it's pretty cool to find a photo of a Charger R/T the same color as my Coronet R/T, with the same design of rims I just got last fall.

his Charger has better selected sizes of tires and rims than my R/T. We both have 426 cubes under the hood, him, the hemi, me the max wedge

by the way, to follow up on the last of things that were done:

I had to take it back to the shop that did the upgrade, for warranty work

The good news, the owner was super cool about being responsible for the scratched up rims, and paid to have them polished. 

They got the Hella hi beams connected finally

There was one spark plug that was shorting to a header tube, because both the headers were designed badly for the #3 spark plug, so, the engine wasn't running right. They used a thermal video thing, saw the problem quickly, and pounded some space into the header tubes

The vibration I noticed at 65 mph, well, I had to diagnose that myself. 

How come? That shop didn't do a test drive, they don't do a once over before turning over a car to the customer.... they simply have lower standards and expectations of considering a job done, than I do. 

So, the way I was given my car back the first time? Unacceptable probably to most people, in most places. 

Back to the vibration... which, you probably know, could be a tire, unbalanced rim, transmission mount, pinion bearing, drive train angle changed from upgrading from stock K member to QA1 tubular unit and dropped spindles (maybe) or u joints. So, I asked about the trans mount, if it, or the drive shaft angle was bad. The guy check both the mount and angle. Wasn't them. 

That's when I pushed and said, well, did you check further, to see if anything else was a problem, and I reach over and check the front U joint, then the pinion bearing, then the back u joint, and bingo. 
Well, I looked, and these are the zirc fitting type U joints, and I asked if he had a grease gun and if he would grease them up. Turns out, they were either never greased at all, or hadn't been greased in 20-40k miles. I've only driven it, 8k miles? Not sure, but it hasn't been many, in the 22 years I've owned it. Honestly, I've never had zirc fitting u joints, and the zircs my car had were all in the steering and front suspension, which was wasted when I got it, and there was no point to greasing the joints with torn up rubber sleeves/cups, whatever those are called, at the tie rods, pitman and idler arms (all replaced a couple years ago)

On the next drive home, the vibration was less noticeable. Time to replace those U joints!

Impressed with the way Dave's 70 Super Bee looked, I tried to shortcut right to the same look. Murphy's Law fell on me like I owed it my 1st born. Here's the way his looks compared to mine (for now, these are not what I want)

 Clearly, his tires fit on his rim better... I was going to simply buy the exact ones he had, and prevent every effing problem I've had since, but, of course, Murphys Law got in the way, and NONE of those rims were available for months, and I had to move along, and get SOMETHING for the car to roll out of the shop on. 

The tires he recommended weren't available either.

Since I'm not in Indiana, I couldn't simply go to his shop and get the work done right. Yes, several things were not don't right. 

here's a couple more that show the extra space in the wheel well... 

Looking at these back wheels, you can tell easily, that this shit ain't right. 

the fronts look alright, but, no one has measured the clearance in all circumstances of bump, and steering in whatever position the wheels can achieve. 

So since the tires hit the front fender trim, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2023/12/when-getting-my-ol-dodge-from-shop.html  I took those off to prevent more damage, and put some clay in blobs along the fender lip to see if the tires rub, and how much. 

to the left of the green mark you can see some clay. 

another update on my ol Dodge... here's what the rims look like, as it was given to me after paying 21k in parts and labor to replace heads, headers, front suspension, steering, and brakes. I ask, how would you react to finding all your new rims looking like this

passenger side front.

passenger side back

drivers side back

drivers side front

and I only took the time to look at one of the rims in the box (a pair could not be mounted to the front because they weren't off set right for lowered spindles an hit the tie rods) 

So, it too, has the finger prints on it, but when looking much closer, as I have space with the rims in the boxes, to look at them anywhere, unlike the narrow garage my car is in - preventing me from getting close, unless I move the car over, and move other things away from the wall. When looking at one of the 2 rims in boxes, I see it's scratched under the greasy finger prints. 

To prove this to the guy who owns the shop that put these on, and took them off, my car, I used a brand new clean degreaser cloth from the Tub O Towels

Here's the result. Grease is gone, and scratches are easy to see. 

