Ever feel defeated by a project? T/A out of shop(s) after many years....

[JH27N0B]

Can't forget another Bosak brother, Alex, for storage in his facility which used to be a Dodge Dealership.  Mitch you'll have to remind me of the name of his business doing automotive electronics.  3 brothers who are all Mopar guys!
And Tom, the guy who manages the storage building I stored my '71 in is a Mopar guy too.  He also does trim restoration and did a great job on my stainless, and getting my bumpers replated.  He helps Bill at Special Ts with that.
When storing the '71, my car was parked in front of a '69 Dart GTS vert I hadn't seen before, but Tom told me it is owned by Lee who is another longtime Mopar fanatic who does Mopar trans work as a sideline and fixed up my convertible's leaky 727 around 8 years ago.
Even in a big metro area like Chicagoland, the Mopar community seems small enough that you find you know or know of most of the Mopar guys around!

[Mopar Mitch]

Brad - Alex owns ATRENDZ... a great auto, truck/suv boutique shop, electronics, cosmetics, etc... Harlem and Northwest Hwy (NW side of Chgo).   They install what they sell and back it up with outstanding service.  Alex is also a 1000% Mopar guy... his showroom says it all!

[JH27N0B]

I hadn't posted an update for a while, thought I'd bring things up to date.
Over the winter I had a few components worked on, and gathered a few parts.  In late winter or spring started picking away at things.  Couldn't do as much as I'd hoped as my mom was moving into an assisted living place, and lots of work getting the last of the stuff out of the old house and having an estate sale etc.  My goal was and still is to have the car at MCACN in November. I did get most of the interior trim and such in, real pleasure trying to find the screw and bolt holes under the headliner that the shop had installed!
Summer comes and boy is it hot and humid.  I worked on the car to the extent I could, but I don't do well with humidity.  And dripping sweat all over the fresh paint can't do any good can it? 
First day with decent humidity levels all summer didn't come until late August.  I took a vacation day and got the front brakes on.  Within a few weeks I had the rears done too. 
And in the weeks following I've been plugging away almost daily.  And with MCACN only a little over a month away its really getting down to the wire!
Main chores left are getting the master cylinder on and fill and bleed the system with DOT 5.  Get the suspension ride height set and things tightened and greased there, as the shop didn't do that.
Get my resto battery charged and install, see if any or all of the lights and electrical stuff works.  I'm sure there will be some troubleshooting required.
Install exhaust, and see if I can get this thing started!
Then a bunch of odds and ends to be installed.  Some parts are out for work, like OEM rear trim getting replated, spacesaver getting repainted, and my AM radio is off getting fixed.  Hope it all comes back in time!
Mopar Mitch is hoping to be able to come by Sunday to look at the suspension.
Bob at MCACN is eager to have my car there next month, as I said, the pressure is on, its down to the wire!

[JH27N0B]

Lots of hours put into the engine compartment, so much time just digging around for pictures of unrestored cars to see how routing goes, which clip goes where etc.
Some pictures Mopar Action had online of Frank Badelsons unrestored red T/A were invaluable for me.  They are really high resolution pictures so you can really zoom in to see details.
I used my convertible as reference at first, but came to find much wasn't right there.  Led to having to remove and reinstall items on the T/A later, and then remove and reinstall items on the convertible.  Had the vert almost 20 years and never knew they installed the horns reversed. The Hi horn goes on top!  Wrong clips for locations etc.  Got that all sorted out now. 
Lots of learning curve.  Finding a loose wire.  Where does it go, or what is it for.  After plugging all the harnesses in the bulkhead, I found a plug in was unused.  What goes there?  Several hours or research and surfing the net later, I find its a small harness for the reverse light.  So I have to dig around and order one of those.
Putting the interior together, once again, plug near the parking brake.  Wait, doesn't a red light go on the dash with the brake set? How does that work?  A switch on the brake assembly, Where is mine?  Gone.  Search the internet, $50 later I've got one on the way from ebay.
Been like that consistently since I got going on installing stuff.  I've got Megaparts and Frank Badelson on speed dial!
On the home stretch though, engine compartment is 98% done!

[anlauto]

Looking good  ...Need to ditch the radials before MCACN...

