My '72 Challenger project

It was stupid hot in the shed today, it was 38 C outside & well into the high 40's inside... note to self look into AC seriously for the shed.... anyway I wanted to get the front suspension back on the car, I would like to get her up on the hoist by next weekend. The longer 4.5" long bolts for the K-Frame arrived during the week so I was able to get that all bolted up.

Some of this suspension was already on the car before I took her apart but the tubular K-Frame from QA1 is new as are these QA1 lower Arms

I cleaned up the main pivot as it had some tiny surface rust on it & then greased it up before bolting them on 

Then I just popped the ball joint on the old arm to free the spindles 

The upper arms have rose joints & as you probably know rose joints are suspect to getting grit & dirt on them that can cause wear & failure so I went with the option of cleaning them off with some brake clean then greasing them up & then covering them in some little rubber boots I found online. 

Trying to fit these was a lot like trying to put a swimming cap on a fridge.... but I finally figured out a way to get them easy enough  

Wanted to get the Dodge back on her wheels tonight as I hope to move her to the hoist on the weekend as that just makes reassembly life so much easier. Figured I'd put the torsion bars back in, so Dodge didn't use springs in these cars but used these long bars, mine are the thicker options from Hotchkis. 

They lock in place with one end in the chassis crossmember & the other end goes into the lower control arm & then an adjuster in that lower arm makes it a 1 minute job to raise or lower the car by twisting on the bar & making the bar more or less springy 

I'd forgotten that these are a bitch to slide home, both hex ends are a tolerance fit & the bar also needs to be pulled under tension... I was able to pull the bar to line it up but trying to pull the hex ends into their respective homes just had me sliding along the floor & the bar not moving... so I decided stuff it.. I'll do this job when the car goes on the hoist. Probably better that way anyway as if I wait till I have the engine in etc then I can set the initial clocking of the bar for the ride height I want with the weight in the car.

Without the bars installed there is some serious rake angle happening there... so much so that I do think the front might be too low to be able to clear the crossbar of the hoist as I try & roll it up... but that's future Dave's issue I guess.

I have a few tiny jobs left on the GT-Four now to do the next two nights & then hopefully that's kinda finished & I can focus 100% on getting some good progress made on this from this weekend on.

With the GT-Four off the hoist now & with the help of a mate we moved the Challenger up onto the hoist where I suspect she'll live for a while as I start to put her back together. 

Shocks went in......

Last job for the night was installing the bump stops... I'd like to get a bit more done at night now during the week if I can, really need to get my finger well & truly out with all 3 projects over the coming months 

Spent the day working on the rear of the car, I replaced the front spring bolts... didn't bother with a pic of that just imagine a new 5/8" grade 8 nut & bolt.. Found the new rear shackles that need to go on. 

QA1 shocks went back in

Next up was the rear sway bar, so dog bones installed first then the ubolts to attach the bar to the diff tubes   

That's the rear end sorted now.... tomorrow I'll move back to the front to finish that off I think 

Got a bit more done today in between doing some other house related to do list tasks & having a mini shed tidy up. I wanted to fully seam seal the inside of the car so that one night during the week after work I can do the relatively clean task of installing the sound deadening... some of the factory floor joins are so big you could lose a small dog in them. 

I had to go & get some new seam sealer as the two tubes I had didn't survive the hot summer we had & had cured in the tube which is a shame as this stuff isn't cheap 

Job done…

I'd also bought a bag of floor gromets as most of the old ones I'd pried out had cracked due to old age

I'm not sure if I can be bothered cutting the sound deadening stuff around these gromets as I don't ever see myself pulling them out to drain the car... I assume that's only reason you'd ever use them? I might just apply the sheets directly over them thus ensuring no leaks coming in to the car from outside. 

I lost the original engine mount brackets in a shed tidy up a while ago... so I'd no option but to order a new OEM set 

I have an aftermarket set of actual mounts that aren't the soft rubber style of the OEM ones 

I had to remove Carbs 1 & 3 from the intake so I'd have somewhere to attach the lift leveller too 

This was one of the simplest installs vers my other cars as the torsion suspension set up means that there is no strut towers pushing into the engine bay to worry about 

Started the dynamat install, I knew I didn't have enough to finish it so I've more on order.

Installed the brake pedal assembly too

I found the new door strikers on a shelf when I was looking for some bolts so decided to whack them on now too before I lose them. 

Next up was the steering column install... I clearly hadn't paid enough attention to this when I took it off & put it away, but I'm really not happy with it's condition. I've been looking online now at aftermarket fully collapsible units that have a tilt function too.. so my plan is to order one of these to replace this one… adding all new firewall gaskets with it. 

The doors went on today, always nice when a five minute job makes such a huge change to the car

Then the boot lid went on... this is the boot lid open reflecting the contents of the shed like a mirror, this kinda blew my mind for a bit

Next up to go on was the bumper & the rear valance panel 

Installed the new shiny door handles today, needed to clearance the door internals a little as the internals of these new handles are a little larger than the OE ones. I also adjusted the door strikers  correctly so the door sits right when closed.

