And then there were 2...

This one isn't going to be driven on the street often. I want as light as as I can get, no hood or trunk hinges and latches, that's just excess weight, pin on or Dzus fasteners are going to used wherever possible. Once I have it stripped the rest of the way down I want to make some door hinges so I can lift the doors off when the nose has been removed.

I need to order a new full floor pan so I can cut it up to install a rollcage :dance:

Plans are to have the torsion bars, steering parts, K frame modified and 440 installed in the first one this weekend. Then I'll start working on the 8.8.
 
the door hinges can easily be modified to have the pins easy remove...i did this on my ramcharger....once you have them out you remove the spring plate holder and then put both pins in from the top..after removing a little of the knurl ..heck on an a-body id bet using the longer truck pins would make it even easier...with fenders on my truck i could open the door and tap the bottoms of the pins with a hammer and then grab the pins with my fingers and pull them out..both doors off and in the bed in just a few moments then pop off the half top and plop it in the bed just over the wheelwells and it held the doors down in the bed....obviously the door gap on a truck is bigger..but still the hinges themselves are similar enuf

"if" you order up glass fenders PLEASE weigh them...id love to know how much weight loss is possible in this more modern age..hell ALL the glass you order id love to know the weight of part by part....since the valiant sheetmetel isnt going to be enuf of a differance in weight against cuda piece ....especialy on a coupe...and ill be watching closely to see how you lighten your doors.....i have 2 spare sets stashed to do exactly that
 
A few things to consider:

If you lose the torsion bars, you will have no rear support for your lower control arms. They will not stay in place without implementing some sort of lateral support to the rear. I have no idea how one would accomplish this, or at least no idea I consider worth suggesting (because of the hex-shaped sockets). This isn't an eventual issue, this is a "your control arm(s) will fall off on the test drive" issue.

On the coilovers, you'll have to fab new shock towers. The factory A-body ones are notorious for failure with virtually no load on them; put 55% of the weight on the car on 'em and they'll probably blow apart before the jack's fully unloaded.

If you're going to lose the inners, make sure any and all support structure that's going to replace them is in place prior to making Cut One in removing them. That means if you're going to use cage tubes to support the front end of the rails, they need to be welded to an installed cage first, meaning at least a six-point (though you wouldn't have to have the trunk braces in yet). Unitized construction is very complex in its load distribution, so make sure it's over-supported before removing anything. It will buckle with no engine in it--in fact, having the engine out won't make it any less likely to do so, unless you've already got coilovers in place. Remember, once the inners are gone the core support is of absolutely no use in terms of structure. Tying into it might strengthen the support itself, but will accomplish nothing for any other weaknesses in the car.

Make sure everything you do will pass an NHRA inspection, or it's likely they won't let you onto the track. In Atlanta, if it even looked like it would run faster than a 12.00, it got picked over with a fine-tooth comb, and the more cut up the car, the closer the inspection. Anything flip-front over a tube chassis stub needed to be certified. That was Atlanta, though, which is an NHRA track. Your local track(s) might see things differently.

I'm assuming that at this point you're not buying that '74 360 Challenger Rallye?
 
What kind of ETs are you looking for out of this car?
Seems to be an awful lot of work for a weekend warrior-type race car...

Way, way back in the early 80s, me and two buddies stuffed a stock block, ported head 440 into my '75 Dart Sport. It was a cobbled together mess - we were only teenagers - with nothing more than a 3.91 8.75, SS springs and a pinion snubber out back, used Hoosier slicks, fender well headers (this is why you need to heed Doc's advice about inner fender work), glass hood and fenders.
We drove it to the strip in Prince Edward Island, a good six hour trip each way. Three of us plus slicks, beer and tools.
Once we figured out how to get it off the line and down the track (with a LOT of help from fellow racers), we got it down to high 12s by the end of the second day. It was a blast!

I really don't think we had more than a weeks worth of work in it and I know we spent very little money. We didn't have it to spend...
 
Fast! :bwuhaha:Honestly, I'd eventually like to get into single digits in the 1/4, but I'm sure that's the gateway to go faster. I'm going to strip it down and replace the full floor section before I do anything else. Since I do want to go really fast I'll purchase a cage kit and have it professionally installed, just because my life is kinda important to some people. Everything I can do I'll do, anything else I'll find the best people available. Once it's done I may have a mild low deck in it, at least until I can afford to do more.

