The Willomet Charger

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by bkswede

Amazing work and project!

Thank you. It's been a long time in the making, and I'm pushing myself hard post-SEMA to make significant progress this year. Goals, not dreams.

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Looking good!

Thank you, sir.

Originally Posted by gofastwclass

Nice work.

Much appreciated. I've taken my unfair share of inspiration from the builds on here.

Originally Posted by 214Chevelle

You've got some skills....nice!!

Building them as I go. I have really good mentors, and that makes the difference between "self taught" and "coached."

David

[Cuttingedge]

Can’t believe I never noticed you had your build on here. I follow it on ck5 hah (classicstyle).

Works looking great, welding is really getting nice!

[1970RT]

Another good few weeks of work, and a decent series of milestones.

Lateral chassis bits are burned in.




Just about ready to stab the engine and trans.


First, need to keep the input shaft from an interference fit with the crank. Quicktime RM199 1/4" bellhousing spacer leaves only a minor amount of contact, and just requires some light clearancing.


Maybe 1/32" of interference remaining.




Next up in the conversion - shifter rail. Here's the shorter TR6060 rail.


Two position magnum takeoff.


Only thing really remaining to convert is the output shaft and pump mechanism, but it's setup enough for mockup purposes.

Maximum effort shifter cover.


Because a $4.95 stamped steel cover is boring.


Stabbed.


Just enough rear angle for the heads to drain.


You can clearly see the 5* angle built into the magnum bell and tail housing.


Engine cradle detail.


That's about 1" of clearance.


David

[1970RT]

Finally able setup driving position.


Shifter is exactly in line with the steering wheel - just where I want it - no bent shifters in this muscle car.


Pretty proud of this one - midengine, LS, Charger.


Setup for a flat bottom, with only the oil pan and bellhousing dipping a couple of inches below the rocker beams.


A friend performing driver position duties.


The work continues.

David

[1970RT]

Eyes on the apex. We're coming into a big turn.



The Willomet Charger is getting a massive infusion of pro-touring DNA: namely a new 4x2 chassis and some select systems from Chassisworks. Specifically, we'll use the watts link Fab9 rear, and the aluminum upright front system.

It's a great leap forward for the project, and I'm excited to get started. As usual, the entire process will be on display here, and I’ll post separately as to where you can find it on YouTube. Yep, I’m going to video the whole darned thing for y’all - got my fancy GoPro and everything, so brace yourselves.

Let's get to measuring. In total, I needed to complete two worksheets and markup one assembly drawing:

• Front crossmember and suspension worksheet - determines the width of the crossmember, rack and pinion, standard or wide track A arm, and a handful of small assembly details
• Rear suspension and Fab9 worksheet - determines wide of the rear frame rails and axle housing and the location of suspension pickup points
• 68-72 Chevelle assembly drawing - they don't have a b-body Mopar drawing (yet), so I'm marking up their largest GM assembly drawing for length, width, etc. It's interesting how similar the Charger and Chevelle are in a few key dimensions.

To complete all these with a high level of accuracy, I mounted and roughly gapped the front fender and used the mockup 305 tire to determine the placement for the tire, which backs me into wheelbase and a ballpark backspacing. The car is pretty much a factory widebody, so everything measures larger than the Chevelle. Fortunately, the front fenders are fairly cavernous, so the tires can push to the outside with ease. How I control for tolerance creep: the front of the car is 0" and the rear is about 185", and the suspension centerlines, torque boxes, rockers, etc. are all measurements within that range. Using a T square, I just translate those critical points to the frame table.

Front fender on, 305 at ride height 6" below the rocker. I had to cut the internal fender bracing to fit. The front suspension is pushed forward by 1.5".



For reference, max bump with the original inner fender. These are commonly cut to fit anything larger than a 285.



Cut and at ride height, level to the front. I'll dial in the suspension stance much later in the process, as everything has to be built level to the frame table.





This is my "evaluation pose". I'm trying to relocate the tire in the center of the wheel arch. Originally, the axle was pushed fairly far back in the slot, which I think was a styling consideration so the fender swept down and over a larger portion of the rear sidewall. I prefer the tire to be centered, because it satisfies my OCD. To achieve that, the rear axle moved forward 1.75". Wheelbase is planned at 116.75".



I'm headed to pickup a whole mess of 3" square tube so I can brace up the unibody externally and begin the cutting.

David

[WSSix]

So no more using your frame? Love the rendering, too!

[1970RT]

Originally Posted by WSSix

So no more using your frame? Love the rendering, too!

Nope. Cutting it all out to fit the Chassisworks from suspension system.

David