Starting my 1972 Challenger Rallye 416 4 speed 3.23 PS PB !!!

[1970dartcustom]

Starting a restoration thread with my newly gotten 1972 Challenger Rallye:

I traded my 1969 Road Runner back to my Dad, who is moving down here to Oklahoma from Washington to be around my family for the remainder of his life. We had it shipped uncovered and boy is it dirty!!! It had been purchased from some famous Mopar graveyard in Montana by my Dad a couple years ago. I'll have to see if I still have the picture saved somewhere of him hauling it back on a trailer...

Anyways, my Dad had it stripped down and painted, and it had like ZERO rust. He only bought an AMD hood because it was kinda dinged up... The Car has numbers matching 340 motor, and original transmission, rear end etc. It was was pulled and rebuilt to nice specs by Gibson Speed Shop. The motor is stroked to 416, flat tappet, 527 comp cam, big mopar lifters, iron j heads street ported, etc. Aluminum big radiator, aluminum water pump, aluminum this and that... More on that later... Forged cranks, rods, etc... The car has Doug's headers but no exhaust yet. The front end has been completely done, but needs an alignment bad, and probably the torsion bars raised up first.

Also, it is a 4 speed console car, which is super cool for me! It was originally a dark green car with a black vinyl top and side stripes. It has been stripped and painted Chrysler Pb3 (Intense Blue) which is like a 1998-2013 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep Color... It has the pins still for the vinyl top trim, so I am still deliberating on putting a black vinyl top on it or if just chrome would look dumb... It has 17 inch Rallye wheels with argent centers and the only interior that is done (besides tons of parts laying about) is the front seats have been recovered, a steering wheel put in, and a dash cap set in place...

The car got shipped here open trailer and it is caked with grime! the original hood hinges are sprung bad, so when my Dad put the hood on before shipping reusing the old hinges it sticks up bad on the passenger side. I got an entire trunk and interior of the car FULL of parts of chrome, and carpets, and dividers, and panels, and stickers, and gauges, and extra windshield wiper motors, wheels centers, and exhaust tips, and every kind of screw and bolt, and 95% of everything needed to finish the car. The windshield glass has been replaced with light green glass, and the side glass is original clear glass that I plan to replace with light green glass, and when the car arrived there was no rear glass on it...

SUPER excited to get started!!! I am a little intimidated by the gauges and their is just a big hole where they should be full of wires, and I have heard all the juice flows through the ammeter too... I am pretty handy and own a small painting and remodeling company, and have been around old Mopars my whole life, but I am surely no mechanic so here we go!!! I will post many pics to chronicle my adventures, and will try to dig up some old pics of the car from my Dad's time with it...

P.S. I had the glass guy come by and install the back window so I could wash the car, and bought hood hinges with springs so I can try to solve the hood alignment issue...

James

 

[Rapidfire]

James, thanks for the great pics and history! Nice to see you restoring the Challenger. Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[1970dartcustom]

this is the general look of the car I am currently thinking of (except the one in the pic is a 70)....
Same exact color. Same Rallye wheels (Except mine are 17's). Same top except it will have the inserts on the front fenders since my Dad left the holes for them...

 

[moparlee]

Have fun with your project James.
I like your plan

 

[moparlee]

James, and thanks alot!

Oops, sorry. Fixed it.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

If you loosen the hood hinge bolts & over lift the hood to twist the front of the hinge up & the rear down the hood will close properly .
Looks like a great project !

 

[1970dartcustom]

If you loosen the hood hinge bolts & over lift the hood to twist the front of the hinge up & the rear down the hood will close properly .
Looks like a great project !

Hmmmmm, I'll hafta try that...

 

[moparlee]

Hmmmmm, I'll hafta try that...

I've done that and it does work to bring the back of the hood down when you close it.

 

[1970dartcustom]

Here's some pics of the stuff I took out of the car that my Dad had got together to restore the car...

 

[1970dartcustom]

here is the hood with possibly sprung hinges, I am gonna loosen the bolts and "overlift" the hood and tighten them down to see if that works in my situation as suggested by others before I intsall my new AMD hinges and springs I bought for $350 on Ebay...

