My '69 Charger R/T Story

[Magnes]

Do you have the “correct” pedal for your accelerator?

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Maybe not the "correct one" like that, but I have the original which Cliff had removed for fear that it would fall through the hole in the floor as it had rotted through in that area when he had it. There was only a hole there and the pivoting part of the pedal bolted to the firewall.

I think I will go the same route you did and get some floor mats to class up the joint. At this point I'll have to save for a while before I can splurge on a foot print gas pedal

 

[Magnes]

I installed the Summit 2.5" exhaust yesterday and I feel like I was run through a wringer and drug along the concrete today. Not a fun job on jackstands but I'd done a 3" system on the orange car so I knew what to expect. The 2.5" was much easier but required much of the same modification to fit the Summit headers.

Seems weird that their house brand exhaust system isn't made to fit their house brand headers but what do I know? I'm just the dummy who has to make it work either way.

I will take it and have most those clamps removed, welded up, and buy some tips. I have not mastered the art of welding upside down and using a mirror

But in the end I'd recommend that exhaust. Its $420 with the knock off Flowmasters. The pass side just bolted right up and fit great. The dr side front pipe was the only one that required modification. I shortened it an inch to get it off the trans xmember and then split it before the 2nd bend and angled it up, level with the body and pass side pipe, marked it, tacked it, checked it, and welded it back together. The rest just bolted up. I had to get creative with the rear hangers but was able to shorten them and have it come out pretty decent without drilling any holes or anything crazy but those will probably get replaced at the muffler shop when I get tips.

I didn't feel like beating on u joints today so I took the driveshaft to my buddy's shop and I'll let them do that while I do other stuff and wait on the crank pulley.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Nice work on the exhaust

 

[westie47]

I installed the Summit 2.5" exhaust yesterday and I feel like I was run through a wringer and drug along the concrete today. Not a fun job on jackstands but I'd done a 3" system on the orange car so I knew what to expect. The 2.5" was much easier but required much of the same modification to fit the Summit headers.

Seems weird that their house brand exhaust system isn't made to fit their house brand headers but what do I know? I'm just the dummy who has to make it work either way.

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I will take it and have most those clamps removed, welded up, and buy some tips. I have not mastered the art of welding upside down and using a mirror

But in the end I'd recommend that exhaust. Its $420 with the knock off Flowmasters. The pass side just bolted right up and fit great. The dr side front pipe was the only one that required modification. I shortened it an inch to get it off the trans xmember and then split it before the 2nd bend and angled it up, level with the body and pass side pipe, marked it, tacked it, checked it, and welded it back together. The rest just bolted up. I had to get creative with the rear hangers but was able to shorten them and have it come out pretty decent without drilling any holes or anything crazy but those will probably get replaced at the muffler shop when I get tips.

I didn't feel like beating on u joints today so I took the driveshaft to my buddy's shop and I'll let them do that while I do other stuff and wait on the crank pulley.

How did your Summit headers fit? I had a hell of a problem with mine...passenger side hit the torsion bar, driver side couldn't even be installed and had to be seriously modified!

 

[Magnes]

How did your Summit headers fit? I had a hell of a problem with mine...passenger side hit the torsion bar, driver side couldn't even be installed and had to be seriously modified!

I've got those headers on both my cars now and they fit pretty decent on both but yes, they hit the torsion bars and have to be dimpled in those areas.

They were tight on the steering box on my orange car because it is PS and had the original box but it didn't take much to get them past it. This car has the Borgeson box so there is all kinds of room there.

I only bought those again because they are half what all the other headers cost and most of those headers have their issues as well.

The trick I learned is, use studs, test fit on the stand and cut down your studs where they hit the header, then lay the headers in the engine compartment, lay the starter on the dr side one, drop engine in, stop a few inches short and start working them on your studs as you drop them in.

 

[westie47]

I've got those headers on both my cars now and they fit pretty decent on both but yes, they hit the torsion bars and have to be dimpled in those areas.

They were tight on the steering box on my orange car because it is PS and had the original box but it didn't take much to get them past it. This car has the Borgeson box so there is all kinds of room there.

I only bought those again because they are half what all the other headers cost and most of those headers have their issues as well.

The trick I learned is, use studs, test fit on the stand and cut down your studs where they hit the header, then lay the headers in the engine compartment, lay the starter on the dr side one, drop engine in, stop a few inches short and start working them on your studs as you drop them in.

Here’s my dimpling!

 

[Nxcoupe]

Here’s my dimpling!

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You cut that and weld in a tube?

 

[westie47]

You cut that and weld in a tube?

I took it to a local Speed Shop and they modified the headers, installed them and the full exhaust kit.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I took it to a local Speed Shop and they modified the headers, installed them and the full exhaust kit.

We had to do something similar once, sliced a tube in half then welded it into the tube. Made it look like yours do now.

 

[westie47]

We had to do something similar once, sliced a tube in half then welded it into the tube. Made it look like yours do now.

Honestly I wasn’t expecting that level of quality lol I thought they’d just dimple the headers and get them fitted.

