Author Topic: My eBay purchased 74  (Read 102649 times)

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #30 on: July 24, 2011 - 06:40:56 PM »
Week 10:

I played with the radio this week.  I spent a good 2 or 3 hours tracking down the power for the radio. As I mentioned before, the aftermarket pioneer cassette player had a fused wire run into the fuse box.  The original harness was stuffed way up above the steering column and it had some extra electric tape holding it back up there.  I managed to fish it out and connect it.  Fortunately it still worked.

Mounting the radio was very straightforward.  I did have to pick up a mounting bracket as the pioneer had it's own bracket which wouldn't work with the stock radio.  I made a quick and dirty connection to the rear speakers and everything worked.  This configuration  bypasses the rear speaker fader, cross over box and dash speaker so it's not the ideal solution, but it's good enough for now.  The funny thing is the radio gets better reception than my 2006 Jeep's radio.  It picked up 4 or 5 channels that I didn't even know existed.



« Last Edit: July 31, 2011 - 06:43:16 PM by Jamiez »




Offline Rob74dodge

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #31 on: July 24, 2011 - 10:05:48 PM »
Man..I like it!  Very cool cause' it's different and love 70's flair.  You are already are doing smart repair and it's a 4 speed to boot !
 I have my second 74' that was an Ebay buy a couple years ago and really appriciate yours.  Keep up the good work and best of luck in the future.
Drive that Challenger !

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #32 on: July 31, 2011 - 06:34:54 PM »
Week 11:

All I really did this week was order parts and take some updated pictures. And I updated all my prior posts to use Photobucket for the images so they won't disappear.
Everyone loves pictures right?






« Last Edit: July 31, 2011 - 07:05:50 PM by Jamiez »

Offline MEK-Dangerfield

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #33 on: July 31, 2011 - 07:05:51 PM »



Everyone loves pictures right?


Are you kidding me? I would love to own your car.   :grinyes:    :lol:

Mike

1970 Challenger - SOLD
2016 SXT+.  1 of 524 SXT+'s in Plumb-crazy for 2016.

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #34 on: July 31, 2011 - 07:23:21 PM »
Thanks :)

I guess I got pretty lucky and did good with my first classic car purchase :)

Offline Matt70

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #35 on: July 31, 2011 - 08:25:11 PM »
Yes you did!  :2thumbs:
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

George Orwell

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #36 on: July 31, 2011 - 09:51:44 PM »
One more I found on the camera


Offline CUDA JAS

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #37 on: August 05, 2011 - 10:25:45 PM »
oh man, I fickin love your car....I hope that you are plaining on keeping that paint job, it is just so kool!

Great work on all the little projects.

I do find it somwhat funny that you are doing so many things to restore various pieces to stock, when the car is so modified. :bigsmile:

Enjoy your car.

Oh and I hope you are recoveing ok from the acident.

Jason
 
74 'cuda 360/727



Gearhead: car nut, automotive enthusiast, one who loves hot rods, muscle cars, hot trucks, burnin' rubber and neck snapping performance. 

Just call me a gearhead!

Offline acudanut

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #38 on: August 06, 2011 - 10:23:22 AM »
oh man, I fickin love your car....I hope that you are plaining on keeping that paint job, it is just so kool!

Great work on all the little projects.

I do find it somwhat funny that you are doing so many things to restore various pieces to stock, when the car is so modified. :bigsmile:
Enjoy your car.

Oh and I hope you are recoveing ok from the acident.

Jason

I kinda agree. Still like the car, despite being a 74. :cheers:

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #39 on: August 06, 2011 - 11:26:58 AM »
I consider my car to be a survivor.  As near as I can tell most of the metal is original, and the engine and trans are numbers matching.  If I do have to replace something, I want it to look correct which usually means original used parts in good condition, nos parts, or reproductions.  So I guess I am slowly taking it back to stock. But I have no plans to change the paint for as long as it holds up. The engine has had a number of aftermarket additions (air cleaner, intake, carb, headers, alternator, etc) but as long as it keeps running well I won't be doing any major work to it.  On the flip side of the coin, I won't be doing any major modifications like adding a Shaker or dropping in a Hemi.

