My '72 Challenger project

Daved_XB

But you can see the bolt shaft is no longer uniform… again I have all new bolts, so not fussed… the washer shattered when I started to undo the bolt & this was with a hand ratchet not the rattle gun…





Next up I needed to remove the header panel (not sure why they call it that but they do), so first removed the lights from the header panel





The passenger side of the header panel came away really easy, all the bolts & screws came undone nicely… however on the driver’s side one nut was so rounded that I had no choice but to cut it off…



Then as I started to undo the bolts that undo the top section of the panel there was a very loud crack….. I was not happy!!! Whatever muppet put this panel on last decided to use some form of liquid nails or other permanent glue to hold a section of the panel to the front of the fender so as soon as I released the tension it just snapped a chunk of the panel off….







Now the panel pile is also starting to grow…

Daved_XB

She’s starting to look pretty naked now at the front, just the two fenders, wings or guards (depending on where in the world you live) to be unbolted & then I think we’re up to the point of having to drill out spot welds & actually cutting metal off the car…





Sadly I’ve now discovered that they don’t seem to make a new header panel for the car in the US… I was starting to plan on just replacing all the hanging panels at the front along with all the structural stuff… but now I guess I need to get the header panel repaired so I can refit it.. unless anyone knows of a NOS or perfect condition ’72 to ’74 header panel for sale???

mikehn

https://www.autobodyspecialt.com

Daved_XB

mikehn wrote: »

https://www.autobodyspecialt.com

Thanks for that… but no one makes the panel I’m looking for new.. I did check with these guys & with Year One, Hemmings, Summit, Jegs, Moparts, Mopar Market, Pentastar Performance etc…


At this stage my options are fix the one I have or try & find a 2nd hand one that is better than mine… & I’m not having much luck finding a 2nd hand one either on the web… I reckon I’ll end up just fixing mine at this stage

cena

is this car in ireland or the states

paulmclaughlin

Neither, it's in Oz!

Daved_XB

Yep, she's in Melbourne now... probably one of the better travelled Challengers in the world... she started in US obviously, then she went to the UK… then Ireland… I bought her in Dublin a few years back & had here there for a little over 2 years, then when I moved to Australia I took her with me…

oleras

Wow, thats some job you are doing, the eyes are burned out of head after reading that start to finish, fair feckin play to you.

Im afraid to ask what you are into on the car, including steam cleaning...lol.

It is obviously a love.

Daved_XB

Don’t mention the war… I’d forgotten about the steam cleaning… I never set a budget & to be honest I’m not even tracking the costs, but roughly I’m still ok, I got the car for a song in Dublin & it’s worth so much more here.. but it is simply a labor of love at this stage & all I want in the end is the best car that I could make with what little skill I have learned along the way

Daved_XB

I managed to get an hour in the shed the other night to pull the guards (fenders, wings depends where you’re from I guess) not really a hard job as such, but in hindsight probably better done as a two person job.. whilst not heavy as such the guards are big & awkward & have to be lifted & slid at the same time… but once I work out the trick for one the second was super simple…

Just a few bolts at the front that attach to the rad support sections



Then two at the bottom behind the wheel arch, these in mine where so rusted & covered in so much paint it was a miracle that I didn’t have to cut them off in the end..



There is also one bolt that holds the guard on from the top behind the splash guard under the wheel arch, I was able to get to it by through the door opening… but I forgot to get a pic of that… I’ll capture it during the re-install



Then it was just the bolts across the top of the engine bay & luckily there was very little seam sealer on here… I was half expecting it to be a real battle to get them off without bending anything… but they came away cleanly









So now with both off this is how she looks…. & every single piece of metal forward of the firewall will be unpicked & removed & replaced with shiny new clean metal….





