74 Challenger Project

[pywell]

Car was dropped off at RMC for blasting and dipping today. We have to figure out what we are going todo about a rotisserie. But we did decide on the new motor, it is to be the 410 crate motor w/ either edelbrock efi or fast efi. Trying to find a set of 3:91 gears. That is about it for today, tomorrow we start the doors.

UPDATE: Motor now looking to be the 360 Magnum Crate with 390hp and 420 torque.

[pywell]

Today was a big news day and so far a very little work day. Yesterday we took the car in for blasting and we got a call to say that the car has been blasted and is ready for pickup! Holy!!.. so we are going in tommorow since we were not prepared for it until the middle of January when originally told when it was going to be ready.

Other news is that we finally got our part list (list #1 of a few am sure) Finally ordered. Props goto MoparDave from Roseville Moparts for getting that all together it was a fairly large list and it was revised many times. Highly recommended for those who are looking to purchase parts for there projects.

The List:

NEW:
2 parts that we found we needed weld onto the frame rail and go across the floor boards to the inner rocker panel at the very rear of the frame rail. I have attached a picture outlining the piece we need. Hopefully it is something you guys have or that is made even. (He got them, I figured no way in hell, but it was no problem!)
Inner Wheel Tub Rear Left and Right sides
Outer Wheel Tub Rear Left and Right sides
Left and Rear cross rail extensions (the part that goes under the rear light panel, we have the new cross rail but need the extensions)

REVISED:
Cowl Top Clip In Style
Firewall
Right Trunk Floor Drop
Left Trunk Floor Drop
Left cowl/apron brace
Right cowl/apron brace
Radiator support assembly with lower
Driver Side Front Frame Rail good mark
Driver Side Shock Tower
Driver Side Shock Tower gusset
Weld In frame connectors
Passenger Side rear Frame rail 70”
Gas Tank Supports pair
Driver and Pass. Side brackets that go from the cowl to the inner fender/tower gussets.
Complete E-Body Plug Kit
Heater Box Restoration kit
Firewall Pad w/o AC
Firewall Gasket Kit w/o AC
Clear Driver Side Door Window
Driver/Passenger Side Door Hinge Pin Kits

As you can see with the parts I already have we are replacing near 2/3rds of this car... ugh 

[pywell]

Below are some of the pictures I have put up click on the thumbnail and it will direct you to my gallery where you can view high resolution images and more images then just what I am putting up here.

Today I cut out 90% of the trunk pan, cut out the rad support and part of the firewall. I also found out today from the media blasting that I need to order a partial floor board for the front driver side section. YAY more metal to cut out and more parts to ORDER. At least that part is in stock locally for only 100$ so I will get it there for speed.

We brought the car back from the blasting shop this morning and its AWESOME, I am never doing a car again unless I get it blasted wow it is just so nice to work with and ALL the rust is gone on the pieces that were blasted. I did not get the entire car blasted because a lot of parts were left on to keep the car rigid enough to transport. But everything else is blasted and the parts I cut out I will blast the newly exposed areas myself with my personal blaster.

Below I put up 5 pics but there are 20 new pics on the gallery to check out so take a moment and feel free to make comment about anything you see, I am glad you guys are seemingly reading my posts and checking out the pics, but some comments would be cool too :p

Thanks guys!

[Mentally Challenged]

Looks like it is coming along really well. I have a lot of the same rust in mine. Keep up the good work 

[pywell]

Back in 2 weeks guys, my day job building oil plants and power plants calls me north again. When I get back I will hopefully have some more parts to get more work done.

[pywell]

UGH, well I made it back, fingers toes and all. It was -42F today up north, god I love working outside in that! NOT.

The parts were just released from customs today in Calgary and should be on there way here tomorrow. Thanks to Dave at RosevilleMoparts, Customs was not anywhere scary as I thought it was going to be with such a huge shipment.

Tomorrow is going to be a clean the house up and shovel the sidewalks day, sort the parks if they get here. Guy is picking up all the mechanicals form being acid dipped tomorrow aswell, I won't see those until Saturday. We still have to send out the gas tank to be cleaned and freshened up at the Radiator Shop.

I think my plan at this point is to start ripping off the rear frame rails and replace the trunk floor and put the new frame rails on. I hope to have this done before heading back up to work on monday for another 2 weeks but we will have to see.

updates with pictures coming Saturday Night.

[dutch]

great project    I`ll be following this one for sure 

[bigfoot]

good work!