Most of the work I've been doing is replacing pieces that were missing (hood insulation pad, four barrel logo) or broken (clock, antenna).  The radio is the only thing working item I removed and took back to something near stock.  The pioneer cassette deck just looked wrong.  It was a giant silver block where the radio should be.  If it had looked better (and was wired better) I probably would have left it alone.  Price became an issue when looking for a replacement.  Reproductions with iPhone/iPod support were too expensive, buying a good used one was actually the most affordable option. I suppose I could have shopped around for an aftermarket one that had a good look, but then fit/mounting could have been an issue.
 

Offline joelson6

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #40 on: August 06, 2011 - 08:01:57 PM »
man, i hate this thread, i cant stop looking at your car !  :droolingbounce:

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #41 on: August 09, 2011 - 06:27:20 PM »
Week 12:

As a by product of my work on the radio, I've been spending a lot of time messing with the wiring.  When I got the car there were a number of connectors which should have been connected to something but weren't.  This included everyone's favorite feature of the 1974 model year.......



The seat belt interlock.  I was interested in seeing if everything functioned as it should (particularly if the lamp was burned out).  I managed to get the passenger side hooked up and with some help from a heavy tool box was able to verify the interlock functions as designed.  I haven't been able to locate the connector which goes from the floor to the driver's side seat yet.  It's under that carpet somewhere.  I'd like to verify that it works and then disconnect at least the driver's side.  Passengers side isn't that big of a deal for me.

Hopefully I'll get some parts in this week!

Offline femtnmax

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #42 on: August 09, 2011 - 09:05:18 PM »
The seat belt interlock.  I haven't been able to locate the connector which goes from the floor to the driver's side seat yet.  It's under that carpet somewhere. 
Love your car / paint.  Years ago when I was car hunting, I looked for a rallye optioned car, but could not find one at the time that fit distance from home and price.  I'm jealous you found such a nice car:)

I have a 74 challenger also.  The seat belt interlock blue box and drivers side wiring is below/behind the drivers side of the dash and the wirng also runs behind the drivers side kick panel.  I took most of the interlock wiring out, some was real easy to remove, some was integrated enough I just left it in...so it now goes from/to nowhere. 
Reading up on the Mopar wiring harnesses, there were many suggestions for "improving" the wiring to prevent overheating and FIRES.   Give a careful look over of the harness connectors in the engine compartment just forward of the gas pedal area.  Look to see if any of the connectors are melted.  The best way I could tell was when I took the harnesses out.  My car spent it's past life in a dry climate, yet there was corrosion and melting of the harness connectors.
One important part of the wiring improvements was to bypass the amp gauge, and run the alternator output directly to the starter relay and add fusable links.  My suggestion would be to look into improving your beautiful cars 35+ year old wiring.
Keep up the good work.
Phil

Offline joelson6

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #43 on: August 09, 2011 - 10:04:52 PM »
the wiring on the '74 is definitely "different" than earlier challengers. i was dreading that whole seat belt interlock thing
when i first got my '74 running. i tried bypassing it and got no luck. so i just left everything in there and the car runs
fine.

Offline Jamiez

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Re: My eBay purchased 74
« Reply #44 on: August 09, 2011 - 10:27:50 PM »
Thanks for the tips on the wiring.  For the seats, there is a hole in the carpet under the seat.  On the passenger side I was able to reach in there and find the wiring.  A little wriggling and I got the connector out.  For the driver's side, I can feel several wires (because the wires for both seats run through there.  I haven't managed to locate the set that goes into the connector.  I really didn't want to pull the seats if I didn't have to.  Now that I know the light works the motivation has waned some.

For bypassing the circuit all the previous owner did in my car was leave all the seats and seat belt wires disconnected.  Based on my testing, only the seat connection actually matters.  Or did you mean you wanted to permanently trip the emergency bypass switch? 

The only real reason I messed with it is because connectors that do not go anywhere and I didn't have time to work on the stuff I have parts for or time to work on the stuff I have parts for :)  I'm sure you all know how that goes.