Conclusion? All 6 brand new rims, the first and only rims I've bought in 30 years, were sent home with me scratched to hell, by someone at the shop upgrading my car, or, at the Tire Depot that the shop had mount and balance the tires. 

I firmly believe that a shop should look over a car they've been paid 200 an hour to work on, and see that it's ready for the customer. 

I believe, that there should be no greasy handprints on the hood (there was, I cleaned them off) fenders (there was, I cleaned them off), or new rims. 

I think that a shop who wants to get a good reputation (with a damn blogger, the dirty rotten blogger!), or keep their reputation, or get a good review, would make sure that the customers car is cleaned of work hand prints (hey, I get it, but, damn... use a fender apron, or towel, it's been the civilized way to work on cars for about a hundred years) and that the customers rims are handled with only clean hands, and clean gloves, and THEN cleaned before the customer sees it. 

I have an extra set of rims, that were already going to be next to impossible to sell, now? No chance. I also wanted to sell the back rims, as they are not the right width to make the rear look correctly shod, filling the back wheel wells.  That's 4 rims I have no desire to keep. Can't sell them scratched up. 

And the front rims that are on the car, aren't bad, but, they aren't the black spokes I want to have, they were simply what it took to get the car on the road, to and from the shop, with the right rubber. 

This project was supposed to be started in July, was delayed (though I didn't know it) by the heads getting a full port and polish, when I stated I wanted a port match only) AND the rims I wanted not being available to purchase from any supplier, as NO company had them in stock. They had been waiting for the manufacturer to have more made in China. These replacements, that there are plenty of, are only unpainted versions of the ones I want. Of course, there were plenty to buy everywhere, and they were delivered days after the heads were completed (3 months after the project was to get started if the rims had been on time) 

To his credit, and respect where it's due, when I texted the images above to the shop owner operator, he stated, and I quote " Be clear, I will make right on anything that needs to be made right "

Now, that, is a very cool guy. I'll keep you updated, of course. 

I've already been told by him that he's already got a new caliper on order to replace the drivers side front that's dragging. I'll probably be driving back next week to get that done. 

It's about 30-40 dollars in 100 octane to drive that distance, each time, round trip. 

When getting my ol Dodge from the shop, after the upgrade, the front wheels seem to have snagged the trim briefly, and you're going to be surprised by my theory, but I think this indicates that the front fenderwell trim was put on the wrong sides.

as you can see from above and below... the trim was clipped by the tires ever so briefly that nothing was seriously damaged. 

now, imagine if these trim pieces with the factory cut out for the area where a tire would need that clearance, was swapped from side to side. 

And I think that the actual shift of that area, back to front, by putting these on the other side of the car, will result in the tires not clipping the trim again (once I hammer them smooth)

I will check on this soon, and keep you updated

nearly the last update on the upgrade/overhaul of my ol Dodge...

Picked it up tonight, finally got to see the tires and rims. 

Whoops, the ones I was advised to get are rims too small for the tires, in the back. Looks completely stupid. You can not tell from this photo, but they are about 2" too narrow, and the tires that are on these rear rims are about 3/4s of an inch too narrow. 

 Anyway, that is why they call some cars twenty footers, cause you can't see the problems from twenty feet away 

So someday, years from now when I have paid off this credit card load, which is twice what I thought this upgrade was going to cost, I'll get the right sized rear rims, use these rear tires to replace the fronts when they get worn down, as they are all the same size right now... and get black rims all around, but wider backs that fill out the wheel wells correctly.

 The brakes? Incredible.

The new headers give it a better sound, and omfg does it drone around 3500 rpm, louder than it used to. 

 The steering? So different from what it was, but until I get to play with it, there's more to learn.

 I couldn't screw around tonight as the trunk had a lot of junk from the stuff that was pulled off, and the set of new aluminum heads that I can't use with my 440 six pack intake. Yeah, 2500 wasted dollars. Oh, and the rims, about another 1200 misspent dollars. More, I had to buy another par so the steering wasn't going to rub, as the change to lowered spindles messed with the tie rod to rim distance. But, it lowered the center of gravity (and now I need to drive over some boards to get into my garage, it lowered the car enough for the bigger header collectors to hit the garage floor (higher than the alley) ) and gives this upgrade additional cornering ability, so, not knowing that choosing a better cornering set up, would make the recommended front rims hit the tie rods, I screwed myself into buying the extra set of rims.

