Author Topic: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build (Read 25264 times)

68-383Bee · « **Reply #15 on:** July 26, 2010 - 02:50:57 PM »

This is about the point that I lost some of the pictures so I do not have too many of the floor & frame rail reinstallation. In this one, you can see that I have installed the 73 parts in the 70 and added the new rear floor pans. I ended up having to patch part of the area under the rear seat as you can see in the second picture. Thank goodness for old parts cars!. Note that the side panels are not welded in yet. While it was easy to get to, I decided to rebuild the 73 rear window regulators and install them. The 70 had fixed in place rear windows with chrome plugs in the rear side panel holes where the cranks would normally be. I haven�t decided yet if I will fix these in place or not. Kind of hard to see, but the black areas on the shock x-mem, inside the side panels, etc are where I have cleaned and coated with rust converter.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #16 on:** July 26, 2010 - 11:29:51 PM »

I have decided that an automatic just wasn�t fitting for this build, so I scored this 4-speed hump off of the internet. It is out of a purple 71 Cuda, so this means the 70 now has sheet metal from 4 other cars now. In an effort to stiffen the car as much as possible, I am attempting to continuously weld all of the sheet metal joints when possible. This probably didn�t need to be, but my time is free, right? In this picture, you can also see that I have patched the floor boards where the aftermarket frame rails were once installed. To do this, I cut matching strips out of the 73 floorpans and continuously welded them in the 70. Not shown, but I eventually scored a set of 4-speed pedals off of EBay as well.

ShelbyDogg · « **Reply #17 on:** July 27, 2010 - 12:25:08 AM »

Quite a project you have there. too bad somebody started it, had all of the parts cut out, just to sell it. Now you have to put it all back together with duplicates of everything that was thrown away.

Here is my car, Hugger Orange. The mix is orange, white, and clear.

When I park next to my friend's Hemi-Orange car and the bright sun is out, I see "dust" on his car. Mine doesn't look dusty at all. Just my opinion, no gold or silver metal flake in my paint.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #18 on:** July 27, 2010 - 09:46:35 PM »

Thanks Rob. It seems crazy, but I have really enjoyed it so far. Compared to my desk job, it is a nice break. The color on your car looks nice, I assume it is somewhat lighter than traditional Hugger orange with the white mixed in? It sounds liek you have a custom mix that no one else has which is what I am after. In fact I recently bought a bunch of paint samples (2 oz each for $5) from the local PPG store. I didn't really like any of them on the sprayouts that I did, nut I am in the process of mixing them together in various combinations. I think that I have one that I really like that is a mixture of 3 oranges with a pearl clearcoat, but am going to wait a few days to make sure.

BTW, did I see in another post you are from STL? I am in Westport on business, how far away from here are you?
Charles

68-383Bee · « **Reply #19 on:** July 27, 2010 - 09:51:14 PM »

Here you can see the new trunk floor installed. I wanted to use a one piece pan, but since I didn�t have the quarters or the taillight panel off, this was much easier. You can also see one of the downlegs of the roll bar that I have installed. These rear downlegs are actually part of the front hoop downlegs that I cut to fit which is why they have a little bend near the end. Please note that I am installing the roll bar to strengthen the car and make it more rigid, not to pass tech.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #20 on:** July 27, 2010 - 10:43:26 PM »

You can see the front side bars installed in this picture. Originally, I did not plan on using these. But I installed my Rotisserie and started to lift the car up and noticed it sagging in the middle. I hadn�t done this on previous cars, but this time I had left the doors on. Sitting on jack stands, the doors aligned perfectly with the top of the quarter panels. When I lifted it, the doors dropped about 3/8�. I didn�t want to use diagonal bars because it is difficult to get into the car with them. I also did not want hinged side bars as I feel they still allow the car to flex some due to the slop in the attachment/ hinge points. So even though they are not NHRA legal, I bought these formed side bars from Jeg�s. I ended up needing to bend them slightly to clear the armrest area of the factory door panels. Good news is that these solved the sag. I can now lift the car from both ends with the Rotisserie and the doors drop less than 1/16�. The 1x2 tube you can just see at the bottom is welded in across the door opening for additional support while the car is on the rotisserie.

