'69 charger r/t-se: Building my dream car

[440+6]

Any special reason the caliper is mounted upside down lol :toothy10:

Good eye BigBlock, its gonna be a bitch to bleed that way Speedy.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Well nothing too crazy to show for it but I had a pretty busy weekend, this time taking on blackcoat's wasted steering collumn (safety cage got compressed in the accident). Called up a cool old hippy friend of mine who happened to have a 4-speed collumn laying around (no collumn shift hardware like my old one), but as always there was a catch. The story goes, someone stole the steering wheel out of the original car, and the owner used a trusty pair of vicegrips to steer the car around the yard, resulting in the splines being completely fubar. So in keeping with my mad scientist deal, I figured I could frankenstein one good collumn out of the two..







I'll spare you guys the hours of little step-by-steps dissecting a chebby collumn, but one of the highlights was this lower bearing which is apparently discontinued. One of mine was toasted and the other was full of crud and grit, but the only place I saw them for sale on fleabay was for $85.. so I cleaned the one out as best I could, re-greased, and said to hell with dropping $85 on a single bearing lol.



With all the major parts painted and reassembled, everything seems to be kosher and work as it should! Looks a lot cleaner without the big collumn shift nub and I'll be painting the lower end of the shaft





Now with that whole project done, I've started thinking about a new steering wheel to replace my Grant electrical tape special. Right now it's between the Sparco R345..



..and the Momo Prototipo Porsche 911-st replica, which I'm leaning more towards. I think the "speed holes" and all black would look a little more interceptor-ish haha. Both are leather and 350mm like the Sparco L777 I put in the Charger



Also got my newfangled halo headlights, and as much as I usually dislike em, I think these ones are looking pretty bad@ss!
Halo only:


Halo and bulb:


And last bit of news is I think I'm going to go check out a craigslist find Gopro Hero3+ Black edition video camera. I've wanted one for quite a while now and planning on filming/editing together some videos once the cars are together and back on the road. Some of my favorites I'd like to take influence from are the Magnus Walker videos (who's also a big inspiration to my cars in general). Check this one out if you have a minute, cool video, cool dude, and a cool philosophy on cars

http://www.vimeo.com/72364160

As always, more progress to come ccasion14:

O.K I'll admit your Chevelle is looking pretty mean in all black with the Nascar style wheels. I saw your Speedo and thought I'd mention how much I like my GPS Speedo sensor, always within 1 mph accurate and you can change gearing, tire size, etc without ever touching it. Also thought I'd mention a buddy of mine that drags blew his bellhousing apart and bought an aftermarket bellhousing that bolts onto the tranny once you cut the old away (looked pretty durable).

Man I must be on the right track if yoi're admitting some love for the chebbie hahaha thanks man! Yeah I was actually thinking about your setup when I was looking at those gauges, wasn't the sender only $110 or something with no monthly subscription type deal? That'd be pretty awesome. And damn I didn't even think of looking into that, might have been a good option but at least the trans guy said he'd swap all the guts over for only $350 including the new case so that was a pretty good deal

Speedy your fast becoming a car restorer to be reckoned with! your scary good at this stuff...

I don't know if I'd go that far Ron lol! But thanks for the kind words, at least it's feeling a lot more natural with the Chevelle now that I've already gone through a lot of this work with the Charger, might be starting to get my "sea legs" with all this stuff haha :icon_thumleft:

Any special reason the caliper is mounted upside down lol :toothy10:

Good eye BigBlock, its gonna be a bitch to bleed that way Speedy.

LOL that mod is worth -10 feet on the skidpad, haven't you guys heard?? Guess that's what happens when you bolt on parts at 1:00 in the morning after a long day :head_smack: haha good lookin out fellas :icon_thumleft:

 

[PFG MOPAR]

Chebby !! What's all this chebby crap !
I thought this was a MOPAR board !! ??

:nono:

Mike.

 

[Ron 73]

Any kind of work that Speed demon does i like to see it!!! cant help it, i have a learning curve and he helps supply the facts, or what ever ya call it Mopar Charger work coming, chebby work the appetizer..
THANKS FOR the link Speedy, i haven't yet but have an idea what it is and do want to check it out!!!

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Got my Gopro last night and already loving it! Here's one of my first shots messing around with it, Frankenstein is now officially running QA1 Stocker Stars on all 4 corners

Chebby !! What's all this chebby crap !
I thought this was a MOPAR board !! ??

:nono:

Mike.

My cars are a package deal Mike, take em or leave em haha I'm just glad to be making progress.

Any kind of work that Speed demon does i like to see it!!! cant help it, i have a learning curve and he helps supply the facts, or what ever ya call it Mopar Charger work coming, chebby work the appetizer..
THANKS FOR the link Speedy, i haven't yet but have an idea what it is and do want to check it out!!!

