1970 Dodge Challenger A66

[kawahonda]

Sadly yes, that pan requires cutting! I heard you have to pretty much remove the rear piece (where tail lights are affixed) in order to complete the repair! Would NOT be a fun repair!

I suppose I am lucky. My trunk lid is shot (It's repairable but easier to get an AMD lid) and the bottom of the window seal requires some cutting. Other than that...no rust anywhere else on the car!

Well, I do need to patch an area under the battery, but that's not due to "rust" but rather to battery acid corrosion.

[kawahonda]

Hooked up new washer tank and pump. She squirts! I hate the nut + canister design. I did not have a deep socket, so I made tools in order to tighten the filter to the pump. You need it just the right amount of "tight" so that it won't leak.

Wheels came in. Going to try to get them mounted/balanced tomorrow. I decided to keep the 14" Rallyes mounted with the Bias Ply goodyears. Maybe if I'm in the mood to blow minds with "all original" then I could mount them before a show. But seriously, Alloy with radials are just better. The Magnum 500s are period correct, lighter, and the right choice for this car. 17" forged wheel look too large for these cars iMO. 16" may be the right ticket, but there's zero RWL tires for that size. I'd LOVE to see a Challenger with 16"ers with RWL tires...post if you got it!

MoparLeo's hinges came in. While I was uneasy paying nearly $100 all together for the rebuild, I must say his work is precise, exact, and to factory standards. This man KNOWS hinges. He makes it so that lower hinge does NOT need an aftermarket bushing, which is what every place sells.. He drills it out LESS oversized than that, and puts in the right sized hinge bolt, just like what you'd expect Dodge to do and look like. All parts come back in vacuum sealed bags and primer-ready for paint. Just go through him, DON'T drill out your stuff and add bushings where bushings never were! That means LARGER holes.....good luck if you ever need to rebuild again in the future!

[kawahonda]

Painted hangers with single stage enamel. Should have door mounted back on car by tomorrow.

[kawahonda]

Got wheels/tires mounted and balanced. I'm currently going through lug-nut hell. I could use help! It seems that I may need special-made lug nuts. ET-type for sure, with .5" shanks and no less. And I require the ridiculous LH and RH lug nuts.

If you can help or know of a source, let me know. Pretty desperate, because these wheel/tire combos just absolutely need to go on the car. It will wake up the looks. It will transform it from "grandpa's car" to "on fire!"

I also want to document that while I was "definitely" sure that this combo would hit my "helper spring" hardware, it in-fact has plenty of clearance from it. So yay, I don't have to mess with the rear springs for now in order to mount them...

Just need....lug nuts. Breaker-19.

[kawahonda]

Door is hung. No more having to "lift it" in order to open it. MoparLeo rules!

However, the door still has some "delay" to it while opening it. It's not as "quick" as the passenger door. You have to lift the handle ALL the way up, sometimes twice, for it to break open. It's not a door hanger issue. I'm thinking at this point it's the internal h/w that needs adjustment. Any tips?

Here's some pics. The car is now drivable again.

@ 1 Wild R/T is hooking me up by cutting down some ET style lugs so I can get the new/wheels and tires on there...and graduate to the 21st century!

[kawahonda]

Also decided to order the TTI exhaust, earlier than expected. Reached out to Dave from Roseville Moparts.

Reason being is that the current exhaust mufflers are "rattling" against the gas tank. I tried to get under and adjust today, but you really don't get much adjustment opportunities with the stock hanger hardware. I do not like a hot mufflers banging against the fuel tank...bad design! The nice thing about the TTI exhaust system is it's all piping near the tank, so no chance of rattles!

I'm having several people talk me into Magnaflow exhaust. They said that it preserves the tone of the engine without changing it too much. It's high performance. There's little to no drone. I'm only looking for 20% louder (no more) than the current exhaust. Is there a certain muffler from Magnaflow that would be the ticket? Otherwise, it's going to be me driving to the local exhaust shop with my TTI kit and asking them to listen to it, and tell me what mufflers give me 20% more "meat".

Also have some great tips that I ordered from eBay. Way cheaper than TTI's tips, and they match stock exactly...just at 2.5".

[Katfish]

You'll be happy with the TTI exhaust, great fit.
I also found other tips at 1/2 the cost TTI charges, not sure why they are so proud of their tips.

[RUNCHARGER]

I ran Magnaflow Ultraflows on my 528 but they may be louder than what you want. They were fine at idle and normal driving IMO but lit up the whole town when I got on it.

[ToxicWolf]

The TTI tips I got for my 70 Challenger were kind of expensive but they are stainless steel and highly polished. 

[kawahonda]

The ones I got (pictured above) are stainless steel. Highly polished. There isn't any "crimping" either. Nice large 2.5" inlet.

Held it up to the old ones and it's measurement-perfect.

Paid about $110 shipped. Couldn't imagine a set of nicer tips!

[ToxicWolf]

The ones I got (pictured above) are stainless steel. Highly polished. There isn't any "crimping" either. Nice large 2.5" inlet.

Held it up to the old ones and it's measurement-perfect.

Paid about $110 shipped. Couldn't imagine a set of nicer tips!

Great job.  That's really cool. 

[kawahonda]

Got her at 8 BTDC. Would need to recurve to go further advance. She runs really, really good. 33.5" dwell with the points that were installed. I also added a 1/4" wooden gasket to the carb-to-intake. Heat-soak issues seem to be pretty much remedied, or significantly impacted. Only verified this on long-idle and test drives, have not tried for "real world" tests, yet.

She runs at 16-16.5" vacuum at 800 RPM idle. The intake does have a leak when spraying carb fluid, but what's the real benefit of fixing in the near term?

As-is, she starts easy, even hot, runs fantastic. I'm kinda at the point where I would consider engine is "done" for my stage 0 plans.

Many, many plans are set in stone for the next two weeks......stay tuned.

[Husk Challenger]

Great Job!

Any chance you have a link for your tips? I've seen few sets on Ebay at good price but i doubt about their quality...

I've bought the same vaccum gauge and she died the first time i used it while i was tuning my carb! 

[73440]

" I've bought the same vaccum gauge and she died the first time I used it while I was tuning my carb!  "
I see it's a Pittsburgh brand , I was born and raised in Pittsburgh and I hate seeing them use that name on those cheap tools sold at HF ,NT and online.

[Kewl_Wheels]

Those tips are real nice I think I got the same ones, ground and polished I think they were $125.      2.5"

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