Barn Fresh Dodge Charger

[Coelacanth]

Nice....you did a beautiful job on those seats, Dave. You should see MY seats...

...actually, no you shouldn't...

[PlastiZapCA+]

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.

I figured as much. It has the altered gasser look going for it with the weight off the front springs. I just love the wheels, it's such a perfect combination for that body style. I'll bet those are N50-15's on the rear.

Fantastic work on those seats! The interior is going to be beautiful.

[LTO_Dave]

Thanks for the comments.

I've taken charge of doing the interior pieces and the interior and exterior trim. My dad is doing the body work and possibly the paint. And both of us will be building the motor. This big hunk of iron has twice as many cylinders as what I'm used to working on. And where's the turbo?

The original carpet was replaced when my dad got the car and it cleaned up really well. It's a lighter shade of red than the original carpet on the seat backs and console, but still looks nice.

I have no idea what size the rear tires are...they have SUPER CAT 60-14 on the side and nothing else. So maybe a 60-series 14-inch?

I also found the original owner's manual in almost pristine condition tonight. I just bought my dad a reproduction manual for his birthday over the weekend, but it was nice to find the car's original one. And I'm also reading some of the old Mopar engine books my dad's had for years:

[LTO_Dave]

Just a small update...

My dad and I took the block, heads and crank to a machine shop today. My dad has known the guy for 30+ years and he is the one who did all the machine work for the motors in my dad's dirt tack cars and has a good reputation. We used a ridge reamer today to remove the ridges from the bores to save a little money with the build. There is a shop a lot closer, but a lot of local people have said that the work is shoddy and the owner can be shady with prices.

We took the valves and springs out of the heads last week, but discovered one of the valve seats was rusted pretty good. The machine shop said they can install a new seat if there's not enough material left after grinding. We're probably going to reuse the valve springs but get new valves.

I cleaned & sandblasted the valve covers, timing cover, tranny plate/cover, and a few other odds and ends, then powdercoated them in flat black. I cleaned & sandblasted the oil pan and painted it with black engine paint. I also sandblasted the water pump housing and painted it with Dupli-Color Chrysler Green, which is close to the original Chrysler turquoise color. We're planning to do the block, heads, valve covers, and possibly the timing cover and oil pan in this color since the car will be more of an original than a hot-rod restoration.




We also soaked the pistons and rods in PB Blaster tonight in order to free up the frozen pins and remove the rings. It literally took 10-15 minutes of soaking for everything to free up! We're letting two of the pistons soak over night because some of the rings wouldn't come out. And unfortunately, two of the pistons have bad corrosion from water damage and can't be used. We have another 383 that needs to be torn down to see if it has the same matching flat-top pistons.






I also bought a front grill medallion and chrome bezel on ebay for $20. And no joke, the day it arrived in the mail, I found the original one from the car in the garage sitting on top of the radio after looking for some paint. And the best part is that the original one I found doesn't have a single crack in the plastic. But the chrome bezel I got from ebay is in better condition, so I'll combine the best parts to make one good emblem.

[Coelacanth]

Great work there, Dave! And yes, you should keep that car bone-stock...and you therefore won't need those 3.91 gears.

As for good options for rear tires, 15" wheels with 235's, 255's and even 275's should fit--the latter you'd want to confirm the backspacing to make sure there's no fender rubbing.

[slotcarrod]

Nice work, but why use the old pistons? If you have everything apart, why not rebuild with new parts? Saving money or for originality?

[LTO_Dave]

Nice work, but why use the old pistons? If you have everything apart, why not rebuild with new parts? Saving money or for originality?

My dad is strange in that he wants to use as many of the original parts as possible that he's packed away all these years. If it's not totally rusted or broken, he wants to use it. He was telling me about a 427 that he built, and the pistons were so frozen that he had to soak them in some chemicals for a week...but they all came free and he used them in a racing engine and never had a problem.

It's also to keep the cost down. New pistons will cost at least $300 plus the cost of the machine shop that would have to remove and reinstall the pins. We also have two other complete 383 motors here to use for parts. We've already discovered that the one has dished pistons with lower compression, so we hope the other one has the same flat-top pistons since we only need two.

