Well, first, I have always wanted a '69 charger ever since I was a kid. I looked for one when I was in high school. My friend Tom and I searched the Willamette Valley here in Oregon back in 1986 and 1987, but either found cars we could not afford or cars that the owners were gonna restore "one of these days".
One such car, with a 440 in it, was sitting behind a barn in Albany OR in almost perfect condition. The owner said he drove it for a year, smacked a telephone pole with the right fender and never drove it again. He wouldn't sell, saying he was gonna do something with it eventually. Two years ago, it was still sitting there, rotting away!
So, in 2004, after talking with my friend Mark about getting a Charger "some day", I started looking on e-bay. I started bidding on a '69 Charger with a 440 that was going for $3000.00. After a week, it was up to $7000.00. I placed one last bid on Friday morning for $7100.00, figuring that was as high as I could go. Saturday morning, I got an outbid notice. I figured that was it, I was done. Then on Sunday morning I got a bid retraction notice, I think someone was padding the bids a bit. So, on a Sunday night in May of 2004, I became the owner of a 1969 dodge Charger.
It was white, formerly a 318 car, and located in Salt Lake City Utah. My friend Mark and I drove out there from Salem Oregon on a Saturday, and I drove the Charger back to Salem on Sunday with my friend following me. I had never driven any old car and definately never a muscle car before. (Continued)
It had a tick in the engine, the seat belts were in a box in the trunk, the turn signals didn't work, the exhaust was a single pipe cut off about midway down the car, it wouldn't shift into drive until about 65 MPH, the gas tank was leaking, there were no license plates, and the front seats were out of a hyundai.....and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen or heard!
I drove across Utah, Idaho, and Oregon with a huge smile on my face and my friend Mark snapping pictures from the truck. It was the start of a new chapter in my life. I was a muscle car owner!
Here are the original aution pics:
Nice car. :2thumbs: 7 grand is a hell of a deal. What are the plans?
Well, originally, I was gonna make it a blue R/T clone. Then my dad died in 2007, and I decided to go with a General Lee clone with "dedicated to dad" on the quarters, because that was the one show he and I both watched when I was a kid. But, after paying a huge bill to the body shop and seeing how nice the orange paint is, it will probably just be an orange R/T clone / restomod.
Here are some pics from the drive home from Utah. Since it was originally a 318 car, it has a 2/76 rear end. We got 22 MPG most of the way!
Check out the manual turn signal in the second pic, hehe!
Still driving it home. First one was our lunch stop, then back on the road again.
Later in the summer of 2004, I took my family and the car to my first car show, at the Tillamook Blimp Hanger and air museum. We got to park inside the Hanger, very cool. Even though I had not done much to the car yet, it ran really good and we had no problems with it that day. Luckily the wipers and heater worked, because we got rained on all the way there.
For a relatively small turn out, amazingly there was another white '69 charger there (second pic) and it was driven there by the original owner, who bought the car at the dealership in Tillamook Oregon in 1969. So far, that's the only one owner '69 charger I've personally seen.
This is a pic from the all mopar show in Salem from 2007. My car club puts on the show every year. That year, an original General Lee, one of 19 surviving cars, from the original tv show, came down from Seattle to attend. The car on the other side of the General is the color of blue I originally wanted to paint my car.
Getting ready for the body shop.
"seeing how nice the orange paint is, it will probably just be an orange R/T clone / restomod"
Yep, similar story here.
And I think you'd get over driving it as a GL all the time fairly quickly.
Nice car btw, I've seen your "painted" pics on another thread. Looks great!
Thanks. It's getting there. I just need more money and more time, but then don't we all. It is kind of nice to walk into the garage and just see that fresh new paint job.
If that's yours in your profile pic, yours is looking pretty nice too. I like all the '66 to '74 chargers, but the second gen will always be my favorite.
What a platform to start with and you drove it home!!!!! How sweet is that for $7k. Congrats my friend. Judging from the floor pan and areas under the hood perhaps it was originally Q5 bright metallic tourquoise? It sure looks like the color of our 69 which is Q5.
Time to turn, burn and pull pitch....................clear!