Oops, getting back to the point, I had a lot of stuff in the trunk and no way I was going to hit the brakes, or gas pedal, and cause anything to ping pong inside the trunk and hit the quarter panels and dent the hell out of them. So, I was not able to check the brakes yet for how fast they stop the car, or the steering for how much better it corners.

It was enough to get it back to the garage and go home to unwind

update on my R/T... Monday and Murphy's Law doubled up to tag team me today.

Above, the lack of space that happens when I order the drop spindle (2") QA1 front end, and use the same backspacing as the rim that below example shows is available when the QA1 front end is used that does not have the 2" spindle drop. 

So, instead of the perfect replication of what Dave did with his 70 Super Bee, and getting a trouble free result, I went with the better idea of lower center of gravity from the dropped spindles option. I didn't know that this would result in the tie rod hitting the rim

By the way, relevant to the photo below, look at the bad runny paint that was the result of amateurs painting this car in 1980

So, not only were the rims not going to play nice with the steering, but, the wheels are stretched over the width of the rim a bit too much. Not so good. 

So, it's still going to be days until a pair of replacement rims get delivered, and another 500 to 600 dollars. Monday seems to hate me. Last Monday the bad news was that one of the factory fresh calipers leaks. Today the replacement arrived and was installed

I guess this means I have an extra pair of rims for the back, or I can try and sell them at a small discount so I get some money back instead. Spares would mean being able to have a set of tires on back up for making smoke out of, or for drag slicks

the parking brake? Fyi, a bit of sticker shock. About 2000 dollars. Some electrical servo thing I still need to learn about. But, stick shifts, they do need parking brakes, because now and then, a guy needs to park on a hill. 

update on my ol Dodge

it's waiting on parts now

Different oil pan so the QA1 steering has room, well, hell, actually just so it can bolt on, seriously. 

The axles need to be upgraded to "Green Bearings/sealed bearings" so the Wilwood discs can be mounted

The name comes from the Green Bearing Company which first produced them. https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/green-bearings-v-oem.392746/

update on my car upgrade

Murphy's law sure is tricky, and never lets an opportunity pass.

I wanted the heads upgraded to aluminum, so I asked for the input of someone that has a lot more experience than I have. 

Well, that didn't turn out well. He recommended Edelbrock Vic Jr heads. 

It turns out, those don't have the same dimensions as the stock heads, and the 440 six pack intake that's on my 426 Wedge won't bolt to them. The intake ports on the heads, are about an inch higher than where the intake rests. 

Huh. Damn shame that I blew a couple thou on them. 

Then (not knowing about the heads being I wanted them port matched to the headers I bought... the old headers have rusted and the noise of exhaust leak coming out of the` holes that annoy the hell out of me. 

So, on the recommendation of that guy, I went with the guy he knows who ports heads. 

That guy, not immune to Murphy's law, didn't stop at a port match. He went full port and polish. That's about 600 dollars more than a port match.

So, he expected me to pay for work I didn't ask for, and didn't want, and didn't budget for. 

Seeing's how I would benefit from the port and polish... we came to a compromise. I'd pay half, and not have to argue who was in the wrong. Seemed like a reasonable outcome. 

So, Now I have heads I can't return for a refund, because they've been worked on, and I can't use them without wasting money on whatever intake bolts on but I don't want to waste money on, then I'd have to waste money on a carb, and linkage, gaskets, etc. 

