1969 Charger R/T resurrection

[tallhair]

Doesn't look like much, but it is a great day for the Charger. First time in a long time it has sat on the ground with wheels attached. It is now officially a roller. The front fenders and the hood are the only pieces left to be blocked out. That and some seam sealer on the body and this thing is ready for paint. I stopped in at the body shop last week to check their schedule and kind of figured this would be a bad time because of all the car - deer collisions happening right now, and I was correct. They are going to try to get it in the week of Thanksgiving, but I am not holding my breath. The deer hits in the fall around here are their bread and butter. On another note, I also special ordered the wheels from Summit. We decided to be a little different and went with the Keystone Classics. 15x10's on the rear are snug to say the least, but I got the backspacing correct to get them tucked right in. The bad news on this is that Crager has just shut down the line on custom stuff for their yearly machine maintenance. So they wont be made until January. If I could have gotten the rearend in the car for measurements 2 weeks ago, I would already have them.

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Here are a couple more shots of the beefed up k-frame after painting just for tallhair.

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Thanks Elk! I look forward to your updates and I really appreciate the extra details shots of the car 'in-situ' .

Very nice and very helpful for me to show the welder who does not normally work on cars.

 

[Ron 73]

Great to see it on all fours! Wont be as long as you think now, Those white stripes will look good on it!

 

[hunt2elk]

Been patiently waiting for the bodyshop to get the car in. If everything goes as planned, it will be leaving the end of next week. They are guessing only 2 days of work so I will be getting it right back. In the meantime, I've been putzing around getting all my chrome polished up. The only parts left are the inner drip rail moldings and the rear window exterior trim. This window trim is not going to be fun as there is black butal(sic?) caulk stuck to a bunch of it.



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I have to give a thank you to monroegtx. He asked a question about the rear axle bumpers on his GTX restoration. I didn't even realize that I had mistakenly bolted on the triangle set instead of the correct round ones for 440 and Hemi cars. The picture shows the size difference between the two.

 

[747mopar]

Looks like we're doing the same thing right now "gotta love it". Oops, I bolted the triangular ones on as well, why the diff?

 

[conv67bdere]

Been patiently waiting for the bodyshop to get the car in. If everything goes as planned, it will be leaving the end of next week. They are guessing only 2 days of work so I will be getting it right back. In the meantime, I've been putzing around getting all my chrome polished up. The only parts left are the inner drip rail moldings and the rear window exterior trim. This window trim is not going to be fun as there is black butal(sic?) caulk stuck to a bunch of it.

Hey H2E . . . I think CudaChick told me it was Butyl . . . and I'e been using lacquer thinner to clean it up . . . yucky stuff ! ! ! Ewwwwwwwwww . . .
Gotta clean all that stuff off the windshield frame on my convertible . . . it's going to take a while . . .

 

[hunt2elk]

Looks like we're doing the same thing right now "gotta love it". Oops, I bolted the triangular ones on as well, why the diff?

No idea why they put heavier ones on with the bigger motors. They must take more abuse. I remember checking out my original 69 RR 383 car and saw it had the triangle ones. I thought that was what the Charger should have too - guess not. This Charger came in boxes, so I was really not sure what was correct.

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Hey H2E . . . I think CudaChick told me it was Butyl . . . and I'e been using lacquer thinner to clean it up . . . yucky stuff ! ! ! Ewwwwwwwwww . . .
Gotta clean all that stuff off the windshield frame on my convertible . . . it's going to take a while . . .

Yeah Butyl. I just couldn't remember how to spell it. Good thing we have a fine woman around here to keep us up on our grammar. I'll try the lacquer on it.

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Got home tonight and found a package with my new clutch at the doorstep. I ended up going with a McLeod Super Street Pro original Borg & Beck style. I did a lot of debating between this or a diaphragm type.

 

[CHARGERSTEVEN]

Good heads up on those rear axel bump stops i check mine and they have triangle ones as well.they must have change them out for the cheaper ones as i can see these wearing out early on he big block cars.back in the day thats what they useally did. To save on money and if someone didnt know the difference.great work n your making me jealous still working on that back end.

 

[BigBlock61]

Been patiently waiting for the bodyshop to get the car in. If everything goes as planned, it will be leaving the end of next week. They are guessing only 2 days of work so I will be getting it right back. In the meantime, I've been putzing around getting all my chrome polished up. The only parts left are the inner drip rail moldings and the rear window exterior trim. This window trim is not going to be fun as there is black butal(sic?) caulk stuck to a bunch of it.