Tom
I think you are correct about the color. From what we could tell, it looked like it had been painted 3 times. I think the original color was the Q5. The second layer we found looked more like B5 blue. Then someone painted it white, and didn't do a very good job of it. It sat in some guy's garage in Idaho for 14 years before the previous owner bought it.
Yeah, all things considered, I got it cheap. I'm very happy about that, and so was my wife, aka "the bookkeeper". :icon_smile_big:
But, the guy I bought it from claimed to have 9 more '69 chargers, and I saw 6 other muscle / sports cars at his house when I picked this car up. He had a mid '70s red corvette, a late '70s black montecarlo, a very nice green el camino, a '69 coronet partially restored in the garage and what looked like a pair of '69 roadrunners in his shop! Plus the 9 other chargers he had at another storage area!!!! I think my car was cobbled togeather from all the parts he did not want off of the other cars. Amazingly it ran great driving from Utah to Oregon, only used/leaked 2 quarts of oil and one of tranny fluid!
But it's all good now. I replaced both quarters, the right fender, the hood, both front and rear valances, the trunk floor, the trunk floor extensions, the corner caps, new out wheel wells, and I have all new glass for the car. On top of that I got two used doors off another car because mine were too structurally degraded. The floor pans were solid other than extra holes for the non-mopar seat and a bit of dirt surface corrosion. The frame is solid.
Just need time and money to finish it. I'll post more pics after work today.
looks a good project , good story :2thumbs: :yesnod: :coolgleamA:
Wow, 7 grand.
I paid AUD$17000 for mine over here and I still had to fit a big block,727, full bodywork/respray, interior, wheels, brakes and exhaust. Mind you, being a CA car it actually had no rust so there were no floor pans to replace.
Lookin good man. Good luck with your project.
More pics. Disassembled and media blasted.
The used 440 block that I started with. Alot of money on my garage floor. The rusty trunk floor after all the fiberglass was removed!
Cleaning, prepping, and painting engine components. Last pics is my rebuilt 727 transmission with a new torque converter and 7 quart aluminum pan. This is the same transmission that was in the car when I bought it, but I bought a used 440, because I was not sure of the condition of the one that was in the car.
The passenger compartment floor pans were in good shape.
Second and third pics are of the engine coming togeather. I goofed when I painted the exhaust side of the heads, and ended up using a set of gaskets and repainting those to more closely match the the outline of the manifolds. (you'll see it in later pics of the engine)
Your car looks like it's coming alone just great. Looking forward to seeing more :2thumbs: :cheers:
great pics, great story... thanks!
Thanks guys, here are more pics.
In the first two, the carb, fan, and valve covers are just sitting on the engine for the picture.
Third pic, the welds on the supports behind the back seat were all broken, now they're fixed.
The right front fender had bondo and chicken wire for the first foot or so. The car had been hit in the left rear too.
The third one is my new right fender. ;D
:o :o :o :o
Is that bondo as thick as I think it is... Good god. :hah: :hah: The car must have listed to one side. :smilielol:
(http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=72573.0;attach=134346)
Looking good! Inspiring good in fact. :2thumbs:
Yeah, no kidding eh, hehe. I always thought the right side looked a little different, not quite the right shape to the grill openning of that fender. Now I know why!
I guess I just thought it was the torque roll, and not the weight of the fender, that was listing me to the right. :icon_smile_big:
More pics.
Trunk is looking good. Here is the new hood. That guy with the hood is the body guy that did most of the work on my car. He may look a little bit like Cooter, but he actually did alot of work and for the most part did a great job.
Coming togeather.
Looking good!!! :2thumbs:
Thanks. More pics.
The fenders, hood, and trunk lid getting painted.
Hemi Orange, without metal flake.
Corners getting a little "mud" work. One of the doors, painted on the inside and getting prepped outside. Top of the hood and trunk lid.
Orange doors. ;D
Hey.. this looks like my paint job pics.....
Looking good mate.
Thanks. Yeah, it will look very similar to yours, only no tail stripe.
Here are pics of the main body starting to get painted. Trunk and engine compartment are orange. The floorpans were black, but got a bit of orange overspray. No big deal, it will all be covered anyway.
