This build is almost a ‘retrospective’ given I have been meaning to post this for about 18 months, over which time my build has progressed, but not hugely.
I want to share my project with you all in the hope that someone will get a kick out of it, hopefully some ideas from it, I’ll get some inspiration from you - and sometimes, someone might stop me from doing something completely stupid!
I have no fabrication skills, don’t know the first thing about body & paint but I’m OK with general mechanics. I got inspired by following Toxic Wolf’s A66 Challenger with his & Roadman’s handy work, as well as other projects I’ve been following. I have learned most of what I know about my car from trial and error, but mostly from these forums and all the excellent contributions from the members. And Brad (brads 70) seems to have a diagram & measurements for anything he has made - or is planning to make!!
This is my fourth Mopar I imported from the USA. I’ve had 2 1970 Challenger’s one a 318 and the other a 383 SE, 1 Duster 440. All I sold and made a little money on to help finance my ultimate desire – 1970 Sublime 4 speed Challenger T/A.
I was looking for a real T/A but at the time couldn’t find anything decent under $75K ($100K Aussie, plus GST, plus luxury car tax etc.) which was way out of my budget - Strike 1. Then I thought well if it’s worth that much, I won’t drive it and leave it anywhere unattended - Strike 2. If it is an original car, I wouldn’t feel right modifying it, it has to be sublime and 340 cubes just won’t cut it - Strike 3.
Now for the car! I saw this ad in Cars On Line. It was a tribute car and looked very convincing with 6 pack etc. & very straight. The price was right (for what I knew at the time) so I got an ‘independent’ inspection carried out. It gave the car the most glowing review I’ve ever read (and I think the vendor gave him something too) and upon reading it the deal was done. I wanted a car that needed zero body work and I would just trick up the engine and suspension to get my E-Max style Challenger.
Long story short, I picked it up from the port in Melbourne and it ran like a dog, black smoke, backfiring, popping, handled like a boat but the brakes worked – luckily. I got home, opened the trunk and WTF ‘its copper’ colour inside my new red car!!! I looked in the wheel arches – more copper. It was never mentioned by the vendor. How did that get missed in the inspection? I looked back through the photos I’d been sent and the trunk photos were washed out due to the angle they were taken in really bright sunlight - you can’t pick the colour – it looks kinda red. I would have offered much less for the car if I had known this fact, or what I’d find later….
Then I started finding rust….
Here are a couple of pics (the car, the progress, the goal) and I will post a lot more soon…
