JamieZ
Well-Known Member
I've expanded my mopar stable by adding a 1968 Dodge Charger to my 1974 Challenger (you can find information on the Challenger at the following location: http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=77949.0 ).
I purchased it in the Detroit area of MI and then drove it 200 miles home to Ohio. It was a bit of a white knuckle experience as it is an early 68 with no shoulder belts, no head rests, manual drums on all 4 corners, and an Inland shifter. It survived the drive without any real issues.
She's a good running/driving car that just needs a little TLC to get it back to a nice cruise/weekend car. None of the gauges appear to work consistently other than the ammeter and the clock of all things. The temp gauge sometimes works. The Tach seems to work but some times starts at 4k instead of 0. Fuel sometimes works...but I have no idea if it it's accurate. Temp does the same thing. Oil pressure is just dead. Speedo was reading 100-120 when I was doing 60 and waving all over the place. So....dash needs to come out.
The grill needs some work. Some cracked pieces (though none of them visible). The hideaway doors don't work, but they aren't connected correctly. So the grill needs to come out.
It was an AC car (rare for a 383 4 speed I'm told). The AC was removed, but all the big pieces were in the trunk (compressor, hoses, etc). I'd like to rebuild/replace that at some point, but that's a down the road type of thing.
Mechanically it seems pretty solid. The oil looks good (but I'll change it just to be sure) and my mechanical gauge put it between 35-40 psi at idle. The brakes are good, so it stops, but it's a manual drum car so it still doesn't stop all that well. A conversion to at least front discs, possibly front boosted discs is in the future.
The suspension looks pretty past it, with rubber parts that may be original. So during the winter I'll have to do a rebuild at least the front. I'll probably put new adjustable shocks on it as well to improve the ride quality.
It has an Inland shifter in it. The amount of slop was incredible, but I had read that was a common complaint about the Inland "guess-a-gear". I took it apart this morning to get some measurements for the grommets (which probably failed decades ago) and discovered the top bolt of the 3 was missing. I put a spare bolt I had laying around the garage and that really tightened things up.
And here are some pictures:
I purchased it in the Detroit area of MI and then drove it 200 miles home to Ohio. It was a bit of a white knuckle experience as it is an early 68 with no shoulder belts, no head rests, manual drums on all 4 corners, and an Inland shifter. It survived the drive without any real issues.
She's a good running/driving car that just needs a little TLC to get it back to a nice cruise/weekend car. None of the gauges appear to work consistently other than the ammeter and the clock of all things. The temp gauge sometimes works. The Tach seems to work but some times starts at 4k instead of 0. Fuel sometimes works...but I have no idea if it it's accurate. Temp does the same thing. Oil pressure is just dead. Speedo was reading 100-120 when I was doing 60 and waving all over the place. So....dash needs to come out.
The grill needs some work. Some cracked pieces (though none of them visible). The hideaway doors don't work, but they aren't connected correctly. So the grill needs to come out.
It was an AC car (rare for a 383 4 speed I'm told). The AC was removed, but all the big pieces were in the trunk (compressor, hoses, etc). I'd like to rebuild/replace that at some point, but that's a down the road type of thing.
Mechanically it seems pretty solid. The oil looks good (but I'll change it just to be sure) and my mechanical gauge put it between 35-40 psi at idle. The brakes are good, so it stops, but it's a manual drum car so it still doesn't stop all that well. A conversion to at least front discs, possibly front boosted discs is in the future.
The suspension looks pretty past it, with rubber parts that may be original. So during the winter I'll have to do a rebuild at least the front. I'll probably put new adjustable shocks on it as well to improve the ride quality.
It has an Inland shifter in it. The amount of slop was incredible, but I had read that was a common complaint about the Inland "guess-a-gear". I took it apart this morning to get some measurements for the grommets (which probably failed decades ago) and discovered the top bolt of the 3 was missing. I put a spare bolt I had laying around the garage and that really tightened things up.
And here are some pictures:
I know the speedo cable is bad, and a new one should arrive next week. I ordered a tach rebuild kit (also for RT Engineering). As for the oil/temp/fuel gauges, I disconnected them and did a quick test with the 9V battery. All of them sweep so that's good. So I pulled the printed circuit board and cleaned all the contacts. 
