Woo! This is already cool.
What transmission? A833? 727? It's also amazing the rust you found- when I read "100lbs lighter with rust" and looked at the picture of what you were backing in I said "berkeley this guy, that thing looks cherry!" Then I saw the roof and the quarters. Must have been a vinyl top car?
Keep up the good work!
I like this! I'll be watching
In reply to Gunchsta :
It has a 904 in it now. Thinking I'll buy a built 727. That was one stipulation for my wife so she felt comfy driving it too!
Yeah it was a vinyl top car. I got the thing for a steal compared to what prices are doing now. So, I'm ok with getting the bodywork practice.
I assume you've already seen the TV show, that Vandervier Charger was featured on Americarna a year or two ago. There's a video clip on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsijmdGKWY
stuart in mn said:I assume you've already seen the TV show, that Vandervier Charger was featured on Americarna a year or two ago. There's a video clip on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsijmdGKWY
Oh heck yeah! I saw that!
This is badass. Cant wait to see the finished result!
First tubing bend in 20 years. First notch cut in as many. Not gonna lie, Flubbed the cross bar the first round.
Test fit and ended up with 1" clearance on either side. I have the mount plates cut and bent and ready to go. Just need to get the time to get them in place. Once I have all the tubes set up and tacked where they need to be, I'm paying a local fab guy to come throw down the weld completion with a TIG. I'm just not up the the quality level that I am happy with when it comes to TIG welding.
One thing that I did that drove some MOPAR purists out of their skull was to adapt an GM HEI module to this thing to make it run. They are much more robust than the old box.
Oh well, the old tired 318 is out now and already sold. It will look much different soon.
Every freeze plug on the motor looked like this:
12 years of water sitting in one place:
Another thing I did was fill in the corner lights. Yes, I know there was some obscure DOT reg that added them. We don't have vehicle inspections in NV (or in Florida where I will most likely finish this thing)
Ok, before tig guy:
Stitch weld the whole thing. Everything you can get to, up to and including the taillight panel. It adds monumental amounts of structure to the car, and makes the suspension and brakes actually work. I cannot stress enough how much this helps.
The cage design you have so far looks pretty good. Try to tie the main hoop at the front spring eyes, the rear downtubes at the reah spring hangar, the fronts downtubes to just in front of the leading edge of the k frame, and the a pillar bars as close to the torsion bar crossmember as possible.
Im going off memory for most of this, as its been close to 15 years since I last screwed much with a later b body. So, some points may be optional....
After the cage and stitch welding, pull the full suspension. Up front, machine some steel or aluminium to replace the rubber mounts on the k frame (or is that the later b?). Then, fully weld the k. Take a look at firm feel website to get an idea of the additional gussets and braces they add. Toss the stock strut rods, as they bind significantly. I chose qa1 based in price and design. Seem to be good pieces. (Im primarily an a body guy). Firm feel stage 3 power steering box with their quick ratio arms are a wonderful combination. Ditch the stock column coupler, and grab a speedwar u joint. Id have to look through the duster build thread for a part number, but it was 40 bucks or so well spent. Take the lower comtrol arms, box them. If you can get a needle roller bearing fabbed in instead of the bushing, it provides huge dividends. However, thats race only in my opinion. The moog rubber ones are fine otherwise. Combine your disc splindles with some afco screw in Chrysler type extended length ball joints to fix the camber curve, and moog offset uca bushings to fix caster. Depending on radial vs bias ply slicks will dictate alignment settings. Spax and koni are the good shocks. Dont be tempted by the bilsteiens. They are valved to make up for all the flex in the chassis, and wont react well to a properly stiff car. As far as torsion bars, 1.2x is where i would start.
In the rear, assuming 8.75 axle, youre job is pretty simple. Check the welds on the housing. A lot of them are found to be pretty bad. Leaf springs, built to match the rate you want (id guess 200-250lb) are simple. Either xhd mopar, two right side super stocks, landrum composite, or what i did: hybrid pack of muscle car and durango with a half leaf on the top of the main leaf to control brake hop. Go with a spherical bearing in the front eye, bearing style leaf spring slider instead of shackles, lowering blocks to desired ride height, and go. Clamp all leaves in the front segment, and get the pinion snubber properly adjusted.
Im not a purist by the way....
I love it. I'm hoping to eventually do similar to my Monte Carlo.
Couldn't approve of this build more! Only suggestion is to use a trans with overdrive unless its purely going to be a race car.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
Man, THANK YOU! Great info!
I noticed you have a RED MSD coil, these work great, but if mounted horizontally they will not last very long. To mount horizontally you need the high vibration coil. After mine failed I read the instructions....
The HEI module I found some nice finned heat sink mounts on Ebay, I used the same type set-up on my Fiat.
(or in Florida where I will most likely finish this thing) don't get any where near Ben_Modified you might end up putting light tipped longhorns on this 
This is awesome. I look forward to seeing the finished car. 
Just couldn't help myself today. Had to at least get an idea where it was going to sit.
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
Yeah, just the stock mount. I'm going with the full on GM HEI coil in the distributor cab on the finished product. :)
I have to ask: what steering wheel is that? Ive been looking for a replacement for a long lost grant signature series that i cant seem to find.....
Also, before you tack the cage to the plates, i learned a trick where you use a hole saw to drop the main hoop tubes down through the floor so you can fully weld the halo and downtubes. May be a good idea for you as well.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I will see if I can find the Grant part number for the wheel.
And yep, I would have done that but I still just have the roof on with Cleco fastners so it's easy to pop it off and have easy access for welding. T-Top Charger!
VegasNick said:One thing that I did that drove some MOPAR purists out of their skull was to adapt an GM HEI module to this thing to make it run. They are much more robust than the old box.
Oh well, the old tired 318 is out now and already sold. It will look much different soon.
I'm running the same setup in my '75 Slant-6 Duster, but I'm using a Ford coil I had leftover from my old Lincoln Mark VII. The GM HEI works perfectly with the stock Dodge distributor. It will also keep delivering spark down to 4-volts, which I discovered after my voltage regulator pooped the bed on a long drive. By the time I got home the turn signals would barely light up, but the damn car was still running. I shut it off, pulled out the VM and checked how low the battery was: 4 volts. The 4-pin GM HEI module is stupid cheap, works great, and only needs a square wave signal from the distributor to work.
Love this!
In reply to slefain :
They are seriously robust!
This looks like a FUN build... Keep doing what you are doing. On another note, it is the first time I have heard of HEI modules described as "robust". I guess it does make a diference if it is living inside a hot distributor.
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