My 1970 Dodge Charger

Hello all, this is my (or rather my car's) little corner of the web.

This was originally a Pennsylvania car that a friend of mine bought for $3,500.00 in a somewhat restored condition.  I first got to know the car in 1997 right after my friend, Scott, bought it.  It looked great from, say..10 feet away, but when you started to really inspect it, you could find some body issues.  Although this car was relatively complete, missing only the front valance turn signal lenses and windshield chrome, nothing seemed to be #s matching.  It is my opinion that half of the car is not even original to the other half. 

After my recent tear down of the front end and taking the engine compartment down to the bare metal I have discovered the color life of this car.  It would appear that the original color of this car was white.  After that it became red, then orange, then orange again.  At some time there was black paint applied, though I cant tell were it was in the order because it was found at different layers in different places.   Starting from the front and working toward the rear the front valance, front drivers fender, and hood appear to not be original, the doors look like they are true R/T doors, and the rear passenger quarter is definitely not original.  The engine is a 68 date code 383 and who knows about the tranny.  The rear passenger quarter was replaced at some point by removing the whole factory quarter from another car and replacing it on this one.  When replacing the quarter, the inner fender well on the new fender was hammered up and the original down before they were brought together.

The History as far as I know.

As stated, this car came from Pennsylvania.  My friend Scott bought the car sometime in late 1996 or early 1997.  He drove the car daily and we tinkered with the car every now and then doing minor things to it.  Tune up here, shocks there, that sort of thing.  After owning the car about a year or so, the transmission started to have trouble.  He sent it to a transmission shop in here in Colorado, for now we will simply refer to them as MORONS!!!  After they did a rebuild on the transmission, the car developed a pulsating vibration when you got above 45 MPH or so and got worse the faster you went.  Why Scott never had this addressed with them I don't know, but more on this later.  They told him that the exhaust was rubbing against the new transmission so he would need to have it replaced in order to keep his warranty in tact, so he had that done too.  Scott was not the kind of guy that had money laying around to pay for such things, instead he was the kind of guy that had the work done and the shop would hold the car until he finished making payments.  Some months later he had the work paid off and got the car back.

Some time later Scott tried to start the car to go to work and it would not start.  After calling me over we found that if we jumped the car it would start but the second you touched the shifter it would die.  Now my knowledge about cars in 1998 was just starting and I could do minor things but diagnosing the more difficult or hidden things was not within my ability.  So back to MORONS!!! he sent the car and they concluded that the entire wiring harness was shot and that it needed to be gutted and replaced.  I tried to convince him that we could do the work ourselves and that he should get a factory harness from Year One and we would have it done in a few weekends.  He decided to let MORONS!!! do the work instead.  They talked him into a generic harness, a Painless Wiring part I believe, and gave him an estimate of  about $1,200 - $1,500.  He gave them the "go ahead" and in the course of the work they talked him into a new wiper motor, alternator, voltage regulator, various other electrical parts and a new carpet.  Either the shop or my friend also made the decision to leave the heater/AC box out of the car so that they could "lighten it for speed."  This is Colorado, its a big block,  A heater box is not going to be the difference between slow and fast.  It will be the difference between toasty warm and frostbite in the winter.  All said and done they racked up about $5,500 in parts and labor.  They saw SUCKER written all over my friends face and he started making payments.  Fast Forward 3 years, he was still trying to pay off the work and had receipts for about $3,500 but was making payments inconsistently and the shop decided it was time to put a mechanic's lien on the car and take it from him.  Upset about loosing the car Scott talked to a my cousin, who is a lawyer, and wanted to know what his options were.  My cousin told him he could get the car back from them but if he did not have the money to pay them, he did not have the money to pay him.  My cousin knew that I had LOVED Dodge Chargers since I was a kid thanks to the General Lee.  He then added that if Scott would sign the car over to me he would get it away from the mechanic and ask who would Scott rather the car go to, the people that screwed him or his friend that had a genuine love for the car.  After a couple of weeks I was informed I could pick up the car at there shop if I would agree to settle for one more payment of $1,000.  In good faith I signed a letter for my friend that stated he had 3 years from the date I picked up the car to pay me back every last dime I put into the car only to keep it running.  No upgrades or restoration work would start until the time had passed and the money had to be paid in one lump some, no payments.  He originally asked for two years, I gave him 3.  This was an effort to avoid any hard feeling about him loosing his car.  Over the next three years he had trouble keeping a job and a place to live.  He slowly started to loose touch, only calling when he needed something like moving because of an eviction and other things.  Every now and then I would get a letter, "Hi, how's it going? We should get together.  I want my car back".  Last I heard from him, he and one of his cats were living in a attic somewhere in Denver.  While he asked how the car was that last time, he was calling to barrow money.  I miss my friend, but he only seemed to contact me in the end when he needed something, never with any real intensions of hanging out like in the old days. 