Sometimes it looks more red, but trust me, it's orange!
Beautiful colour man, but then, I'm a lil biased...
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac51/doctor4766/100_0027.jpg)
Quote from: UH60L on August 27, 2010, 12:17:10 AM
Sometimes it looks more red, but trust me, it's orange!
:drool5: awesome work been going on there , keep the pictures coming :coolgleamA: :popcrn:
Quote from: doctor4766 on August 27, 2010, 03:46:10 AM
Beautiful colour man, but then, I'm a lil biased...
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac51/doctor4766/100_0027.jpg)
:drool5: nice looking 69 Dude :coolgleamA: :2thumbs: :yesnod:
Your car looks great. Mine still needs a little work to look that good.
More pics, this was the first night that it was home from the body shop, December 2008.
Jan 3 2009, it was a sunny day and I needed to work on some stuff in the garage, so, picture day!
Jan 4 2009, Engine installed, mostly, still missing some parts, hehe.
Man that looks awsome..... Love the Color :2thumbs:
I haven't posted in my original thread for awhile, but figured what the heck.
So, I'm finally making some progress again.
Poor thing has been sitting for years with very little work due to lack of time and money.
So I'm out in the garage today working on some stuff and I pull out my new flex plate bolts and go to put them in, after 7 years, and something doesn't look right.
My 440 is a cast crank engine and was balanced with the appropriate balancer and weighted flex plate. The 727b tranny was rebuilt and a new torque converter put in. So, I hand start one flex plate bolt, then go to start another, and the second hole doesn't appear to be lined up. So I put a socket on my crank bolt and slowly moved the engine so I could see another hole on the flex plate, and it too does not seem to line up.
So, does the flex plate only line up with the converter in one position, or do I have an incompatible flex plate and torque converter? :brickwall:
That would suck, the engine and tranny have been installed since Jan 2009... don't want to pull either one... :-(
Never mind, my friend showed up and we got it turned 2 holes and lined up perfect...
Awesome story and car! I have seen that on alot of mopar engines/converters new and old where there is one position for the flex plate bolts. Best of luck on finishing your resto!
Thanks. Yeah we found out about the crank pulley having one "off" hole also, fixed it today.
Ran into another issue this afternoon though. I bought one of those smaller, high torque starters for my Charger, and it appears that the big positive connector stud...is gonna hit/touch the engine block.
Anyone else run into this? Is there an easy fix (cut of the stud shorter...) or am I gonna have to get a different starter?
I think I've decided to just buy a remanned original style starter.
My buddy and I should have the majority of the engine compartment put back together by the end of today. It's looking like I might be able to get it started in a month or two.
The biggest hurdle to that will be getting all the glass installed correctly with the correct parts. I'm missing some stuff and I didn't take it out so I'm not exactly sure how it goes. The back window regulator/system is missing a few parts, has some broken rollers etc.
I'm getting kind of excited, it's been 8 years since I've had it on the road!
:coolgleamA: :2thumbs: :popcrn:
Some of the mini starters have an "extension" where the wires bolt up. Remove it and possibly grind down the studs on terminals. Should clear after this. :2thumbs:
Beautiful, nice work and story.
Beautiful work so far and nice story too!
It's good to see you are back at this.
I ended up just going with an original style starter. I started power on testing a couple weeks ago. No major issues with the painless wiring kit. I did have two wires backwards on the panel light dimmer though, but got that fixed.
Yesterday, at long last after 8 1/2 years, I started the engine!!! Since it sat for so long, we put oil in each plug hole before starting it, so of course it smoked a lot. Cranked it over 6 times before it started up. No major issues so far, just timing and carb tuning. Next step is breaking in the cam and then testing the tranny. After that I'll get the front and back glass installed.
At that point I think it'll be safe to drive it up to the gas station and back. It's all fun and games from here on out!!! :2thumbs:
:2thumbs: Car looks amazing man! :drool5:
Looks great! You are much more patient than i could ever be :angel:
Nice work, I hope you get it on the road soon.......
