll get to that in time when the pieces I’ve ordered get delivered. The car had a bad vibration when I bought her so I started down the path to find the fault & fix that, I pulled the driveshaft off to check the uni joints & they were very worn, so new uni joints where ordered as well as a new slip yolk… also the steering had a bit of play as you would expect from a 40 year old car & I tried to adjust it out with the built in shim adjuster but the box was too far gone, so I ordered a new quick ratio box for the car as well as some of the manuals

Some the first job was to pull the drive shaft off & have a look at the uni’s… well to say that they were stuffed is an understatement, they were so worn that the end that should be perfectly round looked like splined shafts the needle bearings had worn on them so much…

New uni’s where pressed in place to see if that would fix the issue, I had planned to swap out the slip yolk at this time also as I was lucky enough to have access to mate's lift to get easy access to the shaft… sadly the slip yolk they sent me was the wrong one…. So we just had to put the old one back in.. the new Uni’s made a huge difference to the car, but the vibration was still there, now just not as bad

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quietsailor

God yes, please post about the ute

Daved_XB

Right, as I ran out of parts to keep going on the GTO I decided to pull my finger out & get the Dodge fully stripped down & ready to go on the rotisserie… so the Diff has to come out

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First the sway bar needs to come off.. this is attached by some dog bone connectors at each side to the chassis rail & by U-bolt brackets on the diff tubes

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Now all this took way longer that it should have as I have a new assistant in the Skunk Works this week as we’re puppy sitting for Mrs_XB brother & whilst my new assistant is awesome to have around, I can’t use the ugga-dugga gun to undo the nuts & bolts as he’s not keen on the sound & also he thinks that when I’m laying on my back it’s a game & he keeps nicking the ratchet & other tools…. But any with his “help” I got the sway bar off

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Then we removed the perches & the U-bolts holding the diff to the springs & just left the diff sitting on the springs

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Took the diff weight on the jack & removed the rear shackle bolts to lower the springs

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That’s it… the diff is out now

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Daved_XB

Next up was the K-Frame at the front that still has the steering box & drag links bolted to it

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This is a stupidly heavy bit of kit

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Luckily it’s not going back on, I have a new QA1 tubular item to replace it which is 1/5th of the weight I’d guess but still stiffer

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Daved_XB

This is how she sits now, ready to go onto the rotisserie

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For the front bracket I’ll bolt onto the side of the chassis rail, the two threaded bolt holes here are the mounting holes for the bumper bar horns so I’ll make up a plate that bolts to them to hold the front

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I had hoped that I could reuse or just redrill the existing rear plates that I had used on the XB that use the rear bumper bar mounting holes, but the plate for the XB is just over 140mm wide & the holes in the back of the Dodge are the same so there would be not enough metal on the outsides of the new holes I’d have to drill

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Looks like I need to make up new rear brackets too..

Daved_XB

Time to make the brackets to put the Dodge on the rotisserie… to that end I bought myself a new toy for the Skunk Works, this is one of those times when I’ve put off buying one of these forever & then the first time I used it I’m no wondering why I didn’t buy one year ago….

I got myself a 35Amp Plasma Cutter, this will cut steel up to 18mm thick & I’ll never need to do that so this small one is more than big enough for me & my projects..

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For now I’ve just stacked it beside my new welder on top of my old welder… but I’m not happy with how this looks or it’s practical nature, so I need to go looking for designs for a cool welding cart that will hold both the welder & the cutter & make it easy to hang up all the wires & torches etc… feel free to share any ideas if you have them.

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I’ll be making the brackets on the weekend but I couldn’t not have a quick play with the new toy when I got it home… so I mark out the cut lines & set a square edge to run the plasma torch along

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This is 6mm thick plate & the plasma cutter cut thru this in seconds & it’s a pretty clean cut.. I ended up with a bit of “doss” on the bottom of the cut, I’d have called it slag if I was welding but the booklet that came with the cutter calls it Doss… seems I had the power up too high & if I dial it back a bit it will cut cleaner with less doss to be linished back on the underside of the cut..

