70 Challenger going Plum Crazy

[dakota]

After 11 months in the body shop, all done.  Now I have to get it shipped, which means a couple of more weeks of waiting.  Hopefully the snow will be gone by then.

[dakota]

The sun made a guest appearance, so there was a chance for some "outside" photos at the body shop.

[Rare_T_A]

She's a keeper for sure!!!!!!!!!!!! Best of luck with it.

[moparman82]

Nice looking car!  Enjoy that beauty!

[dakota]

It wasn't planned this way, but there's definitely a Mopar theme running through my family.   I used to drive a Dakota pickup that went well past 180,000 miles (which is where my dakota180 name originated), which was replaced with a '02 Ram pickup which also recently crossed 180,000 miles, which should not be confused with my '70 Challenger or the pair of '11 Challengers that 2 of my sons bought when they had the chance.   I don't think my next door neighbor growing up realizes the impact seeing his 69 Charger R/T 440-6 tearing around the neighborhood would have on me. 

Since my kids are "grown up" and live out of state, I had to piece this picture together from 3 separate photos.   It's not much on proportions or artistic values, but it still makes me smile.

[moparman82]

Now that's a good looking family!

[usraptr]

  : 

[dakota]

Received some better lit pictures of the Challenger today.  From what I can tell, the guys in the body shop absolutely nailed the paint job.

[usraptr]

I have to agree with you.  They nailed it!

[dakota]

One step closer to the Challenger coming home at last.

[dakota]

I got a look underneath my 70 Challenger for the first time yesterday. Just beforehand, I noticed that the steering felt like it was hanging up in a couple of spots.  No wonder:  it appears that one of the end links (passenger side I think) was making contact with the exhaust pipe.   I wasn't sure if this is a simple(ish) issue with the way the pipe was hung or if the pitman and idler arms were changed at some point in the past to something longer than stock.   Both arms measure right at 6 inches between the center points of the fasteners on the bottom side - are these stock length?

While crawling around, I found the rusty fragments of the clutch fork return spring.  Oh, and that little whine from the transmission might have something to do with the fact that there wasn't a single drop of transmission fluid in it.   Looks like I have some fluid filtering in my future to see how much damage has occurred.  Ugh.

[dutch]

wow... no oil doesn`t sound healthy....     well at least you`ve got an awesome looking car to look at when it decides to die....    turned out great 

[dakota]

My brother-in-law passed on some advice to me given his experience rebuilding 3 muscle cars:  check EVERYTHING.  I'm glad he insisted. I took my carb apart (Holley 4010) to put in a rebuild kit.   It turns out the float needle valve seats were MIA.   I had to drill out both sides.  There was a not-so-healthy looking gas residue inside the bowls and everywhere else.  This is a picture of the a set of the "old" and "new" float needles.

I'm looking forward to the day where I put more on the car than I take off.   Still having fun though.

[dakota]

Finally got my back seat lifted.   Looks like I had quite the mouse nest at one time.   Even found one of the former residents, or at least what's left of it.   Despite the mouse crap and carcass, it was a good day as the broadcast documentation was still there to be found safely tucked in the rear seat coils.

Two mild surprises:  I was told by the previous owner that this car once had a 318 in it, but the sheet says it was built with a 340.   I will have to go find the serial number on the 340 in it to see if it's original.  The sheet also shows this car came with a Sure Grip.    As I understand it, if the rear wheels spin in opposite directions when one of them is rotated while the back end is airborne would be more typical of an open differential (someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this).   So now I'll want to pull the 3rd member out to take a peak.   The automatic and console were switched to a manual with no console at some point in the past.   The AM radio is also long gone.   Other than that, most of the original stuff is still there.

The journey continues.

[ammo]

If it was sure grip,they would spin same direction