SRT8CUDA Build

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Had a good trip to Carlisle. Was looking for a bunch of parts for the restoration of my '69 340 fastback. Found a really nice set of exhaust manifolds to replace my rust pitted ones . Also found the correct 46 amp alternator that I left with Jim Ridge for restoration.
Came back to my car on Saturday afternoon and found I had received a “Celebrity Choice Award” from Herb McCandless Performance!!!
I tried to find a contact for Herb to thank him for the award. Could not find a contact. I then reached out to Mike, who is Herb's son, on Facebook to ask him to put me in touch with Herb..
A few days ago Herb phoned me!!! Said it was an absolutely gorgeous car and thought the whole restoration was first class which is quite the complement!! We had a long conversation about Mopars and he mentionned he was going to go to the Aero Warriors Talladega reunion at Tim Wellborn's Musclecar Museum in October. I said I was bringing my Superbird. He said "You mean you have a Superbird?" Said he wanted to meet me!! Gave me his cell phone so we can hook up when we get there!!!

He will likely be driving his 61 Chrysler 300G (5.7 Hemi powered)

Mike has put together museum of their cars etc.

Viewing a thread - Museum opened for the power tour, pictures

Made my day!!
Jim

The award stated: "This is a great built car from the ground up. A car to be proud of and I am very happy to choose it"
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Was at Mopars at the Red Barns show at the Gilmore Car Museum on the weekend. "Mopars at the Red Barns" Show & Swap Meet
Great show. Lots of parking on the grass, large trees for shade. Had not been there for about 20 years. They have added several more buildings with very well restored cars from Model A Fords through to modern day. Definitely worth a visit. They had one of the 7 remaining turbine cars on display.
Car worked fine except when I stopped to get gas in Port Huron on the way home. Pulled the parking brake on and the handle broke off!! (It was a reproduction handle) Only way to release it is to pull on it and rotate it to unlock!! Fortunately I had put a few tools in a toolbox and used a pair of vice grips to get it to release!!!! That was close!!

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Picked up an original used emerg brake handle at Moparfest today.
https://moparfest.com

An original Mopar handle has a metal insert inside so that it doesn't break when you pull on it!!! Made in China Repros are all plastic and will break!!
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I made e-mail contact with Jim Fillmore at DMT about the foam seal across the top of the windshield and hooked him up with Carl who posted the original photos of this seal. Jim wanted the seal so they could reproduce it and make it available to everyone and Carl is going to send it to him.
DMT has the correct seal material, so I asked him to let me know the cost and to send to me.
Just got an e-mail to say it is sent and no chargeO:)O:)
That is excellence in Customer service.

I had always recommended DMT for seal - and now they are highly recommended!!!

Jim
I love DMT
 
I'm doing the mod that others have done to eliminate the "chrome" lockstrip along the lower edge of the windshield.
I'm using a hardtop windshield gasket and using a lower S/S trim strip from the hardtop/fastback cars. This involves cutting off ~1" from each end of the hardtop trim strip and doing a little grinding on the ends.
Then you install the trim clips that are used on the hardtop along the lower edge. All the screw holes were punched along the bottom - except for the 2 outer ones. On my car, they didn't seem to be there, but maybe they were covered by the body shop. (These 2 outer trim clips are a little narrower than the others.) The 2 outer clips are p/n 6002615 and the rest are 6002263.

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Thank you Jim. The body shop tape on my beautifyul mylar lower trim and pulled off the chrome. That's why I went with the original chrome lower strip. your restoration on everything convert. will help me big time. Thank you.
 
Mocked up the throttle linkage today using the stock accelerator pedal and the Lokar cable to the FAST TB. Now I see that the throttle only opens part way with pedal to the floor!!! can't have that!!

If I move the cable connection to a pivot on the TB (photo 3/4), I can get full open on the butterfly. This means I have to make a new bracket for the cable end at the TB. Mumble, mumble :eek:ops:

Jim,
Did you run the throttle cable out the original hole?
I looked through some of the pictures but couldn't tell.
Thanks!
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The windshield wipe motor had been stopping after running for a while. Bad news in a heavy rainstorm as I found out!!! Wasn't sure if it was a problem in the variable speed wiper switch (which has an overcurrent thermal cutout in it) or the motor. I pulled the dash and removed the switch and motor and sent both away. Switch to JS Restorations and the motor to SF Restorations. Jim from JS emailed me to say the switch was tripping at 3 amps which is well below where it should trip at 6 amps. That was the reason it was stopping.
Stephan at SF said The motor looked OK inside , but sand had been left in the rotor and stator from a restoration done years ago by Kim at Passion4Mopars. Plus the finish on the motor barrel was not the best and wrapping on the stator coils was poor. Based on my past experience and many others DO NOT use her for any wiper restorations!!!

Both JS and SF do absolutely excellent work
Jim
 
Yes - RMS Street Lynx rear. Other mods are a Moser 8-3/4" rear axle. I looked at used Mopar 8-3/4" axles and by the time I fixed them up with new gears, bearings, sure grip and axles etc- I though it was far better to buy brand new parts.
Due to the use of rear disk brakes, you are usually limited to using the "Green" ball bearings in the axles to control end play. From an engineer's perspective, I don't like them at all because they have limited capability to take side thrust - unlike the original Mopar tapered roller bearings - that are virtually indestructable. Bill at RMS said he has used Ford (did I say Ford??!!) tapered roller bearings with the Moser axles and disk brakes - so I am going with those.

By the way - Bill is a great guy to deal with. A real treat. I drove down to his shop to pick up my suspension and Bill was very helpful. He spec'd and ordered all the Moser parts for me.

That is pretty well all the major mods I have in mind. I'm keeping the interior absolutely stock.
This is awesome info, thanks guys!!
 
Have started to get ready for the first trial fit of the motor and tranny into the car.
I needed a support stand to sit the engine and tranny on so we can drop the car onto it and bolt the RMS suspension frame to the frame rails.
Being an engineer - I had to do many design calculations and drawings - so after 3 weeks of intense work at 12 hrs/day , this is what the result was.:D:D:D

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haha!
 
Stephan at SFRestorations finished my wiper motor. Notice all the attention to detail on the stator windings. The quality of the finished motor is far better than that done by Passion4Mopars. The first photo shows what I sent him before he restored it. The last photo is after his restoration.
This is the work he did on the motor:
Restored interns (Stator and rotor) Polish cylinder and re-plate, changed motor wiring insulator, restore switch plate + correct goop, new ground strap, new firewall connector, new grommets and sleeves,

correct cardboard cylinder insulator with tab, new switch plate gasket, new motor to firewall foam, correct shrink cap, changed main wiring electrical black tape for correct non stick vinyl wrap. Soda blast main casing for proper finish on aluminum , motor was properly greased and runs smoothly

Your motor is also warrantied for life


Stephan is a great asset to the Mopar community

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Jim at JS Restorations finished my wiper and ignition switches. He found what looked like glass beads inside the wiper switch! A couple of the male connectors on the ignition switch were loose on the rivets and had high resistance.
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Hi Jim,
Do you know the size of the reducer you're using for this?
Coolant Temperature: The second photo shows where I installed the factory temp sensor (with a reducing bushing)

Which side oil port is in to the remote filter and out (Clean) back to the block when using a remote filter?

Thanks,

Brian
 
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