My eBay purchased 74

[joelson6]

yea, i was gonna permanently bypass it.

here's the funny part,

when i had the big block in my '72, i had an engine harness made for it. so now i
picked up the '74 i figured i put the big block in that and use the harness.

oh, no, no, no 

with this whole interlock thing, they changed the wiring that passes through the
bulkhead. i couldn't figure out why the ignition key wouldn't turn over the engine 
after careful inspection of where the wire goes, i pushed down on the emergency
brake and the engine turned over  . so i had to unwrap both harnesses
and make a big block harness out of the two. 

it was an all day project 

[Super Blue 72]

  This included everyone's favorite feature of the 1974 model year....... The seat belt interlock.

I just love looking at your car!  The paint is mesmerising! 

When you talked about the seateblt interlock it reminded me of our '74 Chrysler Town & Country wagon.  I was like 8 years old, lying on the front seat and saw these 2 wires unplugged.  So, I plugged them in.

My Dad couldn't start the car for days until I told him about the plug as he didn't wear seat belts! 

[GranCuda1970]

Sweet Funky ride!! All I here is that broken fuzzbox bass and guitar music from the 70's and 80's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYWrYKFmjr8&feature=related

[brads70]

I just gotta say that's the best "retro" paint job I've seen!    It still doesn't look dated today. Usually most of those type/style? paint jobs are too " busy" for me and I get tired of them real quick, but yours I REALLY like!

[Jamiez]

I found the driver's side connector.  It barely comes out of the hole in the carpet.  I think it's probably pinned under the seat rail.  Anyhow I connected it, turned the key and nothing.  Put on the seat belt and it starts.  So the interlock is all working.....and then I disconnected the driver's side.  I always drive with the belts fastened but it's a real pain when I'm working on the car..even with the emergency bypass option.

Is there supposed to be a buzzer somewhere in the car?  My dad's 74 impala buzzes like crazy when it detects weight with an unfastened belt.  I also do not get any sort of buzz/chime when I open the door with the key still in the ignition or with the lights on and the engine off.  Maybe those were options?  I thought the rectangular device that plugged into the fuse box was a buzzer.  Maybe it's bad?

[Jamiez]

I just gotta say that's the best "retro" paint job I've seen!    It still doesn't look dated today. Usually most of those type/style? paint jobs are too " busy" for me and I get tired of them real quick, but yours I REALLY like!

I think the main reason it works so well (beyond the fact that it was high quality job) is that the paint job takes it's cues from the standard color scheme.  Instead of the black T hood and side stripes it has that off-white color.  And the tail end of the side stripes has a block strobe effect  similar to the AAR stripes.  The only part I could do without is the pointed stripes that were added to the door scoops.  Door stripes were an option, but I've never seen a challenger with both the door stripes and the full length stripe.

[GranCuda1970]

It definately has the retro appeal and looks pretty crisp!!

[Jamiez]

Is this supposed to be the seatbelt/door/key buzzer?  I did a quick search on the part number and some hits made it seem like it might be? Or was that feature not on all cars in 1974?

[Jamiez]

I finally had some time and the weather was just about perfect for giving the car a good cleaning and wax.  The car has never really been "clean" as it rained cats and dogs as we drove it home.  I've taken it out a few times and given it a quick once over but never put the time into a good through clean. The cloud cover disappeared just as I was finishing the wax so I didn't get a chance to do the chrome.  The interior needs quick pass to but, I can do that in the garage.

Anyhow here's a shot of the clean car with the sun on it.  It probably wasn't apparent in the other photos but some of the colors actually have a little metallic to them.  I think this shows them off pretty well:

[Jamiez]

Week 13:
I finished up the cleaning and decided to take the car to a local cruise. My dad decided to take his Impala as well. It wasn't very far away but it was the furthest I had driven the car (the Challenger is the first manual I've driven).  The show went well but the getting home was a problem.  For some reason it wouldn't start.  Eventually it did run but then it stalled as soon as I got it out onto the street. Doh!.  Fortunately there were a lot of car people around and the car was moved quickly off the road and fixed.  The problem? The coil wire was disconnected.  Not sure how that happened.



The radio saga continued as I managed to hook up a new Rear speaker fader.  My car had a mono fader so I swapped in a stereo one.  The mono one doesn't seem to have a connector, it's just part of the harness so for now it's been bundled up behind the kick panel.  All I need is the correct harness and I should have everything to make all the speakers work correctly.

A new 185* Stant thermostat showed up and I put it in.  The car had no thermostat in it as a PO must have removed it.  With the new Thermostat in place, the temperature gauge is working again.

After asking about the two fender tags and assembly tag on my car, I discovered the  tags were mounted incorrectly.  One of the holes was full of paint/junk so I drilled and tapped it back and put the tags back on the way they should have been.



And finally I removed the 3 different brands of wire separators from the plug wires (the few that hadn't fallen off) and replaced them with a new MSD set.  I probably need to pick up a set of brackets as well.

[wally426ci]

You're doing an awesome job! I love this car!

[Jamiez]

Week 14:
Challenger spent most of the week connected to the battery tender, all that cranking when the coil was loose/not connected really ran down the battery.  I also let it run for about a half an hour to double check the thermostat install.  No leaks and the temperature gun shows everything is where it should be.  The gauge on the dash still reads low, but at least it reads now.

I've got a number of parts in transit this week,  the only one that showed up was the turn signal indicators that mount on the top of the fender.  This is what they looked like:



I had to get the whole kit that included the wiring, the housing, and the lens.  I really only needed the housing and lens.  The swap was very simple, just 1 screw per unit.  The new units are a pretty significant improvement.



Hopefully more goodies will arrive in the mail this week.

[brads70]

Looking good! 
Seems like Christmas everyday around your place? Presents arriving everyday!
( like I can talk..... I'm building an engine)

[Jamiez]

A bit like Christmas....but too often after unwrapping the gifts I find out I don't have any batteries 

The radio is a good example...I've been slowly getting pieces for it for months.  Hopefully the last bits will show up this week

[GranCuda1970]

Looking good!