So It Begins, 1966 Charger Restification.

[hanks73340]

Looks good!

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Update-

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all the Irish members here on the forum. Tonight March 17 front brake converting begins!. Here are some pictures. Drums and backing plates taken off. Drums will no longer be used, going disc. Spindles, ball joints, calipers, u joints taken off and ordered from Rock Auto. That is all for now, nothing else can be done until parts come

 

[Don Frelier]

Shocks and bushings?

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Shocks and bushings?

Those will be replaced too

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Update-

Tonight 3/18..... Still working on the front brakes. Got shocks from a friend that were green and chipped so painted them black, and got new brake rotors, calipers and caliper boots from RayBesto's. Bushings, seals from RockAuto

 

[Speedbird]

I'm having trouble getting my head around this.
It's an anti-sway bar in the picture?
Attached to the strut?
I've seen plenty with a bracket on the lower control arm but I'm not familiar with that.

Does this require mounting the calipers on the rear to clear them like the lower control mounted type of anti-sway do?
In which case, be sure your bleeder screws are on the top. (You have to swap the spindles from side to side in that case).
And if your hard lines look bad (rusty), I have been able to get bulk brake line from Advance and bend/flare my own.
No time like now.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

I'm having trouble getting my head around this.
It's an anti-sway bar in the picture?
Attached to the strut?
I've seen plenty with a bracket on the lower control arm but I'm not familiar with that.

Does this require mounting the calipers on the rear to clear them like the lower control mounted type of anti-sway do?
In which case, be sure your bleeder screws are on the top. (You have to swap the spindles from side to side in that case).
And if your hard lines look bad (rusty), I have been able to get bulk brake line from Advance and bend/flare my own.
No time like now.

View attachment 924249

To answer your question, the calipers do mount to the rear and it is a direct bolt on from a 1975 A body. More photos to come of it all together later on. Stay tuned.....

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

I believe 2 rare rear bumper parts are painted as well.

Here are the 2 "rare" painted bumper parts. Believe these are shipping parts of some sort? Please correct me if I am wrong here. Regardless they are painted and going back on the car........more to come later on

 

[440 4 speed]

Those are the brackets used to hold the car in place while being shipped. Some dealers removed them and some didn’t.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Those are the brackets used to hold the car in place while being shipped. Some dealers removed them and some didn’t.

Thank you for the information '440. Are they rare parts then

 

[440 4 speed]

I have a few sitting around.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Update-

Sorry I have not updated everyone lately, but the Charger has been worked on a lot lately. Including a very exciting moment (at least for me, more on that in a bit.) The front brakes still need a few lines still hooked up but otherwise those are all set as far as I know, see pictures. I got quite a few pictures to share, here they are.

New spindles are now on with new ball joints above. New shocks are also on as well.

We now have disc brakes!

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

More of the brakes. All the brake work was done on March 19th, 20th, and 21st 2020. Below is the final picture of the drivers left side. On to the right side now......

The right passengers side spindle is now on.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

A couple more of the brakes then onto something more exciting......

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Engine tear-down and pull-out time! (the exciting part at least for me). The engine was torn down March 23rd through March 25th, 2020.

engine splash guards are out. Might make new ones instead of buying them.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

More of the engine tear-down

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

A few more of the tear-down.....

By taking the engine apart, we discovered that the engine has 516 heads on it.

Some bolts from the engine, all bagged and ready to be degreased and washed. Whoever worked on or fixed the engine before we got it did it the half *** way, example there is supposed to be 4 or 5 bolts holding the transmission to the engine, there was only one. Trust me there was plenty more wrong when pulling out the motor, but I will not get into it. Instead please enjoy the rest of the pictures.

These two boxes were from the engine.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

It's Finally Time, Taking The Engine Out!. This was my favorite part. The engine was taken out of the car yesterday March 26th, 2020.

First order of business, push the car out of the garage a little bit so we have more room to work. It's a small garage and it's where they used to store horses back in the day.

Above is my stepdad getting the hoist in position

Oil pan is toast.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

More of the engine.....

The Engine Is Finally Out, woohoo.

Decided to keep the transmission in because it works great.

 

[66ChargerHI-PO]

Now that the engine is out, here are some more pictures of it....

Need new freeze plugs