Perfect reply, is Perfect! Lol
CK5
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The Willomet Charger
- Thread starter AgDieseler
- Start date
A desecration to Mopar nuts everywhere, this is my protouring, LS-powered, 1970 Dodge Charger; built at my shop, Willomet Motor & Fabrication.
Perfect reply, is Perfect! Lol
My explanation is total crap, but it’s super clear in my imagination.
I’m basically converting this to a framed car without dropping $18K at Art Morrison or Roadster Shop. A damned heavy rocker is the first step.
David
I’m basically converting this to a framed car without dropping $18K at Art Morrison or Roadster Shop. A damned heavy rocker is the first step.
David
Did look like thicker material
Very nice!! I tied my Charger together with subframe connectors, a radiator support brace, inner fender to cowl braces and Hemi torque boxes. You cant jack up one side without the other side coming up with it and chassis is super rigid. This pales in comparison to what you are doing, yours should be like a solid ingot, well done!!
Thanks, Greg. Do you still have your Charger? I might have to make the drive to Weatherford...
The US Cartool or XV recipe is a really good one, and if my floors were solid, I probably would have done the same, but this snowballed on me. I toured The Roadster Shop and saw two 2nd gen Chargers on frame tables getting the royal treatment, and I knew that's what I wanted to do....which is to say, not drive the car for several years.
David
My Charger is at South Coast Rides down in Rosenberg where it has been for the last 4 years. Started out as a simple resto and got off track, I hope to get it back this year but I'm not betting on it. You can chart the progress at http://southcoastrides.com/portfolio_page/1966-dodge-charger/
Kewl
I wish I could say it was the first time, or that it will be the last, but I hope so!
Mmmm clecos
The tuition pile grows.
I scrapped my in process Rev-0 rocker for the Charger. I’m not sentimental about a design that isn’t working, and this was becoming one of them.
Rev-1 is simpler and follows where the factory rockers are cut clean in half at the upper pinch, plated with some thoroughly dimpled .120, and an uncut 4”x3” tube is welded straight to the face of it.
Simple, rigid, and stiff. I’m getting damn good at cutting up this car.
David
I scrapped my in process Rev-0 rocker for the Charger. I’m not sentimental about a design that isn’t working, and this was becoming one of them.
Rev-1 is simpler and follows where the factory rockers are cut clean in half at the upper pinch, plated with some thoroughly dimpled .120, and an uncut 4”x3” tube is welded straight to the face of it.
Simple, rigid, and stiff. I’m getting damn good at cutting up this car.
David
You are going to make your Charger a full-framed car instead of the factory sub-frame?
Pretty much. It will still technically be a unibody, but the lower frame members will be doing nearly all the work.
I’d like it to be able to take a high speed curve and not crack the windshield or wrinkle the roof.
David
I don't think that will be a problem! With my last Challenger build I used the old XV Motorsports floor/subframe connectors, lower radiator support, firewall to inner fender braces and you could jack one front wheel up and the other side would come with it. These unibody Mopars are so rigid to begin with that improvements like yours make them like an ingot.
Sheesh, I should have just copied and pasted that and saved myself the effort, thanks for calling me out Dave! But it is worth repeating!!
That’s a really good recipe that proves itself time and again. If the lower part of my rockers were in better shape, I may have gone that route. But, I’m an ingot that likes to tinker.
David
I have no doubt
Another thing about those Chargers Road Runners and the like is the torsion bar front suspension. I was never real crazy about those. I think GM had it right with full frame and coils springs all the way around.
