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1968 Roadrunner refresher

Again amazing work, and valuable time spent with your dad that you'll remember forever.
 
Again amazing work, and valuable time spent with your dad that you'll remember forever.
Thanks man! Just some good ol' garage time making due without my old mans lift at his shop. Took a little bit of finagling with the cherry picker in my way to roll the engine under but we were able to slide some stuff around and make it work.
 
Looks amazing, and glad to see its finally coming near and end . Thats got to be a good feeling in itself

I built a 1968 Charger a few years back for a friend of mine. in EE1 , 440 4spd with white interior.
And I agree the color looks amazing outside in the sun.
He struggled for months going back and forth between QQ1 blue and finally decided on the original EE1 and is damn glad he did. His is not a matching numbers car and he has no fender tag. So he gave thoughts for all kinds of directions how to build it . Finally settled on somewhat close to factory stock , kinda sorta anyway
He gets all kinds of compliments at shows and cruise ins
 
Got the thing fired up this past week and got the seats and such in. Got a leak out the thermostat housing which I can reseal and a nasty exhaust leak that I swear I have a cracked manifold over. I’ve chased the flange again and again and also tightened the studs on the manifold and it has a gasket on it. It’s got a nasty exhaust tick coming from the manifold and I know they are known to crack so maybe it’s cracked….this week I will yank it off and check it out good. Always something with this car it just keeps fighting me. Spent some time cleaning grounds as it was overcharging and that fixed that issue with a bad regulator ground. Also had a timing issue where the timing at idle was fine and when rev’d it just lost timing marks all together. I believe the plates were sticking but I had just grabbed a like new 383 distributor last week from here so I said screw it and threw it on. That fixed that issue so now it charges fine at 14.6v and timing is at 10 idle and 35 total. I will curve the distributor once I get it all done and drive it a few times and the kinks stop driving me insane ha! I will win I always do haha! Took it down the driveway and did a big burnout in the driveway so that was a win!

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Asshole move of the week here! :BangHead::lol::rofl: So I go look tonight as I dump the coolant and tear off the thermostat housing to see that the gasket that Mancini sends with their water pump install kit is soaked in coolant. It seems like it wicks coolant as it was soaked in it and peeled right off all soggy. I decided to use a felpro blue gasket which I have never had as issue with using that and RTV on it. I used RTV with the mancini deal too but it was leaking all around. Not the asshole move though......so I tear the manifold off looking into why I have a huge *** leak between the block and manifold. Lone behold I missed a piece of gasket that was glued to the manifold and that caused a huge leak! So in my defense this was welded to the manifold and extremely hard to see as it even had the same texture and rust color as the face of the manifold did so I had to look real hard. So there's the asshole move of the week from me and hopefully tomorrow when I fire it up with the new flange gasket that comes from summit it'll be quiet, leak free from exhaust and coolant, and all is well again. Even those who do this alot can "F" stuff up here and there ha! Gotta laugh and keep it light before I lose my mind. Hope someone gets a good laugh and learns something from this too!
 
Lighten up, it happens to the best of us, China junk gaskets don't help.
 
Asshole move of the week here! :BangHead::lol::rofl: So I go look tonight as I dump the coolant and tear off the thermostat housing to see that the gasket that Mancini sends with their water pump install kit is soaked in coolant. It seems like it wicks coolant as it was soaked in it and peeled right off all soggy. I decided to use a felpro blue gasket which I have never had as issue with using that and RTV on it. I used RTV with the mancini deal too but it was leaking all around. Not the asshole move though......so I tear the manifold off looking into why I have a huge *** leak between the block and manifold. Lone behold I missed a piece of gasket that was glued to the manifold and that caused a huge leak! So in my defense this was welded to the manifold and extremely hard to see as it even had the same texture and rust color as the face of the manifold did so I had to look real hard. So there's the asshole move of the week from me and hopefully tomorrow when I fire it up with the new flange gasket that comes from summit it'll be quiet, leak free from exhaust and coolant, and all is well again. Even those who do this alot can "F" stuff up here and there ha! Gotta laugh and keep it light before I lose my mind. Hope someone gets a good laugh and learns something from this too!
As far as thermostat gaskets, have you guys seen these gaskets before? I have used them on 2 motors now with no leaks at all. No RTV required.

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Lighten up, it happens to the best of us, China junk gaskets don't help.

Haha I am just figured I'd give people a good laugh! It happens to the best of us. I have to laugh at this **** at this point on this car. Some fall together and some fight you to the last nut and bolt.
 