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Daved_XB

Drilled the newly cut plates & bolted them to the end of the chassis rails

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Then I lined up the rotisserie so that it was centred on the car & my plan had been to simply cut off the old square plates that I had drilled out for bolting to the rear of the XB’s chassis rails, but as you can see here the Dodge is wider from rail to rail

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I can’t slide the outriggers out any further along the horizontal beam arm of the rotisserie as they are already a little past the end of that beam

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Plan B was to trim about 30mm off the top of the old square plates & then see how they would overlap the new plates

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I figured my best option would be to weld the new 6mm plates for the Dodge to the old 6mm plates used on the XB… so lots of measuring & level checking & clamping up before I was able to put some good tac welds on them

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Then I welded them up all the way around & drilled the now blocked off new hole thru the old plate

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Right well that’s the arse end done & it hasn’t fallen off yet so I think we’re good

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Daved_XB

Next up was the front brackets.. I was going to use the two boltholes on the front chassis rails that the bumper irons bolt too, I figure that since the original jacking points on these cars are slots cut into the bumpers that must mean that these holes are engineered to take the weight of the car when working on one.. so the weight of an empty shell should be nothing..

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The plan is to use some old thick angle iron I have (old bed frame, you should never throw any good thick metal out) this will be bolted to the rotisserie out riggers & welded to the new plate that bolts to the car

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Again lots of measuring & level checking is done, not that I think it’s super important here but if I’m making them may as well make the effort… sadly my mini level doesn’t make a noise..

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With them clamped up, give them a quick tac before taking them off & fully welding them up

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Then bolt them on & line them up with the existing bolt hole on the front of the out rigger used for the XB’s mounting & then drill the rear hole

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Now that hole was too far in thru the tight opening to get my hand in so I tried different complex ways of doing it before I realise that the simplest idea is nearly always the best, so I stuck some tape on the ring spanner & sat the nut in it & feed it into the tube & then lined it up so I could screw the bolt down from the top… job done

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Daved_XB

Right so that’s it, she’s up on the rotisserie now & the next job will be to spin her up on her side & start working on the underside of the floor, I don’t think there is much to be done but I’ve been very wrong about that before so let’s wait & see..

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Daved_XB

With the painting of the XB coming along a little quicker than I expected it's time I jumped back onto this old girl as she's going to paint when the XB returns... I don't have the balance point right yet as this is as far over as I could rotate the car on my own...

Part of my issue is that the mounting points for the arms of the rotisserie on the body of the Challenger are about 6" - 8" higher up the body than the XB's had been, this means that to be able to rotate the Challenger without the Qtr panels hitting the center beam I needed to raise the jack rams all the way up & this has had the side effect of tilting the shafts that spin the car around & they are binding... not really sure what I can do here to make this better...

Since it's the floor I'll be working on... time to remove the last part from the car, the shifter

You can always tell that the last person to work on your car was an expert when you find they've used 3 different fasteners to hold on the one part... in this case a hex head bolt, a self tapping screw & a torx head bolt... I can only assume this was part of some engineering experiment where they were testing the different fasteners to determine which one was best for the job

Daved_XB

Pulled the old hard fuel lines off, as I'll be using the same fuel set up as I did on the GTO I'll be replacing these with a set of -8 braided fuel lines when we get around to the rebuilding bit.

I've now shifted the car to sit better & more balanced on the rotisserie, this car seems to be a bit heavier than the XB was & the center of gravity is lower in the body too. But now I can swing the car to just one notch off full 90deg on my own, I'll need someone to operate the safety lock for me to get it to a full 90 but that's simple for Mrs_XB to do so all good.

I was more careful removing the old hard brake line that I was the fuel line as it's quiet possible that this will end up going back on the car after I've cleaned up the threads of the fittings.

