READER RESTO
BUILDING A SEVENTIES DODGE HAS ITS CHALLENGES. BUT OWNER LOGAN RECKONS IT WAS WELL WORTH THE TROUBLE.
READER LOGAN BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO A DODGE CHALLENGER
You can blame the Targa High Country for this project – that’s where I first saw a Cuda being driven in anger. In my younger years, I used to be into Japanese cars, but as I got older my tastes changed and I started to appreciate older cars. One of the things that helped was looking through some old family photos and coming across pictures of some old Dodge utes my dad used to have. Unique Cars published some of them.
Any way, back at t he Targa. The f irst year I went – I’ll a lways remember this – a green Ply mouth Cuda with a Hemi in it lined up. I reckon the noise it made had the koalas dropping out of t he trees. The sk id it did of f t he sta rting line was massive, but it couldn’t do turns. You could hear it slow right down and then it was on the noise again. It was something different. Most of t he cars were Holdens, Falcons and Mustangs, but there didn’t seem to be another Chr ysler. From then on I wanted one.
It took a long time look ing around to f ind something decent. There were plent y of rust buckets out t here, but I didn’t want to have to rebuild a whole car and get into a whole lot of sheet metal work.
Eventually I came across this one, brought in by an importer that specialises in Chryslers, and decided to have it. It was a standard Challenger with a 318 V8 in the nose with the 904 ‘baby’ Torqueflite three-speed. Ideally I would have loved a T/A and I could have had one for just $2000 more, but it was riddled with
“SOMEONE HAD BEEN TRYING SOME DUKES OF HAZARD STUNTS”
rust and I reckon the only thing you could have saved was the roof !
My plan was to eventua lly turn this car into a T/A replica. I have a background in car paint and graphics – I used to work with John and the crew at RacePaint – so I have some of t he sk ills to do t he job.
What I started off wit h was a stocker painted in Go Mango (an orange colour) with white v inyl roof and red interna l trim. You have to wonder what they were on when they walked into the dealership and ordered that combination.
Overall t he car turned out to be prett y solid. These E-body cars can be shockers when it comes to rust. The boot, t he f loors, the rear quarters and the panel bet ween t he rear screen and bootlid are particularly prone. That last panel had to be replaced on mine. It was f ull of pinholes, so we cut it out, made up a template and fabricated a new piece to weld in.
Under t he front lef t g uard had a fair bit of damage and looked as though someone had been tr ying some Dukes of Hazard stunts. The right rear needed some minor panel-beating, as well.
It was taken back to bare metal. I probably did 80 per cent of the work but I had a lot of help. My mate Mick from Edge Paint & Panel supervised a lot of it and offered invaluable advice, while another friend, Jamie, put in time to etch, high-fill and finish off the body. RacePaint was kind enough to let me use a
paint booth over a Christmas break, and luckily my neighbors were tolerant of the sanding and clouds of dust during all the prep.
The paint is off the gun – no cut and polish so far – and I’m generally ver y happy with it. However I was a bit rushed when it came to the preparation for the bonnet and wouldn’t mind doing that again.
People warned me t hat f itting t he glass was t he worst job, and t hey were right. I took t he opportunit y to put in new stuff, some of which went in easily and some that took hours to get right.
Probably my biggest mistake was throwing away the damaged original metal body trim. I didn’t know at that stage that firstly there were people out there who could fix it, and secondly that even the old damaged stuff was probably worth hundreds of dollars. Oh well, you live and learn. After that experience I kept ever ything off the car, even if it was only there to be used as a reference.
In the end I sourced some tired T/A trim and came across Francis at Auto Bling, who did a fantastic job of restoring it.
Over time I stocked up on a heap of parts, including new headlight surrounds. It turns out t he aftermarket items were nothing like t he qualit y of t he originals, so I sent t hem back and got t he factor y pieces restored. We did however manage to get some new bumpers.
We took the opportunity to put in a new wiring loom, and then turned our attention to the interior. At this stage I’m only partly done with the cabin. Overall it was going to be refinished in black, which meant replacing, recovering or repainting ever ything. The rear passenger cards literally fell apart when I removed them, so they were replaced, while the door cards were recovered.
As for the seats, I dyed the rear in black. The stock front seats still need to be reupholstered properly, but I will refit them as they seem like they’ll be super comfortable and do a reasonable job of holding you in. In the meantime I’ve put some 1970s Toyota Celica front seats in. I had to make up new rails for them, but they look okay and do the job for the time being.
The dash has had a new cap fitted and I decided to completely replace t he ex isting instr ument cluster. Sta ndard t hese t hings had a speedo with a couple of other minor gauges, plus you could order a clock. I decided to go wit h t he f ull four-pod cluster out of a 1972 model.
As is often the case a lot of the work on the
“THE AFTERMARKET ITEMS WERE NOTHING LIKE THE QUALITY OF THE ORIGINALS”
“LIKE A LOT OF PROJECTS I’M NOT SURE YOU EVER FINISH THEM”
mechanicals was caused by the car being left sitting for years. I must have cleaned out the fuel tank ten times and the carburettor was full of varnish. In the end I replaced the latter with a quadrajet.
The engine was pulled out and cleaned up, and we took the opportunity to add a few performance bits, including MSD ignition and an Edelbrock intake manifold. It’s prett y lively and does the job for the time being, though I have a 340 sitting in the shed and aim to do something with that.
As for the underpinnings, I replaced all the suspension bushes and tie-rods, to tidy up the handling side of things. There is some built-in ride-height adjustabilit y in the front torsion bars but not at the rear. So I sourced new hangers for the springs which had three positions. We tore a weight off the driveshaft at the lowest setting, and soon moved it up. It’s now sitting at the right height.
It’s still running non-assisted drum brakes all round and I’ve got to like their very progressive feel, though one day it’s likely I’ll put in discs. For the time being, you just have to drive it within its limitations – you need to take it easy on long winding roads. It actually handles fairly well. I think the wide stance and new tyres help in that area. However it could eventually use some sway bars.
Like a lot of these projects, I’m not sure you ever really finish them. The majority of the work took about five years and there is still a list of things I’d like to do from here. That’s part of the fun of owning these cars.