73 Charger SE -LOVE CAR

[AK_Militia]

Well since i can remember i have told people that my favorite car was a 69 Charger ....Well when my wife (Girlfriend at the time) said i needed to find a project car so i would quite trying to upgrade my daily driver, so decided it was a great idea. First pick was the charger there where none locally. So i my wife is a chevy girl.. I know its not her fault. Anyway i went looking for a 70-72 Nova found one but someone bought it out from under me. So as am explaining to my wife what happened on my way out of i wal-mart a guy over heard me talking about the bust...and asked me if i would be interested in a 73 charger...not a 69 but close enough for me. This is what i bought for just under 3 grand.

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The old man said it was ready for paint and i got a base clear kit with the car but it was not even close to ready in my eyes. So i had to do something that killed a little part of me. Because i lived in washington across the bay from seattle the rain is relentless. I had to take a cheap and drastic action to protect it from further rust. I spray painted it.:violent1:..keep in mind i was in middle of moving from an apartment into a house with a garage but that was a month away.

 

[BigBlock61]

Nice new project

 

[AK_Militia]

Nice new project

Well i am catching up on what has happened since these pictures where taken 2 years ago. Just have to find the pictures.

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ok so i got her in the garage and started sanding her...there where times i could not wait to take my work cloths off to get started on it....i also found LOTS of unexpected and cheap body work done, like he put a piece of sheet metal against the back of the fender and put bondo on the front...i found traces of chemical stripping and then not cleaning it right.:angry9:

 

[roadrunnerman]

Good looking project. That body will look good whatever color you paint it.

 

[AK_Militia]

Well i went on an unexpected deployment and she just sat for a while. When i got back i striped her down and found out i was moving to San diego so i primed the car without fixing the cancer and paid for it to be shipped to california. Couldn't wait to work on it i didnt even get out of work cloths. The guy tried to get the rubber bumpers off and stripped the bolt and my bolt grabber just shredded the bolt more so i cut one off.

 

[Ron 73]

Great project! I do love the body style of the newer gens of Chargers slick and sweet.. Good luck to you!

 

[AK_Militia]

Here is the car to date i pulled the fenders and doors, in the middle of getting the dash out and the steering column..the column dropped but im having problems disconnecting it with the engine still in. Took the ridiculous dash cover that the old man hot glued on and found all the dash pads are cracked. I was hoping to have either patch panels or entire fenders by now but i am having trouble tracking them down...checked with the AMD rep and emailed veriouse web sites non seam to have what i need. Here are some pictures of the car today.

 

[roadrunnerman]

If you got the 4-5 bolts off at the firewall inside, the shift linkage disconnected, at the end of your steering column there is a coupler that has a cap with little tabs. Pry them up so the cap is loose and you should be able to pull your column out and into your car interior. Or also there is a pin the goes thru your coupler that you can knock out, then tap on the end if you can get to it while someone else is pulling on the column. There are some members here that are parting out some 73's, they might have something you need.

 

[charger360]

not a bad start. I just finished one myself you can find it in this forum it may give you some ideas! keep at it and realize you just have to do a bit at a time.

 

[Propwash]

Hey Congrat's...Looks like a great project. Best of luck with her.

 

[YY1]

Looks like you're goin' at it pretty hard core.

 

[kb73rr]

there where times i could not wait to take my work cloths off to get started on it.

Yeah, you are there in the groove allright. Good work and thanks for posting the details of your progress.

 

[AK_Militia]

Thanks for the motivation, I have been spending every moment i havent been at work on this car, i got 3 patch panels welded in, 2 trunk cracks filled in, a 2' by 2' section on the drivers floor pan cut and ready to be replaced (by the way that was a pain it had 37 spot weld on that area....Really why?) The engine is pulled and in the shop, The interior of the car is sealed in rust bullet...execpt the forward floor pans. Whew...lets see all i have left to do is the trunk lid (tearing the skin off one to put on the other) and weld in patches unnder the window and then body filler, sand and primer. I picked up the paint yeasterday color code CHR 548 AMBER RED..will post pictures later tonight.

 

[AK_Militia]

Ok, i have been looking at swapping out my 727 TF for a manual A833 18 spline trans... I found ONE close to where i live and the guy is quite certain that the one he has ONLY fits A-body mopars....so would it fit on my charger?

 

[roadrunnerman]

It might fit, but you would have to do much change for it to go in your car, clutch pedal assembly (interior), different crankshaft to accept the pilot shaft, find a shifter and linkage. IMO, I think you would be money ahead to keep it auto and just put the auto on the floor with console. Then you can spend the money you didn't have to spend for some other upgrades on your car or buy your wife something nice for letting you get the car. It's your car but I would hate to see you go thru all that to change it over to manual and then down the road decide to go back to auto. If you want a 4-speed, maybe down the road you can find another car that is manual and build that to your heart's content.

 

[ChargerRTguy]

I converted my '68 Charger from an auto to a 4 speed, using a 23 spline trans. It took me a few years to gather the parts, but in the end it was worth it to me. I love it and would never go back to an auto. I do have a list of the parts if needed. Eventhough mine is a '68, yours is a '73 the driveline should be similar.

 

[AK_Militia]

I think the money spent on the tranny conversion would be better used else where now that i think of it....just got excited when i saw the "Hemi" 18 spline tranny. The only problem with going auto floor shift is the consols are gone fast and then if i did that i would want buckets out of a R/T. Hmm.... well darn im back to the drawing board. RRMan i did buy my wife a nice Toy hualer 77 scottsdale all jumped up...thats why i have free run on this car. Also having computer problems so im not able to load pictures. Thanks guys.

 

[AK_Militia]

Well here are some updated pictures of my progress and a picture of what I caught my wife welding one weekend.

 

[440+6]

Nice project your working on, hope you didn't need those wrenches lol.

 

[AK_Militia]

Its kinda funny i walked out and she is "Trying" to use my welder and then did'nt have the bottle open....the only luck thing out of that mess is she grabbed a bunch of my harbor freight wrenches so i got bought craftsmen to replace them....needless to say she is kicked out of my garage.