[JH27N0B]

Those are actually Belted T/A's not radials, I got a set of rally wheels and those tires around 35 years ago!
They are my rollers right now.
When I got my Mr Norms paperwork in the late 90s, I found my car was a steel wheel car, and bought a set of 450s then.
I also tracked down some decent used E and G polyglas tires at the time, the E 60's were not yet reproduced then.  Just had those ancient tires mounted on the wheels and my friend who runs a tire business called the E's a "little scary".  I will just use them for display and to drive on and off a trailer, around the block to warm the engine maybe (at 20mph).
I need to install the vintage stuff on the car soon to make sure they will actually hold up with weight on them.
Question I have to answer is what I will use on the car for sitting in the garage or short drives.  Should I have my 390s restored and put some radial T/As on them?  Should I get a set of repro 15x7 steelies and mount Radial T/A's, or should I go with repro polyglas?
I'm sort of leaning toward steelies, haven't decided repro or radial tires yet.
I still have decisions and things to do on this car after MCACN.  For now, just having it displayable is the goal, still have some details and upgrades in the future.  Like the wheel tire combo....

[anlauto]

For the amount of driving you'll actually do, maybe a couple hundred miles a year ? I would buy reproduction PolyGlas for the 450's....

[JH27N0B]

I really did come in under the wire, got the car started for the first time and moving under its own power over the weekend! That's less than a week before it's going to be at MCACN!
Mopar Mitch and another Mopar buddy Glen have spent lots of hours in recent weeks helping me getting the engine running, suspension adjusted and other items and I can't thank them enough.  We all have Challengers, and live nearby each other, we were talking about that over the weekend and decided we should call ourselves the Northwest suburban Challenger Association!
Runs well but I have no charging.  My restoration battery I filled and charged a month or so back has a DOA cell too.  I'll use it for display or borrow my buddy's for the show and buy another next spring.  We troubleshot the electrical system yesterday and it really looks like the alternator isn't doing its thing.  It's an NOS assembly line alternator I traded for years ago, but never bothered to have checked to make sure it worked.  No excuses for that as there is an automotive electrical place a mile from my house I've used before to fix starters.  Why didn't I take my alternator with me one of those times and ask them to check it, thought never crossed my mind!
I'll charge a battery and that should be OK to drive the car out of the garage and onto the trailer, and visa versa after the show.  I've got my Costco jumper/tire pump unit I'll bring with also.
I have a list of things to do later including an alignment.  And a handful of items that I need to do in the few evenings after work to get it ready for the show, like installing a kick panel and one door sill, console, front license plate bracket.  Nothing major.
I wish I had it this far a month ago, so I could break it in a bit with some drives, but being ready for MCACN was the main goal and barring a last minute crisis, looking good!

[1 Wild R/T]

Truly Awesome to see it up & running!! I know it's been a struggle, hopefully it was all worth it... Ordinarily I don't like seeing non OE stickers on these cars but the one on your spoiler gets a pass.... Nearly OE...

[anlauto]

Wouldn't the "Mr. Norm" decal be correct for an Mr. norm car ?

[1 Wild R/T]

Wouldn't the "Mr. Norm" decal be correct for an Mr. norm car ?

Yes, and it is, but it didn't leave the factory with it, It was installed at the dealer......

[anlauto]

Yes, and it is, but it didn't leave the factory with it, It was installed at the dealer......

Tru dat .....adds to the History I guess...

[Cudakiller70]

  that is nice very nice, gotta feel good!

[JH27N0B]

I had to put the Mr Norms sticker on it!  I have Grand Spaulding license plate frames and vintage 1970 IL dealer license plates too.
If you are going to get real technical about a restoration being the way it rolled off the line, then the exhaust tips and front license plate bracket would not be installed on a T/A.  They'd be in the trunk!
I'd need to retrieve the 2 broadcast sheets I found in the car which were for an FC7 T/A about 20 VINs after mine, they were in my car when it rolled off the line, but given to that cars owner by me over 20 years ago! 

[Mopar Mitch]

Seeing the car get driven by Brad almost brought tears to our eyes.... awesome and humble!!!!   The car will appear at MCACN this wknd... well worth the wait... maybe see some of you there!