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1972 Dodge Challenger

WayTooShort

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Boy, that's soo good...an old mopar behind the Iron Curtain... I take my hat off to you, sir. Carry on, you are getting there.
 

tsaarts

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Been working with windows regulators. Got the package with all the plastic peaces, but main problem is the specific fasteners which are not included in kit. For the front rail fasteners i got inside hex style bolt which is very low profile. I also found some plastic tubes which fit between screw and the slider body. 6mm bolt worked perfect. Kit also did not included rubber washers between glass and metal parts. Solution was rubber glove :D :D.
I also welded new bolt to the triangle part.
A little adjustment is needed but windows now work fine.

I installed new door weatherstriping which were fine but roof rail aftermarket weatherstrip does not stay in place and falls out. Does anybody have had any problems like that with Soffseal products?
I think even my old worn out seals are much better.

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Rapidfire

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Had the same problem with soffseal roof rail weatherstrip also. Seems to seal fine but had to use weatherstrip adhesive to keep it in place then with the windows up and the door closed for about 24 hrs.
 

tsaarts

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Today i put on unpainted hood, lined the fenders with grill and valance. Front glass with trim is installed and I like it.

what makes some trouble is that the car had some minor collision in front after which front bumper is a bit bent. Also the big Y-brackets which holds bumper are bend.

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tsaarts

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Working with electrics now. I put front headlights through relays. Originally these were through light switch. Also originally alternator was wired to the ammeter and then back to the battery. Firewall bulkhead was burnt in my car. I fixed that by wiring alternator straight to the battery and abandon the ammeter.
Also does anyone know where to get delay relay for interior lights. Is it universal part or does it need to be exact part for challenger.

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tsaarts

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Not much time recently to work with car but last thing i got shorted out problem with stock speedo cable and Autometer speedometer. I did not find any adapter for sale. I used one big nut some washers, lathe bench, welding and some tapping to build two peace adapter.
Maybe somebody get some inspiration to solve same problem.

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Rapidfire

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I don't think they make an adapter for the auto meter speedo. I just got a new speedometer cable the right length to fit on the auto meter speedo and transmission. Mine works perfect. I bought the cable off eBay.
 

tsaarts

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Gauge cluster is now working. Even the Autometer backround lighting is dimmable through car original dimmer switch.

Can anybody explain how the horn relay in these cars works and is it possible to replace this relay with something else?

Horn relay seems to have four wires.
1. Positive terminal from fuse box - 12V
2. Output to the horn under hood
3. Input from horn button on the steering wheel (Seems to be one ground to the relay)
4. Input from the key in buzzer. (also seems to act as a ground)

What is the logic behind this relay?
First 3 connection seems to be necessary to get horn working.
But how is this key in buzzer works. It seems to be that buzzer in relay gets power from terminal 1 and to get it buzzing it should have ground from terminal 4. To get ground to the terminal 4, the door should be opened (to get ground from door switch to the buzzer switch in steering column) and key needs to be inserter (to direct ground through the buzzer switch to the relay).
Is this logic right and is it possible to get similar relay from some another car?

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tsaarts

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Most of the wiring in car is done. With horn i used usual relay. Buzzer original function seems to be little bit odd when it starts buzzing every time i open the door, so i left it out. Also added a little switch undre the the steering column for dome light. Like with new cars i added little on-off-on switch to the dash so dome light can be always on, always off or on only when the door is open. I think it is more practical.
Wire mess under the hood is almost done. Made some custom wire loom holders. Also added black tubing to get it look a little bit better. In front of the battery i added generic relay box for headlights and electric fan. Now i also think the Ignition box seems to be out of place. I think it might looks better on the firewall above the heater fan with shorter loom. Might do it sometime in future.

Also the TA hood bulge looks really cool from inside of the car.

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tsaarts

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Now a little bit frustrated. As seen earlier I replaced hole roof with reproduction roof. At that time i did not have front and rear window trim peaces. Now i have and it is really frustrating to see how badly these aftermarket roofs are made. I massaged a little bit one rear corner of the aftermarket roof to get it in line with c-pillar.

Now everything is painted and there are not much i can do. The whole radius and glass lip angles are all wrong and it is impossible to fit trim without gaps. These reproduction roof skins are so bad that even with moldings it is easier to just make these new peaces from sheetmetal. I did massaged trim peaces a bit to get it in place but it is almost impossible to change radius on the trims.

Windscreen trims are off but i cat accept that but rear right corner makes me vomit. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this?

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moparlee

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Understand your frustrations, but not much you can do about it at this point unless you want to get into more body work and paint. For the front, I have seen factory fit ups worse than yours.
 

Adam

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Excellent work, and a lot of progress from 2016!

For the Lokar kick down cable, adjust it so that there is no slack, as soon as the throttle moves rearward the kick down arm should also be moving. Make sure it does not bind and prevent the carb linkage from opening to full throttle.
 
