2017 Dodge Challenger SXT - Mostmint #45

[MostMint]

Rear axles installed, ebrakes assembled properly

Big round of welding. Almost done. Missed a couple small welds, and still have to put the sheet metal on the bottom of the A-pillar in the door jambs.

Made contact with the junkyard in Dover - the dash is in - so I went to pick it up.

Spent an hour with seam sealer to seal up the newly installed section.

Lost about a week with Cadillac project.

Reassembly to start next!

[wxo]

Wow! Major visible progress! Can't wait to see more!

[MostMint]

Video update #6: https://youtu.be/8V3NAxxBQRc

[MostMint]

Installing things on the car:
• Transmission tunnel insulation and driver side heat shield
• E-brake pedal
• Interior firewall blanket
• Some wiring harnesses. Trying to figure out where the harnesses are supposed to route, and attach to the car presents some challenges
• Main under dash HVAC assembly. Some additional adjusting to firewall to get a good fit/seal
• Front struts and upper control arms. The LF upper control arm had damaged threads on the ball joint. I debated taking it back but it was faster just to fix it with a bit of grinding, filing and a die

• Sheet metal for bottom of A pillar and part of frame rail fitted and clamped in place
• Brake pedal
• Gas pedal
• Hood hinges and hood latch cable
• Manual park release cable

Started on the dash work
• Decided it will be easier to move the cover to my existing frame. The wiring harness on the junkyard dash had some after market mods, moving the harness looks quite involved since it winds all around the dash
• Removed the pad from the junkyard assembly
• Discovered this assembly has a passenger airbag and also a key fob. The first dash I ordered was not to come with the airbag. As it turns out this one was about $100 more and this explains why.

Other
• Did some prep work for expanding foam – closing up some holes and labeling points to add the foam

• When I went to install the brake booster I found it had a dent in the bottom from the crash. This explains the lack of brake assist when I was lot driving the car last year. I thought it might have been pinched brake lines.

[MostMint]

Dashboard
Turns out the original dash frame was bent and bolt holes did not line up. I was concerned for a bit but test fit of the replacement dash frame showed all the bolt holes line up.

With this information I moved the original wiring harness to the new frame and reassembled the whole thing. To make sure I got everything connected in the right places, I removed the harness from the dash frame one or two connections at a time and installed the original right after.
After assembly and other prep I installed the dash. Install was pretty straightforward, and this job is so much easier with no windshield and no front seats. Lots of bolts and small screws to install, and wires to connect. I had labeled most of the connections which helped.

Other
Kurt did the final welding for the lower A pillar sheet metal panel. Cleaned up the welds and got some paint on them

Obtained and installed the brake booster
Prime and paint the scratched areas in the windshield frame – before dash install to avoid spills/cleanup. Did brush touch on these since none of this will be visible
Got busy with expanding foam in the driver side frame rail and lower windshield brace – replacing what was removed during repairs. It took about a can’s worth
Remove deployed side curtain airbags and install replacements. This took longer than expected as I had to remove visors, hand grips and clothes hangers to move the headliner to access the bolts holding the airbags in. Also found a small rip in the headline presumably from the airbag deployment.

Thank you Dave Bales for the air ratchet - perfect for this task

Install the front carpets – these loop in over the lower dash support brackets. Also put in the ducting that goes under the carpet to the back for the car
After the dash was installed, the steering column, glove box and gauge cluster were installed. There is a metal ring that holds the seal at the firewall, and of course it was bent. Each time I find another bent item I wonder if this is the last surprise from the crash. The brake booster had that title for about a week.

not sure why I was surprised this was bent.

Definitely into a new phase for this project - still a long way to go but expecting a lot more assembling and less fabricating from here on in. After looking at this shell for so long it's really nice to see it starting to come back together.

