[Hans]

Here's mine 1972 Challenger Ralley 340. One of the 6902 made.



taken from the front...

[Hans]

...and the rear...

[Hans]

Here's how my car's setup at the moment;

ENGINE BLOCK :
- '73 340 cubic inch bored .030 over
- forged crankshaft
- forged pistons TRW 2316F
- compression ratio between 10-10.5 : 1

HEADS :
- ported X-heads with 2.05 intake valves cut off a bit
- alu Harlend Sharp roller rockers 1.5 ratio w/ hardened shafts

CAMSHAFT :
- MP solid cam
- 0.528 valve lift
- 284 adv. duration (241@050)

INDUCTION :
- Edelbrock ported performer RPM manifold
- 0.5" carb spacer
- Speed Demon carb 650dp
- home-made air filter underneeth original filter

EXHAUST :
- Hedman headers w/ collectors painted fireproof
- 2.5" dual exhaust system w/ 40series Flowmasters

IGNITION :
- Electr. distributor w/ hardened shaft
- Std orange ignition box MP
- MSD coil
- Taylor wires

OILING :
- Std oil pan w/ home-made baffels
- Std windage tray
- Std oil pump w/ hp spring kit fitted
- Improved oil flow adapter

COOLING :
- Std water pump
- 26" radiator w/ 3 'big' rows

TRANSMISSION :
- 727 TorqueFlite
- Rebuilt by street/strip & little bit track specs.
- B&M deep oil pan
- B&M torque convertor 2400
- B&M Pro ratchet shifter w/ linelock use

AXLE :
- balanced driveshaft
- 8.3/4
- rebuilt 742 Sure-grip diff w/ 3.91 gears

BRAKE SYSTEM :
- Std drums in the back
- Std discs in front w/ 'asbest' pads
- Linelock between front brakes

WHEELS :
- Centerline Telstar 7x15 in front & 8x15 in the back
- Cooper cobra 235/60/15 in front & 275/60/15 in the back
- for strip use 26" BFG Dragradials or MH DOT approved slicks.

STRIP :
- Best ET follows soon
- Best Mph follows soon

This is for so far, till money shows up for new mods.

(Message edited by 72challenger on June 10, 2003)

[Joel]

On my monitor it turns from blue to mouve.

[Joel]

Hey, Hans, I like the wheels that you have on your car. What size are they?

[Hans]

It has 7x14" in front with 235/60/14 and 8x15" with 265/50/15 in the rear. But I think I will change the rears this winter for a set of 275/60/15. It will speed up the car a bit. It already has about 400hp (it has been calculated at 392hp, but that was with standard heads in stead of X-heads) but it's still not fast enough. Then with a B&M Pro Ratchet shifter I can make some good times at the strip I think.

Blue to mouve Joel, what's that ?? Mouve... isn't it just purple in the last pic.

And Dave, I don't think your blind. If you were, you hadn't bought your challenger but a honda instead of eating honda's with your challenger.

[Joel]

Mouve is purple with a touch of pink, I think. Did you have to perform any special suspension modifications to get the rear wheels to fit, like Dave had to do on his car?

[Hans]

The car has a set of high jackers / air shocks under it which I have to inflate a little bit. If I don't the rear tyres hits the fender when I drive a bumpy road or when I park the car on a sidewalk or something like that. But further then that there were no modifications needed.

[Duane]

Hans,

I like your blacked-out front and tail panels. Very nice.

I have a 72 also, which needs paint. Originally mine was hemi-orange with an argent silver tail panel; I don't think I will repaint the car orange. Whatever color, the black looks better than silver. I don't think the black is original based on what I have read; was that a difficult decision?

I am about to repaint my engine compartment with semi-gloss black POR-15 (which means I would have to paint the car black to match if I really want to preserve some accuracy) - but I still like a two tone vehicle. No decision yet!

[Hans]

My tail panel was glossie black when I bought the car a year ago but last christmas I repainted the tail panel semi gloss black together with the trunk interior the original color honeydew. That looks much better then the glossie black. I agree with you that black looks better then the silver. At least that's what I think. The front needs a repaint to but that's up for next winter I think. My fender wings, hood inserts and hood molding are painted argent silver, but I have to repaint the hood molding in the lila color of my car some time.

Watch as many other challengers as possible to make a good decision about the color to paint your car!

Good luck.

[Hans (72challenger)]

Here's the tail panel painted in semi-gloss black, although I do not know if the differences can be seen on these photo's.

[Rob (Racer413)]

Every 72-4 challenger I look at has a different rear panel.Either the color is wrong or texture is wrong.I have seen 20 parked in a row and all 20 were different.Who knows whats right?Mine is argent and very rough texture, it looks original but I can't swear to it.

[Dave R (Roppa440)]

If it has a rough texture it will have been Argent silver from the factory for sure.

