Daytona Clones From Around the World - Post Your Pics

[472 R/T SE]

Cool thread.  Bill drives that Superbird rain or shine. 

[hotrod98]

Tabor,
You're a mindreader. Ever since I saw that pic, I've been haunted with the same idea as you. I showed it to my wife last night and was telling her that we can use an aftermarket headlamp mounting panel ($100) from a 1993 to 1997 Camaro. It uses the small headlamp seal beams and would have all of the adjustors. You may have to split it in the middle since it may not have the right spacing. It's smc so you could bond it to the fg nose by using smc resins which are compatible with both smc and fg. My car is not going to be a true replica so I'm seriously thinking about going this route. I will drive this car around here mostly and just go to the local stuff anyway. Besides, it would eliminate a ton of headaches and save quite a bit of money. When I order the nose, I think I can request that the headlamp holes not be cut out. I'll do a little more research while the other guys give us hell over this. I've already told Rene that I'm having second thoughts again about converting the back glass. lol
I just want to drive the hell out of it.

[Ghoste]

Hey Daytona Guy, that Petty blue and red one that you did, was that car ever used in any magazine advertisements?

[Daytona Guy]

Petty Blue and Red being used? I do not believe it was. That car came with a dealer installed wing. We even had the papers on it. We sold it back in 83 and had no idea what we had.

I never have liked the frog eyed look of the Daytona's headlights so I set out to make my own. 99% of the time I never drive at night so I did not care if they where original anyway. I did these - one off - lights but it was not easy. I wanted to use an existing composite light and I wanted it to be low profile. This allows for brighter blue lights and the door only has to open 4". But, to my surprise, no composite headlights are square to the road, so they do angle back on the outside.

The original headlight door pivot points are inside the nose and swings the door open. As anyone knows who works on these, the doors are very hard to line up when open and sit right when closed because of the swinging action in the design. I changed that and made the pivot point at the top. I am working on an electric motor that will run my next set. I am in the process of making these an aluminum casting, and will allow drilling and tapping to be easy and will add to the over all strength of the door.. The one made for the pattern is looking good. With the pivot point at the top will make the lights easier to lift. The actual motion of the rod to open these is only about 2 inches.

[Ghoste]

Okay.  I could have sworn I saw that car in an ad for Thrush mufflers or something like that back in the late 70's or early 80's in a Hot Rod mag. 

[Daytona Guy]

Someone may have but we never did. It would be cool to see that add.

[hotrod98]

Dane,
How do you lock the headlights in place when in the up position to prevent them from shaking?
I've always had a pretty good idea as to how to make them work but never on how to make them lock in place when in the up position.
That's why the solid mounted small halogens seem like a good way to go.
Any ideas as to how Bill mounted his and how well they worked?
Also, do you have any more pics of Bill's bird or how I can contact him?
Thanks,
hotrod98

[Daytona Guy]

Dane,
How do you lock the headlights in place when in the up position to prevent them from shaking?
I've always had a pretty good idea as to how to make them work but never on how to make them lock in place when in the up position.
That's why the solid mounted small halogens seem like a good way to go.
Any ideas as to how Bill mounted his and how well they worked?
Also, do you have any more pics of Bill's bird or how I can contact him?
Thanks,
hotrod98

The Red Daytona has a loaded gas strut and so when you release them they open and still have a load to keep them firm. Look close at my 2nd Red one. You will see that I mounted those under the nose. People thought they where driving lights and the Cops pulled me over all the time in OK. Oregon is not so uptight.

I do not believe Bill mounted them. Keep in mind that the Bird nose will allow for this. Mounting lights in the grill of the Daytona would be neat to try.

[PocketThunder]

I've been thinking on how to do the headlight doors and I'm just at the stage now to start mocking up the nose cone etc...   After seeing that bird with the headlights mounted right under the leading edge of the nose, what do you guys think of something like that on a daytona? I think it would solve a lot of problems for me on getting the headlight doors to open and close.   My clone won't have to be an exact replica, just a modifed restified.   I thinik it might look cool.

Is this your car?  This car is sitting on hlpag's lot.... 

[Daytona Guy]

"hlpag's lot" What is this?

[Ghoste]

It's an evil place where you never want to go. 

[Daytona Guy]

I believe this is my car today. If I could talk to the owner - I could confirm it. This is a unique Charger and the vin would reveal it. I am 90% sure this is the one. If this is the one it will have a rare 70 tail light with factory 69 chrome trim around the lens.

[ChargerSG]

After looking at some Daytona clones here i must say that BigBlockSams looks great, post some more pictures of it...

