Original Owner 73 Charger SE Build

[4shizzy]

Hey Guys,

Want to share my build and give a quick background story. My dad is the original owner who bought it a few weeks I was born. He is now 80yrs old but still living strong. This was my first car when I turned 16 and loved cruising through the high school parking lot turning head back then. It was the car that I took my wife for our first date. Since then I passed it on to my younger brother to carry the torch. He and I eventually moved on to modding import cars for track road course but now have circled back to give the charger the needed attention after sitting for years and rusting away. Here is me back in the day.

It has the 318cid w/904 auto and bench seats. I did rebuild the engine long ago w/ .30 overbore, mild cams, hooker headers with magnaflow exhaust. It sounded great back then but now it's going under the knife to get a new heart.

Here is the new heart that's going in....

More parts coming in so stay tuned.....

 

[Car Nut]

aboard!

Nice looking Charger!

 

[Z-Man]

Sharp car! Welcome from Minnesota.

 

[Triple Black 73]

Nice!

 

[drobertson]

Looks like a good car to start with! What are your plans for it besides the hemi?

 

[4shizzy]

Looks like a good car to start with! What are your plans for it besides the hemi?

I have the MagnumForce K-member and suspension on order. It should be here in 2 weeks. That was a hefty purchase! The biggest challenge is opening up the trans tunnel to fit the 545rfe tranny. I'll then convert the bench seat to bucket and do the floor shifter conversion. I do have some rust underneath the vynl top so body repair and then paint job. Still deciding what color scheme. I'll more than likely paint the bumpers to match. It'll take some time but luckily I have a brother to split the costs!

 

[drobertson]

I have the MagnumForce K-member and suspension on order. It should be here in 2 weeks. That was a hefty purchase! The biggest challenge is opening up the trans tunnel to fit the 545rfe tranny. I'll then convert the bench seat to bucket and do the floor shifter conversion. I do have some rust underneath the vynl top so body repair and then paint job. Still deciding what color scheme. I'll more than likely paint the bumpers to match. It'll take some time but luckily I have a brother to split the costs!

Well, if you want Chrome bumpers, AMD just announced they'll be making 73-4 Charger front and rear bumpers.

 

[oldbee]

Another great story--Welcome.

 

[4shizzy]

Sorry all it's been awhile since I've updated this thread. Life stuff just get's in the way! And also other car projects! lol. I have my daily turbo'd converted VW R32 that takes up a lot of my time as well!

Anyways, back to the real American fun! Over a year ago we ordered the Magnumforce suspension kit and it took a long while to get built and shipped. Seems like they just build to order. The kit is very well made and quality welds. I opted for un-powder coated as we want to customize the finish. Not sure what color yet! The Viking coilovers and Wilwood brakes are very sexy!

When we got the kit we wanted to test fit everything before we powder coated in K-member. This kit does require you to drill out the subframe to insert your bolt sleeve and bolt to secure the frame rails. The bolt sleeve needs to be welded in which I'll get to later. We drilled the holes and mounted the frame rails which also also has the upper control arm mounts. When test fitting a lot of the mounting points didn't align which required me to send back some parts for MF to fix and remake which they did and sent other updated parts without problems.

After getting the parts back, things were looking good! However welding in the sleeves created a delay as I don't know how to weld and was waiting for a coworker to help weld them in. After almost a year of delays and schedule conflict with my coworker, I decided to man-up and buy a welder to do it myself! lol!

Once we got the K-member bolted in things we're smooth sailing till we hit another snag! When we were installing the Viking coilovers, the bolt inserts they gave us were the wrong size!

These coilovers were shipped directly from Viking so they sent the wrong size inserts. I had MF work with Viking to send us new inserts which I just received. That's where we're at! Need to make time to finish the test fit!

Once we finish test fitting the suspension, we need to drop in the engine and trans to see what modifications we need to do for the trans tunnel as we need to cut and enlarge! more fun stuff to come!

 

[Dennis H]

Great story. Big project. Welcome.

 

[4shizzy]

And BTW... Photobuckt sux a$$ now. What you guys using to host your pics?

 

[Charger72]

I use https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/flicker/

 

[4shizzy]

I use https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/flicker/

Thanks! I wish this forum was on Tapatalk app. Much easier

 

[4shizzy]

Now I’m in search for a radiator for this hemi swap. Bouchillon has one for 70-72 but not sure if it works for 73. Does anyone know the difference if this could work? Or ant other options?

 

[CudaChick1968]

Very cool build!

 

[NoCar2023]

Nice build, you got some trick parts going in that car.
Just curious, why are you using a image hosting service?
thanks.

 

[4shizzy]

Nice build, you got some trick parts going in that car.
Just curious, why are you using a image hosting service?
thanks.

I guess I’m used to it since I use it for other forums. It was a good way to organize my photos online but now photobucket is terrible with their watermark. I’ll just upload directly here from now on.

 

[4shizzy]

A quick update. We hit another snag with the magnum force upper control arm mounts. The shock mount geometry allows the coil overs to hit the frame. Had MF remake the upper mount and need to install.