I’ve hit the wall of my experience now, I’m not 100% on how to remove the rest of the front… I know that I need to grind away all the paint & crap so I can clearly see the joins & then I need to get a spot weld drill bit & drill out every spot weld holding the panels on & then I guess I try & chisel off the sealer & get the panels off… I have a mate who is a panel guy, so I’ll see when he can come out & have a look & teach me how to do it without damaging the firewall or the floor

Daved_XB

I also had some new bits turn up…. I have a new battery tray (this makes it official 100% of the metal front of the firewall is being replaced)



I also got a new adjustable drivers side mirror to replace my cut up one



I’ve also never liked how worn & tatty the window winder handles are, so a new set to go on are here now



I also decided to get new dress rings for the headlights as mine are badly pitted & starting to show rust spots





And I have the complete replacement screw & bolt kit now… everything comes bagged & tagged so it will be very easy to make sure that I’m putting the right ones in the right holes…





I’m not wondering what I might do with the K-Frame & the old lower control arms… the K-Frame is a bit crappy looking & bent in a few places & the lower control arms are the same, all I did when I was re-doing the new suspension install was to paint my original ones… now I’m rethinking that approach

Daved_XB

Got to spend a bit more time in the skunk works over the weekend, first up was a bit more parts removal, because I have to unpick the front chassis rails & weld on the new ones & that means a lot of heat transfer on the floor pan the front seats & the carpets have to come out..

The seats where simple, should have been 4 nuts per seat on the underside, but in what I can only assume was another weight reduction effort by a previous owner on 2 where used per side..





Nice & easy to lift the seats out, sadly I didn’t find a large cache of hidden goodies under them..





The carpet itself is installed in 2 pieces, a front & back half.. it looks like I only have to remove the front half, with that out the passenger side foot well looks great, just a tiny bit of surface rust so all good there, I’ll just put some rust treatment on that & then paint it…



The drives side floor looks great from the underside of the car, but with the carpet up there is a lot of fiberglass matting layered on the floor… I can only assume that that is because under said matting is some bad rust.. so it looks like I’ll be ordering a new floor section to replace this one now too..



Next up was to remove the brake booster off the firewall, it’s kind of in the way for cutting the front off & it’s being replaced anyway with my new shiny hydra-boost setup when I start putting the car back together, removing this was a massive pain in the arse, I was thinking at one point that the only way to get to the last top nut of the 4 that are holding this thing on would be to remove the whole dash… disconnecting the pin that holds the brake pedal was awkward enough but at least with the seats out I could lay flat on my back & get a hand up behind the dash to get to it..

Sorry for the crappy pic, but I use a full size DSLR for taking pics & it was just too hard to get it in close enough.. you’ll also notice that the wiring behind this dash is a massive mess… I was almost tempted to pull the dash just so I can get a new loom & replace the whole lot..



The pin that connects the pedal to the booster..



When I finally managed to get the 4 nuts that hold the booster undone & off (took the best part of 40 minutes to do it) the booster came off..

Daved_XB

The view I was met with when I had removed the booster was not a nice one… some bad rust was growing behind there… looks like I’ll need to patch or repair that was now my thoughts…







Now I was getting myself ready for the big job of the day, unpicking the front panels off the firewall… I used my engine crane to take the weight of the front so that it wasn’t pulling off the firewall as I was working on it



Then as I started to scrape off the heavy layers of tar & paint to see where I needed to get into to unpick the panels… I found that the tar used for rust proofing that had been applied in Ireland by a previous owner was applied way too late in the cars life, the salt from the roads for the years she lived in UK had gotten in where the inner wheel well meets the firewall….





So some serious head scratching was being done as I ran through all my options now… I decided to not bother unpicking the front panels & just used a plasma cutter (cool toy) to cut the front off..

Daved_XB

This is how she sits now…..





Where too from here is now the question of the day… I’ve been over the car now & smacked a few panels hard with a screw driver & such & I’m happy that the rest of the floor & all the chassis rails from the midpoint back are solid, as is the boot floor & the rear guards & inner wells… so I have now decided to order a complete new firewall panel & the upper & lower cowls… so all of the front of the car from the dash forward will be shiny new panels… so looks like the dash has to come out now anyway, could have saved my back & neck getting the booster off if I’d just pulled the dash… I’ve also decided that if the dash is out then I’ll replace the wiring loom with a new one as the one in the car is butchered from years of owners doing bad work…

