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1/16 1968 Charger Pro Touring


John Clutch

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Starting with the MPC General Lee kit, the plans call for......

Twin 76mm turbo hemi with 11" block deck height, low profile sheet metal intake, twin injectors, crank trigger, 4 stage dry sump, twin air to water intercoolers up front, sheetmetal diaper underneath.

ATI Superglide4, ladder bar suspension, rearend not  determined yet. I was disappointed that the kit has a Ford 9", was hoping for a Dana 60.

Not sure what tire/rim combination yet. I'm planning on making the rims but whatever tires look best and if I can't find something I like, then I'll turn some tires on the lathe also. 

Adjustable front spoiler molded into the fenders as one piece, I havent decided whether to keep the hood seperate or not yet. A smooth modern hued 1968 nose/tail panels. I always felt that the rear 68 tail lights were too small. The front fender wheel opening will be returned to stock.

I'm not going to try and make the firewall or door jams appear to be stock, I'm going after it as if I had the body skin and a pile of sheet metal and tubing. Maybe even suicide door the car.

I wanna thank you all for inspiring me to build. Comments and suggestions are always welcomed, even if I don't ask for them.

Clutch 

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Edited by John Clutch
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I'm planning on making all that. Again, it will not be stock appearing, the car will have a smoother, more modern look to it, with the hide away head light look, but it will actually be all grill for the radiator and intercoolers, with the "headlights" being located where the fog lights are, being slightly bigger than what the fog lights are. The round tail lights will be bigger as well. I'll make a drawing of it when I'm at work during the week to you guys a better idea of it.

Edited by John Clutch
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The front end and doors are seperated. The trunk will be opened later. Boxing the rocker panels, wheel tubs and rear door jams is next.

The  driver side of the body is between .080 to .090 thick and the passenger side is between .060 to .070. I was surprised to see that.

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I love the look of the tail light panel, nice and clean. The grille looks great, not sold on the lower valence myself, but it's your baby, not mine...it may look great once it's actually on the car, so I'm probably dead wrong!

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Thanks Mike. Again, nothing is set yet, chances are I will do and redo a thousand times before I settle on something. Im also planning on adding 2" of ground effects to the rocker panels. The issue Im having is that the car itself is massive, with wide wheel wells, so trying to get a big tire on the car, and have it sit low without the wheel tubs resting on the tires.

Edited by John Clutch
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Hey John, hope your eye is on those front wheel arches also......they are shaped like an early Nascar due to the heritage of this kit (Richard Petty Nascar Charger). The easiest way to correct this is to use the rear wheelwell arch shape as a guide to cut out new sections of Evergreen and glue in......that is unless you have another kit of this, then just cut out the rear wheel arches and glue in on the front fenders. Either way it isn't that bad of a fix.

I like where this going, BTW, look toward the diecast world for tires/wheels for your Pro Touring look.  Jada 1/24 scale will have large bigs and littles that will fit the 1/16 scale size perfectly. ;)

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Hey John, hope your eye is on those front wheel arches also......they are shaped like an early Nascar due to the heritage of this kit (Richard Petty Nascar Charger). The easiest way to correct this is to use the rear wheelwell arch shape as a guide to cut out new sections of Evergreen and glue in......that is unless you have another kit of this, then just cut out the rear wheel arches and glue in on the front fenders. Either way it isn't that bad of a fix.

I like where this going, BTW, look toward the diecast world for tires/wheels for your Pro Touring look.  Jada 1/24 scale will have large bigs and littles that will fit the 1/16 scale size perfectly. ;)

Yes sir, I did mention wheel openings in the OP :) And thank you for the diecast tip. I havent nailed down the exact tire/rim combination yet, but I havent seen anything that says "THATS IT !!!" either. I do have the ability to make my own rim/tire, but Ill be looking into the diecast world before that. Thank you Ken !!!

And now that Im thinking about it, this is more modifications than what a restomod would have, considering Im changing alot of the exterior appearance, I think Ill change the title to Pro Touring, as it does seem more appropiate.