Thanks Ron! Yeah it's not a very long video compared to the Urban Outlaw documentary I linked awhile back, but both are definitely worth a watch :icon_thumleft:

 

[Ron 73]

Good to hear you got your stuff, That is always a pick me up no matter how small or what were waiting for, The next thing ill be getting is a tank of welding gas, now this im not quite sure if ill be excited or just happy its full again lol... Oh well, the neat brand new stuff comes later i guess, first the car then the amenities...

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

More fun with the gopro while I was under frankenstein locking down the new shocks. I do have a question on the rear brake hose if someone could help me out though. Nothing was hooked up when I got the car, and my friend Muscle Car Alley Mike gave me a stainless braid hose off of a '69 Roadrunner that was going back to rubber. While I was under there I looked at hooking it up but the hose end is female as well as the distribution block.. is there supposed to be some kind of male-to-male there or is the hose end supposed to be male?



I also swapped out my original AVS for a Holley Street Avenger I had laying around since Mike thinks something is still up with the Carter. Fired right off and ran strong except I couldn't get the revs down below 2,000 even with the idle speed backed all the way off. It was dark by the time I got everything together so I'll be checking it out today after work

And I know what ya mean Ron! Sometimes it's fun to get some new tools/gadgets/etc to mess with while you're workin haha this was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up, and already taking some pretty awesome pictures/video

 

[PFG MOPAR]

Speedy !! Where ya at ??

Haven't seen a post in a while !!

Got any extra 440 parts sittin around?
:icon_thumleft:

I need a oil pump .. oil pan & pickup ..
alternator .. other misc stuff for the General ..

:headbang:

thought I'd ask

Mike..

 

[benno440]

original brake line is a rubber male end on diff side and female end on engine side goes into a y block that has a breather on top, I kept the original rubber one and original y block cause could not be frigged stuffing around with the stainless one wildwood sent me. with your high idle, check your timing too high or throttle linkage bind up or vacuum leak

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Man, sorry guys I'm way behind on the updates. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I realized the fast idle issue was just the electric choke not being hooked up and was stuck on the fast idle cam lol.
:head_smack:
Unfortunately solving that problem I still couldn't get it firing right, so my buddy Mike came by and took a look. He told me the dizzy slot is usually never perfectly parallel with engine centerline like it's supposed to be, but actually just a hair off one way or the other. Sure enough mine was, so we skipped a tooth so it would be just a hair to the opposite side of centerline, fired it off, played with initial timing, and it ended up running the best I've ever heard it run. Kissed 5,500 rpm and was just silky smooth. But then we start tuning idle mixture and Mike notices the ballast resistor is getting super hot, and slowly the engine runs worse and worse until it dies. Not sure on what the problem could be, I've tried replacing the Pertronix coil with the premium Napa one and using a new ballast resistor, with no improvement. Also noticed the coil is getting nearly 10v which is high as far as I know? So in any case I was already planning on going to Mancini's electronic ignition so I'm hoping that will solve the problem. :shruggy:

In other news, my friend Casey came up to visit from San Francisco a few weeks ago and we knocked out a mad thrash on the Charger in a desperate quest for some tiresmoke. No windshield, no doors, no problem lol



We got the brake hose issue solved with some backtracing on the specific application for my front brake setup, and an order from Summit for all 3 new hoses including the correct rear one.





Bench bled the master cylinder, checked all my connections, and went to town bleeding the system. Just a note, I went with dot-4 fluid for its higher boiling point than dot-3, and better price/availability compared to dot-5. Should work just fine for me.





We got fluid at all 4 corners, the original driver's seat bolted in temporarily, the shifter adjusted, and the driveshaft in, but ended up being defeated by the ignition trouble and some semi-functioning brakes that must still have air somewhere in the lines. But all in all we had a good time and got a lot done on ol' Frankenstein. I'm playing this one a little close to the chest, but I've finally found some seats worthy of the Charger's cockpit, now there's just the challenge of finding a pair I can afford.. :thinker: haha still was an awesome feeling to finally sit in the driver's seat for the first time, looking out the windshield with the shifter in hand and engine running. The time is nigh, gentlemen!



Also while Casey was up here, we decided to check out an auction of a stock-car shop just around the corner from my place. Ran into PFG there and there was a big turnout but everything was going CHEAP. Casey scored an aluminum racing seat for $35 and a gocart engine for $25, and I scored a $950 steering box for $10, a set of shocks for $15, and an ATL bladder/case type fuel cell for only $25! Plus we both bought various $10-15 Hoosier/Goodyear slicks, some mounted, and I put mine straight to use in the "living room" lol





So that's about where the Charger's at for now, and I've been moving along with the Chebbie as well. Finally got the rear end and suspension out and swapped over to the new frame.




The eagle has landed!