One bank loan later I drove the car home.  This was December of 2000.

Here it is, the day it came home.

The car started up and drove home for me but when I hit the sidewalk to drive into my driveway sparks shot out of the dash from that band new harness.  The car died and would not start again.  MORONS!!! did not tape off ANY of the loose ends that were not used in the new harness, they just coiled the wires and shoved them in the dash.  The nice big metal dash.  Well I had to go through the whole harness and correct a lot of work they botched.  I removed unused wires, taped off loose ends and even a couple of twisted together splices, and so forth.  I had the dash apart when I discovered that my switches were missing the plugs, they just put crimped ends on the wires and shoved them were ever they would give a somewhat desirable effect.  All the original wires were thrown away so there was no ends to be had. Luckily what was left of the original heater box was at least in the trunk.  After correcting a fair share of basic errors, another new voltage regulator, another ballast resister, and another alternator, the car started again and I happily drove it for the next few months.

One Saturday in the summer 2001 my family and I were on our way home from looking at reception halls for my wife's work, the car was cruising down the highway @ 55. Life was good, radio was on and the windows were all down.  BOOM!  Car died.  It coasted to the side of the road and I started the inspection.  Apparently I did not inspect all the wiring.  The main battery lead to the starter had worked its way around until it grounded out on the started and killed everything.  After the car was towed home I started the list.  One new alternator (luckily under lifetime replacement) one new voltage regulator (also still under warranty), new ballast resistor, new starter relay, new starter, a new battery because the one MORONS!!! put in bloated and cracked, and EVERY light bulb in the car.  ?!?!?!?.  I got the repairs done and drove the car for several more years with minor annoyances here and there.  The car eats alternators every now and then, I can ether blame this on the botched electrical system or on Autozone alternators, its maybe a 50/50 thing.  It also burns out turn signal switches on the hazard switch area were the brake lights pass through it, and the faster I drive the higher the voltage reads on the meter I installed to keep an eye on things.  It ranges from about 11 volts at idle to around 18 or so on the highway.

Over the next few years I tried tracking down the issues this car had.  That wonderful new exhaust my friend had put on rattled against the floor by the drivers feet.  Fixed.  That pulsating vibration that comes about 45MPH or so proved to be the most difficult thing to track down.  At first a shop that I trusted looked at the car and told me the rear yoke on the axle was shot.  So they removed it and I started my search rather than have them "adapt" one to fit.  That is how I met Tony at Mopar Masters in Denver. 

A moment about Tony.  Tony is so the complete opposite of the MORONS!!! that I could have ever found.  I really cant sing enough praises to Tony.  The man has been in business for at least 30 years running his own garage and knows every Mopar beast in and out. I can call with the most random questions and he has the answer before I even finish asking.