BIGSHCLUNK · « **Reply #21 on:** July 27, 2010 - 10:56:03 PM »

Nice project, I admire you guys that will take on a "major" resto and not burnout!

68-383Bee · « **Reply #22 on:** July 27, 2010 - 11:06:19 PM »

Thanks, but it certainly has its moments. IThere have been several times I wondered what I got myself into. But it really helps that it looks like a car now. One of these days I want to drive Route 66 in it so I just keep thinking about that!

ShelbyDogg · « **Reply #23 on:** July 27, 2010 - 11:48:27 PM »

Quote from: 68-383Bee on July 27, 2010 - 09:46:35 PM

The color on your car looks nice, I assume it is somewhat lighter than traditional Hugger orange with the white mixed in? It sounds liek you have a custom mix that no one else has which is what I am after.

BTW, did I see in another post you are from STL? I am in Westport on business, how far away from here are you?
Charles

Charles, My Hugger-Orange is the same paint mix that GM has used forever. Those are th e colors that are on the label when I get it mixed up. I've had pearl over my 1st Duster race car. It was 2 tone white over blue and the pearl made my bright white look yellowish and the Deep blue took on a different color also. I'm more into solid colors now, My Pace Car will be painted Hugger too. I've always liked that color.

I'll PM you about meeting up..

68-383Bee · « **Reply #24 on:** July 29, 2010 - 06:00:41 PM »

In these pics, you can see that I have installed the subframe connectors. These are 2x3x 0.120 wall rectangular tubing. I cut slots in the floor boards for these to fit thru and then continuously welded the floors to the tubing.
You can also see my home made torque box plates I made. I was going to order these, but for simple sheet metal, the cost really shocked me. So a trip to the local hardware store yielded me some 12 ga sheet stock and I went to work. The front plates are actually much more simple on this car than normal because there is a piece of 2x2 tubing welded in between the frame rail and rocker panel. Originally, this is where the front roll cage hoops attached. I am glad I didn�t originally remove these as the door side bars now attach to the top and the torque plates to the bottom.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #25 on:** July 30, 2010 - 08:31:33 AM »

Moving to the front, in these photos you can see that I have reinstalled the front inner fenders. I say reinstalled as these are original to this car and had been saved after they were removed. You can also see the front shock tower brace that I made from left over roll cage tubing. And also see where I made 12 ga gussets to box in the sides of the upper shock tower brace. Kind of had to see, but I also scavenged the factory braces from the 73 and installed them on this car just for good measure.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #26 on:** July 30, 2010 - 05:35:53 PM »

Engine compartment pics of the newly installed inner fenders. You can also see where I have started to fit up the brackets for the engine compartment shock tower brace. These bolt thru the inner fender and I welded nuts onto the backside. After the engine is installed, I will eventually weld some tubing to these brackets and tie these points together as well as to the firewall.

68-383Bee · « **Reply #27 on:** July 30, 2010 - 05:39:03 PM »

Picture of the passenger fender. The original fenders for the 70 were in great shape, but unfortunately, they were stolen while I had them in storage. So I ended up scoring these off of EBay. They were a little rough, but certainly manageable and I got them for a fair price. The 73 had fenders, but they were rusted so badly, they were of no use. They initially didn�t look to bad on the outside, but from underneath you could see where all of the rust had been glassed over and that was what was literally holding them together in several places.

jrwoodjoe · « **Reply #28 on:** July 30, 2010 - 10:15:35 PM »

These are AWESOME progress Pics. Thanks for posting them.

Joe

sadil340 · « **Reply #29 on:** July 31, 2010 - 08:53:13 AM »

Great thread!

Author Topic: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build (Read 25264 times)

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

ShelbyDogg

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

BIGSHCLUNK

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

ShelbyDogg

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

68-383Bee

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

jrwoodjoe

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build

sadil340

Re: 70 TA Challenger Tribute Build