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

I picked up my freshened 18 spline Hemi 4 speed transmission from my friend who did a bench job on it. He said that the transmission was in overall excellent condition,and he only needed to replace thrust washers,bearings,seals and gaskets. The gears had no wear at all. That's the difference of the Liberty gearset in the Hemi transmissions. I have to order the clutch,flywheel,throwout bearing,and pressure plate,then I can assemble the transmission,with the engine,and get it in the car!
 
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I am going to give the transmission a paint job, before I put it in the car!
 
I wiped down the transmission with lacquer thinner to remove any oil residue, the sprayed it with some propsol,then,I masked it off and
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etch primed it.
 
Then I got some ceramic engine paint in cast color and painted the transmission. I had to do 6 or 8 light coats,because of the outside air temperature is only 53 degrees. I just took my time, and it looks good with no runs.
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It takes either a real brave man,or a dumb man to drill holes in a 70 V code Charger R/T,lucky for me,I am both! I got my painted racing mirrors installed on the car today. It didn't come with a passengers side mirror,but it has one now! The drivers side was a direct bolt on,but I had to drill the holes on the passengers side! They look great!
 
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I am still going through Road Runner O pause,so I decided to continue working on the Charger. I started by installing the battery tray support bracket,then I removed the steering column. I am swapping out the automatic brake pedal assembly and replacing it with the standard clutch and brake pedal assembly. To do this correctly,I had to drill two more holes in the firewall of my Sixpack car! 4 speed cars have a bracket with two studs that bolt the clutch pedal assembly to the firewall,next to the brake booster. I cut the bracket out of a wrecked 69 Road Runner years ago. I got the pedal assemblies swapped,but I still need to finish bolting things up. I noticed that none of the wires are connected to the gauge cluster,and two of the wires for the steering column were cut to by pass the plug connector,for the column. It looks like I need to go through the dash harness.
 
Well I worked on getting the standard pedals installed on the Charger R/T this morning. I got the extra bracket installed and the booster bolted back in. Not a user friendly job when the dash is in the car! But the new bracket looks like it has been there since 1970!
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Yea that job sucks hard! I remember being upside down in mine trying to change the booster and **** with 14 different swivels and extensions to get those upper bolts! Damn I don't wanna do that anytime soon again.
 
It wasn't much fun! I'm sure some double jointed contortionist could do it easily, but if they were like that they probably wouldn't be wasting their time under the dashboard of a 50 year old Dodge! Lol!
 
I just saw Christy Lee undo those same brake booster bolts on a 69 Daytona on Garage Squad,the car looked cool,and she sure looked much hotter than I did struggling with those bolts! I'm going to invite her to put my booster back in now that I know she has experience!
 
The other day when I was working under the hood of the car,I noticed that the engine has an electronic distributor in it. I bought an M&H engine harness with the electronic conversion already done to it for the car,from an FBBO member. I was going to buy a distributor for the car,but I see it already has one! I thought it was a points distributor until I saw the plug! Score!
 
There's no way I could work on my cars with Christy lee or Heather Storm from garage squad ..... would need bib for drool:lol:
 
Heather is like the girl next door type who loves and works on cars! Christy is the hot chick who loves and works on cars,I doubt much car work would get done with either one of them in my garage!
 
Today I pulled the electronic distributor out of the matching numbers engine that is in the car. The engine consists of the heads,block,intake, carbs,air cleaner, valve covers, exhaust manifolds, oil pan, and this distributor. I do have the correct harmonic balancer,and a set of Sixpack connecting rods,but no crankshaft, pistons, or camshaft was included with the car when I bought it. It was all bolted together and put in the car,from when Troy shipped me the car from Texas. I know that the electronic distributor is not correct for a 70 440 Sixpack car, but I thought it was just a standard single point distributor, so to see that it was an electronic distributor was a good find for me,because that was what I was planning to run on the temporary 440 that is going in the car,while I get around to rebuilding the matching numbers engine at a later date. This engine and transmission with the electronic distributor and wiring will eventually become the drivetrain for my other 70 Charger R/T, once the original engine is installed back into this car. I believe that the correct distributor for the 70 440 Sixpack would have been a Prestolite dual point distributor and that would have been a far better find than the electronic distributor that was in the car,but I am glad I found one that I can atleast use on the car for now. The last Prestolite dual point that I saw for sale was around $700.00 in used condition, so I am not looking forward to having to purchase one! I am going to clean up the electronic distributor and check it out to get it ready to use for now.
 
I got the electronic distributor taken partially apart,and cleaned up. Then I used several different grits of fine sandpaper to clean up the oxidation off the housing. I tried to preserve as much of the anodized parts original finish as possible. Then I used high heat engine clear coat to protect it from the elements. I painted the clips for the cap,and the hold down bolt and washer satin black, and used a matte finish metallic silver to replicate the original finish of the distributor hold down bracket. I will post another picture when I get it back together and clean up the cap ,which appears to be new and never run.
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On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a V code Charger R/T! On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to a 3.54 Dana 60 ,on the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three new screaming Holleys. On the forth day of Christmas my true love gave to me a 4 speed 18 spline Hemi tranny! On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 other Charger R/Ts! On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me a Hemi k frame for a Charger R/T, on the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven right leaf springs. On the eighth of Christmas my true love gave to me another California Charger R/T, on the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me a rust free Charger R/T. On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to a 472 cubic inch Hemi for my stock car! On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me a huge pistol grip shifter for all to see. On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a running in a V code Charger R/T! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
 
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