It's HEMI time !!! Compliments of NJSteve

[njsteve]

It will also need the "Rat Roaster" intake, too, with the carbs sticking through the hacksawed holes in the original hood!

[scuncio]

Wow! Even weirder than the time when I had just boarded a plane in Phoenix and my ex-girlfriend sat down in the seat next to me! That was a quiet flight. I guess you have the good kind of Karma....

[Mr70]

Don't ever have that horseshoe removed from your a-- Steve.

[DarrenX33]

That's really up there..

[njsteve]

I spent the past few days cleaning the old rims. They are not in the best of shape, they are rather "patina-fied" as most Cragars are. Since I can't seem to find anyone that will rechrome them, I figured I'll just run them as is. I used a lot of Simichrome and cleaned up the chrome (where I could find it) as much as possible and then masked off the center lug nut areas and sprayed them flat black. Works for me. So I guess I am returning her to her "Rat Rod" beginnings.

Here's the extent of the masking and spraying. Not too high-tech:



Oh, in case anyone is wondering: The original 1970 vintage center cap is on the right. Note the heavier design and thicker walls. The cap on the left is the later 1970/80s cap (made in Taiwan -it figures)...





The other way to tell the old style from the new is that the old style has a slightly thicker font to the letters and no circled "R" trademark under the name. THere is also a noticeable difference to the background "wrinkled" area.





The finished set:

[njsteve]

Here's the finished product. While the 38 year old rear tires are not safe to drive on, they look good enough for show. For the fronts, I ended up using those NOS F78x15s that came with that wrongly described set of front skinny cragars I bought last month. So they ended up being useful afterall.

[njsteve]

I also gave the car a present: I installed the old, NOS 1972 Mopar tach I had laying around for the past 25 years or so. Since the factory tach is a little on the wild (and inaccurate) side whne you hit the gas, this tach provides a little better estimation of what the engine is actually doing.

[DarrenX33]

I said it before and I'll say it again now to you... Never take those off! Couldn't look more perfect.

[njsteve]

I brought the wheels and tires to my friend's garage to change the valve stems and mount the new fronts and balance them all. (It only took 8 ounces each to balance the rear tires! They are not exactly round anymore after all these years.)

While I had the old front tires off the rims I noticed that the 15x4 Cragars have stamped in large block letters, inside the rim, the following text: "FOR DRAG RACING USE ONLY - NOT FOR HIGHWAY USE". This phrase is continued around the entire inside of the rim. I didn't have my camera with me or I would have gotten a photo of it.

[DarrenX33]

Bummer. Now you can only drag race the car.