Challenger

[mtuck]

I am going to look at 71' Dodge Challenger today. I was wondering if I can get some adive from you guys. Can you tell me where some of known areas of rust I need to look for. Is there anything special I need to look for in parts that are hard to find?

Thanks
Matthew

[Brandon Miller]

floors, trunk, quarters

[BA.]

I don't think they are re-pop'ing the grills yet.

They re-did a Challenger on Musclecar TV and I thought they had a problem where the quarter-panel/ lower sail-panel are at. It might have been just for a vinyl top car though.

[mtuck]

Just got back from looking at the car. All I can say is WOW. :jawdrop:Every panel had rust on it. I opened the door and all I could see were the weeds growing up around it. It was a complete car but I would have to replace every panel. I think I am still looking.

Thanks
Matthew

[dropit69]

damn must not have been a texas car?..whats your price range and ill keep eye open..i can get a 74 camaro for ya pretty cheap..

[go-fish]

There is a new site, forebodiesonly dot com. Along with cuda-challenger dot com and moparts dot com you should be able to find some Challengers for sale.

[Ron S]

They are finally are repopping them,but the cowl panels are a pain to change and are really prone to rust on E bodies.Rear frame rails are also prone to rust.I really love the 71's,you don't see as many of them as you do the 70's.The nice part is they will hold a 10" wheel without minitubbing.Ron

[mtuck]

There is a new site, forebodiesonly dot com. Along with cuda-challenger dot com and moparts dot com you should be able to find some Challengers for sale.

Thank you for the information, I will go look to see what i can find. I had not thought about a Challenger until I saw this one on my way home from work yesterday. But that got me thinking about doing one. I would love to see some pictures of your Cuda.

Thanks again
Matthew

[Ron S]

I know you were talking to Go-fish,but here are some pics of mine. http://57hemicuda.smugmug.com/gallery/6662316_7EYeh I love the Mopars.Ron

[go-fish]

My cuda does'nt look like anything special on the outside but, afterall, it's what's on the inside that counts, right.

It's getting OD Green paint this weekend though.

[vipercuda]

Just got back from looking at the car. All I can say is WOW. :jawdrop:Every panel had rust on it. I opened the door and all I could see were the weeds growing up around it. It was a complete car but I would have to replace every panel. I think I am still looking.

Thanks
Matthew


We have a niche in the mopar world and I can tell you about 9.5 out of 10 will be rusted. Some alot worse than others but buying a mopar I would expect to find rust. At a minimum expect to replace trunk floor and parts of the floor. The metal they used was not the greatest. I will tell you expect rust, if you are lucky to get one with no rust then go play the lottery too....

I would use AMD sheetmetal they have the best fitting parts. I can help with them if you like.

What year would you like?

Thanks
Mike
Time Machines

[mtuck]

To be honest, I do not know much about Mopar's. i have always been a GM guy, mostly Camaro's. But I saw this one on my way home yesterday and I had to go back to look at it. It was very rough but it had a good price. The dealer was asking $3900 for it. I am sure they would go down a little. But the rust scared me a lot. I think my body guy would kill me if I brought this to him and told him to fix it. But after seeing go-fish, Ron S, and vipercuda cars I am starting to change my mind. Let me ask you guys a few more questions if you do not mind. I know Mopars are more costly to build and have less after market parts. Compared to a Camaro, how much could I expect to spend on a motor? What about suspension options? Sorry for so many questions.

Thanks again
Matthew

[go-fish]

Depends on the motor. No more tan a SBC stroker if you're building a small block stroker.

I would say a little bit more than an LS if you wanted to go with a new Hemi (3G Hemi).
6.1 Hemi is a jump in price from that, $10,000 for a crate 6.1.

IDK about big blocks but I can tell you there are some very affordable stroker kits for Mopar. You can get stroker kits for 440 to go up to 543, 572,528, 512 and 500.
My favorite is a 400 Mopar engine stroked to 451, a very good stroker and the 400 is the lightest of all the Mopar big blocks. All these stroker kits are $1897 from 440source.com. crank/rods/pistons
http://www.440source.com/strokerkits.htm

You could get a 528 crate Hemi for about $15,000.

Transmission
Classic 5 Speed, Keisler 5 speeds and ato overdrive paddle shifted 4L60E conversions, stock and overdrive A833 4 speeds, etc.