View attachment 152195

Fun times polishing the chrome. I'm sure it will come out first rate just like the rest of your car. Great job hunt

 

[conv67bdere]

Cleaning butyl . . .

Hunt2Elk . . . here's some of my work on removing Butyl



As you can see the stuff is pretty thick on my convertible windshield trim . . . and it cleans up really well. What I did was drip it on top of the stuff, and scraped it with a piece of wood ( just a scrap ) . . . it scrapes off really easy. Then a lot of spare paper towels to mop up the remnants.

Good Luck with your trim work ! ! !

 

[hunt2elk]

As you can see the stuff is pretty thick on my convertible windshield trim . . . and it cleans up really well. What I did was drip it on top of the stuff, and scraped it with a piece of wood ( just a scrap ) . . . it scrapes off really easy. Then a lot of spare paper towels to mop up the remnants.

Good Luck with your trim work ! ! !

I took care of mine last night. Man that is some nasty stuff, but with a bunch of soaking and scraping it is removed from my trim.

 

[conv67bdere]

I took care of mine last night. Man that is some nasty stuff, but with a bunch of soaking and scraping it is removed from my trim.

Nasty is putting it nicely H2E . . . Glad to hear you got it all done.

 

[Budnicks]

trim looks pretty good, when are you getting the car back ??...

 

[hunt2elk]

trim looks pretty good, when are you getting the car back ??...

Getting the car back? Damn Bud, I cant even get it out of here lol. The body shop has been jacking me around all month, preferring to do car-deer hits so they can make their million faster. They are now telling me next Wed. or Fri. they will be picking it up. They have 2 days work on it. After that, it is scheduled to go in for a vinyl top and headliner the first week of December to a different shop. After that, it will be back home. I am slightly annoyed by all of this because I wanted all the hauling around done before the snow hit. Right now the white stuff is coming down fairly brisk with 4"s expected tonight.

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On a more positive note, all my exhaust showed up today. C5 TTi headers and a full H-pipe system.

 

[Budnicks]

Getting the car back? Damn Bud, I cant even get it out of here lol. The body shop has been jacking me around all month, preferring to do car-deer hits so they can make their million faster. They are now telling me next Wed. or Fri. they will be picking it up. They have 2 days work on it. After that, it is scheduled to go in for a vinyl top and headliner the first week of December to a different shop. After that, it will be back home. I am slightly annoyed by all of this because I wanted all the hauling around done before the snow hit. Right now the white stuff is coming down fairly brisk with 4"'s expected tonight.

I can imagine it's frustrating as hell sometimes, the way some people do/run business... good luck

 

[hunt2elk]

I did not go with the TTI tips for a couple of reasons. Their tips while well made, have the TTI logo engraved on them which I didn't care for. And the other reason is that they mount different. You can see on the tailpipes how there is a hanger that I will have to grind off to fit a standard style mount. I went with Accurate tips which will look original except they slip over the tailpipes instead of inside like factory. Another complaint I have heard is that the TTI mounts let the tailpipes hang lower than they should. The middle hanger sent with the kit is quite a beefy piece and not like any I have ever seen before.

 

[Budnicks]

I like the look of those tips...

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I can't believe how expensive tips are now, I will still do some on mine too but the 3" tips are like $300 for a pair... last I looked anyway, I'm not really a cheapskate but dang... that's $150-$300 or more, depends on who they come from, I can spend on suspension or something else... they do look good allot better than the big 3" cannons ticking out the rear thou...

 

[daytona kid]

Wow!

 

[hunt2elk]

I like the look of those tips...

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I can't believe how expensive tips are now, I will still do some on mine too but the 3" tips are like $300 for a pair... last I looked anyway, I'm not really a cheapskate but dang... that's $150-$300 or more, depends on who they come from, I can spend on suspension or something else... they do look good allot better than the big 3" cannons ticking out the rear thou...

These 2.5" tips were $149. for the pair(I paid an extra $50. for the thicker metal). I think the 3" are only a few bucks more.

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Wow!

Is that a good or bad 'wow' Kid?

 

[kdtjb]

Take a minute to bolt those got headers to your heads and make sure you can get a spark plug and socket on all 8 cylinders. I have had two sets that had a problem at # 5.

 

[hunt2elk]

Take a minute to bolt those got headers to your heads and make sure you can get a spark plug and socket on all 8 cylinders. I have had two sets that had a problem at # 5.

Will do. What did you do, send them back? My motor should be done next week, so I wont be able to check the fit with the 440 Source heads till then. I do have some 906's here that I can try them on.