Got the exhaust leaks fixed up and everything runs good now it’s time I guess to put a couple more finishing touches on it and then start putting **** away for winter. Tonight I spent two or three hours and masked off the headlight bezels and the center of the grill bezel and painted the dark argent on the middle and then black accents on the bezels. What a pain in the arse to mask those bezels off but I’d say they turned out pretty damn nice.

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Got the exhaust leaks fixed up and everything runs good now it’s time I guess to put a couple more finishing touches on it and then start putting **** away for winter. Tonight I spent two or three hours and masked off the headlight bezels and the center of the grill bezel and painted the dark argent on the middle and then black accents on the bezels. I’d say they turned out pretty damn nice.

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I concur watson.
 
Waiting on AMD bumpers on backorder. We shall see if they ever come or if I have to send my originals out in December or January and get them done for DOUBLE the cost. Hoping not, but I have a show in March to debut the car and need bumpers on it unfortunately so I can only wait so long. Spent some time this weekend getting **** ready for winter but threw the kickpanels in the car and rewired the dimmer switch plug as it was half melted. Now all my lights work and I also got the seatbelts all in the front and the sill plates and such. Down to a small little box of parts left to install along with the redline radials, bumpers, and a windshield and I should be good to take a ride come spring. We've taken a few 20mph cruises down the road so I don't blow the back window out and with no alignment it drives pretty straight. I seem to keep burning the rear tires off as they are all paint covered and junk anyway so its fun. Its funny how the neighbors all got excited and said hey you got your car back together it runs and we hear you again! I laughed and said yep its back to terrorizing the streets after 3 years of being torn apart. I have a feeling this will be the last car for awhile as I just got engaged and we will be planning the wedding and the house addition and all that shiznit. Never ends. She's a good girl though and loves the cars. I took her for our first date in the blue car to the drag races and she loved it. It was only fitting that I asked her the other night if she wanted to go for a ride, and though it was alot shorter and slower, she was so excited to see the old girl back running and driving. Also included a pic of my pops and my little nephew sanding back when it was in primer. He is starting off young and we had him "helping" us when we were blocking the hood. Got a pic below it of me when I was 3 or 4 helping my dad sand his trunklid on his 66 he has now. Funny how **** goes full circle sometimes.


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Got the windshield today! Looks great and looks to be a good weekend to do it at 70 on Sunday! Also got the sway bar in last night. I used the cut method and sliced the one side of the brackets on the bar to install the new poly bushings. My buddy powder coated the bar satin black and I painted the brackets after I installed the bushings and welded the a shaped strap back in place. All is well and looks good!

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And yes my splash shields are bent out as they slid onto the outside of the strut arms when I set the engine in from the bottom….Sucks but I’ll slice them out and rivet some new ones on sometime this winter when I am bored. Boner move but had a lot goin on and I’d rather that happen than scratch the damn car so I’ll call it a win.
 
Spent a little time tonight sanding the engine callouts on the hood and respraying them. Then took q-tips and nail polish remover (acetone) and got the paint off the letters. They aren’t perfect but they also aren’t $200 a pair or more and look pretty damn good. The little **** always takes the longest. Also got word my redlines will be here Saturday so I can mount them on the wheels and see what they look like! I’ll try and grab some pics this weekend outside once they are on so it shows how nice the package looks together.
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Got the windshield in today. Sanderson glass is good stuff but it sucks when the window fits too good! The last couple windshields I’ve done must’ve been on the small side because this one was a real bastard to get inside the gasket. I also used glass cleaner aerosol cans instead of pledge so there was less residue when I was done. It worked well just a little more effort than the last two. I would recommend their glass to anyone looking for a nice fitting product for a reasonable price. I also put the wipers on and the window trim. I wouldn’t give you $.10 for these reproduction window trim clips no matter who makes them they all suck. They’re kind of a one time use steel because once they’re on they don’t hold spring retention like the original spring steel clips did. I made them work but I can’t believe they sell these pieces of **** and call them factory style parts. I don’t mind some stuff not working but things like the window clips and that you would think they would spend the extra 10 bucks and make them thick and strong like the originals because they’re not exactly easy to change. Getting down to the nitty-gritty now as the box of parts for the car is getting very very small.

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91 rt ...where did you get the exterior door birds from???and are you happy with them?......here's mine without them....

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Got the tires on today….car looks fantastic outside in the sun!

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Gave up on my order for the repop bumpers from Summit through AMD and said screw it. Sent the originals to tri city for replating. Been waiting for 6 months and the news is that they aren't making any bumpers right now or fulfilling any orders so I couldn't wait until the price goes up even more for replating. They got me for $800 a bumper which is steep but they should be near perfect coming from tri city. That should be the last piece to the car.
 
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