Grendel lives...resurrection of a 1970 Charger 500

[Coelacanth]

I got more electrical testing done tonight. I wasn't happy with how the white LEDs in the hood signal indicators looked; they shone more white than amber, even though the lenses are amber...and as is common with many LEDs, they made a straight-on light that wasn't very diffuse, so you really only saw a dime-sized circle of whitish-yellow light when the indicators are flashing. I took a chance on these amber LEDs that looked like they have diodes arranged to shine more on the sides than just the top, and what a difference!

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C3H1G72T

Keep in mind the pic shows the driver side white LED much brighter than it is, bright LEDs tend to get washed out in digital pics...but you can see the color isn't good compared to the amber LED I put on the passenger side.

Other minor issues I took care of: the LED I put in the glovebox light socket wasn't working; I swapped it out for one of the amber LEDs.

The high beam indicator was barely visible with a blue LED I installed; I swapped that out for a red LED. My L/R turn indicators and high beam indicator in the dash are all red now. They contrast quite nicely with the green lighting everywhere else in the dash. Strangely, the light behind the red "Brake System" lens doesn't work. I've tried different LEDs but no result yet. It's a bit different in that it's a 2-wire socket unlike all the other 1-wire sockets everywhere else in the instrument panel...

 

[Kern Dog]

The 3D printed hood lenses I bought shine much brighter than stock too. I wish that they were more amber in color but they are better than nothing. My RH one had a rusty socket that sometimes didn't allow the light to blink so this is a partial win.

 

[Coelacanth]

Here's a short video showing a comparison of the original white LEDs and the amber ones linked above. The white one is bright but not diffuse at all...though the overbrightness in digital makes it look more diffuse than in reality.

 

[Kern Dog]

Yeah, it isn't ideal. Mine are similar.

 

[Coelacanth]

Mine looked just like yours. Try those LEDs I linked, you'll really like the improvement...and $16 CAD for 10...you'll always have plenty of spares.

 

[Canadian1968]

Mine looked just like yours. Try those LEDs I linked, you'll really like the improvement...and $16 CAD for 10...you'll always have plenty of spares.

The new lights you got are a nice 360 design. They will definitely help alluminate to the side, unlike my orginal which are much more if a " flash light " design .

@Kern Dog . Clean up the socket and thin smear of dielectric grease to stop the corrosion!

 

[Kern Dog]

The ones I got from you have no corrosion, I have no problems with their function.
Maybe these 3D printed ones would benefit from a lower wattage bulb? They overpower the amber lens and flash an off white color, not amber.
I'm not dissatisfied, I just would have preferred a bit more of the amber shade to come though.

 

[Canadian1968]

The ones I got from you have no corrosion, I have no problems with their function.
Maybe these 3D printed ones would benefit from a lower wattage bulb? They overpower the amber lens and flash an off white color, not amber.
I'm not dissatisfied, I just would have preferred a bit more of the amber shade to come though.

Absolutely. An amber bulb would / will really bring out the color your looking for.

Nice thing is that mine use the very generic ba9 bulb size. Where as the orginal bulbs for the 70 turn signals were some odd ball size that were not as easy to find !

 

[Coelacanth]

I love how mine look with those amber LEDs, the whole lens lights up with a rich orange light.

 

[Coelacanth]

Took a few baby steps...my steering column cover has all four holes cracked. The prices people are asking for this little piece of plastic are ludicrous, so I'll try to repair it with epoxy. It should be at least as strong as the original weak plastic. I started by globbing 5-minute epoxy over all the holes and cracks. Then, I'll file & sand the new edges smooth, and re-drill and counter-sink the holes, then hit it with some SEM Trim Black.

Since I had my heater control assembly pulled out to troubleshoot the fan (the heater seems to work but the fan isn't blowing at any speed), and because I had a spare heater/fan assembly in storage for decades, I had a look at the control plate on it...it cleaned up really nice with a toothbrush and squirt of WD-40. Can you guess which one will go back in the car? The old one will get cleaned up and I'll use a white acrylic paint pen to touch up the raised markings and sell it.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Took a few baby steps...my steering column cover has all four holes cracked. The prices people are asking for this little piece of plastic are ludicrous, so I'll try to repair it with epoxy. It should be at least as strong as the original weak plastic. I started by globbing 5-minute epoxy over all the holes and cracks. Then, I'll file & sand the new edges smooth, and re-drill and counter-sink the holes, then hit it with some SEM Trim Black.

Since I had my heater control assembly pulled out to troubleshoot the fan (the heater seems to work but the fan isn't blowing at any speed), and because I had a spare heater/fan assembly in storage for decades, I had a look at the control plate on it...it cleaned up really nice with a toothbrush and squirt of WD-40. Can you guess which one will go back in the car? The old one will get cleaned up and I'll use a white acrylic paint pen to touch up the raised markings and sell it.

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Be sure to go only finger tight on the screws for fear of blowing out the holes again.

 

[Coelacanth]

Be sure to go only finger tight on the screws for fear of blowing out the holes again.

That just gave me an idea...I have several kinds of aluminum countersunk washers. I could simply sand the filled-in holes flat and use these on top of the column cover when it bolts back on. That way, there'd be almost no stress placed on the cover screw holes.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Yeah, it isn't ideal. Mine are similar.