Of course the frame I bought is one year earlier than the '67, so the rear springs are different. And as I was getting ready to start boxing the frame, I go to test-fit the engine/trans and naturally the Summit "64-72 Chevelle" high-cap oil pan doesn't clear the engine crossmember :banghead:
"Missed it by that much"


So now I'm going with the "doesn't fit? Make it fit" strategy lol speedfreak engineering at work here, hopefully have the frame boxed this weekend



And my fellow mopar guys might be pleased to hear, I'm (sort of) bringing a little pentastar to my chebbie in the form of this Jeep Grand Cherokee steering box. It's a great upgrade for the Chevelle, bolts right up, and the ratio goes from 14.4:1 to 12.7:1 with increased road feel feedback through the wheel. Between the box and the adapter kit/ragjoint, I'm all in this corner carving for $150 :icon_thumleft:



Speaking of steering, I ended up pulling the trigger on the Prototipo, worth every penny!


Oh and I owe a huge thanks to Goon and USArr! Just got my Goon-approved "fer racin" sticker Mike was cool enough to send my way, and it was an awesome surprise to show up in the mail lol you guys rule!



More progress to come this weekend, I'll try not to get so far behind this time haha hope everyone's doing well gearing up for the holiday season
ccasion14:

 

[BigBlock61]

<QUOTE> but ended up being defeated by the ignition trouble and some semi-functioning brakes that must still have air somewhere in the lines.</QUOTE>

You still have problems with the brakes? You still have the calipers mounted upside down. The bleeder goes on top. LOL

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

<QUOTE> but ended up being defeated by the ignition trouble and some semi-functioning brakes that must still have air somewhere in the lines.</QUOTE>

You still have problems with the brakes? You still have the calipers mounted upside down. The bleeder goes on top. LOL

Oh sh!t you're right! Hahaha how the hell did I miss that a second time?! I'm never gonna live this one down, I had Casey and another friend of mine there too and somehow it got past all 3 of us lol

 

[440+6]

Good eye BigBlock, its gonna be a bitch to bleed that way Speedy.

How many times do we have to tell ya lol.

Great updates, make sure you match your ballast to your coil, there are different amounts of resistance ballasts available.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

How many times do we have to tell ya lol.

Great updates, make sure you match your ballast to your coil, there are different amounts of resistance ballasts available.

Hopefully only twice but no guarantees lol I'm on a roll with the stupid mistakes lately
:head_smack:

And I bought the resistor and coil at the same time from Napa based on what their system showed for factory replacement '69 Charger R/T, but I know the chain-store computer system doesn't necessarily guarantee correct parts.. :shruggy: I'll have to look and see exactly what it is

 

[benno440]

http://shop.cipherauto.com/Racing-Seats

good cheap seats, alot of the pro touring guys use these seats,

 

[daytona kid]

Great scores and work Speedy! I used to call my car Frankenstein but since yours has that name I may call mine The Bride of Frankenstein. It kinda acts like a bitchy woman anyway.

 

[Ron 73]

That is scary Daytona, clicking hear and thinking my wife found out about my small detore yesterday! wow...

SPEEDY, all i can say is to be able to spend a day with you and your projects would be i think incredible man! I love the updates and im sure you will get things right side up And you seem to score some good stuff man, keep it up!!!!

 

[HYRDGOON]

Glad the sticker got to ya speedy! Kust paying forward the kind gesture USARR did for me!!

 

[conv67bdere]

Great scores and work Speedy! I used to call my car Frankenstein but since yours has that name I may call mine The Bride of Frankenstein. It kinda acts like a bitchy woman anyway.

Now that's funny Daytona Kid ! ! ! LMAO . . .

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Well I've been having to lay pretty low on here lately but I'll be back on a lot more after next week, but don't worry guys, I've been far from slacking off. For now here are a couple hints at what I've been up to this last week..
:beavisnbutthead:

http://shop.cipherauto.com/Racing-Seats

good cheap seats, alot of the pro touring guys use these seats,

Thanks for the heads up benno, something to consider!

Great scores and work Speedy! I used to call my car Frankenstein but since yours has that name I may call mine The Bride of Frankenstein. It kinda acts like a bitchy woman anyway.

Hahaha! Don't they all? Either way I'm sure we'll both have a couple monsters on our hands haha thanks man!

That is scary Daytona, clicking hear and thinking my wife found out about my small detore yesterday! wow...

SPEEDY, all i can say is to be able to spend a day with you and your projects would be i think incredible man! I love the updates and im sure you will get things right side up And you seem to score some good stuff man, keep it up!!!!

Thanks Ron! It'd definitely be entertaining at least lol maybe then I'd have enough pairs of eyes to manage to get my calipers on the right sides haha

Glad the sticker got to ya speedy! Kust paying forward the kind gesture USARR did for me!!

Will do, Goon! Rest assured you guys will all be getting Speedfreak "Laughin Larry" stickers whenever I manage to get them made up
ccasion14: