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My '72 Challenger project

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Well this is probably more of a garage tool update than an actual project update on the Chally… I have a few things that I still need to sort out before I’m 100% happy to put the car back on the road. Firstly the gearbox is still leaking.. I thought when I put the new pan on that I had solved that issue, but it now is clear that the selector shaft seal is also leaking.. a known issue for the 727 boxes, so I have ordered one of them now & will be fitting that soon. Now depending on who you talk too it seems that most recommend that this is a gearbox out fix, whilst some suggest that if you drop the pan off & if you remove the whole valve body assembly thru the bottom of the box you can then pop the seal out from underneath… I’m not sure which of those two options I like the sound of best, but stay tuned & you’ll find out….. I might try & see if I can squeeze my hand in past the exhaust & the torsion bar & get a seal pick in to stab the old seal & twist it out, it looks pretty tight in there so I’m not sure that can be done..

    Also the fuel gauge has never been right in this car, F is full & E is hall full & then a ½” to the left of E is empty… the previous owner told me that he tried bending the pickup float in the tank to get it right but it’s far from right,

    IMG_5429_zps308f6517.jpg

    So I bought a new pickup & I’ll fit that in the tank when I’m underneath doing the gearbox seal.

    Now it should be a whole lot easier to do both of these jobs as I finally decided to stop talking myself out of buying a hoist & I got one… so this weekend two boxes turned up.. one held the hydraulic pump

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    The next box if you could call it that was a 750KG frame of the actual hoist parts

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    This jigsaw did come with some instructions, but to be honest it was about 4 thousand words that where clearly written by someone who’d never seen one of these hoists & had only been given a vague description of how it all went together over the phone… six clear pics would have been perfect… luckily it’s pretty hard to stuff this up & with the help of a good mate to do some of the lifting of the bits we got stuck in..

    Once we had the two ends assembled as per below

    IMG_5478_zps3b147cf4.jpg

    We noticed that they were so close to the height of the top ramp (which houses the hydraulic ram & is over 200KG’s as a result) that we could cheat & not lift the thing at all… so we wheeled the frame over using my trolley jack & then used some stands to take the weight as we unbolted the end frames off & then moved the hoist cross arms in to meet the ramp… too easy

    IMG_5479_zps2c33a876.jpg

    No before anyone asks, I went for a 4 poster & not a two as I am only renting & drilling & bolting a two post in my landlords garage would not have gone down well… also this can be used to allow me to stack park some cars & get another car into the garage… & lastly because this specific model came with a caster option that means I can very easily move the hoist to any point in the garage I want

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    You can even move the hoist with a car on it… I don’t think I’ll do that a lot, but if the need if ever there it’s nice to know I have the option..

    Now that I have one, the irony is not lost on me that I spent months on my back replacing all the suspension on the Chally cursing that it was so cramped a space…. Because I’m only 5’10” there is more than enough room for me to stand fully upright under the car

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    Even if the roller door is up I still fit…

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    & we still get all the cars in without using the stack parking yet… hmmmm maybe I need a new car now I have a spot to put it…

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Ok, so a bit of an update, first a couple of small jobs then the big one, the transmission job… so as I said earlier in the thread the fuel gauge has never been right in this car, F is full & E is hall full & then a ½” to the left of E is empty… the previous owner told me that he tried bending the pickup float in the tank to get it right but it’s far from right… so I had all the bits needed to swap this out & I decided that this simple task would be the first ever job carried out on my shiny new hoist…

    So I had my new fuel sender

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    & I had a new filter for the end of it

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    I also has the fuel line earth strap that I noticed my car no longer has

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    Getting to the fuel sender is nice & simple, it mounted into the side of the fuel tank with a simple locking ring… you can see here that as the earth strap is missing someone made up an earth wire that wraps around the hose clamp now

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    Removal of the sender is simple, the lock rang is a castle style so you simply knock one of the uprights with a screwdriver (you can get a special tool also) & undo the lock

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    First thing I noticed when I removed the old sender, it has no filter… no wonder the filters in the fuel line fill with crap so much

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    If you compare the old manually bent one with the new one you can see where the old one is kinked just after it comes out of the body, with this bit no longer being straight it was never going to read right

    IMG_5505_zpse519310a.jpg

    I slid the new one complete with a new rubber gasket back into the tank

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    Then I tapped the lock ring closed & hooked up the sender wire to the gauge, the fuel line & of course the earth strap for the sender….

