71 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 !! • The Dodge Challenger Message Board

by **thenuke1** » 21 Aug 2008 20:14

the beginning about a year ago
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about a month ago
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3 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago primered up
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almost done
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finished product ....

still got a bit to go ... i need an Accelerator cable the one i got on the car makes the gas pedal get stuck when i start it up...

carberator needs a full clean up and maybe restoration ...

by **thenuke1** » 21 Aug 2008 20:30

story behind my purple beauty ...

my dad bought it as his 2nd car ... he loaned it to my uncle which then demolished the original 383... so my pops decided to go bigger .... dropped an 440 in it ... he drove it for about 2 more years until 1988 he bought a silverado and a family van and the challenger started its 20 year hiatus kept stored in the backyard ....

last year i got into an accident in my 89 camaro RS and we decided to start working on the car little by little .... this year i turned 22 and decided to put my money into the beauty .....

now its like a dream come true seeing it outside in the driveway waiting to be turned on and taken for a spin ....

i have it as a driver not a show car ... if i wanted to invest my money into it theres no point in just having it standing might aswell show it off

by **Eddie** » 21 Aug 2008 21:35

Cool story Nuke1! Sweet Challenger! I love the colour! :thumbsup:

It's amazing your family kept it all those years.

by **drewcrane** » 22 Aug 2008 0:22

hey an 89 rs camaro,or a 71 440 chally, easy choice take the mopar :s010:

by **Jon** » 22 Aug 2008 1:11

drewcrane wrote:hey an 89 rs camaro,or a 71 440 chally, easy choice take the mopar

Yeh, that was the one to save. Do you have anymore pictures of the car. We like pictures.

by **DAYLEY/CHALLENGER** » 22 Aug 2008 2:17

Good story and we do need more pics..............

by **thenuke1** » 22 Aug 2008 6:23

yes i have more pics

i still have to take it somewhere and take "show off" pix

OH YEAH !! the Camaro survived lol i drive it on the week days and the Challenger is my weekend car

HERE YOU GO !!!

Pix of the car sanded down

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Before/after

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440 being dropped
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Black Primer (i didnt get to drive it like this ... i wish i would have)

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heres pix from the primer being sanded down

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Painting process (yes thats right ... we did in the back yard ... lol)

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after paint pix
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MORE PIX COMING SOOOOOOOOON!!!

by **jh27n0b** » 22 Aug 2008 9:35

Nice, very nice :thumbsup:

by **thenuke1** » 26 Aug 2008 21:40

taking the carberator for repairs 2morrow ... $170

still looking for that accelerator cable ....

by **Jimiboy** » 30 Aug 2008 4:10

Love the storie & the pic's thenuke1 :thumbsup:

It sure looks good!
I think it looked kind of cool in the satin black primer :mrgreen:

But a Challenger is way to nice to a primer paint really... Like the choise of purple better...

by **Eddie** » 30 Aug 2008 15:52

THENuke1, is this what you need? http://chucker54.stores.yahoo.net/throttlecables.html :thumbsup:

by **Dale1035** » 01 Sep 2008 16:33

The car looks great and you have a car that you can always be proud of. Anyone can buy a car, but you have done the work yourself. Drive,Enjoy and be Proud. :thumbsup:

by **thenuke1** » 11 Sep 2008 9:11

@ airfuelEddie

thanks man someone else directed me toward that site ...

@ Dale1035

yeah man this is a TRUE backyard restoration ... from top to bottom like i said before the Allignment and the tranny adjustment are the only 2 things that we took the car out for everything else was done in the backyard

by **thenuke1** » 14 Sep 2008 5:26

alot of electrical problems .... now ...

panel gauges dont work ..... just got a new velocity cable ... transmition is going into the shop and they said that might fix that issue ..

one thing i will add ... i take special pride in the way me and my dad decided on how to paint the car ... for sure it was gonna be Plum Crazy but we wanted our car to stand out from the other dozens and dozens of plum crazy Challengers ....

and these are the small touches we came up with

if you look up at other challengers its hard to find ones that have this painted usually its kinda comoed with in the paint ... i found one on ebay but it was white ... never really liked White on Plum

unfortunetly this is the only pic that shows the other part we decided to paint black

my dad came up with the idea and i was sold when he mentioned it .... when it came down to paint day he had second thought and suggested we paint the entire car one color ... but i decided against it cuz i like the first idea of the hood snouts and side fenders black ... luckily i was right and it came out great

the dude that helped us paint it suggested we also paint the 4 side light frames black and it also looks great ....

by **Eddie** » 14 Sep 2008 16:02

I like it! Very cool and tough! :thumbsup:

by **GULFGLENY** » 15 Sep 2008 0:52

LOOKIN GOOD!!! :mrgreen:

by **thenuke1** » 15 Sep 2008 3:28

just installed a new stereo

when my dad bought the car 20 years ago the owner before him had changed stereos out so since i started restoring it the plan was always to put in a new stereo

Here are some pix of this weekends finished work

Saturday we started around 9 am and quit around 3 ish
we went real slow .... had to remove the side inserts and seats

Sundays work ... started and finished same times as saturday ...
the finished product ...

that Fusion subwoofer is a 10 and has an amp installed in the tube which was really helpful and :wow: great sound

the system sounds really good ..... i flipped thru various types of music and they all sound great