Dels Charger Lives...Now MOTd

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Thu Nov 04, 10 10:42 pm

As most of you know myself and the Charger took a beating a few weeks ago, both looked in a sorry state but I took the opportunity to make something good out of something bad.

For a while now I have been thinking about pulling the engine and gearbox out to freshen them up a bit, not been out for 17 years, so two weeks before the Charger was due to go in for repair, Anton, Andy and myself pulled them out along with every thing else, exhaust, servo, master clyinder, brake pipes, just about everything under the bonnett. I went in to make tea and sausage sandwichs and when I came back out Anton had most of the engine top end stripped down.

The Charger is going back to Paul at Spectrum Paint Worx in Kent, he is the guy that painted it last May 2009, he told me that if I could strip it down he would do the repairs then flatten the whole car and lacquer it, under the bonnet as well, for a fee of course, so that's what I did, off came the grill assembly,front bumper, valance, door handles, locks, rear lights, rear bumper, the whole lot.

After the Charger was taken to Pauls, (Thanks Scott), it was time to start on the engine and gearbox, so 6am on a dark Monday morning I meet Blue at his work and gave him the gearbox to rebuild, I have been collecting bits for a couple of years now as this has been on the cards for a for some time, while the morning was at Blues, I gave everything a clean ,ready for the rebuild.

The following Monday I was back at Blues work at 6am to collect the gear box and to loan his cam bearing toll, (Thanks Blue). Tuesday evening I started by taking the cam bearing out, so easy with the right tool, then I started to put the new cam bearing in, the first one went in nice and easy, the second one I couldn't get the 3 holes to line up, after talking to Anton, he said he would call in on his way to work the next day. 6am the next morning Anton was at my door, into the garage, bish bash bosh, cam and bearings are in and Anton was in work around 7am, (I have some good friends).

Wednesday, I put the crank and new bearings in along with 4 pistons,by then I'd had enough as I was getting stressed as my back was giving me lots of pain so I called it a day.

Thursday (today) I did the other 4 pistons and bearings, windage tray and sump, that was it, back is hurting again.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Thu Nov 04, 10 10:45 pm

A couple more pis for now.

andyrob · Post by **andyrob** » Thu Nov 04, 10 11:07 pm

good stuff derek, but it still makes me angry thinking about what they did to you & your car

steveo · Post by **steveo** » Thu Nov 04, 10 11:08 pm

like you say , got a good excuse to do some additional work , still hard to believe them little ******** would do something like that to you and the charger

crikey copped the fins of the scuttle , they can sometimes be tricky , at least it looks like only one !!
keep the pictures coming , love looking at this kind of stuff

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Nov 04, 10 11:09 pm

nice one derek glad to see you and the car are on the mend

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Thu Nov 04, 10 11:23 pm

Good for you Derek, nice one.
I guess it's pointless to ask if any progress has been made in finding the scumbags?

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Fri Nov 05, 10 8:30 am

MrNorm wrote:Good for you Derek, nice one.
I guess it's pointless to ask if any progress has been made in finding the scumbags?

Police said there was not enough evidence so no further action will be taken, know there's a surprise. Why haven't we got a emoticon for tossers.

I'll put more pics up later, then more as we go on.

Ivor · Post by **Ivor** » Fri Nov 05, 10 9:27 am

Well done Derek, Matt and I were talking about your misfortune, when the subject of Paulo's car being burnt to a cinder came up...at least you have something left to repair!

One thing you can say is that it will actually be better than before the work started, thanks for posting the pix and the story, it's all good stuff.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Nov 05, 10 9:33 am

Good to see the progress Del - I hope your recovery is as speedy.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Fri Nov 05, 10 10:24 am

Good for you for pressing on and not letting them grind you down.
The car will look stunning once the under-bonnet area has been restored

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Nov 05, 10 12:21 pm

It's going to be an even better car in the end. That is some consolation.

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Fri Nov 05, 10 1:05 pm

Nice one Del glad to see you getting it all sorted

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Fri Nov 05, 10 1:16 pm

If you take the front grill/lights out let me know how. Damned if I can see all the bolts

Fast work Derek - veryimpressed. Took me weeks to do what you have done in a couple of days...

Scooby · Post by **Scooby** » Fri Nov 05, 10 1:22 pm

Derek..
Good to see things are moving along....

Rich...

ANTON · Post by **ANTON** » Fri Nov 05, 10 1:29 pm

morgan wrote:If you take the front grill/lights out let me know how. Damned if I can see all the bolts

Fast work Derek - veryimpressed. Took me weeks to do what you have done in a couple of days...

Morgan
Take the front bumper off and the lower valence and lift the headlight doors and you will see bolt there and the are also some in front of the front wheel and four bolts under the bonnet. The grill comes out with bonnet latch panel attached.