Project Beast Car - My 73 'Cuda Restomod

[rdf]

I did a lot of digging and researching on local shops and got some quotes to put my car back together, but they're steep!  First off, the guy that built my motor said he would love to but he simply doesn't do that kind of work anymore at his shop.  He's mainly a motor shop and wouldn't have the space for my car.  So I called a few local places...most saying "I need to see it before I can quote you anything", which was to be expected.  If it comes down to it, I may rent a U-Haul car trailer and setup appointments with some of the local shops so I can get it done in a day or two.  The U-Haul rental isn't cheap so I gotta make best with it when I have it.

I also joined a few Mopar groups on Facebook and got in touch with 2 local people there.  The first guy seemed more interested in doing body work to my car but he did say he could put it back together as I wanted.....his price? 8k-10k    The next guy actually came out to my house and looked the car over for a good 45 minutes.  He just split ways with a shop called Drop Dead Customs https://www.dropdeadcustoms.com/ and is looking to venture out on his own.  His price?  5k for it all or $75/hr.  While his price is a lot more reasonable than the other guy, it's still a big chunk of money for mechanical work.  I'm gonna have to talk to him again because I think that price includes putting the doors, trunk, and hood back on, which I told him I don't need that done because I can do that part after.

So I have some options and am still looking into a few more places to see if there are any better options or alternatives.  Sorry it's not an exciting update, lol.

[dodj]

@ClarkWGrizwald
I have 10.5" wide wheels with 6 5/8 bs.  1.5" offset spring hangers. The 315's fit with a bit of space left over.
Based on my car, I would say a 345 could fit. May have to roll the lip a bit.

@rdf
Body and paint for a fish tank! You did alright there even if it's not a show winning paint job. 

Thank you for the real world info! I tried to do my calculations based off other people's data but wasn't sure how it would end up.  Do you have and inch between the tire and the leaf spring? I figure the 345 is
1.2" wider than a 315 so .6 " tigher towards the leaf.  So you would need to be sitting with 1" inside space currently for a 1.5 relocation bracket to work for me. I calculated you probably have about .5" so I'd likely need a 2" relocation to make this work.  It's gonna be tight!

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@ClarkWGrizwald
Guess I missed this somehow...been 4 months...
I have a bit less than 1/2" tire to spring. There looks to be space to the quarter though, about an inch or so. Maybe need to trim a touch and/or roll a bit for the 345's.

[ClarkWGrizwald]

Thanks buddy! If you have that much out-board, I could run a small spacer to move the wheel out a tad to center it. I was hoping to have gotten to the car by now this winter.  Haven't yet. Between work, a home remodeling project and kids sports....the cuda still sits.   I gotta install the 340/727 , the 3.55 posi rear, rear springs and relocation kit , the new black interior and i wanted to wrap the body in vinyl. I have a lot to do still! Nothing too hard, just time consuming.

And as you know, you do a project like put in a motor and you think "since im in here.....maybe I should put a Fi-tech fuel injection carb on..." Or msd ignition conversion....or better power steering sector etc etc. Just gets out of control taking longer and longer. Part of the fun journey.

Thanks for the help on the measurements!

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[rdf]

Been busy with work and a few vacations so I didn't have much time to work on the car....but, I managed to move it from my single car garage to my double car garage to be ready for some work tomorrow!

[rdf]

Made some progress today...got the distributor and brake booster in and managed to figure out most of the wiring.  More work planned for the weekend 😁

[rdf]

Noticed this port when I was putting the water pump together...any ideas what it's for?  The pump is from 440 Source and I checked their site but it doesn't say what it's for.

[RUNCHARGER]

You install a nipple there for mounting the heater hose.

[rdf]

You install a nipple there for mounting the heater hose.

Gotcha...but no heater box means just put a plug in, correct?

[RUNCHARGER]

Yes, pipe thread.

[rdf]

Not a ton of time to work on it today but was able to mock up the placement for the motor plate, alternator, power steering pump, and power distribution block.  I made the cut in the motor plate a long time ago, for the alternator, but after putting it together today, we noticed it still needs a bit more cutting.

Tomorrow's plan is to cut all the necessary bolt holes/adjustments in the motor plate and see if we can get the power steering pump on just to see how it fits.

One issue that I didn't really think of when using a motor plate is it throws off the alignment of the pulley's just a tad so we're gonna have to figure out that as well.

Need a harmonic balancer ad pulley as well, any suggestions?

[rdf]

Looks like the alternator pulley isn't going to line up with the rest of the pulleys so my question is, do they make a smaller, compact alternator or do we just have to order a different pulley with the right amount of offset?

[rdf]

Last day of working on it until next weekend.  Made some breakthroughs though...motor plate isn't gonna work...at least I can't think of a way to get it to work.  I believe it would work for manual steering or rack & pinion steering but the back of the pump has too many things sticking out that need to move when adjusting the belt.  The first two pix show how much of the plate we had to cut to get it to bolt up and that wasn't counting for the adjustment part.  You can see the pic with the red outline that is how much more we would've had to have cut to make it work, slightly.  At that point, there's not much left on the plate and I don't think it would hold up very well.

So we're on to motor mounts now but the good news is everything seemed to bolt up nicely now.  I've got a list of stuff to order so I'm hoping it'll be here by the weekend.

[rdf]

It's been like Xmas for me this past week and a half....got a bunch of parts in and I'm ready to get working on the beast again this weekend. 

[rdf]

Got some easier stuff done today.  We put the water pump pulley on, the crank pulley on, got all the plugs for the water pump and sealed those up, starter is wired up and installed, radiator is wired and installed (just need to run the power for the fans), kickdown bracket secured to the carb along with the throttle cable as well (thanks to everyone who recommended Lokar...super easy to install and adjust), and bolted the carb to the intake.

We tried to reverse the fuel lines on the carb so that the hose would come from the back (nice and clean) and not all the way up front, but when swapped, the tube hits a bolt mount on the intake, preventing it from fitting correctly.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to get around this?  We thought of either slightly bending the tube so it avoids the intake or grinding off about 1/16" to get it to fit.  I don't know how easily those tubes bend and I really don't want to pay for another one if I break it.

[gzig5]

Horse apiece.  I would bend the tubes, but I wouldn't have it bolted to the carb.  I'd drill a tube size hole through the middle of two stacked pieces of wood or plastic to form a holder/die for the tube in the vise.  Clamp it, then grab the tube and bend it up 1/4" or so to clear the boss on the inake.  repeat on other tube so they are in line.  You may be able to use the carb with the tubes mounted as the holder, but be careful about damaging the bowl.  If it is steel tube it will take a bit of effort to bend that short arm.

There are probably a few other ways to accomplish it too. 
Adding a carb spacer should get the pipe out of the way.  Edelbrock makes a 5/16" insulating one in versions for single or dual plane or if you have the hood clearance a 1" wood/phenolic would help top end HP in most cases.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-9265?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAjwsO_4BRBBEiwAyagRTTHgVDAKVbJoNkeWRNrlVIm6i6IBNObz-xDEuEfcZtZEf8PnW1FvHxoCyX0QAvD_BwE