1970 Challenger T/A FY1 (Top Banana)

[Cuda Cody]

Saw this T/A come up on ebay and called the owner immediately.   Was on the road from Washington State to southern California with a trailer the same day.  The car had been off the road since the 80's and someone had started restoration on her about 15 years before I got.  This is how I found it.

[Cuda Cody]

The original engine and transmission were missing.  The owner told me he dropped them off to have them rebuilt and never picked them up.  But he thought he remembered where the shop was that he dropped the engine off at and would take me over there.

It was a small mom and pop speed shop in LA and sure enough they still had the original 340 six pack engine!  And all the engine work was even done and paid for! 

[Chryco Psycho]

Amazing that the engine was that easy to locate !
Have you found the #s trans yet?

[Cuda Cody]

Transmission is still MIA.  But I found & used a 340 auto trans out of a purple 1970 Challenger that was super close to the VIN.  The previous owner will let me know if he finds it. 

[Cuda Cody]

Getting the body down to bare metal.  Really solid car with only the typical rust in the trunk and window channels.  The drivers fender had a dent that someone tried to fix.  It will need to be fixed correctly now.  But step one is to get everything in epoxy and then get the body on the dolly.

[Cuda Cody]

Not very much rust in this California T/A, but as with any E-Body there's always some little bits that need work.  A new trunk pan, dutchman and some window channel is not bad compared to most E-Bodies I've seen.  Some of the window corners had been repaired by a previous "bodyshop" and they were done very poorly.  Had to fix a lot of what they did wrong.

When the trunk extension was removed a wallet fell out.  It must have fallen back there a long time ago as the dates on the cards were from the late 60's and early 70's.  Looked the guy up on Google and called him.  He remembered buying the car brand new and told me a few stories about his time with it.  When he got married he wanted to buy his new wife a car and went to look at them at the Chevy dealership.  They would not let him leave without trading in his Yellow T/A.  Finally they traded him a brand new 1973 corvette straight across for the used T/A.  He wished he still had this T/A.  I've stayed in contact with him and shared photos of the car being restored.  So lucky to find his wallet in the car and get to talk to the original owner!   

[Cuda Cody]

Good metal and bodywork is the first step to a quality paint job.  I've learned to love it as I know the time or money spent on this stage pays off when the car is painted.  Fully painting the underside in color is not exactly how the factory did it.  Normally it would have only been over-sprayed in color on the bottom of the car.  But it's hard to beat how clean it looks when the underside looks as good as the top side. 

[Cuda Cody]

After applying the blackout it's time to start putting the car together!  Brake and fuel lines are long and one of the first thing I like to install.  Having a lift helps, but this can be done without one.

[J-Code Jeni]

This car has so much history! Would make a great article in a Mopar magazine!  ;D

Btw- gorgeous shade of yellow- it's so cheerful!

[Cuda Cody]

More photos of the final stages....

[303 Mopar]

 

Top Banana is one of my favorite colors for a T/A!

[Chryco Psycho]

Thy go together fast once the paint is done !!

[MoparDave]

awesome Cody, well done.

[Cuda Cody]

Really need some dry weather!  I want to get this car out and do some more testing.  For some reason the engine is down on power from a hard launch.  She starts right up and idles fine, but under hard load she falls flat on her face.  Bogs out.  Had her on a dyno and confirmed it.  I've tried a couple different sets of carbs with the exact same issues.  Going to swap the converter out because it might be to tight.  A guy on Moparts suggested I do that and I think it's my next move.  Also building an exact duplicate T/A engine for another car that will have the same cam and compression as this T/A.  That will let me do some tuning on the an engine dyno and make sure the carbs are not the issue.  It's going to suck if I have to pull this engine out and go through it if it's something like a tooth off on the timing. 

[Chryco Psycho]

Could very well be a dist problem too