P.S. going to wash the car tomorrow to get the shipping road grime off it now that the rear window has cured for a few days...

 

[1970dartcustom]

I guess I'm naturally going towards this type of look, but honestly I'm a bit bored with that look, thinking of cool mods to do... Any suggestions???

Maybe a white vinyl top?? And white strobe side stripe???

Like this cool car has...

But with a White vinyl top like this???

Or maybe just the white stripe and put the vinyl top chrome on and leave the top blue? Hmmm, any votes????

 

[LA390]

Just my opinion but if you want to put the vinyl top trim pieces on you need the vinyl top, too.

 

[fasjac]

Black top, interior and black vinyl top??

 

[1970dartcustom]

I replaced the hood hinges and springs with AMD's, and the hood was till about the same off on the same side, so I went through all the adjustments on both sides on the uppers and lowers for an hour and I got it pretty darn close, I am happy with it for now, until I adjust the fenders and such better. I also had to readjust the hood latch mechanism so it worked properly. Now the secondary hits a little hard, but I'll mess with it soon...

P.S. I actually know very little about these things and am just figuring it all out, so I did make a small chip in the back corner of the hood and a tiny one putting in the rear glass trim clips on the pins... Well, live and learn I guess, hopefully they can be fixed without too much trouble and made to disappear... I also haven't been able to wash the car since I put in the back glass due to a freak ice storm and ensuing nastiness, including massive amounts of salt everywhere on the road, etc... Looks like its gonna snow for 4 days straight and have wind chills of 20 below so, I guess washing the road grime from shipping it here will have to wait a bit longer...

 

[1972CudaV21]

If you ever need hinges again, RestoRick restores them.

 

[NoCar340]

Personally, I don't think the white looks good on that dark of a blue. Then again, I don't like vinyl tops much anyhow... but I'd probably go with black in your case. The white is so bright it draws the eye away from the rest of the car. I agree with LA390 that without the top, installing the chrome for it would look a bit silly. I do think the car looks phenomenal without the vinyl, though. Since my car was in primer and needed a roof, I took the opportunity to delete the vinyl--that's why it needed a roof in the first place.

You could really mix things up by having a custom vinyl top made from material for the B-body (blue) version of the Mod Top. It would certainly be unique, but be prepared for a barrage of questions, insults, commentary about your parentage and/or sexuality, etc.

My Valiant is getting its roof painted black, primariy because the car just doesn't warrant the time or expense of new vinyl or even removing the trim and filling holes. It's a beater. A painted roof was a factory option in the late '60s and 1970; I'm not sure about the later cars. It's not a route I'd travel on an E-body, though. It looks kind of cheap, and most people would just pass it off as laziness--which it totally is on my Valiant.

As far as other mods go, you have a choice of some factory spoilers and such, the T/A hood, the SCCA front spoiler (I haven't found a satisfactory aftermarket one yet), etc. While I did go with a T/A hood just to change my car up a little (and it'll work nicely with my 340 Six Pack), I did not add anything else. I actually eliminated the T/A ducktail and flip-top fuel filler that were on the car when I got it. I think the body style stands on its own just fine and doesn't need tacked-on parts to add to it. That's simply my opinion and I seem to be in the minority, so take it for what it's worth--nothing more than anyone else's. If you're a big fan of the add-ons, give 'er hell. Just don't add R/T emblems, I beg you.

Another thought: Even with the fender "extractors" you're not necessarily married to the '72-'74 strobe stripes. I've seen other factory-style stripes used, including the '70-style tail stripe, and thought they worked pretty well. The scoops just weren't the focal point anymore. Unlike the top, where I'd prefer black due to the area of it alone, white might be a viable option on whichever stripe trips your trigger. It would add contrast, just not 88 square yards of it.

Those are just my semi-random thoughts, since you seem to be looking for ideas. You do whatever makes you happy; you're the only one that needs to enjoy your car. Have fun with it above all else.

