1968 Charger, Ray Barton 528 Hemi, Pro-touring.

[Jarven1977]

Don't have the rear side trim pieces around the lights so I have to guess some there, let's see if Murphy stays away this time.
And I definately have three driver side rear lights..
I can squeese the passenger side in there but the fitment is poor, I need to find a passenger(right) rear light!! Damn..
It seems though as I'm "lucky" with the front seat belts, the Challenger seat belt locks fits the Mercedes belts! Could be a standardised design for all seatbelts/safety equipment in the automobile industry?

 

[Jarven1977]

Continued with shortening the rear backrest and modifying the brackets. Luckily the old seatbelt nuts were close to lining up with where the brackets were. Some measuring, cutting, more measuring and we have touchdown!
Now I just need to modify the center piece and do some more adjustment to the bench seat. I need to carve away some more foam in the middle to get it slightly lower.

 

[SSmoothie]

Have you fitted the front seats? Can you post some good pics. Also the height of the seats. I’m think about using the same but thought they might be to tall. Thank you

 

[Jarven1977]

Have you fitted the front seats? Can you post some good pics. Also the height of the seats. I’m think about using the same but thought they might be to tall. Thank you

Not yet, as soon as I'm happy with the rear seat I'll start with the fronts.
I'm also worried about them being to tall! My plan is to butcher them until I have them low enough without cutting the floor.
I'll update with pictures. I think it's fun to go back and look at all the agitations while building a car to your liking.
The rear is almost complete, just need to fit hardware for locking them in the upright position and adjust the bench some more. I want to be able to fold them as intended.

 

[Jarven1977]

Got an hour done in the garage again.. not easy to find time..
Finalized all brackets and trialfitted the saetbelts, lowered the bench some more and now I'm happy.
The belt locations turned out good!
Now I can start butchering the front seats...

 

[SSmoothie]

Great thanks,

 

[747mopar]

Not yet, as soon as I'm happy with the rear seat I'll start with the fronts.
I'm also worried about them being to tall! My plan is to butcher them until I have them low enough without cutting the floor.
I'll update with pictures. I think it's fun to go back and look at all the agitations while building a car to your liking.
The rear is almost complete, just need to fit hardware for locking them in the upright position and adjust the bench some more. I want to be able to fold them as intended.

View attachment 949644

I remember going through all of this O to well lol. I used Chrysler 300 rears and butchered them extensively but in the end love them.

 

[Jarven1977]

Front seats are in and I love it!
Since they are from a 2017 the driver side seat motors are canbus-controlled. I cut all that away and will use only the front/rear up/down and forward/backward. I'll just solve that with 3pcs of bilateral realays. Just need to find out which wires controlling what movement. Not to worried about that, it's just wiring. The backrest was manually handled which was good.
I set all motors to their lowest position with a battery Charger and just threw it into the car and it looked great. I just needed to cut away the guide pins and the right rear mounting bracket to get it to sit as low and even as possible. The front right mounting hole in the body lined up good with where I wanted the seat so I just bolted that in for a trial. Looked great
The passenger was a bit more tricky. It didn't have motors but was about 25mm higher than the driver.
After looking at it a while it seemed fairly easy to section it down so I just started butchering away until it matched the driver. Happy with the result!

About headrests, the original ones are way to big!
I will either modify it to look like a -68,-69 headrest or just go without it. Maybe 3D-print something to cover the headrest holes.
I've contacted a pro for the upholstery to make matching door panels.

 

[SSmoothie]

Thanks they look good. I will be looking at the new Hellcat leather seats.

 

[Jarven1977]

Thanks they look good. I will be looking at the new Hellcat leather seats.

If I'd do it again, I'd get a matching rear seat from a new Charger instead. They are wider and seem to fit alot better.
I'm a pretty tall guy, 190cm, but when I sit in the driver seat I still have about 4" to the roof.

 

[Jarven1977]

Ok, it took me some trial and error but I think this wiring will work. 2 alternating relays for each motor, six relays in total for Up/down front and rear part of the seat and the forward/backward movement. Let's try and see what happens..

 

[Jarven1977]

Couldn't figure out the switch.. When measuring I only found differences in resistance, 75-245ohm.
This is where I thought "I'm screwed". There were only 4 wires coming out of the seat switch! And I need atleast 7 wires for all functions to work. Must be some canbus crap..
But I figured I might as well tear it apart completely and it actually was solveable in the end.
I removed all resistors and located the COM and NO contacts om the three microswitches. Than I soldered in connectors between the COM-pins, ran a COM Wire out (black) and soldered in 6pcs of different color wires om all the NO-pins.
Now I have a working seat switch with potential free contact sets ready to hook up the relays with.

 

[Jarven1977]

It's alive!!
The microswitch and relay idea worked!
No more canbus, just need to feed the seat with +12V. The new wiring system has designated power(30A) to electric seats so that's already taken care of.
Removed everything unnecessary and found a spot for the relays on the old canbus seat module.
Next electrical Gremlin is to wire up the console. I would like to have working aux and usb sockets in the existing locations.
Removed the leather from the headrests and trimmed them down to copy the -68 headrest design. Now let's hope the upholstery guy can restich the leather to fit the new shape.

 

[Jarven1977]

Does anyone know of someone mating a modern mid console with an old dash successfully?
I would like to use the one I got with the Challenger interior due to armrest, cupholders, usb,12v outlets and the matching look with the seats but I'm not sure it will look good with the dash?

 

[HawkRod]

What transmission do you plan to use? I see by your picture you still have the 4 speed off center hump. If you will be using a modern day transmission like an automatic or a Tremec, that hump will need to go away and be enlarged to fit the transmission. You should do that before you mess with a console. If you do plan to use a A-833, then of course ignore this post!

I can't answer your question specifically about console modifications as I have not modified one myself.

Good Luck,

Hawk

 

[Jarven1977]

What transmission do you plan to use? I see by your picture you still have the 4 speed off center hump. If you will be using a modern day transmission like an automatic or a Tremec, that hump will need to go away and be enlarged to fit the transmission. You should do that before you mess with a console. If you do plan to use a A-833, then of course ignore this post!

I can't answer your question specifically about console modifications as I have not modified one myself.

Good Luck,

Hawk

Thank's, I have an 18-spline A-833 so the hump stays.

 

[SSmoothie]

Fesler makes a metal console that you could modify to work.

 

[Jarven1977]

Looks nice!

 

[SSmoothie]

They also make custom door panels for the Charger.

 

[Jarven1977]

They also make custom door panels for the Charger.

View attachment 951466

That was sweet, looks like you would need electric window regulators to..