 

[moparedtn]

8lb. sledge will make even Hedman's "fit"...

 

[Magnes]

Dang! Yeah mine don't hit like THAT. Ouch! They fixed them nicely though.

I spent all morning cleaning and prepping nuts and boots for the front end, then painting them all. Then installed the fenders, grill, and wired up the front lights. Just need to do the parking/turn signals up front and hook up the horns and the electrical will be done.

Looking like a car again. I kept turning around and thinking "WOAH!" because it's such a shock after all these hours to see the front end back together.

Figure I'll finish up the front end tomorrow and get a battery to start testing everything. No pulley yet.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

It took a couple years to get mine together, and it’s been a couple years that it’s been together, and I still get that “WOAH!!” feeling. It’s the magic of these old cars, once you put you put all your heart into them, they’ll get a soul. It’s a feeling that you’ll always have, every time you look at it, drive it, or think about it.

Your car looks great!

 

[Magnes]

I appreciate the kind responses. When I have a stupid day like I did today, it really helps.

At this point I've just been buttoning up stuff as I remember or come across it while I wait on the pulley. Kinda all over the place. Doublechecking and so on. I added oil, power steering, and gas. No leaks (*yet)

I "finished" the wiring the other day (I'm losing track at this point) but didn't start testing stuff until today. My wife was inside bitching at the cable company for hours on end so I wasn't going to be in there for THAT so I stuck a battery in it and started looking for smoke and listening for the sizzle. Neither happened. Whew! Relief. Turned the key, fuel pump kicked on. Turned it off, pulled that fuse so I don't have to listen to it. Turned the key, I got headlights, hi & low, tails, brakes, blinkers, flashers, courtesy, horn, CB, cranks, etc.

What I noticed I didn't have was dash lights or gauges... This is the part of the harness that was kind of confusing for me the day I did it. The AAW harness is great but the "instructions" are my least favorite of any harness I've ever done and the last thing you need to do when you are rewiring an entire car is: Get frustrated and keep going. Fuckin stop. LOL. Just stop. Go fishing. Bang the ol' lady. Something. I kept going. Anyway I screwed up and had to drop the column and pull the cluster to see what I could see.

About 30 min in I tracked down the gauge issue to a connector. Say it's a 6 prong connector but only 5 are used and I put the power feed in the dead spot. That was easy enough to fix. Now the gas gauge moved, but the temp gauge pegged out. Hmmm...

Well then I figured I'd try to track down the dash lighting issue. And that's where I screwed up AGAIN. I pulled the seat and spent hours checking and rechecking. Tried grounding the cluster differently. Nope. Couldn't find **** wrong.

At this point I'm like "F it", it's 9:30pm she's got to be finished hollering at her phone by now and I went inside. Shower, food, hung out a few then she went to bed, and I think "what if that dimmer is bad"... You know. The thought I should have had hours ago. So I'm out there in my robe, laying in the car digging under the dash. Made a jumper and pinned the 2. Took 5 minutes. Dash lights work. Bad rheostat.

Well they "mostly" work. The printed circuit board lights were not working. I put LEDs in everything in the dash and remembered some guys saying they had to turn/clock some of theirs to get them to work so I tried that on one and nothing. Then I turned the key to acc and the circuit board light I just turned around came on which is weird. Not right. It wouldn't come on with the dash lights. So about half the dash lights work currently.

Anyway I've still got one or two things screwed up in there. I beat myself up over screwing up but it doesn't do any good because I definitely WILL screw up again. I'll figure it out. It's like they say "If it was easy, everyone would do it"

If anyone has any ideas, LMK. I appreciate you guys. We're getting there.

 

[chargervert]

Here’s my dimpling!

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That kind of defeats any gain in flow,if they need that much modification,probably better off running stock HP manifolds.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

That kind of defeats any gain in flow,if they need that much modification,probably better off running stock HP manifolds.

There’s an episode of engine masters, they squished every tube, and they lost maybe 1hp.

 

[Nxcoupe]

There’s an episode of engine masters, they squished every tube, and they lost maybe 1hp.

I saw that episode, but I still do the minimum possible. I just know that it doesn't affect a thing after watching that episode. I mean they bashed the crap out of those headers trying to kill power and couldn't.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I saw that episode, but I still do the minimum possible. I just know that it doesn't affect a thing after watching that episode. I mean they bashed the crap out of those headers trying to kill power and couldn't.

That was their point and my point, they destroyed those headers! So just a few little clearance dents aren’t going to hurt

 

[westie47]

There’s an episode of engine masters, they squished every tube, and they lost maybe 1hp.

I was hesitant to do that much modifying, however the two factors that made my decision for me was a. watching that episode of Engine Masters and b. zero availability of TTI headers, so I went that route instead of gambling on another brand and wasting more money.

 

[Nxcoupe]

That was their point and my point, they destroyed those headers! So just a few little clearance dents aren’t going to hurt

I was agreeing with you but somehow left that point out. Lol