Since I’m now up for a full re-spray I’ll now also pull the vinyl roof off as it was only fitted in 2009 by the last owner & it wasn’t fitted properly at all & its peeling up badly… so off it comes…







Also the only other part of the car that I can see or find rust/bog in today is the driver’s side lower sill panel…



So I’ve ordered a set of sills to replace both sides at the same time I’m doing the firewall & cowl panels… hopefully that’s all the metal we’ll need, but if I find more as we strip back for a re-spray then I’ll just get new panels, if I’m going to do this then I may as well do it right… I’ve also ordered new front & rear valance panels too as mine are dinged up pretty bad & they are so easy to replace so why not do them now…

Daved_XB

Now I’m up to the pulling the dash out of the car part of this… this is my pet hate when it comes to working on old cars, I love & look forward to doing all the mechanical bits, but playing with 40 year old brittle wiring & contorting my body into awkward shapes to reach nuts & screws up under the dash is not fun in my book….

With this in mind I was standing in the Skunk Works nice & early on Sat morning getting myself ready when I decided stuff it I’ll open up some boxes of bling & play with them instead… so with the engine being all new & shiny I figured it would be a shame to fit my old filthy, dented & scratched accessories & brackets… so I’ve opted for some new billet bits..



I already had a chrome crank pulley for the engine..



Now I have a matching water pump pully





The kit I bought also had a billet bracket kit for the alternator (I already have a chrome Alt)







The power steering kit came with a new shiny Saginaw pump too..

Daved_XB

I was actually surprised at how well the brackets all lined up.. I’ve often seen kits where holes have to be widened or moved completely, but all of this stuff just bolted straight up…







So with that little distraction out of the way I now had little choice but to tackle the actual job I’d set out to do… first up was to sort out the mess of wires hanging off the front of the firewall… I’ve ordered all new looms for the front of the car, but even so I’ve been careful to document where everything went & I resisted the urge to just cut everything off in 2 minutes… there is a lot of aftermarket wiring here also, & some of it is for things that aren’t even on the car anymore & of course a lot of the wires inter-tangle so that made things nice & fun too…







With everything off the car, I’ve started to store the bits in separate boxes.. again just in case.. hopefully with all the new wiring looms I’ll never have to look at any of this again… but I’m not sure on that…

Daved_XB

With that done… it was time to start playing inside the car… happy happy joy joy…… job one was to disconnect the ignition & all the other wiring from the steering column & remove that… some of the connectors where nice & easy to get to & to unplug..





As suspected I found a very brittle connector that was compounded by the fact it had melted at some point in its life… this took at age to get apart without breaking anything….









Then I started to come across the “new” wiring that has been added, a previous owner loved scotch locks for sure… there are a heap of these & connector blocks under that dash..



My fave was these two wires that are joined together by a 10A fuse… it’ll be interesting to see where they go in the end….



With that done, I was able to unbolt the steering column from the firewall & the underside of the dash & remove it from the way

Daved_XB

Next up was to start pulling the gauge clusters & switch binnacle out… I’ve done this before in this, so I won’t bore you with the steps..





Whilst removing the heater switch panel I discovered why my heater only works on one setting no matter what I do… the cable is broken…



I’ve added that to the list of some other dash bits that I’m going to order so I can freshen up the dash as part of this… this is where I stopped for the day as it was getting dark & cold & I didn’t want to move onto the next step until I had good light some time & a 2nd pair of hands to help.

From what I can gather removing the dash in one piece, as in not taking the crash pad off first should be possible… with all the wiring disconnected & the all the heater cables & vent disconnected I believe it’s only 6 bolts that hold the whole assembly in… we’ll see….

Daved_XB

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this… combination of me being traveling for work & not being near the car, added to the fact I’m still awaiting some major parts that I’ve ordered & finally I’ve been too busy to write up some posts… so what’s been happening… sadly not a lot at all really, I’m still awaiting the big part that is needed to get this project moving to the next phase & that is the new firewall & front cowl sections. I’ve decided that I’m not cutting the old panels out until such time as I have the new bits to hand here to weld in, I’m also waiting still on the new engine wiring loom & some small dash bits & pieces…

What did arrive since the last update is my new QA1 tubular K-Frame, so I’ll be adding the old filthy bend & dented K-Frame to the growing pile of “used” bits from this car… & yes that pile is getting very big… I’ve seen people selling less bits on ebay & calling it a restoration project…

Anyway, the new K-Frame looks lovely & shiny….







