71Challenger318
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This thread will cover my restoration of my father's 71 Challenger. These first few posts are copied from another forum. I didn't want to re-type the whole thing! Excuse if some of the commentary is out of context.
The time has finally come for our 1971 Dodge Challenger to come out of storage and finally get restored. There has been some progress here in the past few weeks so I figured I would post up here so you guys could check it out!
This car as many of you know was my Father’s car when he went to JMU from 1974-1978. It has received its share of JMU parking tickets and I’m sure seen its share of drunk college girls. It languished in a barn on my uncles property from the middle 1980’s until sometime around 1998 when we removed it and its long winded restoration began. It is a 318 equipped with a 3-speed automatic transmission. It was originally Copper in color with a white interior but was painted green in 1975 by my Father and some of his friends.
The first try:
During the initial “restoration” most of the body rust was fixed. Many parts were ordered and put in storage. The engine was rebuilt and bored .030 over. It however was fitted with its stock 2 bbl carb and stock exhaust. It was also pained a horrible enamel yellow color (partially). Around 2001-2 it was put in storage had little has been done with it until about 3 weeks ago.
The engine sporting its tired chrome valve covers was timed and started.
The electronic ignition conversion from Mopar Performance was installed.
Then it was pulled over the body shop where they began work on fixing up some of the dents and dings from being in storage for 8 years. The decision was also made that yellow and white really just do not go together and we needed to go with another color. One of the body shop guys suggested 2010 “Plum Crazy” Purple. He shot a test panel. You should also note the 2005 Charger 18in wheel sporting one of Rex’s old 18in tires from the speed 3.
This car was a base model but it did have a few options. The 318 V8 was the basic V8 but the car was available with a 225 slant six engine. Also it was equipped with Rally seats and the smaller 14in Rally wheels.
The decision was made that the color would be changed (no decision on color yet, just that it will be done) so the engine, now running and driving, needed to be removed again for painting. This of course fell to me so this past Sunday I yanked the old beast from its lair. It took me two hours.
Horrible stock exhaust. I just got some full length headers for it and I am trying to select an exhaust.
Washed up the engine bay and pushed it back to the body shop.
Hopefully progress will be strong and stuff will get done relatively quickly. I will update as I can.
The time has finally come for our 1971 Dodge Challenger to come out of storage and finally get restored. There has been some progress here in the past few weeks so I figured I would post up here so you guys could check it out!
This car as many of you know was my Father’s car when he went to JMU from 1974-1978. It has received its share of JMU parking tickets and I’m sure seen its share of drunk college girls. It languished in a barn on my uncles property from the middle 1980’s until sometime around 1998 when we removed it and its long winded restoration began. It is a 318 equipped with a 3-speed automatic transmission. It was originally Copper in color with a white interior but was painted green in 1975 by my Father and some of his friends.
The first try:
During the initial “restoration” most of the body rust was fixed. Many parts were ordered and put in storage. The engine was rebuilt and bored .030 over. It however was fitted with its stock 2 bbl carb and stock exhaust. It was also pained a horrible enamel yellow color (partially). Around 2001-2 it was put in storage had little has been done with it until about 3 weeks ago.
The engine sporting its tired chrome valve covers was timed and started.
The electronic ignition conversion from Mopar Performance was installed.
Then it was pulled over the body shop where they began work on fixing up some of the dents and dings from being in storage for 8 years. The decision was also made that yellow and white really just do not go together and we needed to go with another color. One of the body shop guys suggested 2010 “Plum Crazy” Purple. He shot a test panel. You should also note the 2005 Charger 18in wheel sporting one of Rex’s old 18in tires from the speed 3.
This car was a base model but it did have a few options. The 318 V8 was the basic V8 but the car was available with a 225 slant six engine. Also it was equipped with Rally seats and the smaller 14in Rally wheels.
The decision was made that the color would be changed (no decision on color yet, just that it will be done) so the engine, now running and driving, needed to be removed again for painting. This of course fell to me so this past Sunday I yanked the old beast from its lair. It took me two hours.
Horrible stock exhaust. I just got some full length headers for it and I am trying to select an exhaust.
Washed up the engine bay and pushed it back to the body shop.
Hopefully progress will be strong and stuff will get done relatively quickly. I will update as I can.