Lookie what $5000 buys you....

Kern Dog · Dec 6, 2024

There is a member here that is advertising a bunch of 1970 Charger body panels. Of course the man is all the way across the country in New York!
I guess with the way the population is scattered in the country, there are large groups of people on the east and northeast parts of the country as well as out here in California but the areas we call Flyover states dont have nearly the same population. I’ve wondered about how many classics end up on Indian reservations. I don’t know whether they have to abide by state laws for vehicle registration if they never leave their reservations.

I had Jigsaw out today. It is great how one can drive two cars that are basically the same yet they drive very different.
This one is a 383 automatic with 3.91 gears and manual front disc/rear drum. Compared to the red car…

Jigsaw is slower, quieter, smoother riding yet is still a Charger.
The non power brakes feel so different from power brake cars. Initial pedal pressure results in a genuine feel that brakes start to bite but additional pressure seems like the brakes don’t bite any harder. Every power brake car I’ve driven has brake force that increases as pedal pressure is also increased. I’ve had manual disc/drum A bodies that had very impressive brakes but these are nowhere near as good. I had similar luck when I tried manual 4 wheel discs in the red car. The pedal pressure could be really high but the brakes just didn’t respond.
The 383 runs great. The hydraulic flat tappet cam is as quiet as a stock 318. It lacks the off idle snap that this turd has.

The Dart is just a basically stock 360 with a 280/474 cam and 4.10 gears. I wonder if the longer stroke and lighter weight, coupled with the additional gearing makes that much difference?

Potmetalman · Dec 7, 2024

Kern Dog said:
Ta-da !
1970 Charger XH model.
The car has been sitting for at least 10 years, probably more.View attachment 824459 View attachment 824460 View attachment 824461 View attachment 824462

Floors are solid. Rear window channel looks great even though it had a vinyl top. Trunk needs a new floor pan though. No flip top cap or filler neck. Probably a bunch of missing parts that I haven't noticed yet.

Man, If I could find one of those for $5k, I'd buy in a second!! My Dad has wanted a '68 since he was a young man.

CoronetDarter · Dec 8, 2024

Kern Dog said:
The Dart is just a basically stock 360 with a 280/474 cam and 4.10 gears. I wonder if the longer stroke and lighter weight, coupled with the additional gearing makes that much difference?

Oh yeah it does. Went from 3.55s to 4.10s in the Dart and it really woke it up. It has the 380 hp/360 magnum crate motor. The engine comes with a big cam and relatively low compression so the lower gears make a huge difference down low.

Kern Dog · Jan 31, 2025

1 Wild R/T said:
There isn't one.. What there is is a very slight flat area machined down the side of the lifter from the oil ring to the base....

On a hydraulic a hole through the bottom would cause the oil to bleed out & the plunger would collapse causing the lifters to rattle at every startup & you know a few wouldn't quiet ever down...

I've been running these for three years now, never had any noise, the cam survived initial break-in well & I've spun it up to 6500+ on many occasions...

I was going through this thread for fun and saw this post of yours about those Crower lifters. Oregon cams and a couple others offer this service to used or even new lifters. This very thing may sway me back to running a flat tappet cam. My red car has a solid flat tappet that runs great but the cam is a little soft at the low end. I always wince a bit at the cost of switching to a roller cam so I'm still undecided.

Bighouse · Jan 31, 2025

Kern Dog said:
I was going through this thread for fun and saw this post of yours about those Crower lifters. Oregon cams and a couple others offer this service to used or even new lifters. This very thing may sway me back to running a flat tappet cam. My red car has a solid flat tappet that runs great but the cam is a little soft at the low end. I always wince a bit at the cost of switching to a roller cam so I'm still undecided.

Check out Powell Cams on YouTube. Anything I get is going through that guy.

Ceedawg · Jan 31, 2025

CoronetDarter said:
Oh yeah it does. Went from 3.55s to 4.10s in the Dart and it really woke it up. It has the 380 hp/360 magnum crate motor. The engine comes with a big cam and relatively low compression so the lower gears make a huge difference down low.

have you raced the car? What numbers? I’m thinking of putting my 360-380 in a 65 Plymouth

Kern Dog · Jan 31, 2025

Ceedawg said:
have you raced the car? What numbers? I’m thinking of putting my 360-380 in a 65 Plymouth

I drove the Dart.
The MP 360/380 is a production Truck and Van engine with a bigger cam and a single plane M1 intake. They had stock 9.0 compression and stock heads.
In his Dart, the car was a little soft in the low rpm range but did come alive as you got over 3000 rpms. Personally, I like an engine that feels stronger on the bottom end of the RPM scale. A high stall converter might help but his car was a Tremec 5 speed. I would have had to rev the heck out of it to get it to scram and I didn't want to do that to another man's car.
Rich is rebuilding his 360/380 using a 4" crank and .030 pistons to arrive at a 408" deal. I'll bet the next cam will have less duration and more lift. He is planning on a set of Trick Flow heads too. Longer stroke engines usually make more power down low, all else being equal.
In my opinion, I would not use the 360/380 in a heavy car unless you had steep axle gears and a 3500 RPM stall converter.

