Voodoo Rising - A Build Thread

[ckessel]

I looked at a 63 2 years ago as a possible driver replacement for my 04 dually. That thing was a turd despite what was advertised. Glad I eyeballed it ahead of time. Scored a 67 Deluxe a year ago that is a driver.

 

[cosgig]

Whenever I hear the name Voodoo, this guy comes to mind. My old biker buddy, and great friend for life, Voodoo. He’s a Mopar lover too!

Wishes for good luck on your great new project. Slow and steady wins the race!

 

[Voodoo]

Back once again with a little progress. I have been working on pulling more parts off of Voodoo, some going into storage such as the steering wheel and door panels, others going straight in the trash like some of the crusty electronics from the engine bay.

The welders I have been talking with came and looked at the project, they seemed confident they could accomplish the method that was shared on the previous page here by @Dave6T4 which made me real happy! I'll be ordering the AMD floor pans as soon as I have completed the strip down. Not much left in the interior after the door panels, but I do have to grind the studs off of the seat tracks and gas pedal. They have become one with the floor unfortunately. I also received that Six Pack style air cleaner, and began mocking that up to see what is needed for it to work with the dual Edelbrocks on my 440.

I rested it on top of the motor for now just to check alignment, clearances and spacing. I'll be creating a flat aluminum plate with the carb spacing traced out from the existing air cleaner base. I am going to use a metal brake and bend the sides down to create a "box" with a lip that goes around the perimeter. I can then secure that to the existing base (after cutting a matching rectangle out of it) using rivets and some high temp RTV to seal it.

That plate will be wide enough to clear the accelerator pump linkages, but needed 1/4" risers as they are the highest points on the carbs. The risers I got are aluminum, and I was pretty happy with the quality. The Edelbrocks have some bulky "shoulders" so I had to machine away some notches on each of them for clearance.

The hole spacing for the carb studs is really close to the spacing for the lid. I am thinking I may actually be able to get away with using studs right from the carbs up through the lid, rather than a two part thing. Will mess with that as I get closer to completion. As for the air cleaner lid, I am going to be doing wrinkle black to match the valve covers. Should make for a tough looking motor sitting in that green engine bay. As always, more to come so stay tuned!

 

[Voodoo]

Back from vacation with a fresh tan, I finally got a good chunk of time in on the Charger. I now have most of the interior stripped out. All that remains are the interior components around the windshield and dash. I am not sure how the headliner works, if I am more likely to destroy it during removal, I may just roll the dice and leave it in place.

I did make a couple more fun discoveries while pulling everything apart. In one of the wiring channels on the drivers side, there was a good chunk of paint in pretty good shape. I figure it wouldnt hurt to keep this as a color reference when I eventually get the car re-painted, so I harvested it and bagged it for later

One other fun one! I traced a mystery wire from under the dash to the trunk area. I really thought it was to an 8 track player, seeing as I found that cassette earlier, but I was mistaken! Instead of cut off wires, I found that it came all the way back by the gas flap. This answers an earlier post's question about what that lock was for. I honestly presumed (without checking) that it was a lock mechanism for the flap itself. Turns out it was a keyed external killswitch for the car! Never seen anything like it honestly, but kind of cool. Other than having a 34" hole in the fender I will need to patch haha.

I am about to order the floor pans from AMD, with any luck I would love to have them in and coated/painted by early April. We will see if that actually happens. In the mean time, I am going to be pulling the locked up 383 and 4 speed for storage, then figuring out how to do the jack-stand-shenanigans in preparation for the floors.

 

[RemCharger]

Looking good. Once you remove the front and rear upper windshield surrounds, the two galvanized side supports pop off and the headliner falls out. 1000 times easier than dealing with a standard headliner.
I was wondering how they would have made that lock secure the lid...
Btw- where does a floridan have to go to be on vacation??

 

[Voodoo]

Looking good. Once you remove the front and rear upper windshield surrounds, the two galvanized side supports pop off and the headliner falls out. 1000 times easier than dealing with a standard headliner.
I was wondering how they would have made that lock secure the lid...
Btw- where does a floridan have to go to be on vacation??