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    Job done, & it took about 2 minutes under the hoist & not a drop of petrol rolled down my arm & onto my chest whist I was standing up working on it… working with a hoist is so civilised… hopefully now I’ll also have a better understanding as to just how much fuel I have in the car


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Now the next job I tackled was one of the small jobs that I’m sure most normal people wouldn’t be bothered even doing.. but I can be a bit OCD with things & sometimes for me the little details matter more than the big ones… so I decided to fix something small that has be bothering me ever since the day I first bought this car…. This…

    IMG_5488_zpsbcbe7fe8.jpg

    It’s an aftermarket aerial & it doesn’t bloody fit… it rattles around in the hole scratching the paintwork & generally annoying me every time I see it or worse hear it rattle.. the problem seems fairly simple, the aftermarket ones all seem to be fixed in size for a 25mm hole & the one on the Challenger is closer to 35mm & as such there is only a mm or two for the thing to grip..

    IMG_5492_zps66b6ab5b.jpg

    Now also the aerial itself was snapped… so it rattled around & didn’t even work… so I removed it

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    Now, I don’t think I’ve ever even listened to the radio in this car… but I couldn’t leave the rattling bit in there & I couldn’t leave the empty hole either & I didn’t like the look of any of the bungs that I saw to cover up the hole… so I bought a genuine Challenger one..

    The main body that sticks into the fender is huge compared to the aftermarket ones

    IMG_5539_zps609fc974.jpg

    The top piece is not just a flat plate that sites on top of the fender, it’s designed to use the two locating notches in the fender & to pass thru & actually lock into the bracket underneath & the curved bracket that tightens it up against the underside of the bodywork is much thicker & looks like it won’t bend as easily as the old one had

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    Then the final locking nut screws into the center of the whole deal

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    Then the actual antenna piece screws into the assembly… sadly this is not a retractable one, so I will have to unscrew it when I’m putting the car cover on or I’ll have to use the little kit that came with the cover to make an isolated hole for just such a requirement… right now I think I’ll just screw it off to put the cover on as it doesn’t impact the rest of the thru body parts

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    Again… I know that this is very very OCD of me… but I gotta tell ya seeing how this genuine piece actually follows the curve of the fender & just looks right made me smile.. but then as my other half & most of my close friends keep reminding me.. I’m not all there

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    When I get a chance over the next few days I’ll do up the transmission seal job…. Some good fun & games had there thanks to some previous mechanical muppetry… but sure it wouldn’t be my car without that…


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Ok, so last weekend was the date set to drop the transmission from the Challenger & swap out some leaky seals…. I’ve done a similar job on my XB Coupe a few times laying on my back using axle stands & a trolley jack to support the trans on the way out… so I was kinda looking forward to being able to stand fully upright under the car whilst doing this one… I had also splashed out on a new toy for the garage for just this job too..

    Can you guess what it is yet..

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    Transmission jack fully assembled… hopefully no danger of dropping the trans on myself now..

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    So all of this work is to sort this small seal, this is a crappy pic.. but this is the selector shaft.. that’s the shifter bracket at the bottom & the kick down connector at the top… this is what is leaking

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    I will also be inspecting the oil pump seal & bush & the rear yoke seal whilst I have the box out to see if they need replacing as well whilst I’m at it.. now before putting the car up in the air there are two bolts at the top of the engine that have to be undone

    IMG_5514_zpsb7db7239.jpg

    They are had to get a good pic of & even harder to get my fat hand into… luckily for me my other half is happy to help as she has done many times in this project & has much smaller hands for just such an occasion

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    The other trans to engine block bolts are easy to get to from underneath so up in the air she went

