1968 Charger Ray Barton 528 HEMI

[Jarven]

I have been lurking around this forum for years now, droolin over all the nice builds, wether it is high-end original restorations, restomods or pro-touring builds. I love them all..
I have owned a numbers matching 1969 Charger 440HP RT/SE unrestored for many years but in pretty decent good shape. 727 auto and a 8 3/4" in the rear. I have worked on it mechanically over the years so it runs ok. New ignition parts, carburator, new interior etc. My brother laid a matte black vinyl wrap since the paint was horrible. No rust anymore though. Only rust repair needed was a patch in the lower front part of the driver side rear quarter panel and a completely new trunk floor. I believe the original paint is celled A4, platinum? Maybe someone can chime in here and correct me.. It is a quite dark silver color.
Anyhow, it will get a fresh new paint in due time.

But, along came another car..
My father owned this Pro Street plum crazy 1968 Charger with a crazy Ray Barton built 528 Hemi. A buyer came along who wanted the custom built Pro Street chassi. The rear end was very modified with huge wheel wells and a 4-link ford 9". The new owners plan is to race the car and therefor use a boosted 440 engine instead. We kept the Ray Barton engine incl K-member and other accessory parts such as ignition, radiator etc. Everything needed to have it work like a charm like it did in the Pro Street -68. At the same time we found another car, a 1968 hemi-orange project car. We do not have any buildsheet nor fender tag. All we know is that it is originally a big block car with manual gearbox and manual brakes and steering. That is it.. The car was painted a long time ago, 10-15 years. So there are some paintchips and flaws here and there but we will not repaint. Only fix it so it looks decent. This will be a driver for sure. I do not have to worry about ruining the value like with the 1969 if I start modifying this thing to my liking. The car came in boxes with a LOT of parts missing. I will need help with this I believe..
So this is why I am now starting this thread.

The recepy is as follows:
-1968 chassi
-No rust repair needed, only to be scraped and treated underneath. It is slightly bent in the front driver side frame rail. The pro's will handle that. I am having it over to a good local repair shop for this.
-Us car tools level 2 chassi kit with torque boxes, subframe connector. front radiator support and inner fender braces.
http://store.uscartool.com/b-body-chassis-stiffening-kit.html
-528 Hemi built by Ray Barton. Hp figures unknown.. anyone know how to find out without dyno'ing it?
-A833 18-spline, reinforced and overhauled professionally.
-Mcleod twin disc clutch with hydraulic kit.
-8 3/4" for now. Looking for a Dana 60 in the future.
-SPC adjustable tubular control arms
-QA1 adjustable strut rods
-Hotchkis adjustable steering rods. (Not sure about this. Can this be adjusted in height to remove bump steer?)
-2 inch drop spindles
-Beefier torsion bars(undecided)
-New moog parts front and rear bushings.
-Edelbrock shocks
-Painless wiring (no wiring in the car at all now..)
All parts will be restored before being fitted. I am not sure what route to go with breaks. It will however be some sort of big disc brake kit. Maybe looking into sourcing used Brembo's from new SRT8's front and rear.

Pictures to follow. How do I get them in here easiest way? As attachments with maximum 200KB? Or online picture links?

[Jarven]

Here is a picture of the 1969, and don't worry about the wheels, it will get 15" centerlines.. 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Sounds like you have a killer starting point!  Its gonna be a beast Im sure.

The '69 RT/SE sounds cool too. A4 silver was a rarely seen color.  Hopefully it goes back to the original color one day. 

[taxspeaker]

Do the Dana ASAP-the hemi/4 speed combo will eat that 8 3/4 alive-voice of experience.

A4-absolutely the best color, rarely seen and magnificent, enjoy that one too!

[RCCDrew]

Here is a picture of the 1969, and don't worry about the wheels, it will get 15" centerlines.. 

69 looks nice as is.

[Dino]

Here is a picture of the 1969, and don't worry about the wheels, it will get 15" centerlines.. 

69 looks nice as is.

Agreed. Throw some monster disc brakes on there and call it done.   

[alfaitalia]

Yep....if mine looked like that I would just be putting fuel in it and driving!

[Jarven]

Sounds like you have a killer starting point!  Its gonna be a beast Im sure.

The '69 RT/SE sounds cool too. A4 silver was a rarely seen color.  Hopefully it goes back to the original color one day. 

Thank's, yeah I have understood it is quite rare so yes it will get painted A4 sometime.. who knows when though.

[Jarven]

So, I'm trying to share pictures via Onedrive instead let's see if that works..
Here are some pictures from when we collected the project car. I just love hemi-orange.