Back to the car.  Tony looked at the yoke and told me there was nothing wrong with it.  I had the other shop put it back on and followed some advice Tony had.  I had the drive shaft balanced and little bit of the problem disappeared.  Not all the way but it now only showed up at 55-60 MPH.  I had my tires balanced and tried different rims, nothing could make it go away.  At some point I noticed that my engine to transmission bolts had backed out some and the two were getting a divorce.  While tightening the bolts back up I crawled under the car and took off the inspection plate from the tranny,  I noticed that my flex plate was cracked.  I bought a used part from Tony and spent a few hours on my back.  The pulse was still there and going strong.  Finally one day Tony was under my car looking at something else, I can't remember what at the moment.  When he was done he started to slide out and stopped, pulled himself back under and asked if I still had the problem.  I told him yes and he said he was not surprised that everything I had done could not get rid of it. When I crawled under the car with him he pointed out that through the still missing inspection plate he had noticed..... drum roll please..... MORONS!!! had installed an externally balanced small block torque converter on my internally balanced big block car.  One die grinder, several carbide bits, one very crappy old air compressor and a new list of curse words and sore arms the pulse that had plagued my car since the first trip to MORONS!!! was now dead.  Stabbed in its black heart and only a memory.

This is one of the last times I could drive the car.  My son and I were given tickets to the races by one or our neighbor friends Ron.  He likes Bowties, but he is pretty cool.  This is the 1/4 mile track in Pueblo.  Fun day, every time a car would launch off the line my some would pop a wheelie with his toy car and run down the bleacher toward the finish line.  I wish I could have got that on video. By the way, that yellow toy car is a Charger. 

Now this car has some rust issues.  Thank God in Heaven nothing too extensive.  The trunk is solid as a rock as are the floors with only minor pin holes at the moment.  The drivers side frame rail was rotting and the K member on a slow journey north.  The rocker panels are both rotting by the rear of the doors, and the rear window leaks in the corners.  There are two small holes on the passenger fender right above were it bolts to the inner fender well and the rear quarters are rusting an different places.  The last time I drive the car in late 2006 the front tires were squealing so bad while going in a straight line I could not here the radio.  My front end alignment guy said that they could not get it back in spec until the frame was repaired and I got some adjustable strut rods.  So the car was parked in the garage, made naked from the firewall forward and with the help of my buddy Joe and my brother Shawn, the engine bay was stripped of I still don't know who many layers of paint down to bare metal.  This leads me into the battery tray.  While wire wheeling the drivers inner fender I started to pull the battery tray off the car.  That is when I discovered that the tray was not the original, while the original was still there, sort of.  It had rust issues itself so it appears that a tar of some sort was placed on the rotting battery tray and another was placed on top of it.  After getting that off most of the inner fender well was so far gone the only choice I had was to replace it to.  I cut the bottom off the driver side front frame rail and replaced it with a Auto Rust Technicians frame cap per conversations with them over the phone.  I then cut the spot welds and took the inner fender well off the car.  I was able to match it to another 70 B body at a junk yard in Pueblo Colorado.  I was also lucky and found a replacement battery tray.  $100 or so later I was welding a clean piece of bare metal back on my car. 

Makeshift paint booth time in the old one car garage that is barley big enough for this real car. I used DupliColor Rust Fix on a few areas of concern and tagged the rest with DupliColor Acid Etching Primer.  Two coats of DupliColor black and a some DupliColor clear (witch I have been told I should not have done but the current focus is to keep it from rusting away again) and I was ready to start reassembly.  I bought new torsion bars, the biggest I could find.  I bought a new sway bar, the biggest I could find.  I bought adjustable strut rods and a set of disk brakes that Tony sold me that I believe came off a 74 or so Dart.  My buddy Joe and I started the reassembly.

I have ordered a set of The Right Stuff Detailing stainless steel brake lines to replace the original ones that twisted into oblivion when I tried to remove the drum brake hoses, and a new universal wire harness with mini fuse box.  I have been collecting bits of wiring how to articles so that I can get everything hooked up correctly.  A modern option for the headlight door relay that MORONS!!! tossed in the trash, a light harness upgrade, small things here and there.  I wish I could afford the reproduction factory harness, but I cant at this point in time and since this car does not even have the fender tag let alone the build sheet, its a perfect choice for a resto-mod project.