1974 Challenger Restomod

[7212Mopar]

I think you guys are right. My memory sucks these days. Time to see my doctor. May be he can do a restoration on me.

[Purepony]

Wow ! That thread was intense ! I feel like I just took a test lolz

Really bad ass! Love the progress

[Dmod1974]

My new 4 core Frostbite radiator for a Gen 3 hemi came in.  I have to say, I'm pretty impressed!  The piece is much higher quality than the Champion radiator it is replacing, and it wasn't much more money.  The welds and finish are great, and it fits like a darn glove.  I didn't have any issues fitting it to my core support, and there is plenty of clearance between the bottom and lower radiator support channel.  It also has nutserts to make it easy to mount an electric fan.













I fitted up my Lincoln MKIV fan to the new radiator too.  I had to fab up new brackets which will get powder coated eventually, and it came out pretty good.  I offset it to the driver side to hopefully give me more clearance to the front of the engine.  The cooling package is a little thicker than the old one; I have no idea how much the Gen 3 hemi dressed sticks out so fingers crossed it'll fit.  This fan move a ton of air and there are very few aftermarket pieces that come anywhere near it.  It fits pretty well though; almost looks like it came that way stock!

[Dmod1974]

I also received my American Autowire harness.  With the full teardown and completely different powertrain setup it made more sense to rewire the car than hack up the old Painless harness yet again.  This is a really nice piece!  I like how it uses the stock bulkhead connector opening and the fuse panel mounts right to the backside of it.  Much better than the crappy Painless universal bracket that was in the way of everything. 

All of the wires and connectors are extremely high quality, and it includes all circuits including the grounds unlike the old one.  Another cool feature is the fact that it uses OE style connectors throughout most of it, and it includes both connector shells and pins for them all as well!  It has a built in relay center for the headlights, fog lights, and horn to take the load off of the switches as well as a bunch of circuits for modern features like electric VSS, A/C, fuel pump, etc. so it blends new and old.  This is why I settled on this one vs. the many other options out there.

The engine bay side of the bulkhead connector uses modern bolt on style interlocking connector bodies for a very secure connection and easy install/removal.  I can't wait to wire this thing up!

[usraptor]

I see what you mean.  That really is a nice wire harness. 

[anlauto]

My new 4 core Frostbite radiator for a Gen 3 hemi came in.  I have to say, I'm pretty impressed!  The piece is much higher quality than the Champion radiator it is replacing, and it wasn't much more money.  The welds and finish are great, and it fits like a darn glove.  I didn't have any issues fitting it to my core support, and there is plenty of clearance between the bottom and lower radiator support channel.  It also has nutserts to make it easy to mount an electric fan.

I just received this Frostbite radiator this week as well. I hope it preforms as well as it looks !

[Dmod1974]

I received all of my restored components from SF Restorations.  Amazing work and I'm glad I went this route rather than new resto parts or running them as is.  After 45 years the latches and other moving parts needed it badly.

[Dmod1974]

While waiting for the restored components to come back from Canada, I decided to do more fab work while the car is still unpainted.  I really don't want to put a bunch of the inevitable scratches in it after it's painted!

I fabbed up a mounting bracket for the factory Hellcat oil cooler.  It's made of 12ga steel and has 3 mounting points using factory holes no less.  I angled it to clear the A/C parts and still receive good airflow through the valance.  The oil cooler drain plug and oil lines are accessible, though the one on the passenger side was tight!  I had to use a hose end with a direct fit ORB fitting end since a conventional one and ORB adapter would not fit.  Yes, I plan on painting the oil cooler and fittings black.
















I'm using a Hamburger's CNC machined oil filter header and oil filter bypass adapter as well as factory sized -12AN braided nylon lines.  The oil filter is much farther forward of the wheel in case the angles look deceiving.  Oil changes will be a breeze!

[Dmod1974]

I made a bracket to adapt the factory low temp cooling circuit expansion tank to the driver's side.





The factory Hellcate low temp coolant pump is a beast!  This thing is quite big and at least 12lbs.  Nothing else flows like it though or I wouldn't have spent the $700 it costs.  The factory PCM can natively control it with the engine off and run diagnostics, so that's another bonus.



Initially I wanted to mount it to the battery tray, but it took up too much space and I wouldn't have room for the air filter.  Instead, I fabbed up a bracket to mount it in the driver side fender well area utilizing 2 existing holes in the headlight bucket and one that I added in the inner fender.  I might run a Killer Chiller eventually, and should have plenty of room in this area to mount and plumb it if need be.











Everything will be sent out to get powder coated along with a ton of other parts that I need done.

[Dmod1974]

I decided to rethink the aftermarket power lock setup.  Originally, I had it cobbled together with the rod clamps and actuators screwed to the door shell per the kit instructions.  It looked crappy and wasn't the cleanest install.

This time around I fabbed up two flag brackets to direct mount the actuators directly under the door latches with 2 large sheetmetal screws going into the door beam.

I cut and bent the lock rods and was able to find door clips that fit into an extra and unused hole on the door lock lever.  I used Honda 3.5mm rod and 6mm hole door lock clips for this.

It now has much smoother, cleaner, and lower friction actuation.  None of it is in the way of the window, track, and regulator anymore.  I double checked the range of motion to make sure the central lock actuators will send a signal in both directions.  Since this is a central locking system, they need to both toggle correctly or they won't work right.  This set up also eliminates the need for external switches, which I am NOT going to cut up my new door panels to mount GM switches in!  If either lever or lock cylinder is turned (or keyless entry used) it'll lock or unlock the other side as well.

Right angle drilling the door beam holes was a little tough, but doable.









Last thing to do before I send it out for paint is modify my kickpanels to fit 6.5" speakers.  I'm halfway through and hope to wrap that up this weekend.

[YellowThumper]

Wow! Great progress in the never ending minutiae of details.
Thanks for posting.

[MOPAR MITCH]

An amazing LABOR OF LOVE you're doing!!!

[Dmod1974]

Wow! Great progress in the never ending minutiae of details.
Thanks for posting.

Yeah, the to do list never ends....  I still have to go through and restore the dash and trim while it's off getting finished/painted.  Then reassembly, wiring, engine swap, seats.  LOL, it's going to be really weird to not have a billion things left to work on one day!

[anlauto]

Wow..you got a lot going on there...

[Dmod1974]

I started restoring the interior parts that won't be getting replaced, which considering most of it is 45 year old plastic, is not too much....   

I installed 6.5" Polk DB6502 component speakers in my kick panels.  They just barely clear the hinge pillar, hinge bolts, and on the driver's side - the parking brake.  I plan on mounting the tweeters in the factory side 3 speaker dash openings under factory grilles (still looking for a pair...)  I bought a dual 3.5" speaker adapter plate from Jerry Landes for the center location.  I painted it black so it won't be visible under the grille.  I'll be ordering a new dash pad to undo my 18yr old me hack work.  I want everything with the dash to mostly appear stock other than the gauges.