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'73 Charger Build Log

Triple Black 73

Well-Known Member
Local time
5:52 AM
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
404
Reaction score
190
Location
Atlanta, Ga
I'm proud to say that after almost 20 years, I'm finally got time and money to get my '73 Dodge Charger back on the road.

A little back ground about the car. I bought the car in March 1995 from a kid in Calhoun, GA. The kid got caught going 130 in a 35 MPH zone had to sell the car to pay for fines. My dad laid $2400 cash on the hood of the car while the kid cried. He gave ma a stack of books and performance parts. I drove it for about week before the exhaust fell off. A few days later the engine harness caught fire. Then shortly after that, the original 400 dropped a valve. We replaced the motor with a 383 we had from a '71 Satellite. I was able to drive the car for about 3 months until I wrecked it. The car sat for about two years while my dad and I repaired and painted.

We had the car on the road in April 1997. I then drove the car for about three months before losing my driving license for speeding. Then I kept driving it for another three months. You can say I wasn't a very smart kid for doing that. Then on a random day in October of 1997, I decided I wanted to lower the rear with lowering blocks. However, the car had ISO clamps. One thing lead to another and before we knew it the car was completely torn apart.

...And there it sat for five years while I got a career, built a family, and bought a house. Then the car sat for seven years until I moved into a HOA subdisvion. And then we moved the car to Alabama where it sat for another six years.

Now, it's May 2016. I got a good job, a week of vacation, some money, and my dad has ran out of projects to work on. My friends requested me post a build log with lots of pictures and write up. What better place than here?
 
Here's the car in 1997
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Here's the car sitting in the my dad's basement. It sat here from October 1997 until October 2003
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Moving to Kennesaw, GA October 2003
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The car sat here for seven years:

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Current status:
  • Location: On a two post lift in Alabama
  • Front Suspension: Bushings, ball joints installed; all parts blasted and paint. Ready to be installed.
  • Rear Axle: Needs painting.
  • Under body: Tar based undercoating to be scraped off then refinish the metal
  • Exhaust: 3" Summit kit with Hedman Headers; needs new hangers welded to body
  • Engine: 383 bored 60 over. Ready to be built. Stock rebuild.
  • 727 Transmission: Rebuilt and ready to be installed
  • Interior: Front seat covers needs recovering, rear seat needs to be repaired with new foam
  • Brake: Stock disc and drums. All parts order and ready to be installed. Old lines to reused.
  • Fuel: New pump, old tank, old lines, might need new sending unit
  • Stereo: Head unit: Alpine CDE-153BT; Front: Alpine Type S 6.5 component; Rear: Type S 6x9; No amp or sub.
  • Steering: New tie rod ends; power steering box rebuilt, need painting. Steering column needs replacing. Who has one?
Goals for June 4th:
  • Paint underside of car.
  • Install front and rear suspension.
  • Install brakes
  • Build and start up 383
  • Reinstall interior
  • Wire radio and new speakers, build sub woofer box
  • Have car sitting on all four for the first time in 20 years
Goals for July 4th:
  • Get new steering column
  • Install a transmission shifter
  • Install Vinyl top
  • Recover front seat
  • Complete miscellaneous tasks
Future goals:
  • Rebuild original 400 as a 451 stroker with Edelbrock heads and intake; Comp XE275HL cam
  • Convert to manual transmission
  • 4 Pot 13" front discs, 11 rear disc, and 18 inch black chrome wheels
  • Black chrome all chrome and stainless exterior parts.
  • Firm Feel sway bars, torsion bars, and rear springs
 
Last edited:
Cool, sounds like a great project and also a good back story. Enjoy the build and please post up your progress.
 
black is a great color for your ride. It has a lot of memories to keep you going. Look forward to when the charger is complete.
 
Wow that car is sweet I never liked s.e. chargers till I saw your I might have to steal my wife's project now . Here's my
73 se charger tx9 with a factory sunroof she's not as sexy as yours but now I'm interested ,my wife bought this charger wanting to paint it purple but I think it's going back black . Let's see more pictures I'm watching this build by the way I know these 3rd gen charger s very well any ?'s just msg me I'll help you out I also have a stock pile of parts for them ,can't say if I'll let stuff go but if you need something bad enough I'll help I rather see these cars on the road (I actually gave alot of my stuff to a kid 3 hours away from me he bought a project charger off of me on a payment plan and was nice enough today me so I set him up with alot of stuff he needed to get the car street legal and safe
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By the way I have a few columns you want a floor shift column I'd assume send me a msg and we can discuss I can get you pictures I know I have atleast one floor shift column for a 73-74 charger so we should be good
 
Love the triple black 73 SEs with sunroof, pw and BB.

Great story, thanks for sharing.
 
By the way I have a few columns you want a floor shift column I'd assume send me a msg and we can discuss I can get you pictures I know I have atleast one floor shift column for a 73-74 charger so we should be good

Cool man. Many years ago I took apart my '73 column shifter and it's not usable. The wreck I had in '95 collapsed the tunnel and things are all jacked up inside. The steering was stiff and clunky in '97.