Well, I'd like to say thank you to everyone on here that has given me advice, helped me figure out things I didn't know on my car, or sold me parts I needed. Thanks in part to you guys, yesterday, for the first time since 2007, I drove my car around the block!!!!!!!! :icon_smile_cool:
Man, I had forgotten just how great it feels to drive a real car. :2thumbs:
I couldn't go too fast with no windshield or hood striker, but it sure felt good. Thanks to the painless kit, everything works on my car except the ammeter (not hooked up at this time) and the fuel gauge, which just needs to be grounded.
A local shop is sending a couple guys out tomorrow to install the front and back glass, and I just found a hood striker on here!!!
Gas is cheap and life is good!!!! :icon_smile_big: ;D :coolgleamA:
That's a great feeling. Keep the good times rolling...
:2thumbs: good stuff :yesnod: :cheers: :popcrn:
Well, I've driven it around town! Sure is a great feeling. I haven't had this much fun in a long time. It sure sounds good when you open up the throttle. :drool5:
Unfortunately, when I filled it up with gas, I've got a leak. I think it's either the rubber hose between the tank and fuel line, or it's the seal for the sending unit.
Should be a relatively easy fix. Gonna try tackling the side window mechanisms tomorrow. Seems like an erector set had sex with a blender for the back windows... :scratchchin:
Look about halfway down on page 4 of this thread, might help some. :shruggy:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,54582.75.html
Still tinkering and tweaking and finding parts, but I've been driving it pretty regularly and taken it to several cruise-ins and shows this summer. Got the windshield in but none of the other glass (body shop forgot to re-drill the clip holes for the back glass).
First time we got to take the Charger and our new 2015 Challenger to a cruise in together was in July at Antique Powerland in Brooks Oregon.
April 25th 2016, drove the car to work for the first time since 2007.
May 28th 2016, it suddenly occurs to me that I now own the General Lee and Uncle Jessie's truck (sort of...). Time to buy a yellow Roadrunner?
May 29th 2016, The first car show since 2007, the Keizer Iris Festival show.
June 19th 2016, Father's Day pic!
July 4th 2016, small car show in Gervais Oregon.
July 6th 2016, A&W Cruise-in in Stayton Oregon.
July 14th 2016, Pentastar Pride car club monthly meeting.
July 23rd 2016, my club's annual all Mopar car show in Salem Oregon...somehow I have no pictures of my car from that day. :brickwall:
Won a second place trophy for the "B Body Dodge Modified" class!
August 13th 2016, Disabled Vets of America car show at Home Depot in Salem Oregon.
September 3rd 2016, 25th Annual Carousel Cruise show in Salem Oregon. I won a trophy for best "work in progress"!
Coming along nicely! :2thumbs:
Wow that is a nice car. :2thumbs:
Dude put the glass in the car! :lol:
Looks stellar my friend. :2thumbs:
:2thumbs: :coolgleamA: :cheers:
Thanks everyone. I have an appointment for the 20th to have the back glass installed. I'm still getting some needed parts for the side glass. I started working on the wing windows and realized I have the rubber seals but not the weather stripping that the glass actually sits in or the plastic parts for the pivot point.
There's always something but at least I can drive it now. I did the first oil change after 500 miles and not even a hint of metal in the oil, looked really clean. I don't want to jinx it, but for my first complete engine build, it's really gone well so far. The only real issue is an oil leak at the pan (probably over tightened the pan and then it sat for 8 years). Otherwise it runs and sounds great!
I always thought it would be great if someone sold complete OEM style seats for these cars that you could just bolt in, but no luck finding any. I did find some buckets that look almost stock and only cost about $250 each. I'm thinking about buying a pair of those to run in the car until I can afford to properly restore the original style seats that I have.
Well, got the rear glass installed, but it's not perfect. The body shop didn't do the best repair job, and when the window guys were trying to drill the clip holes they kept hitting the edge of the new sheet metal and the bit wanted to walk. :brickwall:
At least it's finally in there, but it's got gaps at the bottom corners...
I haven't officially updated this thread in a while. Figured I better catch it up a bit. I haven't gotten nearly enough done on it the last two years...
