Silver Fox 1968 Charger all wheel drive 6 speed build

M

Motorcitydak

Forum Member
Hey guys, just found this site so I had to join. Nice to see a cool local forum. A little back ground, Im 25, lived in Detroit for 19 years and now live in southern St Clair County by Marine City. I have been a paramedic for almost 6 years now. I have been building this car 100% myself for the last 3 years. Here are some details on it

'68 Charger (my favorite car of all time)
2009 5.7 Hemi, 390hp stock, MDS, VVT and short runner system will all be maintained
Viper T-56 6 speed
All wheel drive setup from a Cadillac STS-4
Fiberglass fenders and hood
Expected weight is around 3000 pounds and I will try for 50/50 weight distribution
315/30 18's on all 4 corners with 18x10 wheels
Push rod suspension on all 4 corners using Ride Tech tripe adjustable coil overs
Rear axle is a Moser circle track full floating 9 inch, held by a 3 link and Watt's
Front is a home made SLA using c5/6 knuckles and hubs
Front brakes are 14 inch ZO6 stuff, DBA 4000 rotors

I just got the engine so that will be finding its home relatively soon. I have been waiting about 10 weeks for my Woodward steering rack, just got the call yesterday that it finally is done and shipped out.

Enough talk, here are a few pics and an abbreviated set of pics of the last few years

How I got it
zzzz.jpg


It then got new quarters, floor pans sub frame connectors, drip rails shaved and a cowl

The rear

DSCF1771.jpg


and the front
DSCF1701.jpg


interior space I will have this the motor half way thru the firewall

DSCF1786.jpg


Sweet Tilton brake a clutch pedal

DSCF1791.jpg


Just dropped off yesterday

DSCF1793.jpg
 
Thanks fella's! Im really excited rite now because after 10 weeks of waiting, my Woodward steering rack is finally built and shipped. Im hoping to have it for this weekend so I can put it in. I was told that they had a delay on the ratio I ordered so it was either wait for what I wanted or change the ratio, I just waited.

slb351, nice to have someone so close. I am just next door in Casco
 
Also if you guys are bored, here is a link to the thread on the car starting at day 1

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?topic=59466.0

and this one goes more from the fun part where i started making it all wheel drive

http://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ger-5-7-Hemi-4-speed-AWD&highlight=silver+fox

I got the tracking info for my steering rack, it will not be delivered until Monday which sucks but I am off that night too so I can start getting it mounted then

Also that red truck in the back of the picture with the engine is also packing a 5.7 Hemi. I did that swap 3 years ago, I am quite a fan of these engines
 
Last edited:
Geezus Christmas dude! I can't even fathom having the imagination to come up with this, let alone the fabrication and geometry skills to make it happen! What a great concept! Keep the updates coming!
 
Is that rear brace all aluminum?

My first car was a 1970 Charge with a 440, holley 4 barrel, posi rear end & 4 speed, I was 16 years of age.
 
Believe it or not, this idea came from playing the video game Forza 3. You can make most vehicles AWD in there. I just so happened to have the 68 in the garage at the time. A few weeks later I came home with the Cadillac STS front drive setup. I was already going to build my own front suspension, it is not much harder to put the AWD parts in there. Besides moving to motor back more and placing the front diff, its all the same

wide winger said:
Is that rear brace all aluminum?

My first car was a 1970 Charge with a 440, holley 4 barrel, posi rear end & 4 speed, I was 16 years of age.
Click to expand...

You sir had one hell of a first car!!

Yes, both the front and rear frames are 6061 aluminum. The front is 1/4 thick, either 2.5 or 3 inches wide. I cannot remember at the moment. The rear is 3/8. I only used 3/8 for the rear because of the shoulder bolts. I wanted them to be captured by the steel mounting brackets and the shoulder bolts are only available in 1/2 inch increments. I chose wider aluminum over using thicker steel brackets or a thick washer.

I finally got my Woodward steering rack after 3 months of waiting. I hope to start building the mounts for it this week/weekend. Once that is done I can get the engine situated then lower the car off the stands then prep and primer the car
 
I did get some work done to it, worked on placing the rack finally. First off all of the front end stuff had to come out. Because of its height, the crossmember braces had to be hacked in half. The drivers side more so than the passenger because of the gear box of the rack

DSCF1802.jpg


Then with the rack back in place, I put 1/2 threaded rod thru the mounts so I can make sure the bolts are vertical and this also made it really easy to place the brackets

DSCF1803.jpg


Here is the drivers side bracket that I ended up with, its 3/16 plate with 1/8 vertical walls. I placed a stack of washers between the 3/16 pieces to space them out an inch. Of course when they were welded together, I could not get them out. So they got welded in place. I had to clearance the one side of the bracket to fit around the rack

DSCF1804.jpg


DSCF1805.jpg


I read something from Woodward that you should use washers between the rack and mount to spread out the load and also allow some bump steer adjustment. I placed 2 washers between the rack and mount. The housing is magnesium which is pretty cool but obviously needs to be protected

Here is the drivers side bracket in place. The bottom side is unwelded, I want to lift the front of the car up so I can get under there. I need to finish up the crossmember joints to the frame as well as this piece