Also - now over 525 hrs I'm hoping less than 200 to go

[MostMint]

Installed engine on the subframe. The driver side mount was wobbly – I figured it had been damaged in the crash. Once I got the heat shield off I could see the top mount had loosened up. Easy fix.

note how the studs for the heat shield were bent from contact with the chassis

Ordered some suction cups to help with the glass install

Installed A/C line to the exchanger unit on the firewall. Tried the Challenger part but it was bent. There is an anchor on the LF shock tower and the mounting bracket was at least 3” away. Fortunately I saved this part from the Charger and they are the same part. Also installed heater core hoses and a few other odds and ends.

first time these panels have been on the car in a while

Test fit the driver door. It was still a bit bent – the lower edge of the door was about ¾” too far out just before the B pillar.

bottom of the door sticking out

Took a bit to realize the top of the door was too far in. Fixed this by pushing in on the bottom of the door while pulling out on the top of the door. Also had to adjust the striker to get the door to close properly. I’m doing all of this without the outside skin on the door – looks good right now but won’t know until the door skin is on to know if it really does fit OK.

Went to work on the left front fender. This was by far the most damaged panel. I was comparing it to the sample fender I had, but ultimately wanted to compare it to the passenger side front fender. It was pretty good from the last round, but there were still more adjustments to be made to get the alignment with the A pillar right.

Took a few rounds of tweaking the fender shape by the A pillar, but also where the fender attaches to the car along the top of the fender. Once I had that side in order I went back to driver side. It’s hard to explain all the adjustments I made. There was a big adjustment to the top of the fender in the front – five hours of work so far. Still a ways to go but it is fitting to the car.

Sent the seat belts out for rebuild. Upon their return I put them into the car, and reassembled the back half of the interior – seat belts, side panels, seats. Lots of visible progress for relatively little time on this front.

[MostMint]

Video update #7: https://youtu.be/IHbLprmB5_I

[Fred32v]

liking the video, so far so good!

[MostMint]

Installed the center console. The storage compartment had a strong smell (perfume?) so I ended up washing it out with soap and water before install.

Install the ABS module and brake lines. Used the Charger parts car brake lines as they were all straight and not broken.

Did some heavy lifting on the LF fender. It was by far the worst panel. It had been roughed in during earlier sessions but now it was time to fit the thing. The shape was off in multiple ways so it was quite a challenge to get it to align with the door, A-pillar and hood. Ultimately, I made some small adjustments to the bolt holes at the top of the fender so the fender would clear the door. After that I fabricated some patches with galvanized sheet metal to cover the holes from grinding on the barrier, and connected them with panel bonding adhesive.

Also did some work on the driver door. Aligning the structure with the rocker panel, front fender and rear ¼ panel. Test fit the window to make sure it aligned with the window seal on A pillar and roof. Then I made a patch to cover the hole in the door skin, and finally I reinstalled the door skin using panel bonding adhesive and peening all the edges of the door skin back over the frame. After all this I put the door back on the car, and installed the door handle, side mirror and the trim at the top of the door.

Started fitting the hood. The first step was to get it on the car. This showed there were multiple minor alignment issues. Move the hood around a bit to get the gaps looking decent to the fenders. Took the hood skin off and got to work getting the height of the edges of the hood structure aligning with the fenders. The LF corner needed the most attention, with reshaping to get the corner down, and a patch to support a crack. Used a piece of steel and rivets on it. It’s better but not done yet.

Test fit the windshield to confirm there were no changes in the window frame from the welding process. Touch up the window frame with orange in a couple spots where my unmatched touch up was above the seal in the test fit.

Installed the front bumper and side brackets. Installed the plastic bumper support as well. One of the side brackets was a perfect fit and the other one was off a little – but easily straightened. This allowed me to set the front bumper cover on the car. This uncovered some misalignment where the RF aligns with the bumper cover – I took some swings at it and its better but not there yet.

[MostMint]

Lots of visible progress

Installed the windshield. Got some help from Kurt. Tried the Harbor Freight suction cups to hold the glass but only one worked. I had made handles with duct tape so that helped.

Installed the engine and transmission. Raised up the car and rolled it in place. Connected wires and hoses as the car was slowly lowered onto the subframe.

Once the frame was connected I lifted the whole thing back up and finished connecting things and torquing it all down. Finished out this process with installing radiator and the air filter housing. There was some fabricating required to get this to fit better. It was setting on the passenger side intake cam position sensor pigtail

and rubbing on the bottom of the hood. I ended up reversing the middle pipe, adding a short extension, and fabricating a hanger to hold it up from the core support.