In the spring of 2017, I finally got the decals installed.
Unfortunately, about a week later, I noticed that the shop that installed my decals actually dinged the paint just behind the driver's door... I don't have the time or money to repaint half the car to fix it... (not to mention they'd have to remove most of the decals to repaint in order to blend, what a pain...) I'll just have dabbed at the shop that painted it... sucks but that's life. The car isn't perfect...
In June of 2017, I became a grandpa! My granddaughter was born 20 minutes before father's day. My youngest son is stationed in Hawaii, so we went and stayed for a month to be there for the birth. While I was there, I got to go for a ride in something that I figured most people on here would appreciate.
It's not a Charger, but it's from a tv show on around the same time as the Dukes. We took a helicopter tour of the north shore, and the tour company just so happens to have a Hughes 500 painted like the ones used on Magnum P.I.! So of course I had to buy an accurate red Magnum shirt and ballcap and some tan shorts for the ride... :-)
They even got the actors who played Rick and T.C. to sign the nose. (Larry Manetti and Roger Mosley)
On the 3rd of July 2017, I got the horns installed. Still having issues with the horn button though. I have to ground out the horn on the outside of the column. I think the painless wiring harness I installed powers the horn backwards or something... when the button is pushed nothing happens... so the button stays off for now...
On the 4th of July 2017, we drove the General in the parade in the little town where my high school is, Gervais Oregon. Everyone seemed to enjoy the car, especially when I hit the horn.
Quote from: UH60L on September 06, 2016, 11:13:47 PM
May 28th 2016, it suddenly occurs to me that I now own the General Lee and Uncle Jessie's truck (sort of...). Time to buy a yellow Roadrunner?
Yes! Buy your wife/girlfriend/significant other a Yellow RR!
Charger looks great!
That's a real nice GL. Well done for keeping at it over the years!
It's been over 4 years since I was on here... Lots of things have happened since then. In late summer of 2017, on our way to a car show, the rear diff ate itself on the freeway. I limped it the last 3 miles to the car show and won an award anyway! Then we drove it 3mph holding the brake pedal the whole way back home. Since then It's just been sitting in the garage mostly. I got a new job and we bought a house roughly 20 miles away with a bigger garage (woohoo) and also a 2019 Challenger!(https://scontent.fhio2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/84598018_10217299936436485_6650297579823169536_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=bCEAUb7Q620AX-NTpWR&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio2-1.fna&oh=00_AfD_vc3PiEz9EM8IIqsTZE-sG9kMxXSpup6ZyEm_TtAojA&oe=647440A0)
Finally, after almost 6 years, I'm taking the rear diff to a shop to get rebuilt this coming Monday! Oh yeah, and I got new custom license plates :-)(https://scontent.fhio2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/342728194_1652774575189578_2700341671422770719_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=wGaX_7bjoRYAX81bxIc&_nc_oc=AQlNWFUnhm2-da9eRlG-KbrQbGn7hdlxiwPeb8zRnM6lEjPFR5oX8dLEeEuMG0TNR_8TBqrSuuCDWShGs427sThA&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio2-1.fna&oh=00_AfDlE5xJAnIWPHDpcVdE1DYu-QyhonEuB2NUbs9sioWcrQ&oe=64525C8F)(https://scontent.fhio2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/342489903_769690411222823_1634965952025016801_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=_hUDbIWIR28AX8Uywft&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio2-2.fna&oh=00_AfBmfYPspVj7i7aNN_q6-EPQUk5A4vlye7clqV6f1SCBBw&oe=64519379)
After sitting for 6 years, it's finally back on the road! I know a guy who has a knight rider car, and today I swung by his shop and took a few pics with our cars nose to nose! All we needed was the A-team van and an Airwolf helicopter...(https://scontent.fhio2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/345029228_562713312654503_7570763520313280247_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=jPztjS6CndoAX9SnwL9&_nc_ht=scontent.fhio2-2.fna&oh=00_AfDxw0rS_ZZmWo7lYsC3ne5cUOR6ueayRSCfHPC-UYFxAw&oe=6469F06D)
:2thumbs: