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Project Rat Rod V code 70 Charger R/T is about to begin.

I got the seats assembled! I couldn't have done it without my co worker,George!
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Thanks again to FBBO member PLM HEMI for the nice 50 year old seat backs!
 
I've admired the Charger convertible since seeing it in Mopar Action magazine nearly 20 years ago. Do you have any recent pictures of the car? I've seen you post pictures of pictures but not anything recent. Is it buried under piles of stuff in your garage?[/QUOTE]

The Charger convertible is alive and well, I had to open up the trailer to get the new gas tank for the white car.
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I dug out the new gas tank with ECS for the N95 California emission package. I usually wipe the new tanks down with lacquer thinner, and follow up with Prepsol,then I use a high heat satin clear on the tank and straps to help maintain the natural finish.
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While digging through the garage, I found a gold nugget so to speak,that I couldn't remember where I put it for safe keeping. It is an NOS Charger R / T door scoop with the emblem in the original Mopar box. I had bought a new door scoop from Dodge back in 1983,after my yellow Charger R / T SE was sideswiped by a hit and run driver at a party. My girlfriend at the time said,did you take the door handle off the car? I can't open the door! I said no I didn't, she had drank a lot ,so I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't, the door handle was gone,so was the door scoop. The door was wasted,and half the quarter panel was dented too. I remember ordering the scoop,the guy who worked at Colony Dodge was a friend of mine, and had a nice 68 Charger R / T red 4 speed car. I used to sell him parts for his car,so he took the extra time,and searched the whole Mopar parts inventory for me. I had him look up the scoops,rear finish panel, rear valence pan, valence corners,and both rear quarters. The only part he found was the right door scoop. I paid $83 for it. I put that one on the yellow car,but the packing slip for the dust covered door scoop, had this note written on it,"last one,do not send back". The one scoop was the only available piece I could get from Dodge in 1983. When I traded my 69 Charger 500 to Troy, he included in the parts
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package this Left NOS Charger R / T door scoop in the factory box. After I had purchased a nice pair of door scoops for thd Daytona stock car, I found that I also had 3 more door scoops up in the loft already,that I found while searching for parts for this project. Today I also found that I had already ordered a bunch of AMD parts for my sunroof car, I am just getting ready to place another AMD order,it's always good to go back and see what you have before placing an order!
 
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I also found the new burnt orange carpet set I have for the car, and the correct 440 Sixpack power steering pump with the cooler on it too.
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Thanks, I am trying to do something to or for the project everyday. No matter how small or insignificant it may seem, any forward progress on the car, will get it that much closer to the goal of getting the car back on the road.
 
I rally love the 70 interiors. Maybe someday I'll find a decent 70!! Nice work
 
I rally love the 70 interiors. Maybe someday I'll find a decent 70!! Nice work
My 71 Charger R/T, bucket seats with console was great.
I didn't like the bench seat in my 70 Roadrunner, so I switched out to Scat Procar bucket seats and I got with Blue Thunder consoles and I have the first add on full console for a bucket seat shift lever manual transmission. Pretty cool!
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That yellow and black theme really pops! It certainly is a modern take on a 70 style interior. I went with the orange and black 71 Road Runner interior,and had a custom cover made for the convertible rear seat in the Chargervert. I do prefer the 70 Charger interior over any other M
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opar from the era.
 
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Chargervert...
:lowdown:
Any pix of your car with the top UP?
What about wind noise and "whistles" at highway speeds?
 
What's up with the 3 shifters in the chargervert? Fancy pro stock drag trans?
 
What's up with the 3 shifters in the chargervert? Fancy pro stock drag trans?
That's the Hurst "Lightning Rod" shifter from the Hurst/Olds circa 1979 or thereabouts?? Just a cool auto transmission shifter setup, but I've never seen one on a Mopar.
I had the black plastic T handle on my SlapStick in my 71 Charger R/T. Other than the one time I pulled it back into 1st gear too hard and broke the plastic handle, in my opinion the SlapStick was THE BEST performance oriented shifter for automatic transmissions of the ENTIRE muscle car era!
Here's why: from D Drive, using your thumb, you push the button in and pull the shifter back to 1st gear, and release the button. From that point, it is impossible to miss a gear! Bump the handle forward and it will ONLY go to 2nd, and then a very slight pull back, and then forward again and you are locked in 3rd gear! The only way to do anything else is to push the thumb button in again.
Simple, effective, fool proof, and WAY cool. I pulled a SlapStick shifter and mechanism out of a car in a salvage yard and it was a DIRECT bolt in replacement for my console shifter in my 79 Aspen R/T.
Of course now I have a
:thumbsup:Pistol Grip:bananadance: Hurst shifter, the largest one (bench seat no factory console) with a custom console.
It looks like a Helicopter joystick! I can still shift it pretty damn quick, and it's always a hit and something people look for and comment about at shows.
 
The Hurst Lightning Rod shifters were available aftermarket for any car. Mine are not from an Oldsmobile,the 700R4 has one more gear than a 727. They were originally cable operated,I fabbed up mechanical linkage to operate them. The factory slap stick is a real ratchet shifter,the plastic handle is the weak point of them. The 70 E body ball handle slap stick is the most durable slap stick shifter. The Charger convertible is a factory convertible,so the roof works like any other B body convertible. The tub assembly is from a 68 Satellite convertible,from firewall to the dutch panel. It has factory torque boxes,and reinforced rockerpanels. The front clip and rear clip are from a 70 Charger and were grafted to the Satellite convertible tub,so the top and glass all fit and function as as original B body convertible did from the factory.
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It's 2020 now,and I am trying to make progress on my cars. It was 38 degrees out today,which is nice for New England, but the garage is like an ice box,so I wasn't feeling like working out there,so I continued putting seat covers on. These seats are for my other 70 Charger R / T. I had to get a new helper for this set of seats,as George was not available today. So Sam stepped up to help me out!
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I got the upper part of the seat covered, 70 Charger seats are more difficult than most of the seats I have done. They have bolsters that most B body seats don't have, so they require a bit more tugging and pulling to get them tight. A bit of time out in the sun when the weather breaks,should tighten them up and smooth out the wrinkles in them. I am doing some 70 GTX seats,and they are even more difficult than the Charger seats.
 
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I finally got back to work on the V code Charger. Today I prepared the gas tank, by wiping the oils off it with lacquer thinner three times, then I used prepsol to wipe it down a few more times. I applied three to four coats of high heat clear with ceramic to try to maintain the out of the box finish.
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I also clear coated the heat shields for the side pipes on my 75 Dodge van. They started to get a light film of rust on them. I cleaned them with steel wool,and then wiped them with lacquer thinner several times from both sides, and followed up with the prepsol as well, then applied the high heat clear from both sides and from all directions to get the clear into the edged of the preferated holes.
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I got back to work on the Charger today. It was 60 degrees out,and that never happens this time of year around here,so I took advantage of it! I got the leaf springs installed on the Dana 60 rear axle. I noticed that the rear axle had old school traction bars on it,and the factory shock mount plates were missing, so I had to go up in the loft and find a pair of them. I kept finding all passengers side shock mounting plates,but no drivers side plates. I finally found a left one after finding three right ones first. It took longer to remove all the shipping labels off the new leaf springs than it did to install them onto the rear axle. Any forward progress is good progress, and today was a bonus day!
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