My tow vehicle repower

[Baz]

[quote=boxhead;1169719]What color was the 49 Baz?
Also was it s "big tank" with fillers in the upper rear quarters, or standard tank with filler in ducktail?
The distributor drive is a very common problem.[/QUOTE

Dave,

She was silver with the black stripes, 3 twin throat side draught 48 DCOE Webbers and twin fuel fillers - one each side emptying into big tank in boot.
Wish I had purchased it at auction. Worth a fortune now.

Good Luck with the Wagon


Baz

[boxhead]

Baz a big tank 49 in Mercury silver would be worth a small fortune now.

Market has died down a little in the past few years, but before that, in a restored or good original condition, you would pull very good money.

[boxhead]

Baz, can I also ask were you and the car where based?

Trying to see if it still exists.

Being a big tank E49 it must be a VH model (square headlights) (but Chrysler did make some oddballs), as there are no reported VJ E49 with big tanks (There are reputed to be only 4 E49 in VJ total)
The silver is called "Mercury Silver" (highly sought after color)
Here is a replica.



But this is a small tank.

Big tank had these fillers.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by boxhead

Baz, can I also ask were you and the car where based?

Trying to see if it still exists.

Being a big tank E49 it must be a VH model (square headlights) (but Chrysler did make some oddballs), as there are no reported VJ E49 with big tanks (There are reputed to be only 4 E49 in VJ total)
The silver is called "Mercury Silver" (highly sought after color)
Here is a replica.



But this is a small tank.

Big tank had these fillers.

Hi Dave,

At the time, I was attached to the No 24 Division Highway Patrol and stationed at Cronulla Police Station. Your not wrong about Chrysler producing some oddballs. The cops seemed to end up with the fruit salad. Some Chargers we had were fitted with the sports 6 cylinder with 4 speed manual box, others had the small V8, (316 c.i., I think) with an auto, while others had the 360 auto. Then there were the triple webber cars with the twin side fillers as shown and big tank.

When Holden won the Contract off Chrysler, they dished up similar oddballs. The early model GTR Torana's were just the standard GTR, but then they purchased a few Harry Firth Bathurst Special GTR XU1's with the triple carbs, big cam, close ratio gearbox, beefed up suspension and a fuel tank which filled the boot. These were real rocket ships and one of the quickest accelerating production vehicles I have driven.

Ford then won the Contract and once again, the oddballs were rolled out. We were getting Phase 3 GTHO's with a standard looking body hitched up to a column shift auto.

Regards

Baz

[boxhead]

Do you have any pics of the Charger Baz. As the Chrysler guys are saying it never existed.

Also your time line seems odd, you mention the Charger, then police going to Holden, then going to Ford and using a phase 3, the Charger was not produced until August 1971, by this time Ford was making the XA model, so phase 3 production had well and truely stopped.

[Baz]

The Phase 3's Fords were XD's so that makes them in the 70's. Ford must have had the Police Contract before the Chargers came along. It was over 40 years ago Dave, so my memory for exact dates off the cuff might be a bit off.


Baz

[Rog246]

Dave I had a customer who brought his Charger to my Dyno business in the early 80's when I lived in Canberra. He came to us because he'd heard that we had the most miserable chassis Dyno around- and i gotta say it was too!! My 250rwhp at the rears was everyone else's 300 !
When we bought the workshop where it was installed I asked the former owner when was it last calibrated & he didn't know but was good enough to ask the original owner who said it never had been after installation
Anyway longer story short we got it done & were lucky enough to get a bloke how had just done a refresher course and set it up properly.
Anyhow, back to the bloke. I gathered after a bit of a chat that he knew his way around a car and he said that his Charger was a bit different to any we would ever see. My partner at the time did his apprenticeship at the local Chrysler dealer and he knew all the production codes etc and was a real MOPAR man. Greg had a long chat with the gentleman about the car and asked what could we expect, to which he said 'it will surprise you that's all". Then asked if we would tune and change all the oils which he supplied in plain unmarked containers-hmm a bit odd
Well it sure was a bit different. We knew it a V8 when he drove up, but we sure as hell didn't expect to find what we did. When we got it up to change the oils Greg called me over and said "get a load of this !'' Totally adjustable suspension FRONT & BACK and 4 wheel disc brakes, a 4 speed close ratio gearbox and a big slippery diff as well as a panhard bar or a watts linkage-I can't quite remember! It also had a set of long tube headers and dual system about 3 inch I think. It had the std RT Charger looking rims but 7's on the front & 8's on the rear. Interesting to say the least.
Did the oil changes etc and dropped it on the ground and lifted the lid to find a 340ci under there-no real biggie but then we looked and it had MSD ignition, and an after market inlet manifold under a real big pancake type airfilter. We took the filter off and there was a Holley 650 double pumper with manual secondaries & choke, and tuning specs decal on the inner guard showing ignition timing AND total timing as well as VALVE Clearances !!?!
About then we got a call from the owner asking "Well I thought I'd give you call to see what you thought- like I said its a bit different!" 'there are some new valve cover gaskets in the boot-can you change them please when you do the valves-you are going to do the valves aren't you!?' Err yes.
We pull the valve covers off to find CRANE roller rockers-Greg says to me-"there's something going on here-! Duh yes! "
Everything on the car had ALL Chrysler markings etc on them and it had the look of being a full on production car not something the owner had done himself. Anyway we did our thing, set it up as per the specs etc and put it over the rollers. I can't remember the numbers but at the time they were HUGE and it was set to rev to 7000 with an ignition cutout in the MSD. If I remember correctly it was putting down about 330 RWHP ! Man we were super impressed-they were very big numbers at the time. Anyway when the owner came to pick it up we had a very long talk. It turns out that he used to be an R & D test development engineer with Chrysler in the very new competition dept when the V8 supercar drama unfolded in 1970's. He said Chrysler had built the required number of bits to make the 250 ?!? cars required to homologate them for BATHURST etc. This particular car was the test vehicle for all the mods. The engines, g'boxes and diffs came in from the States completely assembled from Chrysler and they were very serious about winning until it all went pear shaped. I've got no doubt that the cars would have cleaned up not only Bathurst but ATCC as well. This car was nothing short of stunning. The bloke took the car as part of his severance package and then went to work for BMC on the P76 program-poor fella !!
I remember him saying that Chrysler also built 6 or 7 308ci 6's fitted with 54mm DCOE's (esepcially made for them)and that they were awesome, but Chrysler US said you will use the 340's that we'll send you. I didn't get a chance to drive the car but my partner Greg took it around the block and came back with a big grin, but not as big as when the owner took him for a drive and ran it out to 7 grand in 2nd gear.
Just thought I'd share- would sure like to know what happened to the car though.
Rog

