Barn Fresh Dodge Charger

[scr8p]

Hey scr8p, do you do house calls?

Nope, no house call.

Looks like a decent car to start with. I'm sure you'll find more wrong with it as you tear into it, but that's just how it goes. They all mushroom.....

[hugger19]

wish dodge would take that 4 door pos charger they make now and make a retro fastback like this car

[LTO_Dave]

I completely forgot to mention that my dad also has a '66 parts car. I'm going to decode the tags tonight and find a little more info on it. I'm guessing it was originally white with black interior, but was repainted blue, then repainted red. He bought the '66 a few years after buying the '67 and cut out the rear quarter that was welded to the '67. I also think that's where all of the extras came from.









I did some inventory tonight and found we have two full sets of the upper chrome trim that runs along the body line, two trunk medallions, two complete headlight/grill sets, and a few other things. My dad and I are going to strip the parts car of any usable parts this weekend and see what we have. All the glass is still good except for the windshield. I may try to restore one of the trunk medallions myself, at least the center portion.



Edit: I just decoded the fender tag and the car was white with a black top and black interior. It also had a 383 with a 4-speed and a 2-watt AM radio.

[SFC K]

Sweet! I always loved the body lines of the fast back. It looks like you and your dad have a project for this summer, maybe two.

[klavy69]

sweet...2 watt am radio

Growing up listening to AM radio on the ride into town...kinda ages me but theres not alot of us on the board that can say that ...

Todd

[slapshot1979]

Id love to have a property to lose a car in for 20-30 years and forget about it . Always amazes me how many are still out there.

Dodge nut at heart here. Will be following your thread.

[Coelacanth]

I loved that old Dodge logo with the 3-pointed star, I like it a lot better than the Pentastar logo. Decades ago, I removed a hood ornament just like the center of those hubcaps from some old Dodge truck (I think) and made a keychain out of it for my Charger. I'll have to take a pic of it and share tonight. It's the perfect keychain!

Be sure to salvage the doors if they're straight and limited rust, and all the good glass. I would also keep the window regulators inside the doors...those items would be really hard to find & replace.

EDIT: Here's my keychain...coolest Dodge keychain ever!

[LTO_Dave]

I wanted to post a few pics of what we did over the past few weeks. We took all four wheels off and had to beat the drums off with a BFH. We're planning to do a power disc swap in the front and keep the drums in the rear.

I cleaned up the non-A/C gauge cluster the best I could, and removed the gauge power transistor from the parts car. This unit is what powers the electro-luminescent gauges unique to these cars...it converts the power from 12v to about 250v! Since the car has A/C, we might try to restore the original cluster and sell the non-A/C one. A complete rebuild of these gauges can easily run $1000+.




I also sanded and painted the plastic trim pieces that sit behind the four armrests. The originals were chrome-plated plastic, but I used some chrome spray paint and it looks close. We have two full sets of these, so we could always have another set properly chromed later on.




Tonight my dad and I removed the front seats, carpet and sound-deadening material. We're currently stripping all the old crap from the floors to see just how bad things really are. We're probably going to replace the entire floor pan instead of patching holes just to make sure it's safe for driving.

My dad had the front seat bottoms reupholstered about 30 years ago and they cleaned up pretty well tonight. I scrubbed them with soapy water, then used some vinyl cleaner/conditioner. We're going to remove the mounts on each seat to strip and powdercoat them.






My dad also dug some 3.91 gears out of the barn for it that he's had as long as the car. I think it has 2.73's in it now. We're planning to gather up all the 383 parts this weekend and see what we need. He has a block, crank, heads, rods, pistons, pulleys, valve covers, oil pan, headers, intake, and other misc. brackets.

[Daryl Lane]

This is going to be one sweet ride when it is done!

I love the look of the old 60's and early 70's dashes with the big gauges!

[Coelacanth]

I love the look of the old 60's and early 70's dashes with the big gauges!

I agree...I miss having actual gauges for temperature, alternator charge rate, oil pressure...and you gotta love 150 mph speedometers.

[RC10th]

Modern cars are mostly boring, you can't beat the rawness of older cars.


Unless your going on a long road trip.

[PlastiZapCA+]

Wicked Charger! I hope you keep the Cragars and that stance it currently has.

[Coelacanth]

Wicked Charger! I hope you keep the Cragars and that stance it currently has.

That'll definitely change when the big block goes back in.

[LTO_Dave]

We're probably going to go with a 5-spoke wheel in 15-inch like the ones that are on it. We looked at some at the spring Carlisle swap meet a few weeks ago, and they're surprisingly cheap. I really like the look of the OEM wheels with redline tires, but my dad likes the 5-spoke design better.

We thought about trying to restore the wheels that are on it and powdercoat them ourselves, but they're so heavily pitted that it makes more sense to get new ones.

[LTO_Dave]

We dragged the 383 block and forged crank out of the barn today. The bores need to be honed and checked, then it'll be sent to a machine shop. The crank will be polished and possibly knife-edged. These are the parts that originally came with the car when my dad bought it and drove it home. The block is dated a 1969 and isn't original to the chassis. We also found the tranny cross-member and will strip it for powdercoating.






A 4-speed shopping cart?!




I also finished up the rear seats this weekend. The vinyl is in decent shape for being original. I painted the brackets on the underside of the bottoms, and polished up the chrome trim the best I could after taking everything apart.