Time for an update. I had a couple big projects at work at the end of the year that delayed things, but I had 2 weeks off over the holidays so I’ve managed to get some more things completed. I’ve actually put 12 miles on the car over the last couple weeks. The car is not registered yet, but you need to drive it to get the FAST XFI 2.0 to self-tune so it’s kind of a catch-22. I think at this point its idling and driving well enough that I’m going to try and go through emissions testing in a few weeks to get it actually street legal.
First thing I did was install the headliner. I’ve never done it before but I figured I’d give it a try. I followed the tips on Resto Rick’s page and it came out OK. I would call it a solid B effort. The main thing I couldn’t get right are the sides where the bows curve back down. I couldn’t get it to stop bunching there and I was afraid to cut the listings any more. You can see what I’m talking about in the following picture. This before I installed the dome light, but I don't like how that fits either.
After that I got a new front windshield installed. I was going to buy the AMD glass but after adding up the truck freight costs etc, it was much cheaper to have a local glass company come install one. They are still able to get new windshields. I re-used the stock original rear glass. The guy that came to install it has been doing it for like 30 years plus he drives a 69 Coronet R/T so that was a plus. So with that out of the way I installed the sail panels and cleaned up and painted the inside window trim.
I bought new cables and got the parking brake working. With the 2x3 tubing subframe connectors there is enough room at the front to sneak the cable and adjuster between them and the floorboards so the cables hooked up pretty easily. Parking brake seems to work pretty good with the Dr. Diff rear disk brake kit.
Since I wanted to drive it I threw together a quick air intake using 4” aluminum tubing, a 90 degree silicone coupler and a Spectre air filter. That allowed me to mount the inlet air temp sensor in the tubing.
With that out of the way I turned my attention back to the Nu-Relic (XV) power windows. I was able to get the drivers side adjusted and working good, although it still drops way too fast for my liking. However no matter what I did on the passenger side it just wouldn’t work correctly. It would get to within an inch of the top of the forward vertical slider rail then the motor would start binding and popping and sometimes jump a gear tooth. I finally pulled the entire window and assembly out again and went back through it, but had the same problem once I put it back in. After messing with it all day I left the window down and quit for the night. When I came back out the next morning the glass had shattered in to a thousand pieces. Boy was I mad.
At least AMD makes the glass. So 200 bucks later and I have a new passenger side window. I was still so mad that I pulled out the power window regulator and I put the stock manual one back in. So it’s goofy but I have the power window on the drivers side and manual one on the passenger side. At least all the glass is in. I may eventually give up and just put the manual one back in on the drivers side as well.
So when I had the window out I installed a power door lock actuator kit using ShelbyDogg’s excellent write up:
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=26012.0I’ll update his thread with some of my pictures, but I basically followed what he did.
Finally I installed a new AMD bumper and new guards, along with PG’s trunk and quarter panel trim. The bumper fit like crap on the stock bumper brackets, so I ended up cutting like ½” out of the brackets and re-welding it to tuck the bumper up to the body more. Here’s some pictures from when I had the car out after driving it around. Here’s one when it’s filthy dirty, but I like the angle of the picture:
Then with the glass in I was finally able to wash the car, so here’s two with actual clean paint.
Still a ways to go, but I can see the end of the tunnel now.
Travis
72 Cuda
p.s. I had to move all my pictures to Photobucket so I went ahead and went back through this entire thread and re-linked the pictures so they should all be there now.