[Merv and Sharon]

Geez Rog, this is overload. Now Dave won't sleep a wink!

[Rog246]

Roflmao !:lol:

[boxhead]

Rog, You dont happen to remember the guys name?
Sounds kind of far fetched but never know.
With panhard or watts link, was it coil sprung with control arms?

Baz, There appears to be 1 x NSW highway patrol car that still exists.
I have been told its history is "colorful" and when Chrysler guys say this it generally means a re-body/reshell.
The car is apparently privatly owned in Bathurst.

Can you confirm, your car.
How many gears?
Was there a vertical stripe on the front guards infront of the doors?
Was the bonnet black or body color?

A picture would be fantastic if you or one of your police mates have one.

[boxhead]

Back on the subject of George.
I tackled the chassis repair last night and today.
I decided I would make a sleeve for inside the rail, and fit a replacement outer rail from the donor car.
So first up I cut out the old rusty rail.


Then I made the new inner sleeve.


I then cut the donor rail out, I cut it larger than needed so I could trim to suit.


Next was to trim the sleeve to suit the replacement rail.


I then welded the inner sleeve to the top section of original rail.
After drilling some holes in donor outer rail for plug welding I then fitted and welded in the donor outer rail.
Wheel arch side (yet to grind down welds)


And engine bay side, all ground and linished.

[400TT]

Dave, nice rust repair work on the old VH. Rust repair is one of the things I don't miss, one of the advantages of building kit cars compared to working on old cars.

Can't wait to see it, or should I say hear it at the next meet.

[boxhead]

Cheers Craig, its all good bcause it is my car, so not a job, but more a hobby.

Whn I did a couple of years in a panel shop (all part of teh learning curve to gain differing skills), I too did not enjoy the rust repairs.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by boxhead

Rog, You dont happen to remember the guys name?
Sounds kind of far fetched but never know.
With panhard or watts link, was it coil sprung with control arms?

Baz, There appears to be 1 x NSW highway patrol car that still exists.
I have been told its history is "colorful" and when Chrysler guys say this it generally means a re-body/reshell.
The car is apparently privatly owned in Bathurst.

Can you confirm, your car.
How many gears?
Was there a vertical stripe on the front guards infront of the doors?
Was the bonnet black or body color?

A picture would be fantastic if you or one of your police mates have one.

Dave,

The 6 cylinder Webber Carbed Charger had a 4 speed floor change manual gearbox. The car was grey with black bonnet and black vertical stripes running up the front guards in front of the doors.

I don't have a photo of this car, only one of a fully marked up 318c.i., V8 auto Charger which is starting to go brown with age. I have sent out some feelers to my former workmates to see if anyone has a photo of the E49, but as myself and one other guy on the opposite shift were the only driver's of this car, the odds of anyone else having a photo of it appears remote. Unfortunately, not too many of my work mates are still alive. We are all well on our way to 70 these days.

Baz

[boxhead]

Cheers for trying Baz.

[boxhead]

Here ya go Baz.
Classic Throttle Shop - 1972 VH Charger RT E49 'Big Tank'

[boxhead]

More progress on Monday night.
Most of the engine bay has been stripped of paint.





I used a 3M rust convertor/primer in the battery tray area as there was some rust pitting caused by the battery.

Hope to have it primed, hi filled and primer sealed by Sunday night, so I can prep the tailgate next week and paint them all up on Friday night (next week)

[Towmaster]

Love the progress pics boxhead, keep 'em coming!

[stiffy]

Hi Boxy,

Nice progress on the old Val, I am doing a major rebuild on an XC Coupe as you know.

I had the car blasted ( except the underside ) and used POR15 the rust proofing process/paint. Fantastic stuff, would be perfect for this application...


STIFFY

[boxhead]

I have been talking to a painter out here, it will all be done in 2k etch/primer/hi fill and then 2k top coat.
His supplies of 2k primer are low, but he is hoping that it will be here tomorrow.