Protouring style 72 Charger

During my stay in Scottsdale for the O7 Barrett Jackson event, I found this car in the local paper. It was an original, rustfree SE that a guy had just lost interest in. He had redone the interior, painted the car, rebuilt the engine, tranny, new frontend, brakes, etc and simply stopped. It has sat in his back yard for several years untouched. It was love at first sight for me, I had missed out on one of these when I was in highschool. A friend had one for sale and I could handle the $1800 asking price but could not deal with the $900 yearly insurance cost. Strangely enough, back then a 72 400/4v was considered HP???? Right, all 220 hp....lol
Anyway, I had always wanted a 72 SE after that and I just had to have this one once I saw it.
It was absolutely rust free and somehow has never had any body damage at all, great starting place and I figured with the new paint and interior, I would simply hook the rest of the parts up, and be driving in a month, right? Wrong.

The internet is a two edged sword, while easy to find parts, it is also too easy to dream of stuff and suddenly they are appearing in a big brown truck in a week...haha

When I got the car home, I searched the net, first just to see what options I had with that motor and what I could do to get a bit more than the factory HP out of it. Next thing I know, I have a complete XV suspension ordered, and a new 392 crate hemi on the way. From there, the parts and pieces you see trickled in over the next two and one half years. We worked on it as we had time. It cranked and ran under it's own power last Thursday evening and now we are sorting a few things out getting ready for my annual show next weekend and then on to SEMA the end of October.

First thing I did once I decided to go over the line with the car was have a friend of mine, Jason Rushforth do a rendering of it.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/chargerrendering.jpg

Next, once the XV parts arrived we worked on all the required welding and fitting to get the frontend installed then moved on to the rearend. When we bought the rear setup, we knew they were not designed for a third gen, so we basically took the parts, cut them up and built our own three link setup.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG_9112.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG_9111.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG_9110.jpg

Keep'em coming Bill! Spec'ing out of the sub-assemblies would be of interest as well.

Very nice car, and the rendering is very tight! Does your friend do renderings for $$? I am in need of some renderings for my GTX, ideas?

Very nice car, and the rendering is very tight! Does your friend do renderings for $$? I am in need of some renderings for my GTX, ideas?

There are several great rendering folks out there. If you go to my website I have a section just for them to show off their work. The cost varies, just check with them, there will be links to their contact points.
www.musclerides.com
Thanks,

Here are some pictures of the frontend when it was shipped to me. It gives you an idea of how much time went into the design etc by XV

After the front and rear end pieces were installed we moved on the the drivetrain. I scored a 6.4 392 crate motor early on, if fact it is one of the first ones offered to the public. I have done alot of business with Mark and Street and Performance and this was the first one he got his hands on.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG_9096.jpg

For a tranny, I picked the tough TKO 600 5 speed, tough enough to handle the 540 or so hp from the 6.4
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG_9108.jpg

The headers you see are another XV part, fit is great, but they hang a bit too low. We may shorten them this winter.

Then it was on the the time consuming part, like Vintage Air, and how to make it fit.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG00020-20090804-1556.jpg
All the parts and pieces under the hood.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg201/Billybigblock/IMG00014-20090908-1022.jpg
That brace you see is for real, really strengthens things and really ties all the XV bracing together.

Notice where the heater hoses and A/C lines come out of the firewall. They are in the tray where the wiper arms are. We cleaned up the firewall since the factory holes did not work with the vintage air setup.
BTW, all acc. on the engine, compressor, starter, alternator, etc are straight from Mopar. If I have a issue I simply go to the nearest dealer for help. Not sure how their computers will tell them the part I need, but they all are marked...haha.

Sweet, thanks for showing the pics of the XV set up as this is what I have in mind for my Bacaruda. How was customer service from them? I've heard guys complain about it over at abodiesonly and would like other opinions, too.

I can not complain about their customer service. Going into this project we all knew that they had not ever done a third gen b body. the front worked out right, absolutely no issues there. The rear was different, because fitment just did not work out with the third gen. I finally gave up on their subframe connectors, and made my own. The rear set up was close but we did have to modify things a bit. They were with me the whole way though and helpful when there was something they could do or fix.

I can not complain about their customer service. Going into this project we all knew that they had not ever done a third gen b body. the front worked out right, absolutely no issues there. The rear was different, because fitment just did not work out with the third gen. I finally gave up on their subframe connectors, and made my own. The rear set up was close but we did have to modify things a bit. They were with me the whole way though and helpful when there was something they could do or fix.

Fantastic! Thanks for the feedback. I made up my mind a while back that XV was the setup I was going to use under my E-body and your positive experience has helped with the decision. Thank you.

Sweet

Here is a picture of the finished car, doing one of the things it was designed to do, and doing it well. Notice the new paint on hood and different color billboards than originally planned.
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy69/Hotwire454/RTTH5/P9190230.jpg
Here is a shot of it, with the street tires and wheels
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy69/Hotwire454/RTTH5/P9170015.jpg
Here it was getting ready for shots taking by Hot Rod magazine for an upcoming feature. Got to do some cool burnouts for them......hehe
http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy69/Hotwire454/RTTH5/P9170020.jpg

I love the 3g hemi swaps----can't get enough. You have done a great job putting all this together in a package that melds the "old & new" together seamlessly. My hat is off to you for doing a good job!!!!!!!!!!!! More porn!!