I had a couple days before I would leave for Vegas, so luckily my boss is pretty understanding when I said I now needed more time off. So the main thing I needed to fix was the axle vent. So I called up Dan from DTM Racing to ask for advice. He said on the Hotchkis E-Max Challenger that they had to use a 1 quart radiator overflow to stop it from leaking and he suggested I do the same. So I went down to my local hot rod shop and bought one of the 1 quart plastic radiator over flow bottles and rigged it up. In reading online about other people that have had this issue, some suggested using a fuel filter in line as well. So I added that to the hose leading to the bottle. I ran the one hose long and put a loop in it thinking that would help, but I don’t think its helping and in fact it might be hurting it from flowing back to the diff. So I’m going to shorten that hose later. I bought a clear fuel filter so I could see if its working and sure enough you see gear oil in there. From the top of the over flow bottle I ran another hose to under the trunk floor and capped it with a sintered bronze filter. Its looks like this:
http://www.grainger.com/product/SPEEDAIRE-Muffler-1A327?s_pp=falseThe setup is not pretty but its functional and I was in a hurry. The good news is I didn’t have any leaks on the 1000 miles I drove to Vegas and back so I might have finally cured the problem.
I also wanted to address a couple cosmetic things. I’ve never installed the passenger side mirror because when I got it back from the painter it was chipped. It turns out the “paintable” mirror I bought was just a chrome mirror that had been primed and when the paint chipped it went all the way down to the chrome. So I bead blasted it and scuffed it really good then I repainted it with epoxy primer before shooting it with color and clear. I used a cheap detail spray gun. I wanted it installed not just for looks but for the safety aspect of driving in the crazy Vegas traffic. Anyway, my wife took an action pic.
At the last minute I decided to grab the old used door panels out of my storage shed. I had bought these a long time ago on eBay. They aren’t perfect having a torn armrest and one damaged screw hole, but they are a lot nicer than my original ones. They were also a dark green. Since I didn’t have time to get the proper SEM dye, I went to my local Autozone and bought a couple cans of Duplicolor fabric dye in flat black. I cut the square hole needed for the power window switches and shot a couple coats of paint on there before installing my original hardware. When painted up they look pretty good and a heck of a lot better than without the panels! This was the first time the car has had door panels on it in probably 10 years.
And with that, I was ready to hit the road Thursday morning to Vegas.
Myself and others posted a bunch of pics and videos in the following thread so I won’t repeat them here. Included are videos of one of my quarter mile passes, and video of the autocross both inside and from outside the car. In the other thread you can see how I hooked up the remote battery disconnect through an old tail light.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=98515.0The only other pic I wanted to add was there was a really sweet 71 Swinger on the cruise that had a 5.9L Magnum motor in it. I never got to talk to the owner but I snapped a quick picture when I was on the road by him. Then when I got home from the trip and looked at this months edition of Mopar Action, there was the same Swinger on the cover! Pretty cool.
So I mentioned it in the other thread, but I’ll expand on it here…. On Saturday at MATS, I pulled up to the autocross pits and start talking to folks that were asking questions about the car. One guy waited patiently and asked a couple questions about the car before saying “I’m Johnny the editor of Popular Hot Rodding magazine and I’d like to feature your car in the magazine.” They only catch was I had to stay until Monday. So I had to call work again to tell them I needed another day off. lol I never built my car as a show car so the paint is not that great, a lot of things aren’t perfect, etc. but Johnny liked that I built it myself and that I drove it to Vegas to race it. I was pretty shocked. In fact I had only brought a microfiber towel and a quick detail spray to Vegas just to get the bugs off the car. So I had to go to an auto parts store and buy some cleaning supplies on Sunday. I then spent all Monday morning getting the car as clean as I could with what I had.
The photoshoot was from 2 - 8 pm. It was a long day. I must have moved the car 30 times. He had some cool techniques to get the photos he wanted. I didn’t take many pictures of the process because both my wife and I were busy helping the entire time. But basically he did things like put the engine in to complete shade (even putting a black blanket between the hood and windshield) and then using remote flashes to put the light where he wanted it. It’s over my head but it was all about controlling the light and then using reflectors or flashes to put the light on certain angles. We did the photoshoot in a parking lot across from the Nascar track and even took some pictures of it driving on the road (besides the pictures he had taken at the autocross).
Johnny said it should be in the Sept. issue which will come out in early August. I mentioned cuda-challenger.com in the “who has helped on the car” section of the write up so hopefully that makes the article! :-) Since Eric’s Cuda (ntstlgl1970) will be featured in Mopar Muscle as part of their True Street Shootout, I would say it was a pretty good weekend for cuda-challenger.com members!
When all was said and done after 2 weeks, I had put over 1150 miles on the car (it only had 950 on it before all of this), including 2 twenty minute high speed road course sessions, 2 quarter mile passes and 12 laps on the autocross. I averaged right around 20 mpg on the freeway including one stretch of 21.5 mph. I was thrilled the car ran so well and that I made it there and back safely. The only major hiccup I had was the heater hose blowing off the Vintage Air box and dumping the entire contents of the radiator on the passenger side floorboard that I talked about in the other thread. It was also great meeting both Alan (360Fish) and Eric in person, and also seeing Joe from Yuma again.
Travis
72 Cuda
p.s. Sorry so long.... it's been a while....