Next I went to install the new billet bonnet hinges, sadly I've discovered that two of the 3 captive nuts on each side have damaged threads & you can't put a bolt through them... so I guess the next job is re-tapping them. 

The kit did come with a new firewall mount that is much nicer than the old OEM one it replaces & actually seals the hole up nicely 

Where the D shaft slides out of the bottom of the column is the first of 3 collapsible sections 

The other two are on the column in the car one before & one after the under dash mounting points... really happy with how this looks vers the old unit  

Also had my painter stop by for a coffee chat so we took that time to properly align the boot lid now, as I had only thrown it on roughly. The new rubber is making it sit a little higher than it should but the boot catch isn't adjusted fully down yet, we'll give the rubber a few weeks to settle at this clamping force for now & then adjust the boot fully down to it's final height then.

Went to re-tap the captive nuts that hold the bonnet hinges on & when applying the tiniest amount of pressure the captive nut snapped off.... not good

Thanks to the chassis strengthening bracing that I've installed access to these captive nuts is a huge issue now.... but I think I have a plan, as the captive nuts are in line I'll drill out the bottom one & make up a new plate with new nuts welded to it that I put in behind the bracing, for now I just have a normal nut & bolt in the top hole replacing the lost captive nut.. I'll not tackle that this weekend mind you this sounds like a perfect future Dave problem if I ever saw one... 

I want to clean up the transmission before it goes back in, someone has painted it silver in the past & it's not held up great. I plan to clean all the paint off & repaint it I guess. I'm not sure if standard paint is the go here or if I should be looking at engine paint as it's better with heat maybe? What have people used that's good?

Went to put the radiator in on Sunday & found that the bracket sides don't line up with the sides of the opening for the rad on the car. 

You can see here each side that it's a little short & I'll have to make up some brackets to bolt between the car & the rads brackets now to make this fit

That had me wondering what went wrong as this is the larger big block rad size that I got. I still have the old front end of the car as garden art (I plan to make something cool like a BBQ maybe out of it)

Broke out the measuring tape & sure enough the opening in the new panel is 4 & 1/4"s wider... it never occurred to me to measure this prior to ordering the rad as I don't remember any doco around the front panels saying that they where uber wide because reasons... 

I spoke to the Rad shop & as they don't get a lot of asks for Big Block Challenger rads & as they did nothing wrong they're not keen on taking it back. I did think about trying to sell this & getting another custom size rad made up, but I think I'll just extend the wing brackets on the side of this rad out a bit & use this one as it's more than big enough to keep her cool

It's been weeks since I've done anything in the shed, need to get moving again. To that end I want to get the trans back in the Challenger this weekend, it's finally stopped raining so I've been able to spend some time during the week cleaning & painting this.

How it started

Then cleaned

Then primed

Then a couple of coats of high temp silver paint

Just need to paint the dipstick tube in Hemi Orange & replace the torque converter & then it's ready to go back in.

Sat was catching up with friends etc but I was able to spend all of Sunday in the shed, so stuff happened.

Flywheel went in & even used the torque wrench & locktight as prescribed to do so... no ugga dugga here. 

Swapped over the torque converter for the new higher stall version. I did the install dry a few times as I'm always paranoid that I wouldn't get full engagement on the oil pump in the trans. If you've never installed one you push it on till it stops & then whilst slowly turning you push a little more & it will click in a notch & then you repeat that until it's clicked in 3 times & is fully home. Then you measure to ensure it's fully home & then you have a moment of self doubt & take it off & install it again... once you've done this a few times you then fill the converter with fluid & do the final install. Then every time you walk past it you give it a little twist & push.. you know to be sure to be sure. 

The new bigger trans jack is a beast, it feels so much better than the old cheaper one I had been using

​​​​​​​Hung the trans crossmember on the back of the box

I was surprised how easily it went in in the end, I was expecting more of a fight... but the car gods where clearly happy with the blood sacrifice I made on the teeth of the torque converter earlier.

I was very happy that the trans just squeezed through the gap between the exhaust headers as I really didn't want to pull them off, looking ay the tiny gap where the starter needs to go I'm very glad that that is a future Dave's problem as that looks like no fun. Luckily I'd already ordered a tiny high output starter, no way the OEM one would fit in that gap.

I've pulled the Dodge off the hoist now as I need to change gears (crap pun intended) as the GT-Four engine should be done in a few weeks & as such I need to do a chunk of suspension work to it before then... note to self, one project at a time in future... one

I'd made up a bracket to allow me to use a powered winch to drag non running cars up onto the hoist as that's a huge ball ache. Well I realised when dragging the Dodge up that there are no tow points on old muscle cars & I had to just wrap a strap around the diff.

Now I'm thinking that I'd actually like a real tow point on the car, I have a spare one floating about & I'll buy a few more & look to fit front & rear two points to the Dodge & the XB. Looks like a simple bolt or weld to the chassis rail job back here would do the trick.

When I get the rest of the front of the car back on I can work out how & where to fit one up front, the K frame has two D loops on it but the instructions from QA1 had written in very large bold red print that these where NOT tow points & to be used as trailer tie downs only... so I'll assume they say that as they are known to fail as tow points. The welds don't look car tow strong to be fair.