DSCF1807.jpg


The passenger side was much easier because the bolt fell rite on top of that side brace. I put a piece of 3/16 across the tube and another on a small stand to get it up to the rack

DSCF1808.jpg


DSCF1810.jpg


The room it has to live in

DSCF1809.jpg


With that in place, I pulled the rack and burned the mounts in for good and drilled the 1/2 hole thru the passenger side. I will put another piece of the bottom of that tube to give the bolt a flat mounting surface. What do you guys think about this mount? I feel like it mite need at least a horizontal plate to brace it further to the crossmember tube. It will obviously see force in a sideways directions and really only the drivers mount is built to do that. The pass side does/will go thru 3 pieces of 3/16 and the 0.120 wall of the tube

DSCF1811.jpg


With those done, I finally bolted the rack in place!!

DSCF1812.jpg


Unfortunately this then got evicted in favor of better suspension geometry

DSCF1813.jpg


I removed the front diff's mounting brackets but while in that process, my grinder gave up the ghost. Since it was 3am, there was no store to open to get another one from. I figured out that one of the power wires had broken inside the cord so its working again with a 1 foot shorter cord but that just about did me in for the night. I did grind those mounts down flush with the tubes tho.

The last thing I did get done was to make a Hemi sized hole in the firewall. I cardboard template over the Hemi gave me this hole, I wanted to tops angled like that because the steering column support is really close on that side. I still need to cut the floors.

DSCF1815.jpg


DSCF1814.jpg


After that, I will get ALL the stuff out from under the car and remove the table. Then I want to strip everything from the car and try to weigh the bare shell. If I can ever get ahold of another ball joint nut, I can then put it all back together and get this car on the ground and see how well the Hemi fits in there. I have decided to get the engine placed then try to fit the front diff back in. Im pretty sure a remote filter is in store for this motor. I had a dream last night that it all fit, so it has to be possible
 
i tried to post up an update to this, said that the post had to be approved by a mod??? just a bunch of text and some img links from photobucket
 
awesome awesome project man. im in port huron so im sure i will see the car around and at shows and stuff when its done!
 
Motorcitydak said:
I did get some work done to it, worked on placing the rack finally. First off all of the front end stuff had to come out. Because of its height, the crossmember braces had to be hacked in half. The drivers side more so than the passenger because of the gear box of the rack

DSCF1802.jpg


Then with the rack back in place, I put 1/2 threaded rod thru the mounts so I can make sure the bolts are vertical and this also made it really easy to place the brackets

DSCF1803.jpg


Here is the drivers side bracket that I ended up with, its 3/16 plate with 1/8 vertical walls. I placed a stack of washers between the 3/16 pieces to space them out an inch. Of course when they were welded together, I could not get them out. So they got welded in place. I had to clearance the one side of the bracket to fit around the rack

DSCF1804.jpg


DSCF1805.jpg


I read something from Woodward that you should use washers between the rack and mount to spread out the load and also allow some bump steer adjustment. I placed 2 washers between the rack and mount. The housing is magnesium which is pretty cool but obviously needs to be protected

Here is the drivers side bracket in place. The bottom side is unwelded, I want to lift the front of the car up so I can get under there. I need to finish up the crossmember joints to the frame as well as this piece

DSCF1807.jpg


The passenger side was much easier because the bolt fell rite on top of that side brace. I put a piece of 3/16 across the tube and another on a small stand to get it up to the rack

DSCF1808.jpg


DSCF1810.jpg


The room it has to live in

DSCF1809.jpg


With that in place, I pulled the rack and burned the mounts in for good and drilled the 1/2 hole thru the passenger side. I will put another piece of the bottom of that tube to give the bolt a flat mounting surface. What do you guys think about this mount? I feel like it mite need at least a horizontal plate to brace it further to the crossmember tube. It will obviously see force in a sideways directions and really only the drivers mount is built to do that. The pass side does/will go thru 3 pieces of 3/16 and the 0.120 wall of the tube

DSCF1811.jpg


With those done, I finally bolted the rack in place!!

DSCF1812.jpg


Unfortunately this then got evicted in favor of better suspension geometry

DSCF1813.jpg


I removed the front diff's mounting brackets but while in that process, my grinder gave up the ghost. Since it was 3am, there was no store to open to get another one from. I figured out that one of the power wires had broken inside the cord so its working again with a 1 foot shorter cord but that just about did me in for the night. I did grind those mounts down flush with the tubes tho.

The last thing I did get done was to make a Hemi sized hole in the firewall. I cardboard template over the Hemi gave me this hole, I wanted to tops angled like that because the steering column support is really close on that side. I still need to cut the floors.

DSCF1815.jpg


DSCF1814.jpg


After that, I will get ALL the stuff out from under the car and remove the table. Then I want to strip everything from the car and try to weigh the bare shell. If I can ever get ahold of another ball joint nut, I can then put it all back together and get this car on the ground and see how well the Hemi fits in there. I have decided to get the engine placed then try to fit the front diff back in. Im pretty sure a remote filter is in store for this motor. I had a dream last night that it all fit, so it has to be possible
Click to expand...

You should be all set
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top