American Dream 1968 Charger

[manny z]

First and foremost I would like to say hello again. I cam on here a pretty long time ago posting a bit of info on my car. 1968 Dodge charger.

A little history first. My first mopar a 1968 dodge charger, that used to belong to my girlfriend, now wife when I was 17. I bought it off her dad when a drunk driver smashed into the drivers side 1/4 panel and trunk, and made a mess of it. It sat for a while like this until I asked my late father in law what he was doing with the car, he said YOU WANT TO BUY IT??!! So I got the car for $300 Granted this was back in 1984!! haha. I took the car home, got a 5 lb sledge, and went to town on the 1/4 to do the best I can to straighten it out.
Got it a little better, put a dummy tail light on it, to keep the police away, and that was my driver for my senior year of high school. The car started having running issues, so as a broke ass HS grad, it sat for the summer, until one day an older guy knocked on my door and asked what I was doing with it, cause he was interested in the front bumper. Short side of it, I parted the car to the shell sitting in front of my parents driveway, and I was $3600 richer!!
So I set out to find another 68 charger. Had some tips, a few dead ends, a couple of not selling the car, then my luck struck.
Mom asked me if I was still looking for a car like my old one, cause she told me she saw a gold one like mine, with two black stripes on the back of it. Of course I was thinking R/T !!! I went the location, nothing..

Looking in a different location from where she said she saw the car, I saw it!!!! A white 68, black vinyl top car, just like the one I parted out!!!!!
But this one had white interior, instead of black like my first. I saw the duel exh out of the back, so I gently opened the hood, and saw the distributor out front, BIG BLOCK CAR!! The car looked like it had been sitting there for years. I knocked on the door, no answer. For the next month and a half, I was knocking on the door, until one day an old lady in her 70s answered.

I asked her about the car, it had been in her car port for a little over 2 years. She and her recently passed away husband were the original owners. Bought the car at BUTLER CONTI DODGE in Nor Ca, SF BAY AREA. I asked her if she wanted to sell, she said gardener was interested, I made a offer of $1000 cash, she said yes!!!! Had a tow truck put on dollies due to 3 flat tires, and took it home, THAT DAY!! Put 4 used tires on it, flushed the MC and brake lines, new battery, ign parts, cleaned gas tank, fresh gas, fired right up!!!!!
This car was a 383 4 bbl, auto, console, AC, power disc brakes, duel exh, no chrome tips, white interior with tan accents, and carpet, white body, black vinyl top, manual windows. The car had 51,xxx original miles on it, never left the area where the owner lived.
In 1986 I joined the Army, and my charger sat in the parents garage for 11 years!!! With a badly smoking engine.

After a few different phases in what I wanted to do with the car, I was sold after seeing 2 cars that as of today, still has made my mind up on how I am going to build the car now. THE RED BRICK, and a black 68 charger that raced in the silver state classic!!

Fast forward again. After some time of messing with other vehicles, racing, going back into the Army in 2008, and 3 back to back deployments, an a stint of being a unemployed, having kids, and almost getting divorced, life seemed to take a turn for the better. Getting along with the wife, 2 college grad kids, one that wants me to teach him about being a motor head, and best, better job, REAL good money!

So far I have done quit a bit to the car, and had a shop do a little work on it for me while I was deployed. Go figure I do not like the term "pro touring" for what I am building the car to be. I will just say modern muscle, with old school race car look.

Since the only form of racing these cars did back in their hay day, was drag racing, and Nascar, I have decided to take a mixed approach of Nascar, and trans am with my car.

ENGINE: is the factory 383, balanced, Eagle rods, Wisco pistons, fully polished, knife edged, oil hole chamfered, nitraded, wheights knife edged steel crank. ARP main, studs, Keith black swinging pick-up oiling system, on a custom made 10 low profile pan. Solid cam, to work good with the Pro Charger D1SC supercharger, and intercooler. Edelbrock RPM intake, with Demon blow through carb, full MSD ignition, custom designed headers by me, welded by Alex at bighead motorsports. The exh will be all oval 3.5" tubing, to a NASCAR boom tube exh, drivers side exit, with a spintech muffler.
Full Aeromotive fuel system, new tank with sump, and feed and return lines.
Trans: Factory 727 that I built when I built the engine. Still on the fence if I will go gear vendors overdrive, or a 4 speed auto, or 5 speed manual.
Rear end: 3:23 sure drip 742 case, moser axles coming.

Brakes: 6 piston wildwood brakes front, 4 piston rear, new Wilwood MC on its way, trying to figure out and find small power brake booster for it. And wildwood prop valve.

Suspension: This is where I thought long and hard about this, and I am sure some mite say why, but I decided to maximize the factory style suspension. Factory front K member has been boxed, stich welded, and gussets in the right places.
QA1 lower tubular control arms, Magnum force upper ADJ arms, adj strut rods, WILL USE a speedway front torsion type adj sway bar, and my design rack in pinion steering I made for it about 11 years ago using a L body GM car rack in pinion steering. 1.125" torsion bars.
Rear 230 lbs leafs, 3/4" sway bar for now. Custom made frame connectors that tie the frames and torsion bar mount cross member.
QA1 double adj shocks. Which I would like to derive a way to make a remote adj, to go in the engine compartment, and the inside of the trunk.
Interior: All Autometer Phantom II gauges. Not sure what direction I am going with the interior, but do not want to be FULL RACE, or to plush. I will have a 6 point cage In it, but not noticeable.

The pictures are what the car looked like with original paint, one with it partially primed, and engine shot. I will be posting more pictures tomorrow.