Modify my 70 Challenger (Switzerland)

[-Tom-]

Hi

So today i want to show you my Challenger. Its not a Restoration, because the car got a lot of work in the past. New fenders, new hood, new side panels and new paint 8 years ago. New paint at engine bay 4 years ago. New rebuild engine (440, keith black pistons, hughes cam, edelbrock rpm heads, rpm intake, demon carburetor), rebuild 727 4 years ago also.

Now for me its time to do all the litte things

First a picture from the car two years ago;

[-Tom-]

So the most important thing i wanted to do is a upgrade to the board electric. Some gauges dident work and the wiring hareness isn't ideal from factory. So what i did;

- New hot Wire from Power Generator to Starter, 25mm2
- New hot Wire from Starter to fuse box 25mm2
- Ampmeter delete
- New fuse box by painless performance
- Disassemlbed the wiring Hareness, everything fused separately
- High output relay for switched Power / accessory

And this is how it looks like;

New hot Wire to Generator


Old fuse box


Old vs new box


Wiring hareness dissasembled


New box build in



Lot of work but everything works a lot better now 

[-Tom-]

So then dashboard.... Lot of work again 

- New Clock OER
- New Tachometer OER
- New Fuel Gauge OER
- New Gauge Lenses Classic Industries
- New Voltage Regulator
- Mileage indicator adjustment (Engine rebuild matching)
- Ampmeter delete, build in a Sunpro Voltmeter
- Sanding the wood away, new covered with 3M Carbon style Vinyl
- Dashboard new leather made by upholstery





















I think it looks great, and all gauges works perfect now 

[soundcontrol]

That looks great! How difficult is it to change the fuse box? How does the wires connect in the new one?

[Mopar Thunder]

Nice job, car looks great. I gave my center console the same treatment w/ the carbon fiber. 

[Katfish]

Love the upgrades, well done!

[johannes]

Good job. Would you care to share more details on the voltmeter installation? ...and specify all details?  I would also like to see more pics of the interior... The seats etc... Have you removed the bulkhead connectors?

[Katfish]

Interested in the voltmeter install too

[ToxicWolf]

Interested in the voltmeter install too

Me too 

[-Tom-]

Thanks a lot for your replies!!! I am very happy you like the modifications I did... and I will share more details about Voltmeter installation. But first about the fuse box.

To build in the new fuse box you need a basic knowledge about car electric. Other ways it will be very difficult and possibly you don't fix every weak point and build in some new. And if something don't work if bad connected, to find out what isn't good is like hell. To connect something at the fuse box is simple, because on the fuse box you can see what wire you need to connect;



But the main problem there is no step by step guide for your car. A lot of stuff is not fused separately from factory (wipers, headlights and so on), there are some hot wire points IN the wiring harness. So you need to disassemble the wiring harness and find this points, then replace the hot wires and continue to the new fuse box.  Some things you can delete (old hazard light relay, amp cable, hot wire and stuff like this), some power circuitry changes to modern style, so you need to know it works now... some things are just tricky.
If you want a high output relay for the ignition you need to know how it works and how to connect.

Bulkhead connectors are ok from factory that's why it is still in place. But the main hot wire (I took a 25mm2 cable) has a new hole. So I hope you have a overview a little about this work... like I said, if you have a basic knowledge it will be tricky but of course you can do it. If not, I would suggest to keep hands off. But possibly you like Challenges !! If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Johannes... about the rest of the interior I am not very proud about. Its one thing I want to change. Not white/red like now, I want everything black. The Cobra Seats are bad right now... But step by step 

[soundcontrol]

Thanks for the info! Its on my To Do list now, gonna order one of those fuseboxes. With "hot wire points" you mean that they split the cable in the harness right? Will probably get to the electrical next year, have a Vintage Air system that I'm gonna installl also, while I have the dash out. I'm good with electrical stuff so I can figure out most problems there. Got a Rally Cluster also, I will either get Speedhut gauges or have Redline do a complete makeover with GPS speedometer, new tach, clock  and voltmeter etc. Have not decided yet. Redline cost is $1190 and it will look all stock.

[-Tom-]

if you are good with electrical stuff so I don't see a problem. The cables are not split at hot wire points, they are brazed together. But I think we mean the same thing... The most important is a good power supply. The thin cable from generator to ampmeter is a joke. There must be a fat cable from generator to Starter, and from this point again a fat cable to the fuse box. So you can be sure the voltage doesn't brake down if there are many things switched on at the same time.

Sounds you have a lot to do soon 

[-Tom-]

So now what I did for the Voltmeter swap, step by step. Sadly I didn't make more pictures so I used some from internet also... you will see;

1) Remove Dash Cluster

2) Braze the Cable to Amp meter "in" and the Cable from Amp meter "out" together. Best thing is delete this cable, go from Generator to the fuse box directly. But its tricky, this cable is a supply for some stuff like wipers, so you cant delete it without other modifications on harness.

3) Remove Amp Meter from Dash

4) Disassemble the Voltmeter. Its possible to open up with a pliers.

5) Then it looks like this



6) Take off the faceplate. At this point of the back of the Voltmeter (red arrow), the plastic must be cut or sanded off a little. Or the Voltmeter will stick out to much.



7) Open up the holes from gauge cluster. The mounting bolts from the voltmeter are identical almost, it doesn't need so much (red Arrows). I painted the cluster black, its possible you can see the cluster when everything is bolted together through a gap. So I found it looks better in black.



8 ) Sand off or cut little from the plastic left and right (red arrows). It must be done that you can push up the Voltmeter enough (red fat arrow) to make it fit perfectly between oil press and temp gauge. On the picture its cut already.



9) Bolt on. One mounting thread or bolt is hot wire (12V switched). Don't forget a isolator, you can take the factory one, before you put the nut on it. On the other side you don't need a isolator under the nut.

10) Mount the Sunpro Faceplate or the Factory Ampere meter Faceplate. Bolt holes are identical almost. Also possible to glue on the factory Ampere meter needle if you want factory style. If you want to mount the Sunpro Faceplate, then you need to cut or sand off a little from the bottom of the Faceplate, that it fits (red arrow).



11) Connect the hot wire bolt to a switched 12+. You can go to the input of the Voltage Limiter... aftermarket Voltage limiter haves 2 input pins, so you can directly plug in. So this guy at the following picture (its not my) had to connect the ground wire also. If you cut the isolator and bolt the nut on without isolator under it, then it takes ground from the cluster and you don't need any ground cable.



12) Put everything together and be happy 




So I hope you understand everything, its difficult to do a guide in a other language I learned in internet and television only !! But if you have questions of course you can ask 

[ToxicWolf]

Thank you.   

[soundcontrol]

if you are good with electrical stuff so I don't see a problem. The cables are not split at hot wire points, they are brazed together. But I think we mean the same thing... The most important is a good power supply. The thin cable from generator to ampmeter is a joke. There must be a fat cable from generator to Starter, and from this point again a fat cable to the fuse box. So you can be sure the voltage doesn't brake down if there are many things switched on at the same time.

Sounds you have a lot to do soon 

True, the cable going to the ampmeter on theese cars are an accident waiting to happen, especially when the car is over 40 years old...
Had problems there on 2 of my earlier e-bodys. A voltmeter is a much better option, (if you're not doing a OE restoration though).
I'm gonna run a thicker powercable to the front of the car and install relays for the lights and horns, to minimize the amps going thru the bulkhead connector as much as possible.