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    Then I dropped the tail shaft out & started working out in my head the order in which I should start pulling stuff off… first was the speedo cable, simply unscrew & then tie up out of the way to be sure it’s safe

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Then it was on to the starter motor, even though this one is very compact, it pretty much touches the extractors… I might have to look into some sort of heat shield when I’m putting all back together.. once I had the starter unbolted, I tied it up out of the way

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    Then I unhooked the trans cooler pipes that run the coolant to the rad & the external cooler that is fitted up front

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    Also in the above photo is the bracket that holds the gear selector cable, that came off & I disconnected that cable & also the kick down cable from the selector shaft brackets

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    Then the neutral safety switch, that’s the thingy with the 3 prongs coming out form it..

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    I had to actually remove one of the cooler lines completely before I could get the access panel off that would allow me to get to the torque converter & the 4 bolts that hold it to the engines flex plate

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    Now I knew that the previous owner had had this gearbox out to get the TC repaired when he owned the car…. So the TC & the flex plate are already marked with alignment marks so that I put it back together in the same way it came apart… nice.. however I noticed that the drain plug for the TC is actually welded in on this one.. so I can’t drain it before removal.. odd but not a show stopper

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Ok, now I know what your all thinking…. Dave, where is the mechanical muppetry you promised us, fear not I won’t disappoint… so on a slightly closer inspection of the bolts that hold the TC to the flexplate they just don’t look right….

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    The next hour or so in the garage was entertaining for want of a better word… now in case you can’t make out from the pics above what’s wrong with the bolts.. let me jump ahead in the story & show you some close ups of the bolt heads after I finally managed to get them out of the car…

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    So.. somebody doing this job before rounded the heads off of these nuts.. so many of the nuts & bolts on this car where rounded off I’m starting to think that a previous owner only had metric tools & was too cheap to invest in some imperial ones for this car… anyway… someone rounded the heads off & then instead of replacing the 4 bolts they welded new metal to them & then attempted to grind them back to be somewhat bolt head shaped… or at least how I imagine someone who’s never seen a bolt head thinks that they should be shaped…. Now I’m all for recycling & I know that we will eventually run out of raw materials one day… but I cannot comprehend why someone would do this…. Oh & the cost of the 4 new bolts that I have bought to replace these….. $5.95!!!! so it’s not like they were made of unobtainium or something…

    Now this would have been laughable & fun if the bolts had of come undone easy…. But no… whom ever did this made the edges great for tightening them, BUT left the edges rounded off on the sides you need to undo the bolts… & then they used Loctite on the them…. This issue was compounded by the fact that the bolt heads are half height just on 5mm thick & in such a tight space that a socket couldn’t get in… I spent a long time & I mean I long time heating each bolt & then teasing them out…

    IMG_5551_zps0f72abf0.jpg

    The last one was so badly worn that I ended up having to commit the cardinal sin of gripping it as hard as possible with a pair of vicegrips & using that to get it loose as the spanner just kept getting kicked off by the rounded edges.. at one point I pictured myself having to weld a nut onto the face of the bolt to give me something to get a spanner on… but finally after well over an hour I stumbled upon the correct line of profanity that allowed the bolt to come undone…

    IMG_5552_zpsd3ab03ab.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Then I removed the cross member at the back of the extension housing, this needed me to unbolt the exhaust flanges to separate the exhaust from the extractors… but I only needed to drop the exhaust about 2 inches to get the cross member past them… so I was glad that I didn’t have to pull the exhaust off for this & then undid the last two bolts holding the bell housing to the engine & pulled the whole box back an inch to pop it off the dowels of the block…. The trans was now free from the car & resting solely on the trans jack

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    Then simply cracked the release on the jack & slowly watched the trans lower to a nice workable height..