Edit: Man.. Onedrive sucks.? If i rightclick and open in a new window the picture is shown. But why does it not show directly in the post? Anyone else use Onedrive?
Edit2: Yes, finally got it to work..

[Jarven]

This 440 came with the car but it will not end up in the orange -68.
It is modified and dyno'ed to 560hp on the crank.



Here is the picture of the Ray Barton 528 Hemi still in the plum crazy pro street -68 which will be the heart of the orange -68.

[Jarven]

Here you can clearly see that from the radiator support vs the floor of the car that something is not right.. it is slightly higher up on the drivers side. Hopefully the local workshop can fix this quickly so we can go on with welding in the chassis stiffening kit from us car tools.

[Jarven]

The car came with a manual steeringbox, I am looking into the Borgeson power unit. My first choice was to have a rebuilt Firm Feel power unit but I do not have any core. Anyone here tried out the Borgeson unit or have any comparison between the two?

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/retrofit-power-steering-box-from-borgeson-one-good-turn/

The difference in size is compelling for sure..


Just cleaning up parts for now, had to fix the k-member for the buyer of the plum crazy chassi since we are keeping the hemi K-member that fits the Ray Barton Hemi. The old K-member had lost one engine mount somehow..
Sourced an old bigblock mount and welded onto member, sandblasted and epoxy-primed it.

[Jarven]

Anyone used this Holley 12-800 fuel pump? How about noise and will it hold up for daily use?

https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hly-12-800/overview/

[VegasCharger]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Sweet 68!!!

And welcome aboard. 

I noticed in your pics that one of your strut rods is bent (see pic). Do you have a replacement? I have about 3 pairs of them.

[Jarven]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Sweet 68!!!

And welcome aboard. 

I noticed in your pics that one of your strut rods is bent (see pic). Do you have a replacement? I have about 3 pairs of them.

Thanks VegasCharger but I am going for QA1 adjustable strut rods!

[RCCDrew]

One of the things I did to my Cuda as an upgrade was to fully weld up the K member and reinforce the steering box mount area. Just thought you might consider it.

[68pplcharger]

Anyone used this Holley 12-800 fuel pump? How about noise and will it hold up for daily use?

https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hly-12-800/overview/

PM sent

[Jarven]

One of the things I did to my Cuda as an upgrade was to fully weld up the K member and reinforce the steering box mount area. Just thought you might consider it.

The k-member from the pro street Charger is already reinforced up and down. Thanks for the advice though

[Jarven]

What a great source of info this site is.. Brakes dilemma solved, definately going with this..
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,122780.0.html

[Jarven]

New wheels on the -69 and taken out for a spin. It hesitates a little and some backfiring at full throttle and load, no Issues when reving at standstill. I am suspecting the coil.. carb is new and tuned, ignition and timing is checked, new electronic ignition from mopar performance, new plugs..

[RCCDrew]

Those were always my favorite wheel growing up.

[Hemidog]

Sweet ride

[Sixt8Chrgr]

Cant wait to see the 69 painted A4. My buddy has a 69 RTSE A4 with Green interior. When I first heard of the combo I was all over the A4 but thought wow green interior? But together it is really a good looking combo. Car is from Nevada and super dry with a great paint job.
Good luck with your project will look awesome!

[Jarven]

Some progress atleast on the -68

I have a dash out of a -69 that I will use for parts. The original dash with the chassis number attached to it also came with the car. I will use that frame but move over what I can use from the -69 dash.



Decided to try out the stickers from "whitegauges.net" I have had lying around for an long time now. Took apart the cluster, cleaned everything up and polished the plastic lense. I will  probably not use the -69 plastic bezels but I wanted to see how it looked with some fresh paint on it. I am searching for som woodgrain bezels instead. But, it turned out ok.








I am happy that we let the professionals check alignment of the front end because not only was the driver side framerail to high up, both sides where also twisted and offset towards the passenger side. This is now 100% and everything is straight, probably better than when it left the factory in 1968..

[Jarven]

The interior that came with the car is completely shot.. frames are rusty and nasty and it would need a lot of work and money to have them in good shape, but I would still not sit comfortable. So i decided to buy me some more modern look seats. These are now on their way from the US to Sweden, I'm sooo excited to see them in the car
It is both front and rear seats incl a mid console out of a 2017 Challenger with only 1270 miles on them. I expect them to be in mint condition. Will probably have to work some on the rears to have them fit but I know a good upholstery guy close to me that could assist.