Can’t wait till I’m at a point where I have a set of chassis rails to bolt that back up to… I also decided to replace the lower control arms.. these where the last of the original suspension parts that where on this car, so now I’m fitting AQ1 tubular lower arms as well..



Some other bits that arrived as well as all new chrome work… I got new wheel arch moldings



New chrome trim for the rear panels



The above is what replace these battered bits that go across the boot & down each rear Qtr



My new dash wiring loom is here





I got a complete firewall gasket kit to go with the new firewall when it gets here..

Daved_XB

Bought some new dash panels to replace mine that are damaged, faded & full of speed holes from old gauge installs



New heater cables to replace my snapped ones



The rest of the internal screw kit so that every nut, bolt & screw will be new going back in



I had also noted that the chrome work around the shifter was badly pitted… so have a new one now, the new glass insert is on back order but coming soon I hope





Also because the car will be getting a respray I’ve got a new set of matte black ghost stripes for the side & the matte hood centre (still in box)





That’s it for new bits for now, now onto what I actually did to the car….

Daved_XB

The next job before looking to remove the dash was to disconnect all the wiring that connect to the in dash loom from the back of the car & to unbolt the connector block from the firewall that joins the dash loom to the engine & headlight looms









The A pillar trim also has to come off



The last bit of unwiring that needed to be done was to disconnect the stupid big AMP in the boot that I reckon I’ve used twice in 5 five years… I tend to just listen to the music from under the bonnet…





The car has clearly had several ICE installs done over the years & most of the time the old wiring has just been cut & left dangling up behind the dash..



There were two of these things whatever they are…

Daved_XB

And a mass of cables running back to the AMP in the boot the way all the wires where taped up & tied in & wrapped around everything it took hours to finally remove this bucket of crap from the car…





Now with that out of the way I figured it was all plain sailing now, only 6 bolts hold the complete dash assembly in… one on each side like such



& four across the top, these four live in the corners of the air vents that blow up onto the screen… so here..





So I go my smallest correct sized socket out & the uni-joint & set to work undoing the 4 top bolts…. Not a chance… not enough room to move





So I went the next day & bought some smaller sockets & extra uni’s & not for the lack of trying I could only get one of the bloody bolts out… I was in danger of rounding the others off or scratching the glass/dash or both

Daved_XB

So I went & bought another tool…



This one is used to bend back the little clips that hold the chrome trip on around the windshield… my plan now was to pop the front screen out first & then unbolt the stupid dash…



You can see how it’s shaped to get in behind the clips & pull them in to release the trim.. much better than just pulling on the trim which can bend it



Next thing was to remove the wiper arms to get them out of the way…



No…. no that wasn’t going to be possible…. It’s really hard to see from the pics, but these are NOT just clipped on like you would expect these have been bonded on using liquid nail or some other industrial strength adhesive… they won’t budge & I suspect that I will have to cut them off….. how can people be so stupid as to actually do this sort of thing….





A fragment of the adhesive I was able to brake off…



Then with the trim off you go inside the car & using a long flexible blade you start to cut into the bonding silicone that holds the window in until you have cut all around the screen & its free to push out… sorry no picks here as once I started I didn’t want to pause to get happy snaps in case something went wrong & I broke the screen… happy to say that I didn’t…



Screen now out… so at some point over the weekend I’ll remove the dash now

Chris_Heilong

Amazed at how much work has gone into this, well done.

Daved_XB

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

Amazed at how much work has gone into this, well done.

Thanks, sadly there is still a bit more stripping down & taking apart of the old girl before I can finally start the rebuild... But it'll be worth it when she's done

Daved_XB

It’s been a while since I updated this… got a lot non car related going on at the moment, so only getting around to this update now….