[Canadian Cuda]

 

[pywell]

 parts came in while I am at work. I fly back tomorrow afternoon so I will be going through all the parts then and will have some pics.

[pywell]

OK time to head out and see what all I got. Back with some pics.

UPDATE: Uploading the pics now. There are a lot of parts it took me quite a while to unpack and go through.




The rest of the 29 Pictures are viewable on my gallery at PPC Customs Gallery - 74 Challenger Project Page 5

[pywell]

Today was a good day, got lots cut out. The passenger side inner fender is now out and the cowl has been removed. I finished removing the rear driver side frame rail, inner tubs are now out too. Still some minor metal too remove off the frame. What a job, managed to set my coveralls on fire lol. I have the 1 peice trunk floor pan and quarter extensions held in place at the moment with vice grips strictly for placement testing. I got a little tired of cutting and grinding after 7 hours. But check out the pictures Its nice too see some new metal fitted up there!





16 new pictures viewable at the gallery.

[jimynick]

Justin, man, does that look familiar! We must have been born under a bad sign.LOL My 74 Challenger is in about the same shape and I came to the same sickening conclusion that by the time I'm done; there won't be a lot left that Mother Mopar started with. I'm down to the frame rails in the rear and took the rear body panel off to replace the floor. You must have had fun getting the one piece floor in and under the rear body panel. I also had to cut out the lock pillar in the lft 1/4, so now I've got to rebuild the door hinges so I can mount the door, so I can hang the 1/4 to fit the gap. You're making better progress on yours and your cousin is a lucky guy to have you to do that much work. I envy that plasma cutter, I can tell you. The local drill/spot weld cutter guy will be able to send his kid to private school by the time I'm done. I've got to replace the cowl on mine too and may get in touch to compare notes if that's ok. Keep up the good work, it's coming together nicely!!

[pywell]

You must have had fun getting the one piece floor in and under the rear body panel.  I've got to replace the cowl on mine too and may get in touch to compare notes if that's ok. Keep up the good work, it's coming together nicely!!

I took off the left rear frame rail already before I put the 1 peice floor in. Going to weld up the new rear frame rail into place using the measurments I took between the original rails. Once the new one is in place I am then going to cut out the other frame rail and weld the new one in based on the same measurements. So it took all of 5 seconds to put the floor in, and a good hour to cut out the frame rail nicely. That plasma cutter saved me HOURS of work and my cousin thousands of $ in labor.

As for comparing notes, by all means! you can email me direct at jpywell@ppccustoms.ca if you have pics you want to send. Since I was a geek at one point in my life I built my own web servers and mail servers so you can send full size pics and as many as you want no limit on my account.

I cut out the firewall today and found that I need to replace both sides of the front floor pan. I am going to just get patch panels I really really dont want to take out the entire front pan and mess around with the shifting hardware. I have the new firewall in place and the new cowl sitting there... OMG its going to be something to get it to fit right, not a perfect match, but really its not bad and nothing that a little time and elbow grease (and a lot of tek screws) cant fix



sorry about the quality of pictures, I forgot my camera and only had my phone on me. Im taking pictures aswell with an Expensive Canon SLR but the camera is the owners and I dont bring it home, I will get the set of 15 megapixel pictures but that will be later.

[pywell]

Big update today.

First the new front floor boards were in when arrived back to the shop along with the inner right fender. I went and got some more gas for the mig and boxed up all the extra parts that are being picked up by roseville chrysler jeep. I cut out more of the floor on both sides to make room to put on the AMD firewall. WOW what  a non oem fit lol. It was a hell of a job to get it to fit back on the car and same with the cowl. Crazy crazy amount of labor went into fitting it. Not that Im complaining lol, paid by the hour and in the end it turned out perfect! It felt like I put in near 150 plug welds today at LEAST.

The firewall is on, the cowl is on, the window was test fit perfect and it looks great. I also have the inner fenders test fit on there right now aswell. I will be putting the passenger side inner fender and brackets all on tommorow and attempting to get more work done to the rear end. Pictures are currently downloading off the High Res camera so its taking its sweet time, and it will take a bit to upload them, but I will post the pics as soon as they are up in this post and send the link to view the rest of them.

Thats about it for tonight, back in a bit to put up the pics. UPDATE: Ummm it says 250 minutes to upload the 218 High Resolution 16 Megapixel images.... sooooo you can check them out at my gallery as I will be long time in bed before they are done. I will post a few thumbnail pics tomorrow before I go off to weld on some more parts tomorrow.