Woot. I'm in the company of kindred spirits! I'm digging in my basement this weekend to find the negatives from the volcano days. When my family evacuated, it was chaotic. I had stayed behind for almost six months to help pack, put, and ship the belongings of thousands of service members back home ( what could be salvaged) and shut down Clark Air Base, prepping it for turnover to the Philippine Govt. When it was my turn to get my stuff packed out, I could salvage very little as a river of ash had flowed through my house and baked in the tropical heat for almost 3 months...
A month or so before the eruption, I had pulled my original 340 out and disassembled it in preparation for rebuilding it. All the parts laid out on my backroom floor were encased in volcanic ash that had turned into an almost concrete mound. The ash, high in sulfur dioxide, (as well as hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid) mixed with rain waiter from the Super Typhoon ( think monster hurricane) that hit the island at the same damn time the volcano erupted, and oxygen basically turned into a sulfuric acid-containing paste that corroded pretty much everything. The only item I could rescue was my block (up on a stand), and only because the packing crew allowed me to tag it as a "table."
I still have that raw block wrapped in brown packing paper from 91, and for some reason, I kept all the license plates I've had for her during our travels.
You'll notice that the hood is not a proper Rallye hood. In 88 or 89, I sold my Rallye hood to a buddy with a 71 for some cash and his flat hood. You could order a T/A fresh air intake from Year One. I grabbed one, cut a hole in the flat hood, and made my own T/A-style hood.
I found a big dual snorkel air cleaner off a 440 car at our auto hobby shop, cut the vertical band off the baseplate along with the snorkels, and fabricated a redneck 4bbl variant of a fresh air intake that sealed against the hood. Sadly, that work of art was lost in transit from the Philippines to Hawaii. Not sure of which port, it was not on the car when I picked it up at the port in Hawaii.
In one of the attached photos, you'll see the 318 I installed after I pulled the 340 so I could drive it. At the time, it was our only vehicle. That 318 came out of a donor 72 Challenger that had been wrecked, so I pulled the complete factory AC system and added that in when I did the swap. Why, well, there are basically two seasons in the Philippines: hot and wet and hot and dry. So yer sweating year round...
Fast-forward to now. The kids are all grown up, I am not travelling for work much anymore, and I promised myself I would have my car back on the road and in fine shape by the time I'm 65. I am a bit behind the curve; I turn 65 in January, and this is my mission for 2025.
Over the last few weekends, I sandblasted 33 years of grime and rust off the 14x8 Rallye wheels. Yup, I widened the originals almost 40 years ago. They have a 4-inch (not 4.5) backspacing. I also put some rattle-can aluminum on them to hold back any rust temporarily until I can find someone to powder coat them in the right color.
Grabbed new BFG TA P23560R14's (front) and P24560R14's (rear), ordered up a new fuel tank, sending unit, tank straps/hooks/insulators (still inbound), and found a superb condition Rallye hood locally.
I am working on draining the fluids and prepping the engine to fire up for the first time in well over a decade.
The sheet metal has lots of surface rust, all from the ash acting like sandpaper and acid on the thin black lacquer paint job done in 83. When I bought her, the undercarriage was heavily undercoated (factory); there is no immediate sign of rot in the floor, firewall, subframe connectors, spring perches, or trunk pan.
The truck lid is shot, the deck filler between the rear window and trunk needs to be replaced, and the area along the drip rails on both sides has rust pinholes. I'm pretty sure the roof, rear roof brace, side braces, and drip rails, along with the rear quarter panels, are all going to have to be replaced.
There is a lot to do. I will post here periodically as I start to take things apart and put them back together.
On a parallel track, I am looking for a few engine parts to get my original 340 block rebuilt. Before I send it off to the machine shop to be tanked, fluxed, and (if worth rebuilding) machined, I need #1 below. The rest are not urgent.
Thanks in advance to all; I'll ask for your patience as I may start to ask a bunch of questions as I try to locate missing or rotted items or develop knowledge I do not have.
1. Complete, serviceable set 5 main caps/bolts; from what I " think," I know these can be from a 318. Looking for stock size (not previously overbored)
2. Correct oil pan, pickup tube & 340 windage tray
3. Timing cover, good or very good condition.
4. Pointer to where I can get new or refurbed engine mounts/brackets.
5. Set of 915 LA heads in rebuildable condition
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. I am a lifelong Challenger, 'Cuda, and just overall MoPar-obsessed nutcase.
aboard. We need to see some pictures.
