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    Results 1 to 20 of 146
    1. #1
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States

      1968 Charger w/ 6.1L, 6 speed, and RMS AlterKtion/4 link

      This last summer (2017), I was finally able to lock up a deal on a 1968 Dodge Charger that I've been chasing for about 2.5 years. It's not a rare Charger, but it was quite solid and I just fell in love with it. This is the first picture of it that I saw:



      The guy I bought it from lives about 15 miles from me but he kept the Charger on his parents' farm in Missouri. After about a year of talking about it I was able to schedule an in person inspection on a weekend. He had quite a few Chargers but that's the one I wanted since it was so solid. About a year later he had to move his cars back to Kansas so he loaded it up and sent me this picture:



      After another 6 months I came across a car that he really wanted so we were able to work a trade. I was super happy to finally get the deal done. My intent is to keep this car simple (yeah right) and have a rough and tumble car I can enjoy but we will see if that can be accomplished. If you've seen my Roadrunner and Barracuda build threads, you know that I struggle with scope creep.



      The early plans are for a 6.1, an A518 automatic transmission, and possible a Dana 60....since I have a Dana sitting in the corner of the shop.


    2. #2
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      Here it is the day I picked it up:








    3. #3
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      The underside is really what drew me to this car. The rear frame rails and torsion bar cross member are rock solid.








    4. #4
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      Even the rear window corners were pretty decent. I'm sure the lower channel under the rear window will need work, but I've seen much worse.]





      Even the quarter panels are solid, considering they're 50 years old and the car has been outside for at least the past 25 years.




    5. #5
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      The paint on this car is a real patchwork job. It was originally red, and then was painted blue. Then someone sprayed yellow on multiple surfaces but not the whole car. The engine bay is black. The front fenders were originally metallic bronze so they've obviously been replaced. At first all the colors bothered me. It has grown on me a lot, but not enough to keep it that way. I started stripping the top coats to get it down to the original red paint at least. I'm not sure where I'm going with the color yet, but I don't want to spend a ton on body work and paint. I'll figure that out later.....

      The engine bay:

    6. #6
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      The floor pans were much better then I expected too. The driver's side was as solid as can be. The passenger's side had lots of little holes. A previous owner had cut a hole in the hump for a 4 speed (hung manual pedals too). That wouldn't have been bad to do but the biggest issue was that the Charger had been moved around many times with a forklift. it was forked from the side and the ends of the forks pushed the floor pans up. You can sort of see what I'm talking about from these pictures:




    7. #7
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      With the passenger side having lots of little holes and with the forklift damage, I just decided to replace all the cabin floor pans. I plan to use the one piece AMD forward pan and the two smaller rear AMD pans. A couple Saturdays ago I got the wild hair to dig in so I got the chisel out and fired up the compressor. This picture shows how solid the driver's side pans were. I didn't find one perforation on that side.



      Once the big pieces were cut out, I've been slowly but surely grinding down all the spot welds.






    8. #8
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      I also got on craigslist and bought this A518 transmission from a 1991 Dodge ram. I looked for a 1990-1991 A518, because they did not have lockout and the 727 converters can be used with the A518. The forward half of the case is identical to a 727, which was the 3 speed automatic. However, the A518 has a .69 overdrive ratio. I paid all of $100 for the core A518.



      I went after it with solvent and a couple wire brushes. it's not quite done in this picture, but you get the idea...


    9. #9
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      I ordered up a rebuild kit from Transtar for $215 and took the transmission over to a buddy, who is really good with the 727. He pulled it all apart and the transmission was remarkably clean. The fluid was bright red, free of any debris, and smelled good. In fact, none of the parts had been cleaned or even wiped down when these 2 pictures were taken. The clutches were not discolored at all. I also called A&A Transmission and I ordered a manual valve body.




    10. #10
      Join Date
      Aug 2014
      Posts
      435
      Country Flag: United States
      I recently found a YouTube channel for a guy who does a lot of 68-70 Chargers in the Las Vegas area. He's building a similar style of Charger right now. Username is "Junkerup"

      Fun to see some of the stuff he finds and saves.

      Jay

    11. #11
      Join Date
      Sep 2015
      Posts
      171
      Country Flag: United States

    12. #12
      Join Date
      Jan 2006
      Location
      Southern California / Maryland
      Posts
      488
      Country Flag: United States
      the 6.1 is a great swap - have one in my 68 Charger and love it - but I do have a 6.2L forged short block on the shelf for it...
      1966 Chevrolet Chevelle 300 Deluxe 350 / 350 auto

      1968 Dodge Charger SRT8 6.1L Hemi / 6-speed

      1964 Dodge Polara 8-71 Blown 440 / 4-speed

      1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 3.4L / 5-speed

      2013 Dodge Challenger R/T 5.7L Hemi / 6-speed

    13. #13
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by Rolling_Thunder View Post
      the 6.1 is a great swap - have one in my 68 Charger and love it - but I do have a 6.2L forged short block on the shelf for it...
      I've parted out over 50 SRT8's so I save back the best ones for my conversions. I've actually got a 6.1L based 426 stroker that was built for boost. It dyno'd at 640hp at the tires. I pulled it from one of the SRT8's I parted out. I'm just waiting for the right car to install it in.

    14. #14
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      A port had to be tapped, threaded, for a plug that came with the A&A manual valve body kit. You can see the plug in the middle of this picture



      Clutch packs stacked and loaded...





      I upgraded to the billet servo design.



      All done! I picked the transmission up today


    15. #15
      Join Date
      Nov 2017
      Posts
      129
      nice start! I love a solid point, actually one of the things that sold me on the 65 mustang im doing

    16. #16
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      I wire wheeled the top surface on the cabin frame rail channels.



      Then I tackled the trunk floor



      It's kind of fun to see the progress...and the scrap metal pile.


    17. #17
      Join Date
      Jun 2014
      Posts
      62
      Country Flag: United States
      Hes got great videos. Finds alot of nice chargers.



      Quote Originally Posted by JayinMI View Post
      I recently found a YouTube channel for a guy who does a lot of 68-70 Chargers in the Las Vegas area. He's building a similar style of Charger right now. Username is "Junkerup"

      Fun to see some of the stuff he finds and saves.

      Jay

    18. #18
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Location
      Huntington Beach, CA
      Posts
      2,415
      Country Flag: United States
      68 Chargers are my favorite! And while that does look solid for sitting for 25 years all things are relative. Thats a big project for sure!
      Please Subscribe to the AutoXandTrack YouTube Channel

      Autocross and track blog about running autocross and track events with pro touring cars

    19. #19
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      Next up was the nasty task of removing all the factory undercoating. Last time I used a propane torch and a 2.0" wide paint scraper but I figured that there had to be a better way. I saw one guy online talking about using a needle scaler so I bought a cheap needle scaler off eBay to give it a shot. It worked like a champ. It took me about 5 hours to strip all the undercoating that was left. I didn't even have to drop burning hot rubber down my sleeve or get it on my face. You will still want to wear a respirator because the dirt and rubber really flies and hangs in the air. Here's the box mine came in:



      Where the paint was thin, the needle scaler just took it off completely and left a pretty nice surface:




    20. #20
      Join Date
      Jan 2012
      Location
      Newton, KS
      Posts
      302
      Country Flag: United States
      The needle scaler left very small pieces of rubber so I then used a braided wire cup wheel to clean up the surface of the frame rails and rear floor pan. First some "before" pics:




      And after.....


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