Daved_XB

Next job was to remove the rear leaf springs, something that would normally be an easy task... but way back in 2013 when the car was still driving I installed a set of fancy chassis connectors to stiffen up the old girl. Now during that install I had to modify the front spring bracket in such a way that you can't get the spring off anymore... now at the time I'm sure I just **** it that's future Dave's problem.... well today "future" Dave became today Dave...

The front bracket for the rear spring is designed that you cannot take the spring off without removing the bracket at the same time.. you just can't get the long bolt out, end of

Normally you'd undo the lower two bolts you can see & then you'd pull them out & that clearance would allow you space to spanner up between the eye of the spring & the bracket

However I can't do that as the installation of the chassis connector called for me to weld the bolts to the connector on the other side of the chassis rail that this bracket is mounted too.. you see the installation instructions for these said to do up the top bolts first, then the bottom bolts as you can't access the nuts for the top bolts once it's installed.. then weld them in place

Now I really want to get these springs off as they will be in the way for me cleaning & painting the underside of the car plus one day I may actually need to remove/replace one so a solution is needed... so step one was to use the grinder to cut a perfectly good bolt in half

Daved_XB

With that done I was able to remove the leaf spring

How do I fix this going forward I hear you ask... well that's future Dave's problem... actually no it's not, my plan is to drill a hole thru the chassis rail & weld in a crush tube (for strength) that I can pass the new bolt all the way thru to the bracket, that was I can easily reinstall & remove the spring if I ever need to.

With both springs & all other hanging/bolted bits removed now the next fun task will be using a wire wheel & the grinder to clean back all of the crap off the underside so I can make any & all repairs needed before painting it with that Ute liner I used on the XB

Daved_XB

I decided to finally remove the roof liner, it's just been hanging in there so far, but now that I've done that she is 100% a bare shell now

It's not rust I promise it's just the colour of the old glue.... I also removed the blanking plate that holds the wiring loom in place that passes into the boot... **** me there are a lot of additional speed holes drilled into this car, guess I'll weld them all up as I go now

Daved_XB

We're having a crappy cold & wet winter here in Melbourne but I was determined to do as much of the grinding outside of the shed to limit the amount of dust & crap I was covering everything in

I've been making ok progress I guess... but there are 3 different materials here I'm working with... standard black paint that comes off supper easy

A proper under body sound deadener that's a little harder to get off

And what I can only assume is actual roofing tar that is a **** nightmare to get off & is sapping my will to live

Daved_XB

What's really annoying is that under this stuff is just surface rust... who ever did this job last time never bothered cleaning back or treating the metal, they just painted over the surface rust... like why **** bother if you're not going to do it properly...

I've gotten most of it cleaned back now

Daved_XB

Now that I have the car spun up on its side I can finish off the sills... I need to weld the bottom edge of the inner & outer sill

Also the sill is wavy as all **** so I needed to work that with the hammer & dolly a lot to get it straight

I'm also welding up where the front inner fender joins the firewall

Daved_XB

I thought I'd spare you lots of pics of all the little sections getting welded up or of dents being pulled from the floor.... I've not got it all cleaned back, rust treated & 2K primed..

Next step will be to spray it with the tuff ute liner like did the XB

Daved_XB

Before I paint the underside of the car with the ute liner paint, I need to solve the issue of how to reinstall the rear leaf spring bolt that I had to cut out earlier.. I'm going to put an access hole into the chassis rail that will allow me to slide the bolt thru the rail & into the bracket. so I use the cut bolt to measure up where the new hole needs to go.

The other option could be to drill a hole into the sill panel inner... but I don't think I want to do that & have a hole that allows lots of water & mud etc into the sill

When I transfer the measurement of where the new hole would need to be it's just offside from an existing inspection hole, why couldn't that have been put in the right place by the factory.