We're replacing the bearings, oil pump, water pump, valves, lifters, pushrods, seals, gaskets, etc. with new parts. So we're trying to keep the cost as low as possible since the car itself needs some work.

I also found in our barn a new Mopar engine gasket kit, new Mopar valley pan gasket and a new TopLine full engine gasket kit that my dad had bought many years ago when he was first planning a rebuild. He also has a new set of freeze plugs, new chrome water outlet and new chrome dipstick tube that he bought many years ago...all still sealed in their original packages.

We also have two different cams possibly from my dad's old Coronet race car, but neither have enough markings to be identified. We used some calipers to determine the lift, but they both might be too lumpy for a street car.

Another cool part that I'm convincing my dad to use is an old Edelbrock Tarantula aluminum intake manifold we found that may have also been from his Coronet. From what I've read online, it was produced in the late 60's and early 70's and would be period-correct for this motor, but the RPM range might be too high for a street car.

[Coelacanth]

Got a pic of that manifold? Never heard of an Edelbrock Tarantula...one of the better dual-plane manifolds for the big blocks are the Edelbrock Performers...great performance & driveability. I put that on mine back in the late 80's, but I've heard the new Edelbrock Performer RPM manifolds are even better.

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/mc/manifolds/chrysler/

You should pick up several cans of PB Blaster...any time you have a bolt or nut that's seized or rusty, spray that sh!t on and wait a day. It's the best anti-seize I've ever used. WAY better than WD-40.

[RC10resto]

They know

"We also soaked the pistons and rods in PB Blaster tonight in order to free up the frozen pins and remove the rings. It literally took 10-15 minutes of soaking for everything to free up!"

[LTO_Dave]

Here's a pic of the TM6 manifold from Hot Rod's Mopar Intake Manifold Shootout:



Edelbrock's old TM6 was the standard for race single-plane manifolds from the '60s, and many an old-timer believes it has never been bettered. While quite a capable performer, there are better units out there today, though this intake still looks "right." If you have one and are not looking for the last ounce of power, it does the job.

[Coelacanth]

They know

"We also soaked the pistons and rods in PB Blaster tonight in order to free up the frozen pins and remove the rings. It literally took 10-15 minutes of soaking for everything to free up!"

Ahh I didn't see that. There was a lot of reading there.

[jwscab]

Highly HIGHLY recommend replacing the valve springs. They are cheap insurance that you don't drop a valve.

We always replace the 'soft' parts on budget rebuilds, even if keeping all the 'hard' parts.
rings
bearings
gaskets
seals
lifters
valve springs
oil pump
timing set(especially if plastic), but a through inspection could warrant re-use on all steel parts if you know the history
camshaft

If you don't personally know the history of the cam, I consider the cam to be a wear item on flat tappet, unless you put it in a bare block and check every lobe. An intense inspection of each lobe is necessary at a minimum. If they are off by .002" on any lobe, it heads to the recycler.

how much ridge did the block have? I have ridge reamed, stone honed, and rebuild with stock bore and fresh rings with some success for a mild rebuild.

take an old ring, and use it to clean the ring land by using the square end with the ring flipped outside the piston so the ring/piston look like a figure 8, to scrape out all the crud. Apply carb/choke cleaner liberally to get it all out.

[jwscab]

the tarantula intake will work pretty well if you have the carb dialed in well and have some decent overlap on the cam. A carb spacer also helps, though it won't be period correct.

[LTO_Dave]

Thanks Joe! We might end up replacing the springs since everything else will be new. My dad actually has an old ring groove cleaner tool that we used to clean up the four good pistons. I forgot to mention that we're also using new timing components. And we may just get a new mild street cam and forget about the two used ones we have.

I'm not even sure what carb we're going with yet...and suggestions?

And last night we tore into the other 383 my dad had in the barn. After removing four rods and flat-top pistons from the block, we discovered the pistons have different skirts and possibly different wrist pin heights than the ones we're trying to replace. I think my dad is getting fed up with trying to piece together this old stuff and is leaning toward a set of new pistons.

[jwscab]

I would say a nice holley would fit the bill.

Its worth it for new pistons, you can get very reasonably priced pistons these day way better than the old factory stuff,especially since you are trying to mix and match.