70 Challenger going Plum Crazy

[Dakota]

While I was cutting metal, I went ahead and made a small plate to cover the well where the choke mechanism would be if I still had a carb.  I still need to paint it orange, but overall I'm happy with it.  B

[Dakota]

Couldn't get much time in the garage today, so ended up working in the seat tracks in the basement.  It's probably been 3-4 years since I took them apart, so it took a minute to remember how to put them back together.  After several failed reassembly attempts, it finally came back to me: assemble the tracks (after greasing) without the bearings, then shift the upper track slightly to create room for the bearing slider and roller. Repeat the process on the other end of the track. 

[Dakota]

Working on electrical stuff.  I don't like the look of  an MSD box hanging out in the engine compartment and I'm not really confident on where I'll have space in the passenger compartment dash isn't in yet), so I'm mounting mine behind the passenger side high beam headlight.  To do this, I had to make a mounting plate because the footprint of the corner mounting points on the MSD is otherwise too big for the flat part of the space. Most of the leads from the MSD will need to be lengthened a bit but that won't be a big deal.

[Dakota]

Also adding relays for the headlight (high and low), in-tank fuel pump, and a/c compressor clutch.  I found an enclosed box online that holds up to 5 replays, so I have a spare for future use. I mounted it behind the driver side high beam light. It's mounted at an angle due to the available space, but a side benefit of this arrangement is that I can easily see and reach all of the relays once I pop the top of the box off.   It's tough to see in the pictures but that was kind of the point. 

I'll be using the area under the battery for terminals posts to feed the relays and the dashboard area.  I've started, but not finished, the ammeter bypass. 

[Dakota]

Last item for now is putting in new pigtails on the front side marker lights. The sockets on both sides were badly rusted to the point where the bulb wouldn't stay lit consistently even after a couple of attempts at cleaning them.  The new wires, ordered through Roseville, arrived with a solid ring where they go into the light housing.  I used a small grinder wheel on a Dremel to cut a series of slits in the ring, then used a drift pin and a some mostly gentle hammer taps to fold them over inside the housing.  The sockets for these lights have a dedicated ground wire (shared with the horns), so the folding over provides a physical connection but not necessarily an electrical one. 

[Chryco Psycho]

Good Job 

[Dakota]

This past week was the first time I've worked on the Challenger since the beginning of November.   Between then and now, my wife and I spent the better part of a month on the road visiting our kids and other family before getting into the usual holiday crunch.

Even though it's been a mild winter so far, what little I've done has been "indoor" work.   I finally got the new seat foam and vinyl covers from Lengendary on my seat frames with a lot of help from my wife.   I was truly afraid of something bad happening if my hands slipped while stretching the vinyl before she got the hog rings in.   Fortunately, no accidents occurred!

I am not a small person, and I have to say it was quite a workout to get the covers on.  I used a heat gun to warm the covers up since the sun is mostly MIA this time of year, but it was still a bit of a wrestling match.  We ended up sending the rear seat upper section to a local upholstery shop as we couldn't get the muslin over the cotton layers to pull smoothly around the small hump for the transmission tunnel.    A few comments on the process:

The Legendary YouTube videos, especially for the '70 front bucket seat, were very useful.   I watched it a bunch of times and had it cued up on my phone for reminders as we put the seats together.   The closest video for the '70 Challenger rear seat was one for a '69 Charger rear bench.   Unfortunately, the Charger has a straight bottom (no hump) on the uppper rear section so it's not an identical application.   

I mostly used the 3M "77" spray adhesive for assembling the foam pieces and applying muslin.   It worked fine.  The muslin strips could be applied almost immediately onto the front seat foam and stayed put once applied.   I ended up also using some of the Gorilla Spray Adhesive towards the end which didn't work as well.   It didn't spray on as heavy as the "77", you have to wait at least a minute to assemble parts, and there were a couple of places I had to redo after everything was dried.

There is no "driver side" or "passenger side" to the Legendary front seat foam or the seat bottoms, but they do end up being shaped differently after assembly based on the seat frame.   

There is a difference between the sides for the front upper seat covers as there is a precut square hole for the seat latch.  I'd love to tell you I noticed this beforehand but frankly I was lucky.

The Legendary video for the rear seat upper on the Charger includes guidance to apply "3 to 5" layers of cotton over the burlap before pulling the muslin over it.  I talked with Ron from Legendary about the Challenger.  His guidance was that only 3 layers were needed.  After we gave up on covering this section, the shop we took it too indicated they were going to use seat foam and 1 layer of cotton instead of multiple layers of cotton for the filling with no muslin used.

I used a small pair of bolt cutters to remove the old hog rings and some of the new ones that didn't go in right.   All of the old rings and some of the new ones I had were fairly hard metal, so pieces tended to go airborne when they were cut.  Make sure you have some level of eye protection on if you go this route.

I thought 500 hog rings would be enough to do the front and back.  It wasn't.  Especially early on, I had to remove a bunch that didn't go in right.   They're fairly cheap.  Buy extra.

I'll post some pictures and the cost of the shop work once I get everything back.

[Dakota]

Finished up the radio install.  Ended up trimming the bottom of the radio trim piece to fit.  I just couldn't bring myself to cut the dash trim.  The updated stock radios are just too pricey for me. 

Also added a brace to the backside of the radio as it was too loose just being supported by the face. 
If the existing hole in the dash frame I used with the brace is intended for something else, please tell me now. 

[usraptor]

Not sure if you used the same hole but the dash should have had a brace to begin with.  At least I think. I know the Rallye dashes do. Can't say for sure on a non rallye dash, but I would assume they are the same.  Here's pic of the hole and the brace connected to it.

[JS29]

That bracket IS to support the radio, you got it were it belongs. 

[usraptor]

Dakota, thanks for the excellent description of the seat cover install.  Mine were done years ago and whoever did them got the seat bottoms crooked.  While they are in still like new condition, I've been contemplating taking the seats apart and trying to straighten the bottom cover.  I'm also curious if new foam was installed when the covers were initially installed.  My instinct or should I say the seat of my pants says no.   

[Dakota]

That bracket IS to support the radio, you got it were it belongs. 

   Thanks!  I was mentally preparing for that being a hole needed for one of the vent pieces which of course I wouldn't discover until after the dash was installed.

[Dakota]

The dash is hanging in the car instead of an engine stand in my basement where it's been for 2+ years.   

I still have to hook up the speedometer cable and rearrange some wires and such before doing the infamous 4 bolts by the defroster vents, but I'm considering this a big milestone anyways. 

[Morty426]

Those 4 dash bolts are the suck - I don't know what poor bastard got stuck with that job but it must have been awful. 

[Dakota]

Had to have some work done on my foot so I will be a "hardly able" on crutches for a bit. 

Before my little "procedure" occurred, I was able to pick up the rear upper seat section which we had done at a local upholstery shop.   He used foam instead of the cotton batting Legendary supplied. I'm really happy with how it turned out, as is my quality control inspector (she's just disappointed there's no food involved).  I'm usually pretty stubborn about doing things myself but this was $75 well spent in my book.  My wife and I were able to manage the recovering of all of the other pieces on our own, but that one was a struggle to get the cover to look right over the cotton.