As suspected I am unable to remove the passenger side wiper arm without damage to something… I’ve tried everything short of cutting it off, sadly I think that that will be the only way around it… hopefully I can get it off without damaging the splines on the shaft it sits on…



The driver’s side isn’t stuck on with some sort of metal bond glue… so that was nice & easy to remove…



I couldn’t find anywhere that sold replacement wiper arms new for the Dodge (anyone?) so I went to ebay & got myself an ok set that I will clean up & install when I finally get around to putting the car back together…



Whilst I was on the interwebs in the mood to buy new things, I got this period correct radio to fit.. I’ve never liked the look of the modern Sony head unit in the dash..





Right, so where did I get up to in the last update…. With the window out I was able to get to the 4 bolts that hold the top of the dash onto the frame & undo them… once they were out I then undid the vent controls that bolt to the underside of the dash



With that done, all that was left was the two side bolts… so I stood in the car holding the dash (another advantage of having the front window out) & had my otherhalf undo the last two bolts to free the dash from the car… it almost all went smoothly, there were a few small aftermarket wires that where taped or cable-tied to holes or bolts on the firewall… but once we snipped them the dash was out… & with no damage to speak of…. So happy days there…

Daved_XB

With that done, the heater core was next on the list of parts that needed to come out…



I noticed that the top vent that blows air up to the screen isn’t actually connected to the blower housing… I’m not sure if this is how it’s supposed to be? It works, it will blow warm air on the screen but surely there should be something connecting the two together.. I’ll see if I can’t get that information from uncle google when I’m putting it back together..





There are a couple of screws that hold the unit to the firewall on the inside to be undone..





Then there should be 3 bolts that go through the firewall & need to be undone from the engine side…. Two of my three where snapped off at some point in the cars past, so I’ll have to look at fixing that before I put it back in







With that one bolt undone I figured it would slide out fairly easy…. Nope… there was some rusted hook shaped thing sticking up into the plenum chamber on the passenger side that made it nearly impossible to pull the unit far enough into the car to clear the hose outlets from the firewall….



Once I had managed to wiggle the assembly out, it appeared that the rusted hook thingy didn’t have anything to actually connect to anymore & had snapped off years ago…. Guess I’ll have look into that as well to work out what’s missing, I’m guessing a flap of some sort to control airflow

Daved_XB

With that out…



The next step was to remove the sound/heat shielding off the inside of the firewall… this stuff has as cardboard backing & is held on with push through plastic clips, so it was nice & easy to get it out without having to handle it too much as it’s uber brittle





Next was the vent on the drives side… a very uneventful 3 screws….



Now it was time to remove the steering column bracket & the pedals…





First up was the e-brake pedal, one bolt holds it to the side of the car inside & then two bolts go through the firewall… the internal bolt was nice & simple…



But one look at the rusted & heavily painted over nuts on the firewall & I figured this would not end well….



So with the slightest of pressure applied the first one snapped clean off….



And then I was two from two…. Was expected really….

Daved_XB

Once the pedal assembly was free I could see that these where captive bolts, so I’ll need to drill them off & weld on some new ones when the putting humpty back together part arrives







The more naked I make this firewall, the more of the horrid rust you can see… I’m so glad that I started down this path to fix the rear main oil seal leak in the old engine, which if you remember is where all this started… with carpet, parts & paint you just couldn’t see any of this…



Next up was the brake pedal assembly, this is attached to the steering column bracket…



That came off easy & without snapping anything… next was the loud pedal… again 2 bolts that run through the firewall… I was expecting the worst on this now too…





Luckily this part of the firewall wasn’t exposed to the same elements that rusted the outer sections away (I’m blaming the many years she lived in the UK & drove on salted roads in the winter)



The parts pile was growing now…

Daved_XB

This is how she sits now…





It’s a waiting game now as I await the large delivery of the shiny new firewall & the new upper & lower cowls… there is nothing I can really do now until they turn up… I’ve opted to not cut the old firewall & cowls out yet, I want to wait until I have the shiny new bits sitting by the car before I fire up the plasma cutter again….