Thank you for the note! Definitely going to remove it then, avoid the risk of burns from the welding.

Just took a cruise out in the Caribbean, nice easy way to unplug! 2.5 hr drive to Port Canaveral (that part is stressful haha) then walk right onto the ship, can't complain! The sand and palm trees are very familiar, but the bright blue water out there is unbeatable compared to our murky green.

 

[Voodoo]

Nothing photo worthy, but I was able to remove the final interior components including the headliner as @RemCharger noted. I also officially ordered the floor pan components from AMD and they have shipped from GA, hoping they arrive this week. I ended up getting the full front pan and the two rear footwell half pans. The underseat pan has one problem area, but my welders believe they can patch that cleanly for significantly less than the cost+labor to do the whole underseat pan.

I am in the works on getting the engine crane over to my place, and should have it in hands on Wednesday. With any luck, could have the engine and transmission out before the weekend. Otherwise I will be aiming for Sunday to pull it. Once that is out, no more excuses, gotta get it supported up in the air and leave it in the hands of the welders. Words cannot describe how excited I am to get past the floor part of this project. Everything after that is right in my wheelhouse and I can really start to hit a stride with it.

 

[Voodoo]

Should have some momentum over the next several weeks now! Yesterday we pulled the motor, transmission and driveshaft. As with most things, 90% went smoothly, and the other 10% took 90% of the time. Some especially fun bolts delayed things by a couple of hours, but we got it done in the end!

My brother and dad pictured were a huge help in keeping things moving. Dad rocking the Mopar shirt should tell you where I got the bug from. I've pulled a motor and trans before on my own, but that was a little I6 and powerglide combo, and it was coming out of the cavernous engine bay of my '59 Bel Air. This time I was very glad for the extra hands. The Sawzall was used to expedite the process of disconnecting what was left of the exhaust efficiently.

Looks like the original owner had some engine trouble leading to it being parked in the barn in '77. Sadly it appears it sat with the valve covers and air cleaner off, as well as at least one spark plug removed. 48 years parked like that did a number to the motor, locked up tight. If time and budget permit, I might take a stab at doing a nice stock rebuild on both of these, but for now they will live in storage. They are original to the car, so they are staying with it. I had the distinct pleasure of accidentally resting my head in the lake of gear lube from the tail shaft. Washed my hair 4 times after that.

The engine bay looks to be in pretty good shape. I am on the fence about how to approach it. Originally I intended to respray the engine bay in the correct green so it looks brand new. I figured while the motor is out this is the best time to do it. Now I am looking at it, it's not heinous and would match the patina on the outside of the car if I just cleaned it up. Started thinking maybe just do the engine bay when I get around to doing body and paint on the rest of the car? I am 100% certain that everything removable is coming off (K member, Steering, suspension, rear end, etc.) and being powder coated while the floors are being replaced in either case. I think the 440 is going to look good in there no matter which direction I go, curious on what you guys think.

Floor pans are going in just over a week from now, couple of younger guys who have been building a welding business and have experience working on floors are going to be tackling it for me. I originally planned on doing it myself, but I have near zero welding experience and saw myself dragging this out for months on end. Their quote was extremely reasonable, and I felt it would be foolish not to have them do it. Always happy to help get a local business off the ground, and if their work is as decent as what I saw in the photos, I'll be happy to keep using them for other projects.

STAY TUNED!

 

[440 4 speed]

Is the paint code on the fender tag GG1 or LL1. Looks like GG1 to me.
You will have a very nice car.

 

[Voodoo]

Is the paint code on the fender tag GG1 or LL1. Looks like GG1 to me.
You will have a very nice car.

This is a GG1 car. I'll be painting the floor pans body color on the inside for sure. Because I plan to drive the car frequently, I'll likely undercoat the bottom.

 

[440 4 speed]

This is a GG1 car. I'll be painting the floor pans body color on the inside for sure. Because I plan to drive the car frequently, I'll likely undercoat the bottom.

