67 GTS 4-Speed: Daily Summer Driver
This past weekend was a busy one!! Long story short, the exhaust is 80% installed!! now for the long story:
I had my friend come out and help me install the exhaust. It would be impossible with only one person, so thank you for coming to help! Following the instructions from TTI the torsion bars were removed, spark plugs, as was the starter. I needed to unbolt the passenger side upper bump stop so I could swing the LCA a little lower so I could hammer out that bar. I tried installing the column because we needed to turn the wheels left and right depending on the header we were installing. Well the shaft that I installed in the column was too short (as in the bracket that mounts the steering column to the underside of the dash was about 2 inches further forward than it should have been)... The column was originally a 67, but swapped out the steering shaft from a 68 or so power steering column. Well I thought the shafts were the same size between years, but I guess not. So I am going to have to figure that one out. But the passenger side went in no problem.
The drivers side was another story... So we unbolted the engine and got it up in the air. No matter how much we tried that header would not go in the way the directions said, or from the top. So we started to look at the situation and realized we needed more room to angle the header up into the space. So these are the measurements from the floor to just in front of the torsion bar cross member and the floor to the front leaf spring mount location. The column and master cylinder were not in for the install of the drivers side header.
So even with that much room we saw we were hitting on the cross link, so I unbolted that from the steering box. Got it part of the way up and almost in and we were now hitting the clutch fork. So we said screw it and took it out. When we started to line up the clutch fork with the zbar, we noticed it didnt line up. Check Brewers site and I have the wrong clutch fork. Was pretty pissed at myself that I assumed the stamped clutch fork I received with the car was the correct one with out verifying... But with the fork out we were able to finally get the header in place and bolted up. In this process we also got the starter in. We used remflex gaskets because they dont leak and headers have a tendency to leak, so in order to prevent having to screw with these things again we used those gaskets. Well we saw the header was hitting the starter as well as the power steering gear when we lowered the engine. Thinking back on it we probably could of used shims to keep the header from hitting the power steering gear but figured we might as well put some dimples in the pipes since we needed to put dimples in the one pipe to get the mini starter to work. Now I didnt use the starter they suggest, I went with a starter from a 90 W150. After putting the header in multiple times we finally got everything to line up!!
Once the engine was back in place and since the torsion bars were out, now would be a good time to install the QA1 adjustable strut rods. I never liked how the pivot pins allowed the LCA to slide on the pin, so I put these in to help prevent that. That process was pretty simple. The bellow picture you can see the QA1 rods as well as the headers from underneath. They look and fit nice!
We got the rear pipes hung up but saw we were having a length issue, so I am going to have to trim the adapters and intermediate pipes a bit, which is okay, as well as put some notches in the muffler pipes so when I clamp down on them I get a good seal. We decided not to do that at 11:30 pm since I may have to unbolt the header to fit in the clutch fork when ever I order that. So I will finish the exhaust when I am certain I get good clearance with the clutch linkage. But all in all I am happy I went with the TTIs
But the following day we cleaned up everything and got the tail stripe on the Charger!!
The old man would be proud...
So the things I need to do to get this thing on the road would be as follows: order that clutch fork and install, hook up the clutch linkage, tighten up starter and connect wiring, figure out what steering shaft I can use so I can install the column, take the dip stick I have and use a tube bender to get it to work with the power steering gear and headers, Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner.
This past weekend was a busy one!! Long story short, the exhaust is 80% installed!! now for the long story:
I had my friend come out and help me install the exhaust. It would be impossible with only one person, so thank you for coming to help! Following the instructions from TTI the torsion bars were removed, spark plugs, as was the starter. I needed to unbolt the passenger side upper bump stop so I could swing the LCA a little lower so I could hammer out that bar. I tried installing the column because we needed to turn the wheels left and right depending on the header we were installing. Well the shaft that I installed in the column was too short (as in the bracket that mounts the steering column to the underside of the dash was about 2 inches further forward than it should have been)... The column was originally a 67, but swapped out the steering shaft from a 68 or so power steering column. Well I thought the shafts were the same size between years, but I guess not. So I am going to have to figure that one out. But the passenger side went in no problem.
The drivers side was another story... So we unbolted the engine and got it up in the air. No matter how much we tried that header would not go in the way the directions said, or from the top. So we started to look at the situation and realized we needed more room to angle the header up into the space. So these are the measurements from the floor to just in front of the torsion bar cross member and the floor to the front leaf spring mount location. The column and master cylinder were not in for the install of the drivers side header.
So even with that much room we saw we were hitting on the cross link, so I unbolted that from the steering box. Got it part of the way up and almost in and we were now hitting the clutch fork. So we said screw it and took it out. When we started to line up the clutch fork with the zbar, we noticed it didnt line up. Check Brewers site and I have the wrong clutch fork. Was pretty pissed at myself that I assumed the stamped clutch fork I received with the car was the correct one with out verifying... But with the fork out we were able to finally get the header in place and bolted up. In this process we also got the starter in. We used remflex gaskets because they dont leak and headers have a tendency to leak, so in order to prevent having to screw with these things again we used those gaskets. Well we saw the header was hitting the starter as well as the power steering gear when we lowered the engine. Thinking back on it we probably could of used shims to keep the header from hitting the power steering gear but figured we might as well put some dimples in the pipes since we needed to put dimples in the one pipe to get the mini starter to work. Now I didnt use the starter they suggest, I went with a starter from a 90 W150. After putting the header in multiple times we finally got everything to line up!!
Once the engine was back in place and since the torsion bars were out, now would be a good time to install the QA1 adjustable strut rods. I never liked how the pivot pins allowed the LCA to slide on the pin, so I put these in to help prevent that. That process was pretty simple. The bellow picture you can see the QA1 rods as well as the headers from underneath. They look and fit nice!
We got the rear pipes hung up but saw we were having a length issue, so I am going to have to trim the adapters and intermediate pipes a bit, which is okay, as well as put some notches in the muffler pipes so when I clamp down on them I get a good seal. We decided not to do that at 11:30 pm since I may have to unbolt the header to fit in the clutch fork when ever I order that. So I will finish the exhaust when I am certain I get good clearance with the clutch linkage. But all in all I am happy I went with the TTIs
But the following day we cleaned up everything and got the tail stripe on the Charger!!
The old man would be proud...
So the things I need to do to get this thing on the road would be as follows: order that clutch fork and install, hook up the clutch linkage, tighten up starter and connect wiring, figure out what steering shaft I can use so I can install the column, take the dip stick I have and use a tube bender to get it to work with the power steering gear and headers, Need to get the rear end rebuilt with new gears and bearings, rear brakes, master cylinder, get the remaining parts for the console, chroming the bumpers, seat foam, tires and head liner.