[Rob (Racer413)]

here is what it looks like. I dont think you can see too much

[Hans (72challenger)]

The repaint is just finished, check out the result:

[Robbert D 70`Chally (383m]

Cool Hans! Would you say the color of the pic resembles reality? What is this color? 30 days and then wax it! I'll see her soon.
Robbert

[Hans (72challenger)]

Well here's another pic Robbert.



The color should be C7 Plum Crazy, but some say it's a little bit lighter then original C7, although they mixed the paint as original specs. But it does look good, so I'm happy. You'll see it next week I quess!

[Dave-R (Roppa440)]

Colour looks right to me. Oh how i wish I had the money for a re-spray before the Nats. It is looking good Hans. Well done.

[Jeff Maxwell (Redchalleng]

Hans, that color is my wife's favorite! Your car looks sharp. That's why they say it's so bright!

[Hans (72challenger)]

Well Dave, now you wish you'd never bought that BE COOL stuff. Till you can drive your car again for a while, then you know why you wanted to BE COOL.

[Luke (Luke)]

Yes plum crazy is a bloody fantastic coluor I like it,but that other colour was totaly bitchen man I'm shore if it was one of the high impact fatory colours it would have been popular.

[Hans (72challenger)]

Just noticed there's no pic of the sidestriping so why not...

[Hans (72challenger)]

Just thought to keep you people up to date. I'm in process (just started) of changing a few things about my car this winter with the idea it should be hitting the streets again in marche. Just in time for the shows/cruises in the summer which will start in april.

I finally collected about all of the needed parts so I'm planning to do the next things:
- rebuild the front end with polygraphite
- replace the rear sway bar bushings (which diameter should the bar be?)
- clean the underside of the car and paint it(should the chassis be painted plum or black?)
- installing the suregrip 3rd member I have
- installing a shift light
- rebuilding trans with B&M stuff (took a sec to shift 1-2 etc.)
- changing to a hotter cam (solid)
- reroute the engine wiring
- a couple of things I forgot

And last but not least replace the original exhaust system for a 2,5" with old style fowmasters. Right now it has some original chrysler mufflers under it and boy are they LOUD! I just pulled them off and looked in it; I just looked through it. I could see&hear the old baffels? shaking in the muffler, they have rotten through the last 30 years. I was just running like an open exhaust...

So far I just pulled out the engine & trans.

And NO, I'm not married yet and do not have children before you ask.

[Alex (Alex)]

As far as I am aware, the underside should be primer with overspray body colour!

If you use the car in all weather, I would blow it over in body colour, black looks a bit like you are hiding something.

By the way, that is one fantastic looking car!

[Dave-R (Roppa440)]

I think Alex is right there but I think they also undersealed a lot of the cars. They certainly did not look as good under the car as a lot of these 'restorations' you see.

If it was my car I would paint the underside black and underseal the hell out of it. My car gets used! In fact I am using it everyday this week to go to work in and it is parked outside my office right now.

[Hans (72challenger)]

I think I will use an industry hard anti rust paint to keep out the rust and overspray it with plum paint. But inside the fenders, which gets the most abuse when driving, will be sealed as well as possible! Í don't use the car everyday; it wouldn't be a good solution driving 90miles to work every day.

[Dave-R (Roppa440)]

Not with your mpg!!

[Hans (72challenger)]

Exactly Dave, that's what I meant. And Alex, thanks for the complements bout the car!

[Richard Ward (Richard)]

Don't start me going on underseal.If you look at a mopar build sheet it shows undercoating & underhood pad which means that it is really only intended as a sound deadener. All mopars got undercoat in the wheelwells but this is mainly to resist stone chips.

If you just underseal your car you are not protecting the areas where rust damage is likely to be a problem in fact you will probably make the problem worse. Most rust works it way from the inside out and particularly occurs between the spot welded panel joints. Best way to prevent rust - minimal use in wet weather and zero use when road salt is about especially when the weather is dry but the salt residue is still there as it gets blown up into every part of the car and then only needs damp conditions to start eating away at your pride and joy.

If you want to drive through winter move to Arizona or be prepared to buy a new Challenger about once every 5-10 years and the way prices are going it's probably going to be cheaper to move.

Seriously I would paint the underside first with a rust inhibiting primer Eastwoods Carroless (I have a source in the UK for this) or POR 15 then a grey primer colour ( I've found a GM primer colour formula that is pretty close) then just let the topcoat blow in from the lower outer edges.

For the common challenger rust out areas like in front of and behind the rear wheels and door bottoms I warm waxoyl until it is a liquid then pour it into these areas using a funnel with a length of heater hose on it so it goes straight into these areas which normally would trap moisture.

[Hans (72challenger)]

The engine compartment is finally painted plum after many weeks of grinding off the old paint. Today I will give it a clearcoate layer to finish it. So after that I can start to put everything back together. Will post a pic as soon as I have the digicam again.}