Jarran
Well-Known Member
A few months back I bought a '72 charger base edition, I'v done quite a bit since then, so I figured I'm long overdue for a post on my poject so far. So when I got her she had lost the original engine and someone had dropped a 360 in her, not to bad since the 360 was built mildly, bored .030 over, street/strip cam, hydraulic roller/rockers, edelbrock heads intake and carb. Transmission was badly in need of a rebuild, and there was some decent rust where the 3/4 top used to be. It did however come with a '71 r/t bulge hood (missing the insert of course!) I started by pulling both the engine and transmission and completely rebuilding both from top to bottom. I added a msd ignition to the engine and dropped them both back in, once I got her fired up and made sure everything was working properly it was on to the breaks, I had noticed some minor squeaking when I braked so I took one of the front tires off to check the disc, good thing I did! There was no brake pad left a d the caliper had gouged a good 1/4 inch into the rotor, I went online, and after looking around a bit settled on a complete 4 wheel disc brake kit with drilled and slotted rotors, as well as stainless steel lines and the hemi brake booster. I figured that would give my car the stopping power it would need, I didn't want to mess with the brakes so I took it to a race shop near my house to have the work done, while it was there I had them throw on the edelbrock IAS shocks, superstock Leif springs, tubular upper control arms, and PST front suspension kit I had all boxed up and waiting. After about 2 weeks at the shop I got the call I was waiting for, she was done. Man driving her out of the shop was amazing, it was like driving a totally different car, the handling was much better, with minimal roll when going into and out of corners, and the steering was no longer sloppy. I took a break for a bit afterthat and wad content to just cruise around, I was saving up for paint and body work, but wanted to get everything I wanted to do to the body done before paint so I wouldn't have to go back and pay to have parts painted, so I ordered all the fiberglass parts I needed from a shop down in southern California, I got a six-PAC hood, fenders, and front and rear bumpers. I got the hood and fenders put on, but am waiting on getting the bumpers back from the fabricators so I don't have to put bolts through the outerparts which I can't stand. I put a rear spoiler on her and then started work on the body, I took down the hooks for the top and deleted the quarter emblems as well as the side marker lights to clean things up a bit, I threw a grey primer on to keep things from rusting (after taking it all down to bare metal) and then decided what the hell, I may as well throw a basecoat on there, I chose Chrysler's B-5 "super blue" because it stands out from the crowd and looks great to me. I also scored a set of 2010 challenger rims and tires and put them on, raised the car up quite a bit as they are 18" rims, so I'm looking at throwing some 2" drop spindles on there to improve the rake and make it look better. I also just got a pair of '71 r/t doors because I love the way the louvers look. I haven't as of yet put them on because they need a bit of tlc on the inner door frame due to rust, but I hope to have them on this month. I also replaced the gas tank and fuel lines. I coated it with some of Eastwood's extreme chassis black in high gloss and it came out amazing, I posted this from my phone so I can't upload photos yet, but I will later on tonight when I get home. Any thoughts or opinions are definitely welcome as this is my first Mopar!