I don't want to swiss cheese the rail so I'll weld in a washer to fill in that existing hole as the shiny new hole I drill will be used in place of the OG hole when it comes to whatever the **** that old hole was used for

Now that that's welded in & primed over you can't even tell... I can't drill the new hole yet as my step drill bit isn't long enough to go full thru the rail & I can't go shopping because lockdown.. so I've ordered a shiny new 30mm drill bit off the interwebs that might show up tomorrow so I'll get it done then

Next job as I await the drill bit will be to seam seal the underside now

Daved_XB

Seam sealing has been done now...

Tomorrow I'll look to mask off the car & set up my temp paint booth tent again & then hopefully I can have the underside painted in the Ute liner stuff by the weekend.

Daved_XB

All masked off now.. should be painting tomorrow weather permitting

Daved_XB

Well the weather the last 2 days has been really shite, with lots of rain & wild winds.. so I couldn't just quickly assemble my redneck paint booth outside & then just slide it into the shed over the Dodge like I did when I was painting the floor of the XB..

So... I had to struggle to assemble it around the car... not really a one man job & it came apart more times than I could count...

But that's done now & I have everything set-up so that I can just go out first thing tomorrow morning right at the crack of about 10:47am Sat...

Hopefully the weather improves as I'd love to have the hanger doors of the shed open when I'm painting as even with my breathing mask on this stuff is toxic smelling & as such I'm assuming that it's not safe to drink...

Daved_XB

A good productive day in the Skunk Works today...

I really do love this stuff...

Daved_XB

Removed all the masking & doubled checked her in the sun light to ensure I hasn't missed any huge chunks...

Packed away my redneck paint booth till next time its needed.. very happy with the coverage

Daved_XB

I have one final bit of welding to do that I want to do with the car still on the rotisserie... there is a bit for the rear qtr window that needs to be welded in

It houses the stop adjustment arm from memory & it goes here

Well actually it goes behind the panel... so this is where it goes... I'll weld them in tomorrow

Daved_XB

Cleaned up that park & painted it in weld thru primer

Welded them in now

I think I'm done with needing the Dodge on the rotisserie now so I've taken her back off... next I'll put the hanging panels back on & start roughing out the gaps.

Daved_XB

Mounted up all the hanging panels today, plan is to work on the gaps over the coming weeks... started with the doors, then the front guards & then the boot lid

Putting the bonnet on by myself was a prick of a job & one that I assume future Dave will be pissed at me about when his back feels fucked tomorrow morning... but I worked out a way to do it without damaging the bonnet or the front guards..

Daved_XB

Now the more observant of you may have noticed my new bling bonnet hinges... these are by a company called Ring Brothers, they make some amazing cars & bling parts like this..

Sadly the standard struts they gave me which are 225lbs force jobs are not strong enough to hold the bonnet up.... told you it was bloody heavy... so I've just been to the RB site & ordered a beefier set of struts

Daved_XB

Couple of small things have to be done before I can properly play with the gaps.. had to fit the rear boot springs, that was a ball ache. There must be a proper tool to use to do this, all I had was a large screwdriver to lever it in.

Need to remove the door latch assemblies from the old doors too & fit them to the new doors

Getting these screws out was fun....

Luckily I have Thor's screwdriver so I could belt the shite out of them to get them loose..

Now to clean them up & install them in the new door

Daved_XB

Did a little work on this today.. I fitted the newer stronger gas struts & the bonnet now stays up & no longer slowly slides down to smack the back of your head... I've also put the car back onto the rotisserie so that I can lift it high enough to slide the dolly I did have under the XB under it so it can be modified to fit the Dodge.

I was really happy to learn that the location of the front leaf spring mount is the same on an XB Falcon as it is on a Dodge Challenger.. so the rear uprights will be reusable

The front dolly uprights are useless as the Dodge has a removable K frame so there is nothing but empty space where the current uprights are, so I'll have to cut them off & make up some new ones during the week, but I'm in no rush to get that done.

mikehn

Super work as usual, thanks for the updates.