 

[1970dartcustom]

Washed her off yesterday... Looking goooooooood! Super excited to put the underdash gauges on, get the alignment done (including raising the torsion bars a bit), and getting the exhaust on... Then on to interior stuff!

P.S. I noticed a few chips from what is probably little rocks thrown onto the car during shipping, as they use sand and such on the highways up north and it was covered with road grime when it arrived... live and learn, and grieve a bit for now... HOPEFULLY, I can get them touched up passably?

 

[1970dartcustom]

Personally, I don't think the white looks good on that dark of a blue. Then again, I don't like vinyl tops much anyhow... but I'd probably go with black in your case. The white is so bright it draws the eye away from the rest of the car. I agree with LA390 that without the top, installing the chrome for it would look a bit silly. I do think the car looks phenomenal without the vinyl, though. Since my car was in primer and needed a roof, I took the opportunity to delete the vinyl--that's why it needed a roof in the first place.

You could really mix things up by having a custom vinyl top made from material for the B-body (blue) version of the Mod Top. It would certainly be unique, but be prepared for a barrage of questions, insults, commentary about your parentage and/or sexuality, etc.

My Valiant is getting its roof painted black, primariy because the car just doesn't warrant the time or expense of new vinyl or even removing the trim and filling holes. It's a beater. A painted roof was a factory option in the late '60s and 1970; I'm not sure about the later cars. It's not a route I'd travel on an E-body, though. It looks kind of cheap, and most people would just pass it off as laziness--which it totally is on my Valiant.

As far as other mods go, you have a choice of some factory spoilers and such, the T/A hood, the SCCA front spoiler (I haven't found a satisfactory aftermarket one yet), etc. While I did go with a T/A hood just to change my car up a little (and it'll work nicely with my 340 Six Pack), I did not add anything else. I actually eliminated the T/A ducktail and flip-top fuel filler that were on the car when I got it. I think the body style stands on its own just fine and doesn't need tacked-on parts to add to it. That's simply my opinion and I seem to be in the minority, so take it for what it's worth--nothing more than anyone else's. If you're a big fan of the add-ons, give 'er hell. Just don't add R/T emblems, I beg you.

Another thought: Even with the fender "extractors" you're not necessarily married to the '72-'74 strobe stripes. I've seen other factory-style stripes used, including the '70-style tail stripe, and thought they worked pretty well. The scoops just weren't the focal point anymore. Unlike the top, where I'd prefer black due to the area of it alone, white might be a viable option on whichever stripe trips your trigger. It would add contrast, just not 88 square yards of it.

Those are just my semi-random thoughts, since you seem to be looking for ideas. You do whatever makes you happy; you're the only one that needs to enjoy your car. Have fun with it above all else.

I super appreciate your thoughts, I really would much rather not have a vinyl top, but since there are holes and pins sticking out along the trim line of the vinyl area, I need to do something I guess, sigh... It looks so good without it!

 

[tsaarts]

I would like this look.

 

[70chall440]

I have owned a fair number of Challengers (like 10 or 11 of them) going back to the late 70's to include a few 72-74 cars. Vinyl tops are a personal thing, some like them others don't, personally I like them because I feel that they set off the car, however I also think E bodies look just as good w/o a vinyl top.

Find a look that speaks to you and pursue that. I will tell you the wheels/tires are paramount on a E body; they can completely transform the look of the car one way or another. If you want "old school" then you can do Crager SSTs, aluminum slots, Key stones, etc. If you want the "race car" look you can do centerlines and the like. Want a "stock" look you can go with steel wheels w/hub caps, Magnum 500's or rallye. Prefer a more modern look there is a wide selection of 16"+ styles out there.

Likewise the stance is important, lowered down looks modern and cool, jacked up looks vintage, etc.

I have loved E bodies since they were basically new and specifically I have always preferred the Challenger although I have had (and still do have) Cuda's (as well as my 70 Challenger). Make it your own and chase the look that speaks to you.

BTW I have a 416 with a 4 spd in my Cuda and its a monster!