Kern Dog · Wednesday at 4:08 PM

I have been pondering a few changes for the car.
It has manual brakes, this was done only as a cost saving measure since I put the car together with as many parts that I had laying around.

I could swap in a 73-76 A body single diaphragm booster since I have a few on the shelf.

I ran one in the red car for years and it worked pretty good except when I switched to 4 wheel disc brakes. A booster with front disc, rear drum is a proven combination.
The OEM type dual diaphragm is ultimately the better choice though.

Kern Dog · Wednesday at 4:56 PM

eldubb440 said:
I can't believe this was 5 years ago

A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
Author unknown.
If I only had one car, it would probably be pretty nice. Instead, my short attention span leads me to have several unfinished projects that are all far from perfect.
I cannot remember the last time I actually did anything on the car. Was it the seats and carpet? Was it the left fender and door? I’ll have to scroll back to know for sure.
Since I got this car running and driving, other things have come along. I retired, I had the red car apart to swap in the Tremec then pulled the engine and trans 17 months later. I helped an FBBO buddy do a Tremec swap on his Coronet…

Helped another with an A/C installation…

I fell off the roof of my house, Bought three A body cars, one actually worth putting back together…

Helped The Coronet guy (Rich) rebuild an engine for his Dart…

Good times.
Back to it though. Jigsaw was originally a 383 model and it came with the skinny .88 torsion bars. Last Summer, an FBBO member was giving away some stuff. In the collection were these….

PST torsion bars!

Yes! The 1.03s are a popular upgrade for our cars.
From the start, I wanted Jigsaw to be essentially a 3/4 scale version of the red car. Smaller engine, slightly softer suspension, not as loud, etc. The 1.03” bars are a big step up from the pencil thin .88 bars but still smaller than the 1.15s in Ginger.

eldubb440 · Wednesday at 6:36 PM

almost 6 years now

OneWheelPeel · Thursday at 1:33 AM

Kern Dog said:
I have been pondering a few changes for the car.
It has manual brakes, this was done only as a cost saving measure since I put the car together with as many parts that I had laying around.

View attachment 1893597

I could swap in a 73-76 A body single diaphragm booster since I have a few on the shelf.

View attachment 1893598

I ran one in the red car for years and it worked pretty good except when I switched to 4 wheel disc brakes. A booster with front disc, rear drum is a proven combination.
The OEM type dual diaphragm is ultimately the better choice though.

I’d be interested to see what you piece together since I’m always bouncing brake upgrade ideas in my head. I never actually do anything tho because things like a nice carpet and seats are more important than stopping, but I’ll get to it eventually!

Kern Dog · Thursday at 2:10 AM

In my red car, for 6 years I ran a front disc, rear drum setup with an A body single diaphragm booster. The brakes worked pretty good but I didn't like how the tiny 10" drums looked through the big spokes of the rear wheels so I swapped in 11.7" disc brakes.
The change to rear discs did not improve braking but it looked better to the eye.
After awhile, I realized that the braking just wasn't as good as it should be so I started trying new things. I changed to front calipers with a bigger piston. No improvement or very little. I never got any of the tires to skid no matter how hard I pressed the pedal.
I was curious about running a manual system to unclutter the engine bay so I tried 4 different manual master cylinders of different sizes. All gave a firm pedal and ALL took far more pedal effort to stop than I wanted. I tried a hydroboost setup but the unit was defective...I burned up 3 power steering pumps trying to make it work.
Currently, the red car has an OEM style dual diaphragm vacuum booster and a 15/16" master cylinder. Front brakes are the Doctor Diff 13" Cobra setup. Finally after many, many years and combinations, I can get the front tires to skid. I now have the best combination that I have ever had.
If Jigsaw has the same setup that I had in the red car before the rear disc brake swap, it should stop quite well.

Kern Dog · Thursday at 2:16 AM

eldubb440 said:
almost 6 years now

THAT is a punch to the gut.
In the first 3 1/2 years that I owned this car:

It went from this:

...To this :

.....But back then, I didn't have so many distractions!
Remember what I wrote about a man with ONE watch? Back then, that is essentially what I had. Now I have more watches than I need!

Kern Dog · 2025-08-02T01:22:23-0500

Jigsaw has the dreaded KYB Gas-A-Just shocks, the ones that 80% of Mopar guys hate.
Heck, I don't like them at all either.
The car had no shocks when I got it and I had 3 sets of new KYBs in the shed. It was the KYBs or spend money.
I am a huge proponent in using what stuff I have laying around. I got the shocks in a big parts stash I got from a guy in 2013. THAT guy was the original owner of this....