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    I’ll give in here a bit of a clean now that I have the room to get in

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    Last thing to remove was the kickdown & shifter brackets off of the actual selector shaft itself

    IMG_5558_zpse117db74.jpg

    Now looking closely at the suspect seal, it’s hardly shocking to see that it was leaking.. I’ve always installed seals using something uniform flat & round to gentle knock them into place… this one looks like someone used a hammer & a screwdriver… it was dented as hell…

    IMG_5560_zpsa25f0b81.jpg

    Once I popped the seal out I then gave the whole assembly a good clean

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    Then I put the new seal in…. finally

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    I now have passed the box onto someone who knows what they are doing to knock out the front pump bush & seal & replace them.. I just don’t have the pressing tools to replace a bush & I don’t want to risk damaging anything… so the box should be going back in one night this week… & now I also waiting for my 4 new bolts to turn up…. Ah the joys


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Ok, it’s been a long long time since I updated this thread & there are a few reasons for that… work was crazy in December & that added to Xmas happening limited my time in the garage & then to throw a big spanner in the works parts went missing in transit.. by the time parts turned up (my brakes are missing still, but more on that later) I was then travelling for the best part of 3 weeks in January & then I blinked & it was March already…

    Right so where are we at then…. & I apologise in advance for the lack of a lot of pics as I had the CF card in my camera go dodgy & I lost some of the shots as corrupt sadly..

    So the seals on the gearbox where sorted & then the box was put back in, sadly I don’t have a single picture of that… but it’s simply the reverse of the removal above so not rocket science really

    The special bolts took a week or two longer that I had hoped & I had a bugger of a time trying to find any locally.. seems the half height bolt head was a killer. At one point I almost bought some standard head height bolts & then turned down the head height to what I needed.. but I just used the time to clean all the parts of the car that I now newly had access too & then the bolts finally came..

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    Once the box was back in I figured that was the last of my hassle’s it would only take an hour or so to reconnect everything & hook it all back together..

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    Wrong… you would believe how hard it was to find a set of these..

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    I spent a whole Saturday morning visiting every parts place local to me & even tried the two exhaust places close by… one wouldn’t sell me a set unless I brought them the car for them to do the work! & the other was manned by a very unhelpful child who proceeded to tell me that that what I wanted did not in fact exist & that all exhaust flanges are two bolt hole jobs only & he couldn’t get his head around how mine could have 3 yet not be a triangular exhaust system… I fear for the future some days… anyway off to ebay I went & then within a few days I had these in my hot little hands

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    So I was finally able to bolt the exhausts back up.. I forgot to swing past the exhaust joint to show the window licking muppet my triangular exhaust gaskets..

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    I took the opportunity to repair a small hole that was starting to appear in one of the mufflers.. I plan on replacing the whole thing once the car is officially on the road with some plates, so I was happy to just use some muffler putty for now

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    Then it was time to do some road trails as the car hadn’t ever moved on the new suspension & I wanted to drive it around for a bit to let it all settle so I could do another adjustment of camber & caster.. so got a permit to drive an unregistered car & did several test flights

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    God that new suspension has made a huge difference to this car, it’s so flat in the turns & there isn’t a single trace of wallow now & she now just squats under acceleration & takes off (actually just spins the wheels easier now) whereas before the rear would sag & the whole front would pick up robbing the wheels of that lovely torque that should be propelling me forward & not twisting the chassis.. once she’s registered on the road & my second order of brakes (long story) turn up & get fitted I’ll do a proper write up on the improvements.. but for now I’m a happy boy..

    So it was back to the garage to redo all the suspension setup now that it had a few miles on it to settle in

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    Back up on the hoist to check on that gearbox leak that I fixed… dry as… job done & happy me

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    She then developed a leak in the brake system somewhere & that lead to me having to do a lot of fault finding & brake bleeding so I bought a one man air driven system to make my life easier & to stop annoying my other half by making her pump the pedal for me

    IMG_5589_zpsf99d550e.jpg

    Then I managed to find a local sparky who was happy to work on a muscle car (so many people run when you tell them you want to work on something that isn’t brand new) so I gave it to him for a few days & it came back with all the wiring nicely tidied up & he was very impressed that the car hadn’t burst into flames at some point… he reckoned it was some of the worst home wiring attempts he’d ever seen, I made sure to point out that it was before my ownership… anyway the whole ignition was stripped & rewired

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    & my tacho finally works again… the needle used to just bounce around in a world of its own regardless of what he engine was doing & that would set the shift light off constantly which was distracting to say the least..

