Hi From Oz

[Challengaaah]

HI, just joined the forum, i live in sunny Perth (too sunny sometimes) on the Wild West Coast of Australia. I have 2 of your fine model Dodge's, a 73 340 Rallye 4 speed and a 71 Challenger (ex 318 Slapstik HP code, Dark Green Metallic) undergoing resto to an RT clone (Plum Crazy, black vinyl top, 440 Dual Quad with a Tremec 5 speed 8.75 Suregrip 3.55).

Unlike many US cars that come here and are 'butchered' into a RHD (right hand drive), my cars are staying faithful to the marque, staying LHD. I also have a 1970 Valiant Hardtop which is virtually identical in appearance to your 69 Dart but with a different grille and fenders. That is destined to have a 71 340 and an A833 OD (Overdrive) box, with rear end being a Borg Warner disk brake setup, 28 spline axles with a limited slip 4 pinion centre.

I look forward to chatting to everyone and giving and receiving good and well -intentioned advice.

 

[burntorange70]

Welcome to FEBO! Good to have you here. Got any pics of your cars to share?

 

[AlleyoopMgv]

Welcome to the site!

 

[ramenth]

Welcome aboard!

 

[DetMatt1]

Welcome to the site from the Motor City! Let's see some pics.

 

[Challengaaah]

HI, here's some pics of my Chal's. Note the Aussie desert trip. Pic of the dash shows cruising along, 85mph at 3000rpm. Yes it was a tall diff (2.76 ratio), just right for the long haul, 5000km coast to coast. I took it up as much as i dared with a fully loaded car. I got to 130 mph indicated and it was still going up but the front end was getting rather light and i lost my nerve ("what if, what if..."). I was quite impressed as the engine was only a warmed over, medium miler 360 with TQ, Edel Performer and TTi headers. Nothing exceptional.

Other car is my 71 through process of tired DG metallic to Plum crazy. By the way, the beige roof (quite new when i bought the car) is getting changed to black. I have bought the SEM vinyl colour, it going to Landau Black. I am just waiting for the courage to do it myself. Don't want to botch up that job!!

thanks for reading.

 

[Russ]

Nice pics mate!

Fill us in on the road-trip. When, how, where etc. Would love to hear more about it (and more pics as well).

Plan on doing a lap of Oz in mine one day. Hopefully next year, but this year I'd at least like to do Sydney to Cape York. Only had mine since December and furthest I've done so far is NSW Central Coast (Wyong) to Albury for Chrysler's on the Murray.

 

[Challengaaah]

HI Russ, thanks for the reply, do you have that silver 70 Chal? it looks good from what i can see. I have done the Sydney to Gosford run heaps of times as i used to live in Novoland. Its a good trip and would be good for sorting out your Chal's touring aspect. Do they still have the 5km speedo check on the Pacific Hwy? i wish they had them over here

Yeah mine was a great trip -just what these cars were meant to do. Of course i was worried that something would breakdown and i would be stranded somewhere remote. So i took as many spares as i could fit in, even a new water pump and radiator! Starter motor, alternator, ECU (of course), wiper switch, multimeter, roadside soldering equipment heaps of tools, good jack etc. And Murphy's Law applied here so it turned out to be a virtually hassle free trip, both ways, the car went like a clock and i was amazed and my respect for it went up a few notches. Only three events - due to the car being loaded down and the rear springs (only 4 tired leaves at that time) sagging a bit, the 295 tyre on the driver side started getting chewed out a little over bumps. The RHS was fine. So 100km out of Perth i had to do some roadside surgery on the aluminium wheel arch molding which was the main culprit. The other minor thing was a bad rattle from the LHS front which i could not find on the road. Once in Sydney i discovered that one of the brake caliper slide pins had broken. The brakes still worked but noticeably not as powerful. Lucky i had taken spares! Another great thing is that there was not a drop of rain on the way there, although it did piss down through the Blue Mountains. The last thing that happened could have been bad, about 800km away from Kalgoorlie i noticed white smoke out the back when i accelerated. The i noticed it was using heaps of trans fluid. Obviously a leak somewhere but despite looking everywhere about 4 or 5 different times i could not find it. It got gradually worse and worse and luckily i bought 10 litres of fluid and kept topping it up every 150 km. But i made it home with lots of white smoke everywhere and didn't even get pulled over by the cops.

What had happened was that the steel trans cooling line from the radiator has been rubbing on the extractors and finally rubbed a pinhole through and the oil was burning straight on to the exhaust. Could have been dangerous causing a fire, so i was lucky.

more pictures here. Thanks for reading,if you have got this far!

 

[Russ]

Great pics mate! Makes me wanna do it

hassle free trip, both ways, the car went like a clock and i was amazed and my respect for it went up a few notches

I felt the same with mine after going to Chrysler's on the Murray. It was only an 800 mile round trip, but it reminded me of why I wanted one of these cars in the first place. Had wanted one for ever, and had it only a few months when I took it down there - she ran flawlessly and by the time I had returned I had completely fallin' in love with it. hahaha

Again, great pics. Good to see others that like to get out and put some real miles on their cars. Your Chally looks right at home amongst that sunburnt landscape!

 

[Challengaaah]

Thanks for that Russ. 800km is still a nice little trip though, just what the doctor ordered for a road test cruise