'69 charger r/t-se: Building my dream car

Hey guys! It's been a long time coming finally getting onto the forum. I'm 20 years old and have had my Charger for just about a year. Most of that time was spent finishing up my other car, but I've been trying to learn as much as possible about mopars over that time and have been making some good progress on the Charger in the past few months. So here's the story on my dream car in progress.

Just after I turned 19, I decided to start living the dream learning about and working on muscle cars, starting with a 67 Chevelle I had come across locally. But over the next year I kept on the hunt for my true dream car, a 2nd gen Dodge Charger.

One year of Craigslisting later I came across an ad in Los Angeles titled "project '69 Charger or '70 GTX." Upon contacting the owner I learned that I was the first lucky guy to take notice of the listing. And in another stroke of luck, the car turned out to be a true R/T SE with 95% of the original parts on-hand and in excellent shape, including the car's original 440 which had (supposedly) recently been rebuilt.
The car had been completely stripped in preparation for a full restoration, but the owner was caught in the middle of it and the GTX, and having a hard time moving forward with 2 cars going at once.

So with deal sealed, me and a buddy of mine made the 14 hour drive through winter weather down to sunny Norwalk, CA. Finally seeing my car, and sitting next to a '70 GTX no less, was a truly awesome feeling. The owner was sad to see it go but relieved to be freed up for some progress on the remaining car, and asked that I stay in contact through the build. So with the Charger finally on the trailer and a truck bed completely packed with parts, we headed back north and rounded out our mission with a total of 33 straight driving hours, managing to make it back with no real issues aside from some pretty deep snow and a few pissed off LA motorists. Finally the relentless search for a Charger had paid off as I rolled the car off the trailer behind my dad's shop, 500 miles from where I found it.

Late last summer I started renting a shop of my own to finally work on bringing the Charger back from the dead as I always pictured it, and have been going full speed ahead since. I'm sure I'll catch some purist flack for some of the modifications I have planned (changing the color scheme, wheels/tires, not installing a vinyl top, etc.) But I'm preserving/ documenting originality wherever I can, and life's too short to build your car for anyone other than yourself.
:imho:

So here's some of the major things I have done/planned:

Black on black interior, flat black bumblebee stripe. Mostly original style interior.
70 Hemi Challenger spindles and brakes up front, rear disc conversion. Urethane bushings, QA1 shocks, original front and added rear swaybar, subframe connectors.
Coys c5 wheels, staggered 17x8" up front, 18x9.5" rear, nitto 555 tires.
Rebuilt original 440 and 727, to be replaced with a separate stroked, procharged, and intercooled 440, and a 5 or 6 speed trans later down the road.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think as the project keeps moving forward, the forum has been a huge help already. Cheers!
ccasion14:

The Charger as it arrived in California from Nebraska, got this picture from the previous owner.

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As I found it in Norwalk. :eusa_eh:

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Loading everything up, pretty fun when the front suspension isn't in the car haha

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Numbers-matching 440 hidden in the back of the barn underneath a mountain of other parts.

Finally loaded up, soon as I hit the road I got a lot of people staring like I had a unicorn strapped to the trailer haha

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Fast forward a few months and I finally got moved into the shop. Stripped and painted the entire undercarriage back to the rear subframe with chassis paint, left most of the factory undercoating. Also blocked down the car just to get a better idea what was under all the filler primer. Had to strip and seal the roof because of some surface rust coming through the primer. Finally some progress

K-frame/front suspension before.


All-told, 10 lbs of dirt came off before it went to the powdercoaters.


Some quality time with the blast cabinet at my friend and local mopar-guru Mike's shop.


Upper and lower control arms were then painted in a ppg silver to replicate bare-metal, and all hardware sandblasted, phosphated, and dusted with krylon satin clear.


Finished and reassembled. only had to replace one seal in the steering box, stripped and painted it with ironcast paint from napa.


Used a Right Stuff front end rebuild kit, with the lower contorol arm and swaybar end link bushings replaced with prothane ones. also used poly bumpstops. the spindles/brake setup are off of a friend's '70 hemi Challenger, which I sandblasted and painted, and bought refurbished calipers. Also stripped the original torsion bars and painted them with chassis black.