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    So now we’re back up to date again… this Saturday I have an appointment with my engineer for him to go over the car & see what he’s happy with & more importantly not happy with & she’s then booked in to have 3 point rear seat belts fitted & hopefully then I can take her for a roadworthy… so this week she swapped places with the XB on the hoist as the next project ramps up

    IMG_5577_zps06515036.jpg

    Ok… & that’s it.. this thread is up to date as of March 2014, so updates will be in real time.. assuming anyone actually managed to stay interested the whole way through (sorry it’s a bit long)


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,204 ✭✭✭dodderangler


    Looks like it's gonna be a stormer of a car. Lovely looking car and body on her.
    Keep it up on it mate. Doing well.


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  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 23,157 Mod ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    Best thread I've seen on boards in a while! Awesome machine, and incredible work gone into her.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Thanks... I'm doing it all for me but it's always nice to get the nod from other car people


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,129 ✭✭✭R P McMurphy


    Beautiful car

    Can you elaborate on where you first purchased it and what sort of outlay, and the amount of subsequent outlay to get it to this point?


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,792 ✭✭✭Ded_Zebra


    Beautiful car and probably the most interesting thread I've ever read on boards!!!!! This sub-forum is proving to be everything I wanted it to be and more :cool:


    Looking forward to seeing the work continuing :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭randy hickey


    Excellent thread Daved_XB!

    Fair play to you for the time,effort and discipline that you've invested not just in this project itself, but also in the consistent documenting of it with excellent pictures etc.

    Really looking forward to the rest of this project and the forthcoming XB project (no pressure!!)

    Keep her lit.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Beautiful car

    Can you elaborate on where you first purchased it and what sort of outlay, and the amount of subsequent outlay to get it to this point?

    Believe it or not Ireland is probably one of the cheapest places to buy Muscle cars right now (there is a lovely Camaro for sale on donedeal for 8K right now) … & it was even better back in 2011 when I got this.. But the Muscle car world is like any other one… & some cars are just worth more than others due to rarity & spec etc.. & Challengers & Chargers from this era are a lot more expensive than say that Camaro.. so I paid about double for mine (when I got to Australia I could have sold it day 1 for 3 times that!!).. they are going for between 20k & 30k pounds in England now..

    What have I spent on it… don’t know, I’m not keeping count as I go… not sure if I will ever add that up as I really don’t care as I’m not planning to sell it


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Just a quick update to this.. so I took the Challenger for a long 100 mile shakedown run on Saturday across to see an engineer to have him go over the car & see what he thought of my work to date. I was very happy that he managed to do that without using words like halfarsed or deathtrap.. & never once did he say well that’s not gone well.. so now the next step is to take her for a roadworthy & then get some plates on her… happy days..

    She didn’t miss a beat on the 100 mile drive, some of which was in heavy traffic in heat & she never even looked like overheating so I was very happy with that. The new suspension is a firm ride, firm but not harsh over the bumps but I have adjustable shocks so I can probably adjust a bit more compliance in if I need to… the difference to how she used to drive is a million miles away, it’s real point & squirt stuff now.. it show up just how much sidewall flex I’m getting from the high walled 14’ tires on there now, but I have some new wheels on order to fix that soon.

    When I got her home I gave her a wash & even though I’m actively trying to stop finding stuff to fix or replace on this car I couldn’t help myself… the door & window rubbers are all well shot & whilst the wind noise doesn’t bother be as always have a window down anyway.. the fact that the car leaks like a submarine with a screen door is annoying… so I had a look at..

