70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

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    Author Topic: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build  (Read 25254 times)

    Offline 68-383Bee

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    70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « on: July 21, 2010 - 06:10:44 PM »
    I have really enjoyed reading a lot of the quality threads on here, and wanted to say great work to everyone involved! I actually found this website while looking at the internet for possible paint color.  I have downloaded dozens of Challenger pictures in an effort to make up my mind, but still no luck. Good news is I have a really nice Challenger screen saver on my computer now! I am actually leaning to orange, but I do not want it to be a factory color as I want it to stand out "in the crowd". So, while the garage activity slows down as I try to decide, I thought it would keep me motivated to post the build progress up to this point. Since a lot of the work has been done, I will just describe the highlights and try to post something every few days until I catch up to the present.

    For a little background, I started on this car late last year and have done quite a bit of work on it up to this point. I have replaced the outer wheel houses, the trunk floor, rear floor pans, Dutchman panel, installed thru the floor sub frame connectors & roll bar and completed the body work except for the last round for block sanding. Below is a recent picture of the car in its current state:

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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #1 on: July 22, 2010 - 08:30:54 AM »
    Unfortunately, as I started to look for pictures, I realized that I have lost some of them due to a hard drive crash on my computer recently.  I guess that will teach me to make backups more often!  Thank goodness that I did not delete all of the pics from the camera or my phone.  Anyway, below are a few pic's of when I first started. Looking back, I can see why my wife and kids thought I was nuts for dragging this one home.  In another life, this car was destined for the drag strip at one time but was never completed, hence the 14point roll cage, inner fenders removed for weight, etc. At time of these pictures, I had already started removing some of the bars as it had X’s in each door, X form the main hoop to the rear shock mount, main hoop to ladder bar x-mem diagonals, etc.


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    Offline dutch

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #2 on: July 22, 2010 - 09:42:26 AM »
     welcome to the site  :wave:    hmmm... no sidemarkers, no doorhandles... should look pretty slick when done  :bigshades:   what kinda engine will it get?
    sweeeet bee in the avatar  :drool:
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    *** Bart ***

    Offline 73Chally

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #3 on: July 22, 2010 - 01:23:06 PM »
    Have you thought about today's Go-Mango?  A friend of mine did a 70 Cuda with that color, and it was stunning to say the least.
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #4 on: July 22, 2010 - 02:01:50 PM »
    I have a 400 that I am going to stroke. I haven't had much time to research it yet, but I definately want somewhere in the range of 500ci.  I plan on using the keisler 5-speed with 3.55's in a B-body 8-3/4 rearend as well. 

    As far as the color, everything I have is metallic or pearl.  I kinda just want this car to be simple solid color. Unfortunately, there are not a lot oranges out there to pick from.  What color is that on yours? It looks really good in the pictures.
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    Offline 73Chally

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #5 on: July 22, 2010 - 03:17:53 PM »
    It's Hemi Orange, but it does have metal flake if that's something you're trying to get away from.  The closest Orange you could probably get without flake would be more like a Chevy Hugger Orange.  I believe that is a solid orange with no flake.  Of course, you could always go with a nice black or white.
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #6 on: July 22, 2010 - 03:50:01 PM »
    A friend has a 69 Camaro that is Hugger orange, so it can't be that color. I am going to make a trip to the P&G store and look at there std colors.  They have some pretty cool colors in their fleet color charts.  If that doesn't pan out, I am going to start looking for something and have them scan it.
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    Offline 73Chally

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #7 on: July 22, 2010 - 03:55:55 PM »
    The bummer about today's colors is that they are pretty much all a metal flake.  Good luck.. Maybe you could try the Hemi Ornage without the flake?  Not sure how it would look but maybe you can get a small sample made up and spray it on a piece of scrap metal.  Cool Bee, by the way.  We have a yellow 69.  :2thumbs:
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #8 on: July 22, 2010 - 05:48:22 PM »
    I may have them mix some up and give it a try.  I have had the Bee since I was 14, bought it out of a field for $300. I almost painted it yellow at one time and then talked myself out of it. I think if I ever change the color on it, it will be black since I do not drive it much.  I initially wanted the Challenger to be black, but decided that if I had to spend all my time keeping it clean I wouldn't drive it much. 
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #9 on: July 22, 2010 - 05:55:04 PM »
    After much thought, I finally decided that to really enjoy this car, it would need to be streetable and therefore comfortable to drive like a modern car.  So I decided to sell the ladder bars, coilovers, 15x15 Welds, fuel cell, etc and put this car back to "Stock".  So all of the spare parts went on Craigslist and quickly found a new home.  It was tough seeing those 14.5 x 32 Goodyears go as they looked great under the car! 

    I debated for quite awhile on whether to install after market front and rear suspension setups (alterkation front, 3-link rear, etc) and have decided not to.  As cut up as this car was, it would have been a perfect candidate but ultimately my main reason to build this car is to drive it and I think I can achieve modern handling and steering by building on what Ma Mopar provided, or at least I am going to try and can always go more radical later on if I need to.   If I was building a dedicated track car, then it might make sense, but how often to I need to pull 1G on the way to work?

    Some pics of parts that I decided not to use:




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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #10 on: July 23, 2010 - 05:44:55 PM »
    Not much work had happened at this point, but you can see my donor car that I bought off of EBay.  It is a 73 and it is amazing how rusted out it was.  Thank goodness the seller was honest and didn’t try to pass this off as a buildable car as the exterior photos actually didn’t look to bad.  Good news is that it was cheap and had the majority of parts that I needed for the 70. Items that I am using include the Dutchman panel, rear speaker tray, rear shock x-mem, sheet metal from under the rear seat, windows, window chrome, etc.  Everything that I have taken off has gone in 2 piles, one for the 70 and the other for EBay/Craigslist. At this point, I have sold some of the items that I definitely do not need such as the grille ass’y to add to the cookie jar. 
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #11 on: July 23, 2010 - 05:58:14 PM »
    In these pics, you can see some of the sheet metal that I salvaged from the 73. 


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    Offline dutch

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #12 on: July 23, 2010 - 06:02:10 PM »
    suprising to see the rear section is in such good shape...compared to the front  :eek4:
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    *** Bart ***

    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #13 on: July 23, 2010 - 10:10:09 PM »
    If I remember correctly, this car came from Pennsylvania so I really lucked out on the rear parts. The front driver frame rail was rusted nearly in half and the upper A-arm mounts were gone as well.  I imagine it was a crazy ride the last time it was drove! Very strange car as areas that are normally rusted were almost perfect.  Check out the rear window mount area in the pic above, there wasn't a bit of rust in the front or rear window channels.
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    Offline 68-383Bee

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    Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build
    « Reply #14 on: July 26, 2010 - 02:48:50 PM »
    #6
    Picture of the 70 with roll cage removed (except the front hoop) and the 2x3 frame rails coming out.
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