Our car is GG1. It had factory undercoating over the paint on the underside.
If you are going to use the correct match, get the paint formula for 1966. It could be a different mix than 1967 for example.
When we were getting ready to paint our car, the painter had the supplier supply samples of 1967 and 1968. We held them up to the steering column bracket and you could really notice the difference.

 

[Voodoo]

Our car is GG1. It had factory undercoating over the paint on the underside.
If you are going to use the correct match, get the paint formula for 1966. It could be a different mix than 1967 for example.
When we were getting ready to paint our car, the painter had the supplier supply samples of 1967 and 1968. We held them up to the steering column bracket and you could really notice the difference.

I see the same on mine in the couple of small areas where the undercoating has come off underneath, green paint visible. My local paint supplier confirmed they have the color blend for 1966 Dodge GG-1. They also offer matching from physical samples, however I think seeing as this will be covered both top and bottom eventually, as long as it is pretty close to the correct color, I am fine with what they have documented.

Spent a couple of hours doing some preliminary cleanup in the engine bay removing road grime from the K member and starting to clean up that hardware in preparation for removal a couple of weeks from now. I found the original owner had tucked a magnetic key holder way back on one of the front frame rails. The container was rusted to hell, but the keys were actually in decent shape. Interested to see if I can figure out what they go to.

 

[The Rebel]

Nice looking Charger, glad to see it getting saved.

Looking forward to seeing your updates.

 

[RemCharger]

I see the same on mine in the couple of small areas where the undercoating has come off underneath, green paint visible. My local paint supplier confirmed they have the color blend for 1966 Dodge GG-1. They also offer matching from physical samples, however I think seeing as this will be covered both top and bottom eventually, as long as it is pretty close to the correct color, I am fine with what they have documented.

Spent a couple of hours doing some preliminary cleanup in the engine bay removing road grime from the K member and starting to clean up that hardware in preparation for removal a couple of weeks from now. I found the original owner had tucked a magnetic key holder way back on one of the front frame rails. The container was rusted to hell, but the keys were actually in decent shape. Interested to see if I can figure out what they go to.

Well I hope 1 key goes to the gas flap lock

 

[Voodoo]

Well I hope 1 key goes to the gas flap lock

One key was for the locking gas cap that was in the trunk of the car, or at least I presume so as it says "GAS" on it haha. The keyhole next to the gas flap ended up being a crazy external killswitch gizmo! It was wired into the ignition from what I can tell. Sadly none of the keys I've found so far work with it. I'll probably just leave it there but disconnected until I get around to the bodywork. Better than a 3/4" hole!

 

[Voodoo]

The car is officially under the knife as I am writing this, no turning back now! Got the car rolled out and final prep done yesterday and the welders are currently on site removing the old floor pan. Snapped this pic before getting it supported and leveled up on the jack stands. Fun detail, see the patch of sunlight in the shadow under the car? That is coming through the hole in the floor haha.

I tested to ensure the windows went down, at least on one side. First time seeing the car with it's proper pillarless look, pretty exciting stuff! Also nice getting some fresh air coming into the car through the windows and not just the floor holes.

I measured the placements for the center console brackets, seat belt mounting points, shifter bump out, and parking brake cable. Did my best to take a hundred photos as backup just in case, but I am figuring the welders probably have their own methodology.

Since I got the car prepped faster than I expected, I played around with a couple of the other cars in the fleet. Installed an axle back exhaust on my daily ('00 XJR) that I had tucked in the shed for a minute. Glad to get it installed finally. Also met up with my brother who drives a slightly newer Jag. Interesting seeing the two generations next to each other.

From there, I helped him with a little "light work" on his Range Rover which is unfortunately in need of head gaskets. I thought my Jag was bad when I did the head gaskets and timing chains while back, turns out I had it easy...

Hoping to have more updates on the Charger in a couple of days, will share as things progress!

 

[ckessel]

The sun shining through the floor makes me think its "Yabba Dabba Do Time"!

 

[Voodoo]

The sun shining through the floor makes me think its "Yabba Dabba Do Time"!

Most of the floor is now removed, now the driver and all 3 passengers can help!

 

[ckessel]

Kind of like mine awhile back. But for different reasons.