    So the rubber strip that seals between the front & rear side windows on the passenger side is well past it

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    With the windows up there is close to a 5mm gap

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    The driver’s side is not much better

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    The roof seal is cracked, split & deformed now too

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    & the door rubbers are no better, they are in a bad state too.. splitting & dry cracked

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    So off to the interweb I went & I’ve ordered a full set of new rubbers now to replace all of this crap & get a car that won’t leak on me when it rains & that I can wash without getting water in the car

    I’m off to the US tomorrow so that will set the project back a bit again as I’m not here to get things done, so I threw the cover over the old girl again & this is how she’ll sit again for the next two weeks

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 817 ✭✭✭iano.p


    What a thread. Things like this build are great. Fair play david its one nice looking car


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Whilst I was away in the US my new wheels turned up… they are 17” versions of the original 14” Magnum wheels that where shipping on the cars back in the day… I went with 17x8 for the fronts & 17x9 for the rears

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    I also got a new set of shiny centre caps for the wheels..

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    I needed to get a set of 17’ wheels to go over the big break upgrade that’s (hopefully) in shipping right now to me & I’m not mad on most modern 17” wheels on Muscle Cars, but I think that these look the part as they are copies of the original design..

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    Now to go tire shopping, sadly I don’t think that anyone makes a 17’ tire with raised white lettering & I will miss that classic Muscle car styling cue.. but so be it


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    A small update from the log weekend just gone, we had plans to be with friends & the like so not a lot happened in fairness.. but the few small things that did happen made a huge difference..

    First up, I had a very small job that gave more satisfaction that I can even begin to convey.. the task involved 2 screws & 2 small bolts… these where used to attach the Vic plates to the old girl… yes after what seems like forever she is finally legally on the road now.. happy days indeed now

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    Now in order to get the plates yet another engineering inspection was required, so off I drove to have that done & I noticed a few issues (to be expected with a car that’s been apart for a year)… first up was the gear linkage wasn’t set right anymore after the gearbox removal & refit, this intrigued me I must say as I hadn’t alter the length of the cable & the gearbox is in the same hole it came out of.. anyway the linkage was too long & when in D it was pushing on the selector so when you put your foot into it or taped the gearshift it would pop into neutral.. & reverse was a bit hard to find, you had to wiggle the shifter forward & back to find it… not the end of the world but annoying. So up the hoist went & I had a close look at how the linkage is adjusted…

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    Luckily it’s so simple that it’s a 2 minute job, disconnect the cable from the selector shaft & let it hang down

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    Then just move the round block at the end to adjust the length of the cable, now all the gears are where I expect them to be & it holds in everyone

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    Once done with that I decided to bolt on a wheel so I could look at the gaps & measure the clearance I have to work out what tires I can fit without touching the guards or relocating the rear springs.

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    From what I’ve measured & what YearOne recommend & doing the math to try & match the 14” rolling diameter I’m going with 245/45R17 up front & 275/40R17 for the rears..

    My replacement rubber kit for the doors & windows turned up, but I didn’t have time to tackle that this weekend… so they can wait..

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    Now some other new issues that I found on my shake down run are that my dash lights no longer work…. They were on but a bit dim the other night & I casually & perhaps a little too expectantly reached for the dimmer knob & turned it with confidence… misplaced confidence it seems as the whole dash just went black & that was all she wrote! Bugger! So I couldn’t find a NOS dimmer switch, but I have found a refurbished one & ordered that, so looks like the dash is coming out again soon..

    The other issue I found is that my alternator is now dead… it’s giving out just on 11 volts.. so a new one has been ordered too, for now I’ll just have to charge the battery & drive only in daylight if I absolutely need to get the car out.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Took the wheels down to the local tire joint this morning & had some new rubber fitted up to the wheels… I gotta say I really love how these Magnums have turned out, they look better in person than the pictures show & they look good in the pics…

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    That’s it until my parts arrive…. Oh & yes I know I have to pull the wheels off again to fit the centre caps.. but as they require some fettling to fit, I’ll get to that on the weekend..


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    So yet again my work life & lack of parts has gotten in the way of play here… so as I’d said within a day of getting the car on the road my alternator failed & only reads 11v at best & the dimmer switch on my dash seems to have died when I went to adjust it & has taken all my dash lights with it…. So off I went to the internet that night & I ordered a replacement dash dimmer from the US & a replacement alternator from Sydney & given the need for the alternator is greater than the need for the dash dimmer switch I opted for expedited shipping of the alternator from Sydney as last week was only a 3 day work week..

