Newbie from Greece

[TelisSE440]

Hi, my name is Telis and I am from Greece. My dream car had always been a 340 'cuda and I had been searching since 2008 (when I was 22 and started making my own money) to buy one. Mostly  but I was searching occasionally here in my country and Europe. As I was searching, it came to me that they are too expensive and rare, so I started looking at some Challengers, which - in my opinion- are more beautiful but cudas are more aggressive looking. I found (2013) a 318 barracuda from the U.S., that was in pretty bad shape, but I needed to buy eventually and I couldn't afford anything better because there was the money I had to pay, to bring it here and also pay the customs. Just before I close the deal I found here a 70 Challenger, so I called the guy, where he offered me a huge price for it, I told him I couldn't pay more than half he asked. But I eventually got there to see it. It was a plain 318 automatic Gator Grain Original Black SE Challenger, but to my eyes... , I had never seen a MOPAR (or even a muscle car) in real !!! All I have seen was a 1964 1/2 mustang. Anyway the guy had bought it from the original owner in Meriden Connecticut, where he lived. He threw the 318 and put a 440 six barrel (from a 69' roadrunner), he converted the automatic to a A833 transmission with pistol grip and installed a 8 3/4 sure grip with 3.55 gears. The six barrel setup was gone and a holley 80496 (950 cfm) was installed with a edelbrock high rise manifold. A Meziere electric pump, along with a BeCool radiator and two electric fans replaced the factory setup. Hooker headers and a MSD ignition were also installed. The guy said that he had the engine rebuilt  and put a new aggressive camshaft, the body itself had a nice black paintjob (where they stripped the vinyl top) from 1992 and had been in storage until 2011 when he shipped it to Greece (he came here about ten years earlier), but his business was not going well (there is a financial crisis here in Greece since 2010) and he decided to go back and being unable to ship the car back, he decided to sell. I was the happiest man !!! I owned a 70 Challenger  . Of course I knew that I had a lot of work ahead of me   ... As you see  I stripped the car off anything under it minus the engine and started preparing it for paint under under the floor pans, because it had a lot of surface rust and in the interior also. I noticed that the manual trans tunnel was screwed in the floor pan  so I cleaned it because it had also rusted a bit and weld it in the installation....

[TelisSE440]

After one year of work, a lot of  and a great deal of help (stupid of me not to mention earlier-I can't tell you how many times I was working at 1 or 2 after midnight sometimes and when I got stuck into something I logged in and I found the answer) from all of you guys in cuda-challenger.com, I finally managed to paint under the floors, the interior and dealing with numerous problems in disassembly, assembly and other such as:
1) Leaks (Trans, Differential, Head Gasket-leaked water-)
2) Door Window alignment (not there yet)
3) Dragging Brakes (service and installation also)
4) Heater rebuild
5) Shifter alignment
6) Suspension system installation-removal-replace
7) Numerous electrical problems ( )
Choosing the right vendor from paint to gaskets
9) Dash removal paint and installation
10) Interior paint-installation-alignment
11) Engine troubleshooting
12) Carburetor adjustment
13) Ignition timing
14) STORIES.... not a problem, but I love E body stories

I just want now to install the exhaust system, all I have are flowmaster 40s, Hooker Headers and the exhaust tips. I just want the pipes, which will be installed by someone here. The brakes were left the same (10 inch manual drums), in the beginning only the left front wheel was working, actually, it was locking!! I replaced drums, shoes and wheels cylinders, seems ok but I haven't seen the stopping power in high speed yet. As you see the seat covers are from a 71 cuda, funny story I ordered 70 Challengers but the shipping was a lot of money (250$ to 120$ shipping) and when they came to me and I saw they brought me the wrong covers, I couldn't give them back, I would pay the shipping again... . Although the Gator Grain Top was stripped, the trim at the doors and hood was left there, I personally like it, I think that without the vinyl top those E-bodies look more natural, very beautiful. But the interior is all SE, badges, overhead console headliner etc. I didn't like the cragar wheels (and I think they don't have enough clearance), so I dropped them along with the Cooper Cobras 225/70r15 and installed the Rally wheels with Hercules tires 235/60r15 front and 255/60r15 back. New Just Suspension 1 inch torsion bars were installed because the original 318 bars were badly sagging. Just some more photos  (sorry about the night photos and not a lot of the body) and also I will be installing the badges too. I know it's not an original R/T Challenger but I love it that way... 

[blown motor]

Welcome to the site from 

[ToxicWolf]

Love your car.  I like 1970 Challengers.      

[69ChargerRT]

70 challengers are my personal favorite.  good choice!  good luck with the car!

[jimynick]

Welcome to the site and congratulations on your good score of that 70! Your work is paying off and it looks good! Another     

[70CUDA4SPEED]

Welcome from Sweden 

[Mopar Thunder]

Welcome Telis  looks like a great car, good luck.