I have a '74 floor shifter column (from a donor car I bought in '96 for the fenders, bumpers, and hood), but the flange is different. Mopar switched to a A-Body flange in '74.

What I want to do is get a '73 floor shifter column with automatic floor shifter. Would you (or anyone else) be interested in trading a '73 for a '74 floor shifter column?
 
Wow that car is sweet I never liked s.e. chargers till I saw your I might have to steal my wife's project now . Here's my
73 se charger tx9 with a factory sunroof she's not as sexy as yours but now I'm interested ,my wife bought this charger wanting to paint it purple but I think it's going back black . Let's see more pictures I'm watching this build by the way I know these 3rd gen charger s very well any ?'s just msg me I'll help you out I also have a stock pile of parts for them ,can't say if I'll let stuff go but if you need something bad enough I'll help I rather see these cars on the road (I actually gave alot of my stuff to a kid 3 hours away from me he bought a project charger off of me on a payment plan and was nice enough today me so I set him up with alot of stuff he needed to get the car street legal and safeView attachment 340040 View attachment 340042


Oh man. I would die for a factory sunroof car. I'll be posting lots of pictures over the next week while I'm in Fort Payne, Alabama working on this beast. If I run into any issues, I'll be sure to post them.
 
Love the triple black 73 SEs with sunroof, pw and BB.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Triple Black is best! One day I hope to restore a white '71 Satellite with black interior and a '73 black strip ... like the one I wrecked in '94 :(. I'll post a picture of that car if my dad has any. I found a '72 Satellite on Craigslist for $5500 that needs a full restore, but not a basket case like my car. lol. But first I must finish my current project before dreaming of my next project.

Next week is going to be a blast and I'll share all the fun.
 
I went to Summit racing today to buy engine mounts, valley pan gasket, and two 2x3 square tube stock. It was an important trip because I forgot to order those parts weeks ago. We left North Atlanta at 5 o'clock and got back at 10pm. Gotta love Atlanta traffic. The square stock will be used for subframe connectors. Basically, I'm going to notch the rear, cut through the floor, weld the floor to the square tube, then weld the front to a plate welded to the transmission cross brace. The steel is rated at 4500 to deflect 1mm. NASCAR style tire changes anyone?

My dad has made a some progress on the cleaning the bottom of the car. Hopefully it will be mostly done because I really don't want to do that nastie work. He picked up the engine block from Prater's Machine Shop in Fort Payne. They do outstanding work.

My home for the next week is a 24 foot 2006 Itasca Navion Motorhome. A friend is letting me use it in exchange for doing basic maintenance and some repairs. It's going to be a lot nicer than sleeping on a couch!

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I was hoping to leave in the morning, but the wife had other plans for me. So, now I'm leaving Sunday morning.
 
I'm not looking for a 74 column I will sell mine for $130 plus shipping msg me if interested and I'll get you a shipping quote
And thanks that sunroof car is cool but I never really gave it any thoughts on the build I bought it for her because she found it worked the deal haggled the deal (surprised the hell out of me) then turned around and said OK pay him . It's safely tucked in my shed/garage out back I may pull it out one day after my surgery if I get better
 
There she is. Yes, the shop is very dirty ND unorganized but it has very tool imagined. Even a lathe and milling machine.
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Progress so far:
  • Sub-frame connectors fabricated and welded in. I used 3x2 inch .083 walled cold formed box stock. I had to notch around the rail on the outside but we boxed it from the top at the rear. The rail isn't welded on the top at the front but I think it will be fine.
  • Speakers hole cut. I know... it's a classic Mopar, why you hack the doors? Well, it's my car. I had it for nearly 21 years and I plan to keep it forever. This isn't a factory restore which I can do what I want with it! Plus, I think I did a dang good job. My next project, a '71 Roadrunner, will be a factory restore. I won't even think about hacking the doors like that.
  • The floor pan clean. Yippy! I had enough over head torch and scraping, grinding, wheel wheel, sander, wire brush, torch, tooth pick, sanding, wire wheel, wire brush, and five minutes to put on dust mask, eyes, ears, and gloves. Next, time I'm having the car acid dipped and zinc plated!
  • The front suspension is fully assembled and painted minus the brake rotors and calipers.
  • I have spent HOURS upon HOURS at the bead blaster.
  • Working on the engine bay. The left fender needs a lot of help at the top. The inner fender had a hole under the battery tray. My dad plans to fab up a replacement panel tomorrow.
  • Painting should happen on Saturday. I was hoping to get the car on the ground but the sub-frame rails took two days. Oh, well/
Two more days then it's back to the real world.
 
The under body is primed. Next steps: touch up some spot, seam seal, then paint. After that, it's build the engine, run brake line, gas line, and the rear end.

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