Msbaugh's 1970 Dodge Challenger Build

[Msbaugh440]

Well... I've been lurking on this site since the transition from CC. I've never been very active, but that's just because life has got in the way over the past few years (hell I have a lot of expensive hobbies, so I can never fully devote all my time to just one). I've dabbled in some pretty nice modern mopar builds over the years and have owned my 70 Challenger for 6 years now. Purely a MOPAR guy, but I'm a young gun, so I spend a lot of time researching things on these sites and must say the group here is incredibly knowledgable. Hoping to start something official so you fellas can help me along the way.

About the car... it was a pieced together drag car when I bought it back around 2010. I've made some nice upgrades since buying the car to make it more street-able, but everything I've done has only included what is absolutely necessary to keep it running and on the road (disc brake conversion, rebuilt transmission, suspension rebuild, new gauges, minor engine modifications, custom wiring harness, etc.). I've done all the work myself so far, but have never done what is necessary to turn it into what I've always envisioned. I'm finally at a point in my life where I feel like I'm ready to stop enjoying it for a couple of years and turn it into something special. Full disclosure here, this build is not going to be anything special by this site's standards. The car was originally a slant six, 3 speed manual car. Since I've owned it, I've swapped the K-member, changed fuel lines, put an 8 3/4 rear, and slapped a good, but used 440 big block in it to make it a little more fun. Its been great to me, but I want to turn it into something more special and personalized. I bought it for <$15k back in 2010 with the 440. I plan on sticking with the engine combo as I enjoy the flexibility of a non-original build just because it allows me to do whatever I want without ramifications of messing up a special car.

High level plan right now is to go crazy with a 440 stroker build, 4 speed manual, dana 60 rear, hydro boost brakes, reinforced k-member and chassis stiffing kit, power brakes, stock stye PST/hotchkis suspension upgrades, and full stripping and repair of the body. I'm sure there will be more hidden issues as I tear into the car. Overall, the body and frame is very solid, but has some areas that need attention (drivers quarter has some rust, trunk floor, passenger floor, etc.). The paint looks great (as you can tell in the pictures), but as we all know good paint can hide a lot of issues! I'm sure there will be more changes to my plans as I go, but heck, gotta start somewhere! Here are some pictures of the car over the last couple of years.

[71vert340]

 It sounds like you'll have fun building the car as you want it. Good luck and enjoy it.
Terry

[RUNCHARGER]

Great plans and a great car to do it with.

[JS29]

 

[usraptor]

Looking forward to watching your progress.  I also went crazy with a 440/512 stroker build, 4-speed and Dana 60 rear for my '70 'Cuda.  It's a blast to drive and gets a lot of attention especially when I open up the electric cutouts.      Lot's of knowledgeable people here to help you along.  I know, I would still be working on mine instead of driving it without their help!

[Msbaugh440]

I'll try to highlight some of the bigger projects I've done to keep this thing going over the years. When I bought the car it had some shifting issues in the 727 transmission. It wouldn't shift right and didn't like to come out of second gear. I decided to pull the pan and to my dismay, found quite a bit of friction material in the bottom of the pan (OUCH). Turns out the band adjustment was way off and I suspect that someone had it way to tight. The band and drum had been worn so bad that they were basically unusable.

I decided to pull the whole transmission and build it with some major upgrades

[Msbaugh440]

I set up a rebuild station and decided to take the entire transmission down. I put a lot of money into this thing, bolt in sprag, billet drums and servos, upgraded 4 pinion planetary sets, full reverse manual cheetah valve body, Stacked B&M transmission cooler and new ptfe cooler lines, all new performance red lined clutch and band material, new shim packs to correct the loose factory play tolerances, all new bushings throughout, a new dynamic torque convertor with 3200 rpm stall to match my rear end and engine combo, and a full cleaning with a fresh coat of primer and paint after assembly (I'm probably missing some things here, I'm going off memory, this was about 2 years ago).

I was a little worried about the high stall, but these dynamic convertors are super street-able and behave well cruising around at low RPM. Zero issues with the rebuild and this thing performs great. Unfortunately, I've decided to chase my dreams and go with a 4 speed manual conversion. I think I will like driving the car much more rowing through some gears.

[usraptor]

Very nice! 

[JS29]

Running through the gears are much more fun with a pistol grip!!!!!

[Msbaugh440]

About a year ago I had the ammeter and bulkhead problems with the wiring harness typical of most Mopars. I decided I would custom build my own wiring harness and make a few upgrades along the way (including the mad electrical upgrade). Here's a list of things I did:
- Bypassed the power through the ammeter gauge to the inside of the car and drilled a hole through the builk head to run some heavier gauge wire from the alternator power junction under the hood straight to the inside of the car.
-Added a mini relay/fuse box (hid under the batter tray) to give power to the low and high beams, ignition, and electric fuel pump
-Rebuilt the old Mopar square back alternator and put a kit in to up the amps
-Added an oil pressure safety switch and bypass for a new electric fuel pump (went with a tanks inc with submerged walbro fuel pump), main goal was to put a pusher pump in to combat vapor lock issues
-Bought some stock style Dakota Digital gauges and power box for the rally dash and wired them in with new coolant temp sensor, oil pressure sensor, fuel sending unit, speedometer, tachometer, voltmeter, etc. (LOVE THESE GAUGES)
-Welded some o2 sensors into both sides of the exhaust downstream of the headers and put two air/fuel ratio gauges in the car
-put all led lights in for the gauges, foot lights, and dome light

[Msbaugh440]

Here's the rebuilt wiring harness all pulled out of the car now. I was thinking of integrating a new fuse/relay box into the harness for the inside of the car as well. Has anyone had any luck replacing the old Mopar fuse boxes on these cars with something more modern?

[Msbaugh440]

These are someone else's gauges but these are the exact style I bought for the car. Nice factory-like look with all modern digital technology. They drop in to the stock rally gauge bezel without issue.

[Msbaugh440]

While I was at it, I also sent my rally gauge bezel, switches, etc. in to performance car graphics. My plastic bezel was in pretty rough shape and rattled quite a bit driving around. Got all new switches, a new plastic bezel and new "wood grain" covers for the gauges. Performance car graphics did a great job refurbishing what was salvageable and the new wood grain looks great. The wood grain seems to scratch really easily.

[Msbaugh440]

The car had a vintage air system when I bought it years ago. While it worked well and was fine, I didn't want A/C in the car and decided to pull it all out, sell it, and buy an original heater box to install instead (car was originally a non-A/C car).

I live in Utah, so A/C is not really necessary. Even if I still lived in the south, I've always enjoyed just rolling with windows down. I like the minimalist style in a car anyways and while that goal has changed slightly, I am going to stick with no A/C for now.

The previous owner hacked the firewall up to get the vintage Air unit in, so my first step was to fab up some metal to take it back to original. I used the gasket and heater box to eye-ball the hole for the blower motor. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have bought a replacement firewall panel and cut out the portion I needed. I feel it ended up close enough for a non-original/non-numbers matching kind of build.

[Msbaugh440]

Can anyone tell me why all of my pictures end up showing up on the site sideways?? No matter how I rotate it on my computer, it always ends up sideways?