73 Charger SE Testosterone Treatment

[nstyle73]

It is over 40, so it was bound to happen at some point. This is my first car and it is long overdue a little TLC. I bought the car at 15 and did all the work myself except the quarter panels and a $500 paint job for a total investment of a little less than $4k. 17 years later, after being basically stored poorly while I convinced myself I would work on it for the last 7 while it took a back burner to 4 kids, building a house and two moves, it is finally getting the upgrades I have been planning for a decade.

The finished pictures are from 1999 other than the one with the Torque Thrusts which was from 2006. I am the third owner of this 318/904/ 8 1/4" beast with 2.71 gears with all of the original paperwork. The interior is original except for the dash cap, but the last decade has taken its tole and everything except the door panels and seat covers will need replaced.

Like I said, I have been planning this for 10 years, so I have purchased 2 parts cars in order to acquire a lot of upgrade parts on a reasonable budget, about the same as my initial investment. I sure am glad that no one likes the 73-74 cars as much as the 71-72.

 

[HawkRod]

Sounds like a great project!

My first car was my 73 Road Runner that I had all these years. I restored mine in 1992 and then drive it sparingly for many years. More recently, I gave it to my son as his first car. While it is a little bit sad to see it get dings and bruises, it is doing what it was meant to do: DRIVE!!! He loves it too.

You car sounds like it likely has a lot of great stories too - best of luck as you restore it and get it back on the road!

Hawk

 

[dieseldazzle]

Man where did you store it for it to go from halfway decent shape in 2006 with the torq thrusts on it to its current state only 9 years later?

Looks like a sweet project anyways.

Going back all stock or???

 

[Bb70charger500]

Sweet car I agree there's got to be a few good stores with you owning it as long as you have . Can't wait to see another charger get restored good luck on your resto

 

[TX67RT]

That's awesome! My first car was also a '73 SE Brougham in B5 w/white top, just like yours. I was even rocking the Keystone Klassic wheels! Drove it all through high school, then sold it to buy a '70 Cuda 440-4. Over the years, I've really missed that car, and am now on the hunt for a '71-'74 Charger or Satellite. Great that you kept yours so that you have something to restore. I ended up selling my Cuda also, but still have my '67 R/T that I bought in '82. Wish I could have kept them all...

Cheers!

JD

 

[nstyle73]

Luckily, as a 73 with a 318, it was never worth a lot, so I just kept it thinking I could always do whatever I eventually wanted to do to it without feeling bad. And now, I'm glad I kept it. My first post may have been a bit confusing. The picture of the car in the shed, in primer, was from when I bought it in '98. Currently the car looks like the 2006 picture, but the headliner and carpet have fallen victim to mice, and the dash cap cracked.

The plan is to steal the engine, transmission and rearend from my parts cars, as well as a few other pieces and redo the interior. The body is solid and the paint is pretty decent, probably a good 10 footer. It has sat for so long I would like to get it cleaned up and going without blowing the whole thing apart for a restoration.

- - - Updated - - -

Donor Car #1: 73 Rallye 340, Rallye dash, console, slapstick, green on green with black top and stripe, 52,000 original miles that had always been in the same town until I purchased it. But no paperwork other than a couple of BOS and a title. It hadn't been licensed since 78 according to the plates as someone was performing an engine swap to a 440/727. They kept the small block K-frame and butchered up some things and it didn't run when I bought it. Turned out it needed a battery, starter, relay and still needs an ignition switch. After I got it running it needs brake work and something isn't right with the transmission, but its the best $1200 I ever spent on anything Mopar. Overall, its been picked apart and slapped together and led a sad life.
The Keystones are off of my SE.

Highlights:

Incredibly rust free underside
All rubber and bushings looks great
'75 440 from a truck with new Edelbrock Performer RPM Carb, new distributor and valve covers and unknown brand ceramic coated headers
1.14" HD torsion bars
8 3/4" 3.91 gears with a locker
New carpet and headliner
Original dashpad is cherry
Doors are rust free and original

Lowlights:
K-frame was mangled to clear the truck oil pan
Retained the 340 radiator
the original fenders, bulge hood, and trunk lid were stolen for the PO's other car and replaced with rusty ones
Needs seat covers

 

[nstyle73]

I don't have the best place to work right now as I haven't finished my shop yet, but the old house foundation in the shed is serving duty currently. Here is the other donor car. It is donating the 8 3/4 housing and leaf springs as well as shock mounts and sway bar mounts as it has been converted to the 71-72 style at some point. It was converted to the green bearings with Moser axles and has a set of traction bars that I will probably just leave bolted to the springs for now. Apparently when this was done, they put new bushings in the springs as well.

I will have to put new bushings in the upper shackle mounts of my car as they are shot. Are they two piece that press in from each side or are they one piece? The pictures I saw online of the replacement ones were two piece, but mine appear to be one piece.

 

[nstyle73]

So, I realized maybe I should have put this in the restoration/project area, but I guess it doesn't hurt anything here. I stripped the carpet and jute out of the interior as well as the headliner. The headliner is only a four bow. Also, the carpet was one piece, but all of the replacement carpet I have found is two piece. Does someone make one piece carpet for these? Or are the pictures incorrect and it really comes as one piece?

 

[EccentricMagpies]

That blue SE really looks sharp with the white top and rallye stripe!

