Lookie what $5000 buys you....

[Kern Dog]

On another note, I'm using this car as a test mule for a rear shoulder belt project.

Rear shoulder belts in a 1970 Charger

I'm also planning on installing rear shoulder belts in my red car, Ginger.

The seat belts will replace the lap belts in the left and right rear seat passengers but not the center. Those will remain stock.
@CoronetDarter is also installing shoulder belts in his 69 Coronet.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

The Polara axle has been stripped down and the perches are now 44" apart to fit in Jigsaw....

View attachment 1939164

I was 1/16" off from left to right.

View attachment 1939163

6 5/16" to the backing plate on the left, 6 3/8" on the right. (Don't tell the car show judges)

View attachment 1939165

I may look for some used tires to put on these wheels just to have something to roll on. The RF 15" tire on the car now drains flat in 3 days.
The front wheels are 16 x 7 and measure 1/2" further inboard and outboard of the 15 x 6 wheels I have on the car now. The 16s clear by a mile.
These 16s are custom from Stockton Wheel around 2017 or thereabouts. I know, they are an odd size and quite heavy but I don't see them at risk of bending, that is for sure.

One thing you might want to consider... Sometimes having the axle perfectly centered over the springs doesn't mean they are perfectly centered in the car... I prefer to have the tires/wheels bolted to the axle, the perches set on the locator pins & the housing cradled in the perches... Now center the tires in the wheel wells as best you can.. The springs may or may not be perfectly positioned side to side but you can center the tires as well as possible....

 

[Kern Dog]

Stuff gets welded but it can be cut off and moved a bit too.
I may swap axles tomorrow. Maybe I'll trial fit the huge rear tires to see how the clearance is.
The 68-70 Chargers have wide hips and a lot of body overhang at the rear tires.

Those wheels are 15 x 7 with an unknown amount of back spacing. I always thought that the stock width rear tires in the Chargers and Dusters look way too tucked in. I like a tire and wheel pushed out as wide as it can go.

 

[Kern Dog]

I'm not sure if I will stick with these wheels or not. It might make more sense to step back to a 15 or up to a 17. The 16" diameter size seems to be an orphan.

I'm blessed/cursed with a need to avoid waste, to try to make do with what I have rather than throwing out stuff that still has value.

16" was the first "Big" wheel tire, but it was being phased out by the mid 90's... And I doubt that situation is gonna improve...

That sure does seem to be the case. I was at 4 used tire stores today looking for some trade-in tires in the 245-50-16 and 255-50-16 size. Not ONE in the four shops that I visited.

Yeah, IMO 16" is a dead option...

I keep seeing dead ends yet my stubborn nature soldiers on...

16's are in the soon to be Dodo class like 14's.

I should just put them up for sale or give them away. They do carry a lot of negatives.
The availability is limited. Sizes are limited. The wheels themselves are HEAVY. If I were to put this wider Polara axle in Jigsaw, I'd not be able to put any other wide rear wheels on it later unless they had the same 6" backspacing. I'd think that most aftermarket wheels don't go that deep.

 

[Kern Dog]

I got the rear shoulder belts mocked up and fitted.
Also, I was finally able to get an accurate result from an AI image request. I wanted to see what a reverse color scheme would look like on the car, reverse from my red car....

I think it would be cool to have two cars with colors so different.

 

[Kern Dog]

This ratty old Dodge is fun.

The rear shoulder belts fit comfortably. They don’t rub my neck like some designs do. One complaint though. The inner section with the receiver is shorter than I like.

It barely sticks through and is just a fabric belt so the act of trying to latch the belt one handed isn’t easy. The receiver wants to push into the seat. I need to either stiffen up the belt with a sleeve like this…..

I could also look for a section from another car car that is longer while still latching together properly.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Glad you figured out the seatbelts !

Yeah, rattier cars you can play with a little more and not worry about “ruining” anything

 

[Kern Dog]

Body panel gaps catch my eye. For years, I have heard people criticize the inconsistent gaps they have seen. I’ve owned mostly cheap A bodies and yeah…. Many of them did have gaps that varied a bit. I just chalked that up to them being cheap cars. I’ve only owned three B bodies so I can’t state with confidence how they are any better.
Jigsaw here was a wreck when I bought it. It was last registered in 1995 and was parked after a front end collision that bent the right frame rail and apron bad enough to park it for 24 years. I replaced the front structure and while it all works, I think I can do better.
The panel gaps on the crash side are a bit tighter than I like.

Part of me thought that the corner was shoved back and everything tightened up.
I use an automotive paint stir stick as a rudimentary gauge. It measures approximately 5/32”.

The quarter to door gap is tighter than that.

I can’t slip the stick in between.

The red car (Ginger) has never been wrecked (front end anyway) so the gaps in it are pretty decent.

Okay… so if the gap back there is too tight, is the door pushed rearward? If so, wouldn’t that make the door to fender gap big?

No… at the top it is as tight as the door to quarter gap.