Suspension Options:
Air Ride Technologies, Reilly Motorsports Alter-K-tion, Just Suspension, PST, XV Motorsports.
Alsodon't discount the stock stuff. There have been guys running torsion bar mopars on road courses and doing good. Back in the day if you wanted to lowere your Mopar you crank down on the torsion bars but that would really screw up your caster and camber. There was no adjusting the upper control arms. Now there are quite a few tubular UCA mfg.'s and you can keep good geometry and lower it with the t-bars. There are also different size torsion bars you can get. The thicker the torsion bars the better for handling I believe, (there might be a sweet spot for the best rate). I know the drag racers want the slant 6 car torsion bars and the small block road racer guys want the big block t-bars.

I went all out on my suspension with near the best bolt on stuff (Alter-k-tion and Air Ride's Air Bar) and spent about $4,000. You can do beefed up stock suspension and depending on whether the car already has front and rear sway bars you will spend alot less. I would like to do a Dart next and go for hard core road race suspension and cage w/ stock stuff.

Interior stuff is more expensive naturally because the door panels are big plastic coverings and the dash is a vacuum formed process ($$$) where as the Camaro dash is metal and a thin pad.

You will need subframe connectors since it is a unibody but they're cheap. Depending on whether the thing is a rust bucket, body shop rates are body shop rates. Replacement metal isn't super outrageous.

I think it is a misconception about them costing alot more to redo, it isn't a whole lot different. Some stuff IS more expensive and, yes, there is alot more aftermarket for Ford and Chevy but there are some excellent companies that do Mopars alot of justice.

Hope this helps. If there is a direction you are wantin to go let us know, i.e. stock vs. aftermarket suspension or new vs. old engine and trans.

[Ron S]

The fact that you can't buy the parts for these cars at your local 7-11 store is what makes these cars so valuble and special.It won't be too long before the new Cuda body comes out,I really think it will effect the prices on the cars.

The high production numbers on the Camaro and Mustangs helped to keep the aftermarket parts flowing,and the high numbers of restored and modified Camaros & Mustangs.I guess thats why I love these cars so much,there wasn't a million of them built,and you don't see alot of highly modified ones running around.Just my 2cents.Ron

[mtuck]

I drove by it again this morning while driving into work. I have been thinking about this car alll night. I am going to call my body shop to see what they say and if they want to tackle something with this much work. If they say yes I might be getting it. I was talking to my wife last night and she said the same as you did Ron. She says she likes it because there are not a lot of them. I have to agree with the both of you. That is what is appealing about it. I am going to do some more research(surfing) this morning to see what I can find.

go-fish
To answer your questions I really do not know what I would do to it yet. Here are some of my thought and let me know what you think.

As for the motor, this is the hardest to say. I would most likely stay old school and either try to get a 440 with a six pack. Or I like your idea of a stroker motor. I would like to get 500-600hp on motor. Do not think that is to unreasonable. But the 6.1 crate motor is an option. Just do not think I could get that in the budget.

The transmission is an auto not and I would stay with that I think. A paddle shifter would also be fun. I would really have to do some homework on this.

Now comes the suspension. I was watching it when XV built there car. I know I will go with the low, better handling suspension. How big of a tire car be run with-out mini-tubbing the car? I like the look of your car and think the stance is good. But you have a Air Ride setup? $4000 is not to unreasonable for a great handling car.

As for the interior, I would go back with mostly stock

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

man you may be opening a can of worms with something as rough as that..

and depending on whos doing the work.. it could be like 10k in metal replacement.

if youre ready to go the distance then go for it.. but i think save your money and buy one in good condition or almost finished..

the market for these is going down so you may get a deal!

[go-fish]

You can get 10" wide in the back. If you get a B-body (Charger, sebring, roadrunner, Coronet) rear you can get more dish as theyre 2" narrower. You can get leaf spring relocators that move them in 2". It is not necessary to get the 10" back there but if you run a tire with bulge on a stock set up they may rub.

You can fit 8" in front.

My Alter-k-tion front has QA1 coilovers and the Air Ride Air Bar also has the same shocks. It is set like that all the time and rides great. If I ever wanted to I could put Shockwaves on it because the Alter-k-tions are designed to run Shockwaves too. I just don't need the ride height adjustability. It would be cool but I have other parts to buy.

If you are talking about extensive metal replacement, it may be more beneficial to but a car that is done or near rust free and go from there with mods. Like this one for 12.5K (says 97% rust free) California car now in Whitehouse, Texas. http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=53014.0

[Ron S]

The rear really doesn't require the relocator kit.On my Cuda I just fabbed some new front leaf spring brackets,they were bolt on and easy to make.and with the correct offset wheels they are bolt on.

I didn't use 10" on the front,but XV Motorcars does,using the factory frame rails and they're k frame.

Rust does suck,but if all the parts are there, and I mean all the parts.It probably isn't that bad of a deal.Ron
http://mysite.verizon.net/ls6ron/