In the wheel wells all of the suspension pieces were installed. Still need to torque down the control arms but that needs done under load. To complete the front undercarriage I also installed the steering rack and tie rod ends. The front brake steel lines were already installed, but they came from the parts car with the Charger AWD brake hoses on them. Turns out these are too short so I went to remove them. To my surprise the flare nuts were binding up on the steel line (from a 2017 Charger that’s been sitting in my yard since fall of 22). With the help of PB Blaster and some heat I was able to free them. For the RF I have the hose and caliper so I was able to assemble that side, and used a syringe to pull air through the bleeder and basically bleed the RF brake lines. I’m hoping to avoid having to cycle the ABS module since the brake lines were completely emptied. Also while inspecting the brake parts I discovered the pins used on the front calipers were bent from the crash – replacements are on order.

With the steering rack in it was also time to install the clock spring and the steering wheel.

The headlights showed up so I installed those as well. First time since the crash this car has had headlights.

Also cleaned, painted and installed the strut tower brace. With that I had the necessary mounting locations to install the wiper assembly.

The windshield squirter bottle was also installed. It needed a new squirter motor which I had ordered a couple months back, but it took way too long to recall where I put it.

There were a couple spots in the wiring harnesses (horns, lighting) where a couple of the wires had their insulation damaged so I fixed those also.

I was able to cap off today’s work with a test start! It started really quick – almost like it was never apart and sitting for 9 months.

[MostMint]

Video update #8: https://youtu.be/i83E6JDw8Zo

[TireSmoker]

Hearing it start up -- without issues! -- had to feel like a pretty good win.

[MostMint]

Hearing it start up -- without issues! -- had to feel like a pretty good win.

It was. I didn’t start the day thinking about starting it. It was sooo far apart that lots of things could have gone wrong. The fuel system was depressurized which I thought would take longer to resolve.

Other than a few seconds of tapping from the lifters I could not tell it had been apart.

The next milestone will be moving under its own power which can happen shortly after the brake parts show up and get installed.

[MostMint]

More progress:

Installed new caliper bins and LF brake hose. Bled the LF corner and the rear calipers which opened the door to moving the car. A short move from the right to left bay in the garage uncovered some leaks in the brakes. Had a couple lines that needed up to ¼ turn to tighten. Had to bleed the system again which made it better, but additional lot drives got it a bit soft again.

Made some adjustments to the RF to better align with the bumper cover. Spent a good bit of time adjusting the LF fender to align with the door, and align with the bumper cover. The whole fender needed to come up a bit in the back which I achieved by moving the section along the top near the back mounting location down. It’s pretty close.

The driver door needed work too. It seems a bit low to where the window will not quite close all the way. Spent a fair amount of time trying to get the door up high enough. Ultimately slotted the holes in the top hinge and put a washer between A-pillar and lower hinge. Adjusted the front edge of the door to look more like the other door but not done yet. Also did some adjusting of the slot for the window as it’s a bit wider than the passenger side but also not done yet. Finally if the window is up when you open the door the Challenger automatically drops down about ¼” and then go back up ¼” after closing. Problem is this door window was not going back up. Ended up recalibrating the controller to get it to work properly.

Got to work on the passenger door. The power window motor had been out as I was troubleshooting why it would open but not close. This work was done over a year ago. There was some minor trouble but this got installed and window tests confirmed it now works in both directions. With that in the rear view I installed the interior panel and completed work on this door.

Made progress on the dash. Installed the lower panel, also the side covers. Then I repaired the touch screen (new touch screen into the unit) and installed it. Finished it off with the main dash bezel.

Installed the trim on the inside of the rocker panels, and the seats. Seat install uncovered an issue. The replacement seats are from a base model, and this car is an SXT Plus. The old seats had two electrical connections but the replacements only had one. The missing connector is for the heating and cooling function of the seats.

Installed the steering wheel airbag. With the seats installed made an attempt to get the SRS light out. It failed. Turns out the seat belt buckles have an open circuit. They don’t look deployed but they must have been affected by the crash of the donor car. I’ll send out these buckles for rebuild next week.

I learned this car has remote start! It won’t start unless the doors and hood are closed. It also has a built in timer for 0-60.

It’s starting to look and feel more and more like a car. I’ve started and idled it a few times, got it up to temp once and blead air out of the cooling system. Sitting in the driver seat, I want to drive it now.

A lot less lights than before

Looking more and more complete:

[wxo]

It is surprising how fast this thing is heading toward a drive down the road. I can't wait for more updates.