Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Charger

So I wrote a big long post about the '56 Ford a while back.  A couple days after writing that, I realized I hadn't done one about the Charger.  I found it odd, mainly because this entire blog up to this point has been about the Charger.  So here it is:


First off, it's a 1973 Dodge Charger.  It is pretty much completely original.  It has the 318ci small block v8, which is supposed to put out around 120 horses straight from the factory.  So it isn't all that powerful, but it makes a good sound, gets 9 miles to the gallon in town, and 13 on the freeway.  All in all, a great cruiser car, not a racer.

So, the back story.  It was my grandfather's before he died 12 years ago.  After that, it sat in my grandmother's garage for about 8 years.  Then, for the next 2 years, it sat in my uncle's driveway.  It has minimal rust on most parts, but the underside, and a couple minor spots, have a fair bit of rust.  About a year and a half ago, it became mine.

So, when I got it, it ran for about a week, and then died.  I didn't know much about cars, so my uncle came over and helped me fix it up.  New air filter, new thermostat, new hoses, new belts, and a complete fluid change got it running again.  So then the work began.  We took it to the local garage and had the blower motor fixed.  It has factory air conditioning, and I had to have that working if I was going to justify all the extra weight that adds.  All the joints were creaking, so those all got greased to hell.  Then my passenger door wouldn't close if you opened it too far, so we greased that too.  That was the initial work done on the car.

A couple months later, we started fixing some other things.  Me and my dad have done all the work since then.  First thing we did was replace all the shocks.  Air shocks in the back make for a nice lift on the back.  The radiator developed a huge leak, so we had to replace that.  Sadly, they didn't make my original radiator.  So we got one rated for my car.  Turns out it was way narrower.  We ended up having to build mounts for it out of a piece of aluminum straight edge.

Then came the sound system.  It is amazing.  Alpine Type S midranges in the front door, tweeters, 2 alpine 6x9s in the back window.  The deck is an Alpine CDA-9886.  Why not a touchscreen nav deck?  They don't put out as nice of a sound.  In short, the inside is all Alpine.  They're run by a Kenwood amp, 400watts.  Then there's the subs.  JL Audio 12" woofers.  They're powered by a different Kenwood amp, 600 watts.  The subs are in the trunk, so I get that wonderful thump and feel, without the incredibly low sounds destroying your eardrums and drowning out the rest of the music.  It is about the cleanest sounding system you'll ever hear.

After that, I had the headliner redone.  It was ripped, falling apart, and sagging down.  It would touch my head while I was driving.  Right now, it looks brand new.

After that, the fuel gauge decided to break.  I don't have a lift, and the gas tank is a pain in the ass to get off while it's on a jack.  So I bought the part and took it down to the high school across town with the auto-tech department.  They took it and fixed it for 25 bucks in about an hour.

Then there was a long hiatus on work.

Then I got a huge coolant leak.  My heater control valve had decided it wanted to start leaking.  That had to be completely changed out.  I couldn't do it because of my arm, so the local mechanic got my business.

Every once in a while, the car would be leaking gas pretty badly.  I said I could see the leak and it was the fuel filter.  I had just had my surgery though and couldn't change it.  He said he couldn't find a leak on the fuel filter, but he said my carb needed to be rebuilt.  What the hell, I wasn't paying for it.  Rebuilt carb.

The leak continued.  It was the fuel filter.  I freaking told everyone.  My dad helped me (still gimped from shoulder surgery) replace it.  4 dollar part, 10-minute fix.

That was the last thing we did before I started my blog. 

I love this car.  It is my baby.  I named her Molly.  I beg with her to start on cold mornings, I apologize to her when I call her a bitch while I'm working on her engine.  She is my significant other.

1 comment:

  1. It's all about oldskool Mustangs ( preferably 67' fastback )

    Daily love... Toot Toot!!

    Check out my blog - Still new at this!

    ReplyDelete