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Shouldn't you change that band-aid KD? Been on there about 3 years now

 

[Coelacanth]

I was missing a driver side black armrest pad. A fellow member had a few but all of them had some minor cracking; the one I chose had 2 cracks on the inside upper edge, but the visible functional part looked very nice for a driver. I bought it and will attempt a little vinyl repair, to at least prevent any further damage. I bought that can of vinyl cement on Amazon, the reviews were excellent so I gave it a shot. I have several donor armrest pads, I chose this beige one because someone staple-gunned a bunch of staples in the bottom, for some reason.

I cut out a few repair patch pieces. For the bigger cracked section, the outer vinyl was expanded outward so I used an X-Acto knife to dig out some of the underlying foam so the vinyl on both sides would press in more neatly. I scraped all the foam remnants from the bottom of the vinyl repair patch and cleaned both the cracked vinyl surface and repair patch surface with rubbing alcohol.

Patching the smaller crack was easy. The bigger crack not so easy because the cracks extend nearly to the corner edge of the pad. For both, I applied the vinyl cement in a thin layer to both surfaces, then pressed on the patch. For the bigger crack, I pressed in the edges of the black pad before cementing on the patch so it wouldn't bulge out as much once repaired.

I was surprised how strong the cement was; after letting the surfaces get tacky for a minute or two, as soon as I pressed on the patches, they wouldn't even slide a millimeter. So, be sure to position the patch perfectly before you press it down. The cemented patches also didn't come close to lifting, the bond sets very fast. I used the clamps just to be sure but I don't even think they were necessary.

I'll touch up the repair areas with some black vinyl dye and once the pad is reinstalled, nobody will see them because they're on the inside...but more importantly, they shouldn't crack any further.

 

[Coelacanth]

I hate to jinx myself, but sometimes you get lucky and the better outcome happens. I received a map light housing & switch and fan control switch from Daytonavic. Installed the map light with an LED and it's nice to see it's working again. I honestly can't remember if I ever used the thing back in the day when I drove the car.

I tested my original fan control switch with a test light and it lit up only with the low and medium speed contacts, and did nothing on high. When connected to the heater box, the fan barely made a sound and barely spun on medium, and did nothing on either low or high. I wasn't looking forward to removing the heater box I restored several years ago to check the blower motor, that would've been a pain. I connected the replacement switch from Vic and was happy to see all the contacts tested good. Connected the wires to the heater box and lo-and-behold, the blower motor worked great! So the issue was all in the fan control switch.

I'll remove the old one and clean it up and keep it as a spare. Vic told me you can gently pry up the metal tabs on that switch block and clean up the contacts if they're carboned up with a fine file; I'll use some 400-grit sandpaper.

 

[Coelacanth]

The patched armrest pad, after painting with SEM Classic Coat vinyl paint:

And reinstalled; looks good enough for a driver and shouldn't crack any further:

Map light and heater & fan control assembly reinstalled; I chose a white LED for the map light:

And a pic with both ProCar Scat Sportsman seats installed:

For fun, a "before" pic:

 

[Coelacanth]

I know this will turn off some of our members. Back in the late 80's after I had my stereo stolen out of my Charger, I devised a way to hide the stereo completely behind that upper rectangular section of the lower dash cover. I cut it off back in the day and used 2 little thumbscrews to attach it to totally conceal the stereo. Years ago I bought a replacement cover that's clearly in better shape than the original one, but someone drilled hole, probably for a manual choke pull-off, and drilled 3 more holes beside it:

So looking at what I had to work with, and not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a repro plastic piece, the bottom left section of my original cover could be used somehow to patch up the drill holes in the otherwise good cover. You get the general idea:

After considering how to make one good cover out of two, and knowing that blending in a patch piece would be clearly visible no matter how careful I tried to epoxy it in, I decided there was no point in trying to make an invisible patch but to simply patch over the holes with the repair piece, and come up with something new and different. The most important detail for me was making sure my hacksaw cuts were as straight as possible, because a wavy patch section would look like ***. I decided to round the upper corners and bevel the edges to make it look more like it was meant to be that way. After repainting with SEM Trim Black, the cut edges would look nicer.

I also finished repairing and repainting my lower steering column cover, but instead of re-drilling countersunk holes--which make it way more fragile--I filled in the holes completely with JB Weld epoxy, then filed things smooth, and drilled straight through. The idea is to install the column cover with some nice green aluminum countersunk washers, which will make the part much less fragile than the original piece. To go along with that green washer theme, I drilled holes in the lower dash cover to install more countersunk screws and washers to keep things somewhat consistent. The screws aren't necessary for the lower dash cover as it's already epoxied onto the second dash cover. I think the green washers will follow the "Grendel green" theme nicely...and this is sure to offend the purists, but not everyone can afford to spend hundreds on plastic pieces. I have to work with what I have or Grendel may never be completed.

 

[Kern Dog]

Good idea.
I think it would look better with screws that are more subtle looking, satin in sheen.

 

[Coelacanth]

Good idea.
I think it would look better with screws that are more subtle looking, satin in sheen.

Thanks. Come to think of it, just for consistency, I'll probably add 2 more to the right side of the ash tray hole.