 

[Kern Dog]

I’m trying to make sense of it. It sure seems like the fender is in the right spot. The edge of the fender lines up with the hood.

The hood to fender gaps are decent so it seems like the hood is square in the car. Looking at the cowl gaps I can’t really move the fender forward much to open up the door to fender gap…

Ginger is gapped about the same.

Is the door somehow longer than it should be?
No. It is original and measures the same as the red door. The fender measures the same too.
In short, the parts measure up the same but Jigsaw has gaps that are too tight on the right.

The front gap as seen below is uneven top to bottom. From the middle to the rocker, it opens up a bit.

That can be tweaked and pushed closer though. I think to get these gaps consistent, there will be some metal work.

I can cut a groove in the quarter top to bottom, wedge the panel gap open, narrow the groove I cut and weld it back up. The door can remain as is. I can then cut the fender edge and wed it back up.
Not today though. I’m still in the planning stage.

 

[Kern Dog]

The left side….

I had a white fender on here for awhile. It had great panel gaps but is wavy and oil canned. This fender is straighter but not perfect by a long shot.

At the edge where the fender meets the door, this fender was bent in. I think this fender was in the car when it was wrecked because the original door was creased at the front edge, probably from trying to open it up after the wreck. I did some preliminary work on the fender to straighten out the rolled in edge but it left a wider gap than I like. I’ve heard of guys adding welding rod to edges to closeup gaps….

That may be what I will do there. Otherwise, the fender fits nice.

The door to quarter gap is wider on this side than the left. I think I can make this right with far less work.

 

[eldubb440]

2 things are a constant.......the quarters, and the cowl

you put the hood where it fits to the cowl, put the fenders where they need to be in relation to the front of the hood and the cowl

hang the door in the opening........you have a little wiggle room in everything......

I often refer to how a car "sets up"...... it seems to vary from car to car

 

[eldubb440]

my GTX and the Pumpkin both set up about 9/32 (a fat 1/4).......its not uncommon to have 5/16 hood to cowl, so it doesnt hit

I've had other B Bodies set up 3/16 +/-

 

[eldubb440]

on a car without a cowl panel or a header panel, such as a Challenger......... you have unlimited space in which to place the hood, so they are much easier to set up

 

[eldubb440]

both my hood to fender gaps and trunk lid to quarter gaps are 3/16

the width of the hood is a constant, that's how it "sets up"

the width of the trunk lid, top of the quarters, and dutchman are all constants.........it fits where it fits

 

[Kern Dog]

2 things are a constant.......the quarters, and the cowl

Absolutely. They are welded in place and not adjustable.

you put the hood where it fits to the cowl, put the fenders where they need to be in relation to the front of the hood and the cowl

Hmm....The right door has not been off the car since I bought it, yet it seems to sit too close to the right quarter.

hang the door in the opening........you have a little wiggle room in everything......

I wondered about that. The door can't be moved forward without moving the hinges forward. I didn't think that was possible. I figured you'd have to oval out the mounting holes to allow some fore/aft adjustment. The door could be moved rearward by putting shim plates between the hinges and door shell itself. I've never done that but in theory, it would work.

I often refer to how a car "sets up"...... it seems to vary from car to car

What is weird to me is that the door seems too long since the gaps at front and back are tight. The door measures the same as the red car though.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Absolutely. They are welded in place and not adjustable.



Hmm....The right door has not been off the car since I bought it, yet it seems to sit too close to the right quarter.



I wondered about that. The door can't be moved forward without moving the hinges forward. I didn't think that was possible. I figured you'd have to oval out the mounting holes to allow some fore/aft adjustment. The door could be moved rearward by putting shim plates between the hinges and door shell itself. I've never done that but in theory, it would work.


What is weird to me is that the door seems too long since the gaps at front and back are tight. The door measures the same as the red car though.

The bolts attaching the hinge to the body have fore & aft adjustment along with Up & down adjustment at the back end of the door..... The bolts are 3/8", the openings for the bolts are about 3/4" square..

 

[Kern Dog]

I have cut up several A body cars and one rusty Satellite station wagon. I'm pretty sure that every hinge that I saw had some manner of body caulking/Dum-Dum between it and the A pillar.
I never tried to adjust them. I assumed that they were not adjustable. This is good to know though, it may save me some work.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I have cut up several A body cars and one rusty Satellite station wagon. I'm pretty sure that every hinge that I saw had some manner of body caulking/Dum-Dum between it and the A pillar.
I never tried to adjust them. I assumed that they were not adjustable. This is good to know though, it may save me some work.

Late model GM hinges are welded, Body shops bend the hinge to adjust them...

Look at the picture above, it shows the adjustment..

 

[Kern Dog]

Look at the picture above, it shows the adjustment..

I'm guessing that the threaded holes are met with a square hole in the hinge itself? If so, this is great to learn! If not, a few moments with a Dremel tool could oval it out.

 

[eldubb440]

you set up Jigsaw with never moving the door hinges?

I did not realize you thought they were in a "fixed" position