My '69 Charger R/T Story

[Cheapsunglasses]

 

[chargervert]

The steel wheel thing with dog dish hubcaps is so overdone. A fresh set of old school Cragar S/S wheels would look great and be period correct!

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I agree, but cragars are kinda overdone too, I mean they’re a beautiful wheel they’ve withstood time very well, but I prefer keystones. The thing is though, you have a charger, any wheel looks good!

 

[Magnes]

The lady on the left in the picture above is the same little girl from my 1st post, the original owner's daughter. The lady in the middle is the original owner's wife, who was kind enough to share her memories and the old paperwork. The gentleman on the right is the original owner's brother in law. He is married to the sister of the original owner's wife. They all remember the car well and were amazed that it had been around for all these years. I wanted to make sure they were able to see it before I leave.

And that's that. I had a neighbor help with the hood today and I put a battery hold down on it. I still need to get someone to help for a little while to bleed the brakes but they hold alright and I can load it. The rest will have to wait.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Awesome, the memories, the good times, the stories, that’s what these cars are about.

The car looks great! Especially the ZZ Top bumper sticker!


I’m getting centerlines, or cragar vibes for the car. It definitely has that awesome 70s vibe.

 

[chargervert]

That's awesome that they got to see the car before you moved! Nice work! Good luck with the move.

 

[kinghs95]

I got a wild hair last night and checked off a bunch of stuff left on the "still need to buy" list. The sky was not the limit but I didn't buy a bunch of junk either.

Summit ceramic coated headers - I've been running these same headers on my 72 for about 8 years or so now and they have held up good and still look nice and fitment was pretty good on the 72.
Summit 2.5" mandrel bent aluminized steel exhaust with their knock off Flowmaster mufflers - I'm running the same system but 3" on the 72 with Flowmaster 40's. It won't bolt up perfect but I was able to fit them once, I can do it again.
Remflex header gaskets
Dorman studs for the headers
Summit mini starter
Pertronix distributor conversion - I had a new backup points distributor for the 72 after I built it because the electronic ignition left me stranded a couple times while working bugs out. I'll just convert it over for the Charger since the 72 is fine now and no longer has a 440
Pertronix Flame-Thrower coil
Lokar throttle cable
Lokar bracket
Lokar kick down cable - Again, I've run these on the 72 for years and they've always worked flawlessly
Mopar 26" fan shroud - Should be able to modify that to fit the new 3 core aluminum rad I got a couple weeks ago
Hayden HD fan clutch
Taylor Spiro 8mm plug wires

That should wrap up many of the systems that are left. It had a flex fan on it but that'll be going and I'll hunt down a 7 blade original fan. Will probably get a Mancini high volume water pump and housing since it has worked so well on the 72 along with a Milodon thermostat.

Looks like I'm going to have to move soon. The wife is taking a job near Knoxville TN so I need to get this thing together and running/driving ASAP so I don't have to move it in pieces... *sigh

How did the summit headers fit? Did you have to bash them at all? Do you have a 440 and/

I got a wild hair last night and checked off a bunch of stuff left on the "still need to buy" list. The sky was not the limit but I didn't buy a bunch of junk either.

Summit ceramic coated headers - I've been running these same headers on my 72 for about 8 years or so now and they have held up good and still look nice and fitment was pretty good on the 72.
Summit 2.5" mandrel bent aluminized steel exhaust with their knock off Flowmaster mufflers - I'm running the same system but 3" on the 72 with Flowmaster 40's. It won't bolt up perfect but I was able to fit them once, I can do it again.
Remflex header gaskets
Dorman studs for the headers
Summit mini starter
Pertronix distributor conversion - I had a new backup points distributor for the 72 after I built it because the electronic ignition left me stranded a couple times while working bugs out. I'll just convert it over for the Charger since the 72 is fine now and no longer has a 440
Pertronix Flame-Thrower coil
Lokar throttle cable
Lokar bracket
Lokar kick down cable - Again, I've run these on the 72 for years and they've always worked flawlessly
Mopar 26" fan shroud - Should be able to modify that to fit the new 3 core aluminum rad I got a couple weeks ago
Hayden HD fan clutch
Taylor Spiro 8mm plug wires

That should wrap up many of the systems that are left. It had a flex fan on it but that'll be going and I'll hunt down a 7 blade original fan. Will probably get a Mancini high volume water pump and housing since it has worked so well on the 72 along with a Milodon thermostat.