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Adam

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Now a little bit frustrated. As seen earlier I replaced hole roof with reproduction roof. At that time i did not have front and rear window trim peaces. Now i have and it is really frustrating to see how badly these aftermarket roofs are made. I massaged a little bit one rear corner of the aftermarket roof to get it in line with c-pillar.

Now everything is painted and there are not much i can do. The whole radius and glass lip angles are all wrong and it is impossible to fit trim without gaps. These reproduction roof skins are so bad that even with moldings it is easier to just make these new peaces from sheetmetal. I did massaged trim peaces a bit to get it in place but it is almost impossible to change radius on the trims.

Windscreen trims are off but i cat accept that but rear right corner makes me vomit. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this?

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redo and repaint, or vinyl top... I would just redo it; with your skills it is not a huge project. I would suggest using body panel adhesive to add some metal patches in the larger gaps, and by itself in the smaller areas. The stuff is incredibly strong, and will not require welding/heat, then you can easily feather it into the surrounding surface & prep for touch up paint.
 
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tsaarts

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I think fist i would get car to drive and later do something with this roof. First thing to do is to add little patch and touchup paint it as Adam suggested. If it does not come out okey i can always put on vinyl roof.
Also got idea from friend of mine who painted raptor lining for the fake vinyl roof. Texture size is a little bit adjusted with paintgun nozzle size. It also might be a good idea how to restore door panels.

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tsaarts

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I played with clips positions, bent a trim a little bit and got these gaps smaller. Not the best but much better than before. More yell than worth it.

Roof in the picture seems to be bad, but it is the place where i practice my cut and polishing skills :D. There 4 coats of clear to buff it out. No worries with that.

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tsaarts

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Have had same time work with the car.
2-speed wiper motor was stuck, rotor was not rotating and grease was all stiff. Cleaned everything put new grease and put everything together. Seem to be working, even backing down mechanism.
Dual 2,5 inch exhaust with one pair on mufflers under the back seat is loud when you are working with car at the same time. So i bought some generic mufflers and put them under the trunk and made some 45 degree angle cut exhaust tips, to quiet a car down. Now it idles quietly but when you floor it, big engine makes good rumbles even with mufflers.
I had leaking valve covers, put new Fel-Pro gaskets, hammered valve cover edges straight but one is still leaking a bit. I think i need to put some big custom made wide washers under the bolts.
Also put new rubber transmission pan gasket. Being really careful torquing pan bolts but it still is leaking and needs to be fixed.
Also one bigger job in the future is to finally rebuild the bottom end of the motor. When idling I had under 10 pound of oil pressure with 195 thermostat. Do not know the rpm-s because i have no tach. Temporary fix was high volume pump and 160 degree thermostat which combined gave me about 16 pound of pressure on idle.

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tsaarts

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Hello
I have made some progress with interior. This car was probably a parts car in one time it's life. When I got it had most of the parts, but most interior parts were unusable in regular way. One doorcard was green, other was blue, back panels where black, one kick panel was black, other is green, wooden inserts and door handles were missing.

Big challenges was how to restore plastic panels. Upper parts of the door cards were degrading.
First i tried to just paint drivers door card. It somehow worked and looked okey, but when I touched it, paint flaked off. Not sustainable solution, but only 30 Euros where spent.
Next i first tried pressure wash everything loose off from passenger door card. It worked, everything remaining was solid but texture was gone. I went to the paint shop and bought white RAL9010 Raptor. I dissolve it with nitro solvent and sprayed it with 10 Euro spray gun. Now i could touch it but texture was off.
In the third try I first pressure washed drivrs door card and then sanded some rough spots. Then I played with raptor consistency and spray gun pressure. Now i got better control over thickness of material and the texture it leaves. Third try was not perfect but it looks okey and it seems to be durable. Expense was about 50 Euros for whole remaining parts. If old cards would be black, then painting with black raptor it might look even better.

Finally got leaking transmission solved. Bought ATP replacement pan. Of course drain plug was hitting filter and rail was a bit bent as reviews stated but it stopped leaking.

As seen in pictures car is really low. It looks cool but I have problems getting out of garage. I think i need big block torsion bars.
More things to do is front seats, headliner and all other small things.

I don't know why but when i upload photo, forum will destroy the quality of the photo.

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tsaarts

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Working with smaller things now.

Does anybody know how to get rid of spongy brake pedal. I have bleed the brakes over a gallon of fluid. No bubbles, no leaks but pedal is always soft. I adjusted rear pads as close to the drum as possible but no luck. Strange is that i even can not pump the pedal up, it stays soft. Seems to be that there might be some air in the system or the master is bad. But master is also new. Are there some good ways to check master cylinder?

Also wxhaust collector was leaking. No idea how to get these original headers flanges to leak free. So i cut the old flange and weld on a new 8mm thick flange and use regular exhaust gasket.
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