Should be a great project

 

[HawkRod]

Looks like you are moving along nicely! So will you be transplanting the 440/727?

It is a bit of a shame the 340 is gone - it is a great little engine that packs a wallop! This would have limited changes you needed to make. I am not sure why you are concerned about the 340 radiator, as my 340 (with A/C) has a 28 inch radiator! It is huge and provides more than ample cooling. Maybe non A/C 340s have smaller radiators?

Anyway, good luck with the build and upgrades - have fun!

 

[charger360]

keep us posted!

 

[nstyle73]

Thanks for the compliments. To be honest I didn't actually run the numbers on the radiator in the 340 car so it may not even be from the car originally, but it is small, 22" I assume. I think I checked when I first bought the car and the 340 and 440 shared inlet and outlet placement. The orange car has a new 26" aluminum radiator that it will be donating along with its engine and transmission, to be revealed.

- - - Updated - - -

Teaser picture from the orange car

 

[nstyle73]

The negative degree weather has put a chill on my motivation. I pulled the rear out of all three cars to put the best parts together. I got a pretty fresh set of 11" brakes as well as new parking brake cables. Once I opened the rear ends up is when the problems started. I had driven all of the cars and one had a noise in the rear that I was afraid was the gears, so I was planning to use the 3.91 setup out of the other car. The 3.91's have a locker that was installed in an open differential so the thrust block was still intact and not easily removed and the axles had been cut with green bearings installed.

The other 8 3/4 is a cone type SG and from what I read, the thrust block is not easily removed from them either and I am guessing that the sound in the rear end was from the full length axles with green bearings that were home-made shimmed out and then tightened down against the thrust block. I measured all of the axles, the housings, the thrust blocks, found a stock housing and axles to measure and this setup comes out about 1/2" too wide for the housing. Their spacers took up about 3/8". It took some time reading and a couple phone calls, but for now I am just running the cut axles in the 3.91 gears and will explore my options for reassembling the other 8 3/4". The 8 1/4 is getting plugged back into the orange car.

Also, are these what you would need to run the stock tapered bearings? I do have a stock housing and stock axles. http://www.ebay.com/itm/251538902117?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[nstyle73]

I finally got the rear end back under the car last week after fighting the shackle bushings and a wheel cylinder issue. One small problem with the deeper gears, they left two really long blacks strips when I first pulled out of the driveway. Is there a fix for that? :icon_winkle: After driving the 318 with 3.91's, I think a five speed swap with a small block and deep gears would be a pretty nice driver but I am well down this 440 path already. The car went to the body shop to have the hood painted and installed.

 

[nstyle73]

ITS BACK! It finally came back from the body shop after 9 months to put a hood on, but it turned out nicely and the price ended up being perfect. Now the work really begins.

 

[ODZKing]

Nstyle, that looks great. I considered doing that with my 73 as well with the Rallye stripes but with the white interior and red I thought it would be too much. So I stuck with just the simple SuperBee hood.
Can't wait to see more pics.

 

[nstyle73]

I wondered if the hood decal would be too much also, but with the blue interior and the flat hood, there were several acres of blue that needed breaking up when you looked out the windshield. As always, plans change, so this car is receiving a slightly different drivetrain than originally planned but should still be solid. Semi-Pro Touring is the target. I just can't bring myself to blow apart the whole car when its not rusty and doesn't need painted and I still want it to retain that feel it has always had. Its weird, but its like it has always had a certain personality even though its just a car, and I want to keep that. I have other cars that will someday fill the Pro-Touring niche.

 

[ODZKing]

As mentioned, I was going to go with the Rallye stripes on the side and the hood, this

with S/E instead of R/T.

But again I went with the factory white stripe and I am happy with my decision.
But I am very impressed with the look of yours, i really like that.

 

[nstyle73]

I pulled the carpet out to see how bad the driver's floor pan is rusted. Its not good, but could be worse. There will be some welding for the four speed hump anyway. The rest looks ok other than some surface rust.

 

[nstyle73]

I ordered my suspension parts at the beginning of December and several of them arrived on time, like they should but I ordered some parts from Magnum force Racing that didn't show, and didn't show. So I called them after Christmas and they admitted to dropping the ball and they would go out immediately. About 10 days later, a rep called saying that they had still dropped the ball and that to make up for the 5 week delay she was going to expedite a brand new set (I had ordered a discounted set with a blemish in the powercoating) So two weeks later they finally show up and I unwrap them to find the blemished set I had ordered. Now, I obviously don't have an issue with the blemish as it is superficial, unseen and I originally ordered them that way, but don't call me to tell me you are doing me a special favor and then not follow through.

Anyway, the car currently has a PST poly front end kit that was installed several years ago, but less than a couple thousand miles. It also has some 1.14" torsion bars out of a donor car that may be a little stiff, but I haven't grown to dislike them yet. I also had the steering box rebuilt by Firm Feel to a Stage II in 2007. Further upgrades include:
Bilstein Shocks
Tubular Upper Control Arms
Boxed Lower Control Arms
Fully welded and gusseted K-Frame
2" drop spindles

My main suspension concern, which will come in down the road, will be some rear suspension upgrades as the springs are from a 318 car. I will have to do a little research on how to embed the video of the 318 saying goodbye before finding a new home.