Looks like I'm going to have to move soon. The wife is taking a job near Knoxville TN so I need to get this thing together and running/driving ASAP so I don't have to move it in pieces... *sigh

Do you have the summit headers on a 72 satellite with 440 and/or power steering box? If so how did they fit? Did you have to bash them at all?

 

[Magnes]

How did the summit headers fit? Did you have to bash them at all? Do you have a 440 and/

Do you have the summit headers on a 72 satellite with 440 and/or power steering box? If so how did they fit? Did you have to bash them at all?

In my experience with these headers, they fit perfect on my 400 stroker but on the 440, the driver side header will rub on the driver side torsion bar and 1 or 2 tubes have to be dimpled to give a little space. Not a lot, but some. And that sucks when you spend that extra money for the ceramic coating. Either way, they look great, work good, one set has lasted me over 10 years and still look good.

Oh and there is no issue with the stock power steering box on any of the cars I've installed them on.

I've pulled my engine several times now, swapping from this one to that one or whatever and you want to put some masking tape on the tubes to prevent scratches, then stick those headers down in the engine compartment about where they go and then drop your engine in. You won't get those fat headers in unless the engine is well up in the air anyway then fit them as you drop it in. The pass side is easy, the drive side is tight. I also used exhaust studs so I could hang them on the engine loose once I got it close and dont have to fiddle with lining up bolts. I actually put the studs in on a engine stand, fit the headers, then marked my studs and chopped the excess off of them. I would highly suggest doing that before you try to stab it all in because several if the studs will probably be too long and will hit the tubes of the header. And the gaskets they send with the headers are trash. I used RFL-6002 gaskets. No leaks.

Hope that helps.

 

[kinghs95]

In my experience with these headers, they fit perfect on my 400 stroker but on the 440, the driver side header will rub on the driver side torsion bar and 1 or 2 tubes have to be dimpled to give a little space. Not a lot, but some. And that sucks when you spend that extra money for the ceramic coating. Either way, they look great, work good, one set has lasted me over 10 years and still look good.

Oh and there is no issue with the stock power steering box on any of the cars I've installed them on.

I've pulled my engine several times now, swapping from this one to that one or whatever and you want to put some masking tape on the tubes to prevent scratches, then stick those headers down in the engine compartment about where they go and then drop your engine in. You won't get those fat headers in unless the engine is well up in the air anyway then fit them as you drop it in. The pass side is easy, the drive side is tight. I also used exhaust studs so I could hang them on the engine loose once I got it close and dont have to fiddle with lining up bolts. I actually put the studs in on a engine stand, fit the headers, then marked my studs and chopped the excess off of them. I would highly suggest doing that before you try to stab it all in because several if the studs will probably be too long and will hit the tubes of the header. And the gaskets they send with the headers are trash. I used RFL-6002 gaskets. No leaks.

Hope that helps.

Awesome thanks so much for the information. I will buy a set and do as you suggested. Thanks a lot

 

[72 Satellite]

Still waiting on the pulley that was supposed to be here a week ago.

I got the new u-joints in the driveshaft. Actually I took it to my buddy's shop and paid him to beat on those things. He quickly gave the job to Cliff and Cliff proceeded to bitch about it the whole time saying "he should have to pay double for making me work on my old ****"

I left the gauge light issue as it is and I will revisit it later. I've done a lot of Dakota dashes and I wouldn't be opposed to doing one in this car. We'll put a pin in that for now.

Everything electrical seems right on otherwise. I went ahead and wrapped the front and engine harness then sealed up the bulkhead connector to finish the harness install. Looks good.

View attachment 1363852

Have a short list of things left to do so I took a day yesterday and started packing the garage up. Knocked it out about half way or more I'd say but worked my *** off to do so. Felt pretty wore out today but I did some more garage packing and then cleaned the orange car up. Hit it with the clay bar to get all the crap off of it that might have wafted that way when I was doing the Charger. It was naaasty. Then I waxed it up.

View attachment 1363855

As I was washing the 72, I was thinking I should have come up with a name for it by now. I just call it "the orange car". But when I built it I wanted it to look like a mix between The General Lee and Daisy's car. Then I thought "well it IS generally Daisy's car"....

"Generally Daisy". I like that.

View attachment 1363878

Blessed to have my dream cars. I just hope they fit in the next garage...

View attachment 1363881

Thanks for sharing your awesome story with us! Would you mind passing along the details on the 72 hood scoop? Where did you get it etc...thanks in advance. Rob