[BigBlockSam]

hi guys
   that black car on my page is a real daytona and is not mine. i am building my daytona to match that car. my charger has the rear wing  and i've started to install the plug alot of work but do-able

see that picture of the blue daytona clone. his front lights don;t move those are covers. he takes them off at nite and the lights are fixed under neath them . also an option.  thats the only thing i haven't figured out is how to open and close the lights. Rene

[Brock Samson]

 That Black one's my favorite too,..
   Car and Driver did an article about it approx ten years ago, they said in it the current owner (at that time) bought it from someone who hauled sheetrock and lumber around between the wing and the roof,  they, (new owner) had to do alot of work to fix the roof because of all the wear..
I like the way the rubber blends in, being as the entire car is black, and of course black Chargers ROCK! 

[Kryp2nitE]

another one that didnt exist


anymore of the black 71?

[hotrod98]

The way I see this headlamp thing is like this. You have more than one problem to deal with.
First, the headlamp door and bucket have to open and close. Duh.
Second, it has to open to a certain position in order for the headlamps to be adjusted correctly.
Third, it has to lock in order to prevent vibration while in the open position.
Fourth, it has to lock in the closed position for the same reason.
Fifth and finally, it has to look good when closed.

As far as engineering goes, if it depended on me we would all be living in caves banging on crap with sticks. I can bend, I can measure, I can weld, but I lack a little in the engineering department. Luckily my son takes after his mother and is studying mechanical and petroleum engineering at the University of Arkansas. I'm thinking about handing the whole thing over to him and his classmates and tell them that it's never been done before. They can figure it out. lol   Or, I can just go with the stationary headlamp idea. Any ideas?

[thallium]

I'm really thinking about doing the stationary headlamps for the same reason. Larry brings up some good points opening and closing the headlight doors and I know my limitations     

Dane has a good idea about mounting them in the grill area. The only problems I can see with that is:  
1. the headlamp height has to be small enough to fit into the grill area. I would rather they fit nicely without doing a hack job to the grill area (slim lights so you won't have to cut the grill area larger)
2. the width has to be small enough not to take up too much space in the grill area.   If the width of the lights are too large, will it take up too much space and cause overheating problems?

This is the only reason I was thinking of mounting the lights just below the grill like the bird to avoid overheating problems and not plug up the intake areas with lights.   If there are some lights that are slim enough and do not take up too much room, they might work mounted in the grill area.   Or maybe the two square intake ports are enough and the grill area can be blocked off with lights?   Lots of ideas to think about with stationary lights    

My first choice in mounting the lights would be in the grill area like Dane was suggesting. Might look cool too. Do you guys think it'll cause overheating problems if mounted in the grill area?

[BigBlockSam]

does anybody have a drawing of the headlight mechanisms and nose . cause I'd like to see how they did it from the factory?

[Daytona Guy]

I really do not think the grill area will work. Too small, and it would be noticeable. I would load the doors to stay open against an adjuster and have them held closed. When closed they will not bounce around because the air pressure against the down stop position would keep it secure.

[hotrod98]

Tabor,
I'm no expert but I've read that overheating was a much bigger problem with the daytona than with the superbird. With me, being in the south is not going to help at all. In July and August we see 100+ temps all of the time. My wife's 2000 transam has no grille at all yet it never overheats. Air is channeled up from below the bumper in front of the air dam. You do have to have all of the pieces in place for it to work properly though.
I would be worried about having the headlamps so close together in the middle. Remember, you stll have to have turn signals in there somewhere and the headlamps have to work well enough to see to drive down the road and will they be legal, especially in California ?   They're the toughest state to please.   I'm not sure if there are combo lamps in the small rectangular seal beams. The camaros use high and low beam capsules which means 4 bulbs. The logical choice is to mount them below the grille area, close off the grille, mount the turn signals in the grille like stock and leave an opening in front of the air dam just behind the headlamps for the air intake. This is all just thinking at this point. Heck, there might not be enough room there for all of that. lol

[hotrod98]

I think I mentioned this once before, but do any of the daytona parts suppliers assemble a nose cone for an additional fee? It seems to me that they would be the guys to do it and have it work right. Like Tabor said...I know my limitations.

I want to apologize if we're hijacking this thread.
We're still looking for more pics of those clones.

This isn't a daytona but it's one bad bird. I first saw this bird at the nats in 98, I think. The front end is all molded in and it's tubbed big time. Haven't seen it lately, just remember that the owner was a real nice guy.

[hotrod98]

Notice the hood?  I've never seen a charger hood on a runner before.

[thallium]

That is a trip with the hood. In hot rodding, anything is possible.  I saved this picture a while back because of the idea with the headlights. Another person with the same idea with the headlights mounted under the nose.

[thallium]

Here is another idea for headlights. Mounting them recessed. To me, they would not look too bad like this either. Without headlight covers, just recessed into the nosecone.