    So before I packed my bags to hit the road for work this turned up from the US… I couldn’t believe how fast it came..

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    It looks brand new… I didn’t want to pull the dash out yet as I figured my Alternator coming from so close would be here any day.. but it never came.. I was told yesterday that it will take a few more days, I should have ordered one from the states.. would have been quicker I reckon.. hopefully it will be at home waiting for me when I return & I’ll fit it then along with the wheel centre caps I have..

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    Looks like a nice simple job, the backing plate goes in from behind & sits against the inner lip & then screws the cap on.. should finish the wheels off nicely..

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    I now fear it will be bloody winter before I have the car ready to drive.. at least with the new alternator I’ll be able to run the lights & the wipers I guess & I’ll fit the new rubber seals so it’ll be dry inside…

    IMG_1838_zpsab8cdd4b.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    So I’m back from two weeks travelling & I managed to steal an hour in the garage tonight, so I decided to swap the alternator out… I had been mindful to order the exact same one that I was replacing, so single post externally regulated, twin pulley chrome birdcage was what I wanted…

    So I had a quick look at the back of the new one when I pulled it out of the box… single post, check… two blades to connect the wires from the regulator mounted on the firewall…. Hmmm no… looks like the external regulator is actually built into this one.. the blades are already wired up to a chrome box on the main body of the cage

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    So I removed the old alternator out of the bay

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    & left the twin wires for the single post dangling when they could poke me in the eye later

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    I then started to explore the original regulator on the firewall to ensure that it really was going to be as simple as just removing that & the extra wiring from the engine bay & that no other wire ran anywhere from or too it

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    Nope… just two holes left in the firewall now

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    So this new Alt is definitely a neater setup than the old Alt & external regulator one

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    It was nice to do such a simple job on the old girl without any past owners muppetry showing up to surprise me..

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    It’s late at night here now & my neighbours have some young kids so I’ve opted not to fire her up to check that all is good with the multi-meter tonight… I’ll do that Saturday before pulling the dash apart to swap out the dimmer switch..


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Just a brief update from the weekend just gone… as you can see from above, the new Alt was installed but I never fired the car up as it was late at night during the week & I didn’t want to piss my neighbours off anymore that I have too… so I went to the garage Saturday morning at a sensible time & fired the old girl up & ran the multimeter across the battery & across the Alt itself & happy days it’s reading over 14 volts.. as does the volt gauge in the car so seems to all be working..

    Then I back the car out of the garage & saw this new pool of green blood under her nose…

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    Bugger… where the hell is this coming from… a quick look under the car shows it’s leaking from the bottom bolt on the Alt bracket..

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    I then had a look in the drip tray under the car & found this shim

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    When I was removing the old Alt there was a spacer on it that fell under the car & I must not have noticed that there was also a 2nd shim or spacer whatever you want to call it & I can only assume that without this spacer it’s pulling the bracket in towards the engine at the top & that pressure is causing the leak at the bottom of the bracket.. so I removed the Alt & refit with the spacer & tightened everything up again & was happy to see that that has cured this new leak again..

    Next on the to do list was to pull the dash switches out again..

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    This time to replace the dash light dimmer switch, the bottom switch shown here

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    Unlike the headlight switch & the wiper switch that I’d replaced before, in order to get this switch out I had to split the dash face panel from the switch frame itself

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    The old dimmer vs the new

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    New dimmer installed

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    I opted to give the switch panel a good clean, especially the black hollows that the switch knobs have always prevented me from cleaning properly

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    Then with the dash all back together, this is what it looks like with the lights off

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    & now with the lights on.. excuse the fuzzy pic but with no flash on the camera really needed a tripod methinks

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    Now with the important stuff out of the way, the last thing to be done on Sat was the cosmetic task of adding the centre caps to the new rims, this was a simple.. the centre caps are a two part install, a black holder that slide through the wheel centre from behind & then two screws attach it to the cap itself

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    Cap installed

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    They finish the rims off nicely I think… still very happy with these wheels..