Edited by John Clutch
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My first issue with the body was it didn't sit flat. It had a bit of rock to it. The second issue was that the contour of the cowl area didn't match the back of the hood. The cowl has a much bigger arch. I was planning section off the fenders and doors from day one, but I thought doing so would relieve a bit of tension in the body and the cowl would spring out a bit. That didn't happen. And because the firewall that came with the kit was wrong (the Richard Petty 71 Charger firewall came with it. I don't know why. Too wide by .160 and the arch wasn't going to help) I decided to make my own.

Here I'm boxing up the rocker panels. The body now sits flat and true. 

To keep the body and door contours the same, and to build a square chassis, I had to add .062 to the backside of the each rocker. I used .100x.250 rod and .020 sheet to box the inside and bottom. Not sure how I'm going to close the top side yet, but I'm happy with how it sirs now. The plan is to have the chassis/floor pans sit inside the boxed sections. This pieces will represent the outer frame rails, and the roll cage will mount on the top side. 

The frame, body and roll cage will be separate. The roll cage will have pins in the bottom of the main hoop and the A pillar bars that located to the top side of the frame rails. I'm doing it this way because I want to paint the floor and cage separately, to get a nicer finish.

 

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I also started making the rear door jams and tried using  Tamiya Putty white for the first time. I don't like it. It shrinks too much and I have no patience for the dry time. PLEASE tell me that Bondo works good with plastic models. 

I also made templates for the wheel tubs. I need to make templates for both sides because they are noticeably different surfaces.

 

BTW, I like using the do-it-yourself hone depot cabinet panels. They are cheap, very flat and superglue bonds to it nicely for making jigs. Strong enough to hold the jig is place, and weak enough that I can wack it off with a hammer if need be.

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Also, I made the mistake of working on the door jam before boxing out the rockers first. Don't do that lol. I know better to work from the ground up, but I couldn't come up with a solid plan for the rockers, and figured it wouldn't get in the way. Well, it did lol 

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Just like most things in my life, plans change without notice lol.  I think the car will be heading more towards a street/strip set up, as far as the suspension is concerned, but I do like the large rims on a Charger, so it looks like Im leaning towards 18" front and 18" rears for the time being. The chassis is laid out with 32" ladders and coil overs.

What do you think would be a better system for locating the rear axle, a pan hard bar or wishbone? The space between the frame rails would be around 36" or so.

Thanks for looking!

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Bondo finishing glaze does work on plastic. May want to sprue test it for though. Diggin' to build btw. Mike.

Thanks Mike. I'm enjoying working on it. I'm a b body fan as well, and the second gen Charger is by far my favorite body Chrysler ever put out. I wish they made a 1:12 version.

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I have the firewall fixture made. If you plan to make a similar jig, for example to make a firewall with complex curves, make the jig a little smaller than your finished piece, and then apply pressure on the panel's edge, to force it into the fixture, as I have with good clamps and hardwood. The fixture should be built strong as overkill never applies to fixtures. Just make sure you have room to work around it. I will apply a little heat to the firewall to relieve some of the stress.  A LITTLE HEAT. I'm not going to form the panel with heat alone. It will be braced until the firewall comes out of the fixture with its proper shape. 

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I'm very happy atm. The firewall came out better than I thought. I lucked out and made it the exact height needed to get the door gaps right, without any preload. I'll add a little flash with a half round rod around the top edge. I thought I bought the rod, but apparently I bought a package of quarter rod by mistake.

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Edited by John Clutch
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Mocking up the motor location, I just realized just how big the elephant motor actually is. If I want all of the drivetrain within the frame rails so I can install a full belly pan under the car, the valve covers would almost touch the hood. I know it's a model, and I can squeeze everything in to fit and wouldn't matter, but I'm trying to hold real world tolerances for the build. And consider this is a b body with alot of room under the hood if you remove the sheet metal, I have a lot more respect for people who manage to shoe horn this motor into a Dart drag car now lol. Wow.

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Very impressed by your work thus far.  I had one of these kits I'd acquired as a partially built car. I noted the vast discrepancy between the left and right body thickness also- and was further put off by the odd meld of nascar guts and a stock interior.  Looking at this project I wish I'd kept it now- but I passed it on to a younger builder. Will be following your progress- 

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