70 Challenger going Plum Crazy

[anlauto]

The VIN number on your dash will tell you what engine the car was born with.
Fifth diget :
H = 340
G = 318

[usraptr]

I've never seen a build sheet that looked like that???

[dakota]

I decided to pull the heater box apart.   The picture shows some of the trash and disintegrated foam that fell off or was scraped off.  A heat gun has been useful in softening up some of the old adhesive that seems to be on all of the metal doors. 

I suppose at some level it's a little twisted to spend time prepping parts for paint that no one will likely see again in my lifetime, but it still feels like the right thing to do. 

[miketyler]

Just saw this. Car looks great. A worthy tip on rebuilding heater boxes once all cracks are repaired is to lightly glass-bead blast the case, then clear coat. Makes them look like new.

On the decision to bead blast before paint, was interior removed? I bought a Mach1 that had been blasted before paint and as I disassembled the car for restoration that abrasive media was everywhere. It was in the dash, headliner, etc. I was blowing that stuff out off the car for weeks...

[dakota]

The entire interior was out. You're absolutely right about the blast media.  It was in every nook.   

[dakota]

A continuation of the "check everything " mantra:   I changed the oil and filter when I first got the car.   It's run a only a couple of hours since then, but I thought it would be good to to check the bottom of the pan to make sure there wasn't any metal there.   No metal, but there was a bunch of sludge. 

While I was marveling at my brilliance for deciding to check the pan, my phone slipped out of my hand and did a belly flop in the sludge. Fortunately the phone case blocked most of the muck.  My moment of brilliance was very short-lived. 

[dakota]

After many days of pulling parts off the car, it was a nice change of pace to put something on it:  new rear taillight bezels & lenses, along with a new set of the 3 piece trim around the trunk.  All good stuff purchased through Roseville.  I took a few "before" pictures, but the ugly on the old stuff wasn't captured well in the photos.

[dfrazz]

Lookin SWEET!!   

[Chryco Psycho]

 
 I love purple Challs !!

[340challconvert]

Looking like a fun car to drive
70convert

[NxCoupe]

Sweet car!  It reminds me of my purple 440 six pack car I had.  It was factory plum crazy as well.  It did turn out very nice and you are doing all the right things to it.

[dakota]

Although there was no evidence of a leak in my heater core, I decided to replace it anyways since the car had been sitting for so long (15+ years) with radiator fluid in it.  If a leak developed later, it would be an absolute PITA to pull it after the interior is finally reassembled.   Finding a replacement unit that fit my car turned out to be a bit of a challenge (no pun intended....really), so Plan B was sending the existing unit to Glen-ray Radiators in Wisconsin to be refurbished with a new core.  As you can see in the attached pictures, it turned out great.  Bob at Glen-ray was terrific to work with.  He even corrected a pinch in the inlet tube from an over-tightened hose clamp that I hadn't even mentioned. It was $90 plus shipping for the refurbishing work.

[dakota]

I also got my non-Rallye cluster back from Redline this past week.   I know the Rallye clusters are more popular, but I kinda liked what I have with a few changes.  At Redline, the speedometer was found to be off by about 10 mph before it was recalibrated.   I also had them do the ammeter to voltmeter switch, reface all of the gauges, and replaced the clock with a tachometer (they re-used the clock face).  I have an oil pressure gauge that is in the stock location on the underside of the dash.

I can't figure out why the picture shows upside down... haven't had that problem before.

[Topcat]

I can't figure out why the picture shows upside down... haven't had that problem before.

 

 

[Topcat]

If you took a picture with an Iphone/smart device, that'll happen.

So you have to upload the picture to a picture resizer, review it and make adjustments.

I used to like Imageshack until they wanted money for me to use their website after 4 years there.
Now I use...  http://postimage.org/

See the little curved arrows and it'll let you change it from upside down to right side up.
Then save the Hotlink and paste it here under your comments.