71 Road Runner 383. He had this car that he was working on....

I bought him out of the car and all those parts. I would not spend a dollar to buy KYBs again.
I had them in the red car for 15 years since I didn't know any better. I switched to Bilsteins and was amazed at how much better the car rode.
Moving on....
I've started the switch to power brakes.

Cheapsunglasses · 2025-08-02T07:00:09-0500

I put kyb on my 78 LRE for the same reason, had them laying around, should have trashed them , they’re worse then the original blown out shocks !

Probably not saying anything new or anything nobody hasn’t heard , but my gtx has bilsteins front, air shocks back (save the comments I know lol), boxed lower control arm, tubular upper. Factory .94 t bars , and factory sway bar. Steer and gear stage 2 steering box It’s not built for cornering, but it’ll take a corner pretty good, and it’s still not too jarring, not too soft.

All you really need for a simple, good setup imo is tubular control arms to get away from granny going to church garbage alignment specs , sway bars, and a good pair of shocks.

Kern Dog · 2025-08-02T20:38:32-0500

Changing master cylinders on a power brake car is relatively easy since the booster has studs in it to attach the master cylinder. When changing from manual to power brakes, there are mounting bolts and nuts that are on both sides of the firewall. If you don’t have a helper, you have to get creative. This booster was in the red car for many years. It is OEM for a 73-76 A body with front disc, rear drum.

Yeah, correct b body boosters are available but for now, I’m using this because it works and I already have it right here. Somehow, I was able to get the manual master cylinder out myself. I just put the battery powered ratchet on it and shocked the nuts loose.

I took the stiffener plate off that I put on years ago.

The master cylinder worked fine but I’m going to stow it and use a different one. The plate I had….

What the heck is the correct application for this?

The stiffener plates that I remember are the standard manual version and the one for power brakes. Both had one edge that was longer.

I had the one in the stash that came off my red car. See? Saving these leftovers really saves you in times like these.

Kern Dog · 2025-08-02T20:53:42-0500

Again, somehow I was able to get the hardware in and tight all by myself. Sometimes it is a matter of putting a box end wrench on a nut then using an air ratchet or the battery operated one from the other side…shock the bolt fast and the stuff can tighten up before it slips.
Everything is attached under the dash. The brake light switch is adjusted. I could put the seat back in since no other under dash work is necessary. These mounting bolts are the tricky ones.

The master cylinder that I used is from a company called Force 10. It is aluminum but looks similar to stock cast iron. It weighs about 3 lbs, stock is around 9 if I recall.

Rick E from Mopar Action used one in a series he wrote regarding weight savings efforts. This has a 1.03 bore.

I talked myself into mounting the seat.

This car is SO ratty. It looks like the Dodge Charger version of the Partridge Family school bus.
I’ll have to make new brake lines from the master cylinder to the proportioning valve. THAT is easy, getting to the fittings can be a pisser. You sometimes need either skinny arms and hands or flexible ones. Tools like these help.

July was a mild month but these two days of August have heated up a bit.
I stink. I’m done for the day.

1 Wild R/T · 2025-08-02T21:00:23-0500

Yup, August has been more typical weather than what we had for most of June & July... Almost convinced the guys I was with to stop by & pester you today... We went up to Pollack Pines to look at a Dart....

Kern Dog · 2025-08-02T23:49:26-0500

I would have welcomed the visit. I don't have as many car guy buddies like we all used to have years ago.

Nxcoupe · 2025-08-03T00:02:20-0500

Kern Dog said:
Again, somehow I was able to get the hardware in and tight all by myself. Sometimes it is a matter of putting a box end wrench on a nut then using an air ratchet or the battery operated one from the other side…shock the bolt fast and the stuff can tighten up before it slips.
Everything is attached under the dash. The brake light switch is adjusted. I could put the seat back in since no other under dash work is necessary. These mounting bolts are the tricky ones.

View attachment 1895548

View attachment 1895551

The master cylinder that I used is from a company called Force 10. It is aluminum but looks similar to stock cast iron. It weighs about 3 lbs, stock is around 9 if I recall.

View attachment 1895552

Rick E from Mopar Action used one in a series he wrote regarding weight savings efforts. This has a 1.03 bore.

View attachment 1895555

I talked myself into mounting the seat.

View attachment 1895554

This car is SO ratty. It looks like the Dodge Charger version of the Partridge Family school bus.
I’ll have to make new brake lines from the master cylinder to the proportioning valve. THAT is easy, getting to the fittings can be a pisser. You sometimes need either skinny arms and hands or flexible ones. Tools like these help.

View attachment 1895557

July was a mild month but these two days of August have heated up a bit.
I stink. I’m done for the day.

I got the same or similar MC from O'Reilly's when I was thrashing on my Coronet to get it ready for Carlisle and my Inline tube repro unit came out of the box not moving fluid to the rear brakes. Mine is aluminum but I thought it was 1.125 on mine? I could be wrong. It looks good on my car with the trapezoid power brake booster. I converted to front power disk from manual drum with single piston master cylinder

Lookie what $5000 buys you....

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

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