Then I sanded down my first flat black engine bay paintjob..

... In favor of a more professional looking full-gloss black.


And finally got the front suspension back where it came from. :headbang:


E-body spindles and brakes, QA1 shocks, and everything finally buttoned up.

Finally get to test-fit the wheels and tires, and get an idea of what the final stance of the car will look like. Rolling on all 4 for the first time in years :icon_biggrin:






Everything clears nicely, and I have 1/2" hubcentric spacers for the rear wheels that werent installed during these pictures, so once they're on the wheels should fill out the wheel wells even better. Really happy with the overall look and stance at this point!

Welcome aboard.
Thank you for joining "For B-Bodies Only"
Nice car, great pics!
"super-bee_ski"

Welcome. That is a nice charger and you've done some good upgrades to it. Will look great all black.

well i just read your thread and have subscribed. looking forward to progress updates. Do what you want and from the sounds of it it's going to be outstanding!

Welcome to the site. That's a great lookin Charger! Nice to get a clean sheet metal car from outside of the rust belt states.

Thanks guys! I think the flat black stripe against the gloss will be different and pretty cool, also considering the flat black hood treatment where the "scallops" are blacked out with the motor designation on each side.

The wheels were a big decision too, I like the look of larger staggered wheels but hate rubberbands or the ultra-raked look on some "pro-touring" cars when people run too large of a tire on too large of a rear wheel. Took a lot of research but I think I found a pretty good middle ground.

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moparlee said:

Nice to get a clean sheet metal car from outside of the rust belt states.

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You can say that again! Haha, most cars here in Oregon haven't weathered very well. The Charger is pretty straight though, and the only real metal work I have to do is around the rear window (from the vinyl top), the passenger side trunk extension, and fixing some screwups from the halfwit bodyshop the previous owner took the car to. :sigh:

tallhair said:

well i just read your thread and have subscribed. looking forward to progress updates. Do what you want and from the sounds of it it's going to be outstanding!

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Thanks! The support for some creativity really means a lot!

Welcome to the site. You will be driving that car before you know it with the fast progress you are making. It sure helps to have a fairly solid body.

You sure are moving along good with this, Great car and always great when doing your dream car! Good luck and please keep us updated as you go! Welcome aboard the forum here!!

Great work.

Cool deal....Cool car.

and life's too short to build your car for anyone other than yourself.

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You bet! Make it your canvas......Sky's the limit.

Good luck on the rest of your project.

Congrats on the find and the build! Gonna be sweet car. Black is a tough look on that car.

more eye candy please.

great project! love the Chargers. I had a '68 R/T that was black with the red R/T stripe. Not a fan of the big wheels, especially with the rubber bands, but I do like your choice. have fun with your build, and be proud when your driving down the road with all the lookers!

Basket case said:

great project! love the Chargers. I had a '68 R/T that was black with the red R/T stripe. Not a fan of the big wheels, especially with the rubber bands, but I do like your choice. have fun with your build, and be proud when your driving down the road with all the lookers!

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That's awesome, I love the look of the red stripes on black! And thanks I'm glad to hear you like the wheel/tire choice, I was hoping it'd be close to a perfect combination that people who normally don't like big wheels would still like the look of mine. Sucks to see an otherwise gorgeous car ruined by wheels that are too huge and out of place.

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daredevil said:

more eye candy please.

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Well not much to report yet this week, but here's a couple better shots of the car as it sits.



Leafsprings partly unbolted, but a preview of what the rear footprint will look like. Liking the width on the wheels.


Covered in dust but a completely rust-free floor pan; it's a beautiful thing. :icon_thumleft:


Finding out the trunk pan is actually pretty solid now that I've started stripping it. For the most part really minor pinholes that don't spread like I thought they would.

Next on the list is finishing stripping that trunk and shooting it with "chassis saver" rust encapsulator. Probably get the gas tank dropped and the rear end pulled out for detailing, too. Busy weekend incoming :icon_biggrin:

One thing about these older cars, they keep ya busy and out of trouble. Unles you count the wife/girlfriend saying you're not spending enuf time with her.