The street car I want to break into the 11's, eventually. Just a nice, quick, street car. :vroom:


Challenger is already paid for, Challenger is coming home after Carlisle next year. Bunch o' rust, think Binky's rustier older brother! :shifty:
 
And this,
[video=youtube;_48MOeET6C0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_48MOeET6C0[/video]

He doesn't seem to be in business anymore.
 
71ChargerRT said:
He doesn't seem to be in business anymore.
Click to expand...
Shocking. :bwuhaha:

I don't ever remember cage kits being all that expensive to buy; in fact I'd considered that and a back-half to try and save my Challenger back in '88. I couldn't afford it, but I was also making around $4/hr at the time--minimum wage was $3.35/hr back then. Shipping was pricey as hell, though, and I sure couldn't afford to pay someone to install them.

I have more of those 15x7 wheels than I know what to do with... at least 10, perhaps as many as 16. They're all over up here and cheaper than dirt. That number doesn't include the cop wheels that have been languishing in the backyard for 8 years, nor does it count the Rallye wheels (8" rears) that came on the Challenger. I'm also buried in aluminum wheels, come to think of it...
 
pretty sure ive got a couple of them..but not a full set for sure....ive got a couple oddballs ive never seen too...like a steelie with no open areas..its weird
 
It's hard to read the date codes through the grass and rust, so I'm not sure what's special about 'em...? The 15x6 JJ "H" wheels and the '70 15x7 JJ "M" (which I think were all Motor Wheel rather than K-H) wheels are really expensive, but a '68 dated wheel? Not sure what would've had those. There were no Mopar musclecar steel wheels wider than 6" prior to 1970, so the K2 8 stamping means it's either a later (1978), possibly a truck (Imperial?) piece, or non-Mopar in its origins. :hmmm:

Got better pictures of the numbers?
 
I believe it's a truck wheel, nothing really special about them, as far as I know. I just want a set of wheels that look the same for the Valiant, like the '69 M code B bodies, just in case I choose not to run the poverty caps.
 
'69 M-code cars used wheels that look significantly different than that. There are only three hubcap nibs on the "H" wheels. The nibs are dimpled and have a square profile rather than rounded. Also, the "ring" of the wheel in which the valve stem appears is narrower than on your wheels.

Still, I can dig what you mean, since there aren't any holes or shapes between the stud holes. That shouldn't be too tough to find; C-barges and trucks should be a pretty decent source for 'em at yards. If not, reproductions are available inexpensively.

M-code wheel:

Rare.jpg
 
If $ is such an issue, ("Ill Change the mounts to when I can afford it" "I'll put a 8.75 in it when I can afford it, I'll change the cam after I get it tuned and running good") Why do you plan on doing each part of the build twice?

It seems to me it would be much more cost effective to stop spending money and time on parts you don't plan to keep. Why cam and tune the engine twice? Thats two sets of cams and lifters, gaskets, and time, money and effort to to make it run. The same tune wont work with both cams. Why would you install the drive train with mounts you don't want to use? Thats just more work, effort, and once again wasted money. Why would you wast a ton of money to build a rear diff that you don't want to use? You are going to have so much cash wrapped up in making that 8.8 diff to make it marginally better that you will likely be 3/4 of the way to the 8.75 you want.

It seems to me you would be miles ahead in money invested and build quality to save money for the parts you actually want for then end result than to piss away extra money now just so you can slap it together quickly and then spend more money to do it all over again. There is plenty of stuff to do that costs next to nothing to do on a project to keep you busy on it as the funds build as you go.
 
I'm not swapping cams twice, I'm going to get it running and driving stock and swap the cam at a later date. As far as the rear, I'm just going to install the 440 and run it as is, light weight car and lo-perf 440 with skinny tires shouldn't be an issue, if it is I can buy Exploder rears all day long for $50 a pop. I'll have the 8-3/4 done by next summer. With the mounts is as simple as swapping out the biscuits, once again skinny tires and lo-perf 440, they should be fine for now.

I know it seems like I'm doing things twice, but I need to get busy working it now before I do something stupid.
 
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