Meanwhile, when bolting on the QA1 steering/suspension upgrade, it was discovered that the oil pan on the big ol mopar 426 bonks. So, a different oil pan, dipstick, and oil pickup tube need to be bought. That's about 350 bucks. But what's a guy to do... ya gotta have an oil pan that doesn't interfere with the steering. 

so, 4 full days after dropping the car off, and problems and complications are just the path I'm on because the shop that's doing the work hasn't done this upgrade to a big block Mopar before. It's different than every cookie cutter Mustang and Camaro, and it's more pioneering a new direction, than following a path everyone else is on

I'll have the only 426 wedge topped by a 440 six pack, in an autocross ready 69 Coronet R/T. 

in the past 4 years, due to getting a pinhole in the radiator, and not being able to waste money on 7 dollar a gallon 100 octane, I only drove my 69 R/T 134 miles. That's probably going to change when it's upgraded

 

I only know how many miles it's been driven, because every couple of years, I get a mileage verification request from the insurance company, and it makes it real easy to do the math

The car will get the heads, headers, suspension, steering, braking, and new tires and rims in about the next 3 weeks. Yes, this will hit the credit card hard... about 1/2 the cost of the upgrade is all on the card. But, it's either that, or waste another 20 years with the car in the garage not getting driven much because of the exhaust leak from the rusted out header, ridiculously bad stop distance due to 4 wheel drum brakes and small old tires... 

When complete, in total, the MSD ignition system is only 3 years, and 100 miles old, the radiator is one year and 30 miles old. New high tech QA1 front end, Wilwood disk brakes all around, new 18x10 wheels all around, new bigger headers wrapped, aluminum heads port and polished, gasket matched, Hella high beams, and a NIB 8 track player that I installed about 5 years ago. 

Plans after that? Fiberglass 440 six pack hood, chin spoiler, get the read end double checked for bearing and leaks, rebuild the trans, and sound deadener noise mat. The engine rebuild is years off still. It just costs too damn much have an engine rebuilt right. That's some machine shop work and expensive parts. 

I didn't remember what the Ebay listing said when I bought my 69 R/T, I guess I sorta stopped paying attention after I saw it had a max wedge and 440 6 pack induction... and just yesterday I was asked about the cam, and heads... so I looked - damn. Happy time

cool stuff! Isky adjustable rockers! solid lifter Crower cam!

I forgot all the head, cam, piston and valve specs, if I ever read them at all

906 casting heads

the headers are wrapped! They are the 2nd set I've ever bought, the last set was in 1991 in Hawaii, on my 72 Demon. I think I got much better ones this time around

Aluminized, wrapped, and painted with the super hot clear so the fiberglass doesn't fray as bad, or soak up water during puddle splashes

things I learned today about upgrading my ol R/T's heads: you can't count on anyone, even the manufacturer to keep anything in stock - plus, other companies make the same part cheaper, 1/3rd the price

ain't that ridiculous? And why? Because Edelbrock Victor heads are made in a way that Edelbrock says they can't use the factory stock intake valley pan gasket (the turkey pan) 

I will bet 10 bucks some grinding on the Edelbrocks MAKE that no problem. I am certain that Edelbrock realized that proprietary parts (this valley cover plate) would make them a lot of extra money if they decided that they could shape the head to block surface, or, the head to intake surface, so that this extra part would be easier to buy than a garage grind to adapt the head, or the old factory intake pan gasket, to fit with these Edelbrock heads

I went out and played with my old car today, (jfcoac those drum brakes are useless) to get the "before upgrade" info

it turns out that with a full tank of gas, it weighs 4200 pounds

in this photo you can see 4 splotches of white paint where I hauled it down from 60 mph, it was surprisingly consistant, as the 3 marks on the far right oh the photo show that on the last two stops it was inches different. 

I used 60 mph as the speed for the brake test based on what I remembered from the Edmunds.com care reviews, and a 2018 Charger, for a similar car example, stopped in 102 feet. https://www.edmunds.com/dodge/charger/2018/review/ and weights 4060 pounds curb weight, also very similar

So, I measured these distances, and since 3 of the 4 tests were nearly identical, I'll ignore the one, and let you know that at best, this 69 Dodge R/T stops in 220 feet, when carefully only using brakes, in neutral, without letting the tires lock up. 

Being curious, I then tested my commuter, a 2015 Hyundai Veloster Rally, as it's as close to the best modern tires, disc brakes, suspension, and soft compound tires with ABS made I suppose, oh, sure, anything 5 times more expensive might stop 10 feet shorter, Corvettes, Porsches, etc, but, for a 25k priced car, I think it does quite well. It stopped in 90 feet. 