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    That was the time I got to play in the garage on Sat.. Sunday then was a lovely sunny day here in Melbourne & I spent most of the day out in the car… went to a Cars & Coffee meet in the morning & then spent a few hours driving along the coast with my other half.. put nearly 200 miles on the clock & touch wood she didn’t miss a beat… next task is to replace the door & window rubbers.. but I’m off to the US for a bit now so it may be 3 weekends from now before I can get to that, unless I get some time one night this week to start..


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Got back from the US on Saturday so I spent a chunk of Sunday in the garage doing the last few little jobs that I have the parts for, namely replacing all the door & window rubbers & then some small shiny chrome trim bits that I’ve wanted to replace for a while but kept putting off as there was nothing really wrong with the old ones…

    First up was to replace the rubber strip that seals between the front & rear side glass

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    The chrome trim is mounted to the winder & doesn’t have to be taken off, so the replacement piece is just the rubber insert

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    You just slide the old one out & the new one in… couldn’t be simpler

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    The door rubber is held in place with little white clips that click into holes in the door, it was surprisingly easy to get these out & even though the new rubber kit came with plenty of these, I reckon I could have reused a lot of the old ones if I’d needed too

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    The kit also came with new hard end plates to screw in

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    The Upper window rubber was actually glued in at all on my car, so removal & clean-up was a lot easier than I’d planned for

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    The destructions that came with the kit, said to only glue & screw the end of the upper rubber in place, so that’s all I’ve done for now

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    All up the seals look great.. but as they are brand new they are pushing the glass outwards a bit & the seal between the front & rear glass is not perfect, but I suspect that the rubber will soften & the glass slowly move back in with time & it’s a smaller gap than I had before anyway..

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    I also bought a complete bump stop kit for the car as there are none on any of the panels & I’ve been replacing these as I find holes that look like they should have a bump stop… so 2 per door where added

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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    The next thing on the to fix list was the drivers side interior light switch, it’s been broken since I bought the car, you can see the body of the switch is just empty

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    They make two types for the Challenger, a single wire & a dual wire connector type… I’d ordered both a while back so I could be sure I had the right one (in hindsight very happy I did that)

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    Once I’d pulled the interior trim off it was clear that the driver’s side is the single wire connector type & the passenger side is the dual wire

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    That lead to some head scratching on my part… so RTFM it was..

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    Turns out that although the driver’s side is a single connector it’s actually got an extra wire for a buzzer of some description… anyway, try as I might I could not work out for the life of me how to connect this to the new single connector switch

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    So in the end I gave in & cut the connector off & rewired a couple of spade bits so I could use the twin wire connector to match the passenger side one

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    End result, when I open the driver’s door I now have light… score

    IMG_1933_zpsd1a44d14.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    With that done, I decided to fit the last remaining shiny new bits that I had laying around the garage.. swapped out the badly scuffed, dull & dented sill plates for a new set, the pictures don’t show just how dull & scratched they were… all nice & shiny now..

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    Old vs new side by side

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    Looks just like a bought one now…

    IMG_1937_zpse9f17881.jpg


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Daved_XB


    Finally the last thing I wanted to get done was another of the small details that probably don’t matter to normal sane people but that bug me a lot… one of the previous owners made themselves a set of bonnet pin’s instead of spending he few dollars to get the correct items… the ones on the car where just a flat disk cut to shape & screwed on

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    The genuine items are a raised dome shape & have a rubber seal that sits between them & the bonnet to prevent scratching the paint

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    Genuine vs home hade

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    Fitting was uber simple, just unscrew the 4 screws holding the home made plate on & oh & then clean the bonnet surface beneath.. amazed how much wax had worked its way under there

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    Then just screw the new one on, luckily the old owner used the same factory screw holes & didn’t just make 4 new ones… I was half expecting him to have do so…

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    Of course the hole for the actual R clip to slide through to lock the bonnet in place is now too low as the new plate is a raised dome shape.. so I needed to undo the locking nuts on the pin & move it up about 4mm

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    All done… again a tiny detail but one that was ****ting me for a while now…

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