After I started to type up the information on my car, I realized I couldn't find my "before" pictures, so I will give you an overview of what I had and show you what I ended up with. Enough people are probably interested in pictures of cars and info on them, so here it goes...
A while ago I finally decided to sell my '67 Mustang Fastback 289 and find my dream car: a '71 'Cuda. Well, I ended up with its sister, a '71 Challenger. The car came from Texas and looked like someone was reenacting the Dukes of Hazard (wrong car and year, I know).
How the car came from the factory: B5 blue, blue interior, white vinyl top, 318 V8, interior light option, A/C, automatic, and not much else.
How the came came to me: mostly HEMI orange, with a black bumblebee-ish stripe, a barely running 360 out of a truck, and a good auto tranny. Someone had spray painted the blue interior black for some reason. And when I say spray painted, I mean with actual spray paint. They didn't dye it or anything. It looked awful. Someone had also bondoed in an SE rear window. Most of the trim was missing.
The entire underneath of the car was pretty much rust-free, or reasonably so, but covered in years of mud. The bumpers were OK, but pitted. The front and rear valences had lost a battle to some rocks. I managed to start the car, get it off of a truck, and then drive the car into the garage. Where it... died.
The restoration only took about four months, but that was including my uncle and I working on it basically daily. We replaced the driver's side rear quarter. We replaced the driver's side front flood board. We also replaced the trunk. The right way, at least for us, by cutting rust out and welding a new piece in. A couple of small holes in the floor were patched with small patches. The passenger's side rear quarter was patched with a small piece welded in. I ordered a new front and rear valence (R/T-style for the rear) and I replaced my dented fender with a new one.
The trunk lid was long gone and looked like Swiss cheese for some reason. The car came with a replacement trunk lid. We also had to weld in the bottom piece of the rear window and fix a dent by the rear tail lights.
The car was stripped and prepped for paint. That basically meant sanding everything down pretty well and putting a little bit of body filler to straighten a door. We painted the car ourselves, so it's about a 10 footer. It came out pretty good for a $200 paint job. The car is now FM3 moulin rouge/panther pink.
Oh, I should also mention the car has a '70 R/T hood on it. That's the hood it came with.
With the car done, we had to do the interior. I just bit the bullet and ordered new door panels and rear panels. The kick panels were just repainted... again. We put in a new headliner, new carpet, I got a new dash that was in good shape with some rally gauges in it. All the gauges worked (including the clock.... sort of). I had to disconnect the odometer to get the speedometer to work. Somehow the odometer arm got bent.
We recovered the seats and put new foam in them.
The drive train: I got a new (re-manufactured, not rebuilt) 360 and put it into the car. After a couple of used carbs, I now have a Summit high rise intake and Holley carb. The engine is pretty mild and hooked up to the old automatic transmission. I didn't really throw any performance parts into the engine, just the usual better spark plugs, started, wires, etc. The exhaust is a dual exhaust from Summit racing. The exhaust tips are off of a Corvette.
I put new drums on the back but upgraded to front disc brakes. They're an aftermarket conversion to GM brakes. It works great. The wheels are 15" Buick Grand National rims I got from my cousin. New tires, of course. I had to upgraded to 15" rims for the front disc brakes.
We redid the heater core so the heater works great now. The radio is a fancy new one. Your regular $100 Best Buy radio. Nothing fancy. Removable faceplate, USB, iPod... just two speakers in the back. I will eventually get the kick panels with speakers in them for more sound.
We had to repair my center console. We fixed the door and the area where the ashtray goes. It came out pretty well. The other major fix we did was to glue the grill back together. I think that came out well, too. The grill was in great shape but one of the tips broke off. The grill and tail light panel were both repainted with flat black texture paint.
I think that about covers everything? The usual pieces and parts were replaced... the rear window is actually an SE. I recovered the SE interior piece because it was shot. I used headliner to recover it. Most of the trim is original with a few reproduction parts.
If you have any questions, just post them and I will answer them if I can. Always willing to help other people out.
The air cleaner, carb, and a few other parts have been upgraded since this picture...
You may notice I accidentally painted over the chrome strip that runs between the headlights. Oops.
What's next on the agenda? I need to get two reflectors for my tail panel. I need the Challenger emblem for my dash. I want to fix the shifter handle.... and I want to add a T/A spoiler. Eventually, I will either attempt to redo, or have redone, my vinyl room and add a regular size rear window (SE is not original to the car). I may have someone try to fix my paint job, as well.