These tests aren't the most scientifically conducted, I used a speed limit sign as the marker to start putting on the brakes, and opened the door and reached down with a can of underground utility marker spray paint to mark where it stopped... but these are decently done to see what the brakes can do in a panic stop situation, and I hope you test yours too... or if you're in a car club, get the whole gang together and use this testing to see who needs to adjust, upgrade, etc their tires or brakes 

Still a couple weeks to go on the overhaul of my ol garage Dodge, and I'm thinking

before it gets the upgrade and emilination of iron heads and K frame:

Do a weight check, take it to a trucking scale nearby and see what it weighs

but first, fill the fuel tank so that it's easy to get an accurate before and after, as having "whatever" random amount of fuel when weighing it before, and whatever random amount in the tank after, would make the comparison off by as much as 120 pounds, and the actual weight difference, that I'm looking forward to losing off the front end, might only be a 120 pounds. 

So, I want to look forward to knowing how much weight it loses by upgrading to the QA1 front end, and aluminum heads. From the stock steel 14 and 15" Magnum 500 rims, to the aftermarket 18" rims and tires

Also, I'm going to do a sound level test... 

Before: rusted header, no header wrap, unknown iron heads

After: new headers, 1/2" bigger primaries, header wrap, new aftermarket heads that are port matched. 

Brake test

Before: stock heavy duty Mopar drums, I believe the measurements are 11 x 3.5 inch -all the way around

on BFG tires in back, and Goodyear tall and skinny tires in front to give that oil pan some clearance (the deep sump the car had when I got it was only 5" off the pavement at rest, and anyone that was reading along a decade ago (hello friendly old long term readers!) probably remembers me taking the deep sump pan off a couple times and JB welding the drain plug back on, yes, it was peeled off about 3 times. Yes, JB Weld is incredible, and perfect at patching oil pans))

After, 18" rims, U.S. Mags Rambler U121 from Summit, thanks to seeing what David Kruk's 70 Bee looked like, as my 69 R/T is a similar yellow car, and I bet it's the same size wheel wells, and he also went with the QA1 front end

plus Falken 615 tires... not 20 year old regular commuter tires, bigger contact patch and a bit stickier rubber compound

I had the car dyno'd years ago, and that was when I bought it, for a baseline for all future engine upgrades, so, I already have the "before" hp and torque  372 and 426 at the tires. 

Since then, it's had the ignition system upgrade from factory electronic, to MSD 6AL with 8.8mm wires, and now it's getting better heads, better headers. I expect it might be 60-110 hp gain from the 372hp of 2002 baseline dyno tune

I should compare the ride height / distance from flat ground to lowest part of front suspension, and flat ground to center of grill, or top of fender centered on the spindle too. Just to see how the new front end and different tire and rim combo affect the height of the front end, in combo with what I believe will be a loss of weight over the front suspension

Turtlewax chrome polish.. 40 years old (the bottle has a 1983 copywrite date...) still really damn good

as always before is 1st, and after is the 2nd image

I think its a noticeable improvement

In the above, I think it's easy to see what side I polished a little... 

but if that wasn't clear, I think this before and after will be. I hadn't cleaned the front bumper in years

it turns out that a radiator on a 1969 Dodge can be changed with only a 1/4" drive set, and one 1/2"-9/16" ratchet wrench

And it really helps to have a perfectly sized funnel, because it's about 3 gallons of antifreeze and distilled water to fill that radiator

 

2nd day of working on replacing the radiator, I didn't plan my time well, and the sun went down, it got pretty cold and dark after that, and I cut out for a burrito.

step one, compare the replacement with the original!

step 2: check that the replacement fan shroud fits and will bolt on!

So far, so good!

looks ready for the new one

 

that's when I found out the replacement wouldn't bolt in, and had to pull it, file down the ears a bit so the attachment bolts could pass through the holes and thread into the radiator support. Not a perfect fit until I filed a bit, but I have a good variety of files, and that went well. 

I went over today (I rent the garage, for 21 years now) but it was still in the 50s, and that gets chilly quick in just shorts and a tshirt (all you really need in San Diego unless you're stuck outside for a while) so instead I went to the parts store and got antifreeze and distilled water, so the next day it's nice out I can connect the hoses, fill it up, and take it for a test drive