Tazet's 69 Dodge Charger.

[triker_Chewie]

so far so good 

[twolanes]

Getting there guys, coming on a treat.

[tazet]

I fancy going to OZ for a holiday then I'll hunt you down 

[triker_Chewie]

lol welcome to stay, my wife has first rights to kill me tho

[Manky Monkey]

Parade of Chargers on YouTube.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AGnCgu1Fo&feature=related

[tazet]

lol   

[BikerGran]

I like the black ones best, they look eeeeevil!   

[Manky Monkey]

I keep saying it's the prettiest of the 60s muscle cars -more curvaceous than most, & that I prefer the more aggressive, less aerodynamic looking models -but when I throw the barn door open, there's no denying it's a beast of a car. 

[Manky Monkey]

A couple of people have asked me recently what's happened to Taz's Charger &, indeed Taz.
She rarely posts here at the moment & I see we haven't added anything to this thread since October.
Well, don't worry. Taz -& the Charger, are both still alive & well.
For those new to the forum, Taz is my missus, Tanya. She runs a livery yard, (horse stables where owners pay to keep their animals). It's part of a country estate here in Surrey & we have a small cottage that goes with her job. So obviously, it's important the business does well. In the last couple of years she's built it up from literally nothing to a very busy yard with 41 horses living here & 4 stable girls working for her. Unfortunately that means she's working flat out all the time, 7 days a week. She hasn't had a day off for months & often works 12 hours a day.
So by the time she gets home, all she wants to do is eat & fall asleep. Which is why she hasn't been here for a while. Hopefully with Spring coming on, the workload will get easier & she'll have time to catch up with the forum. Until then, you're stuck with me I'm afraid,
So what about the Charger then?
Well I've got 5 projects on the go at the moment. Taz's Dodge, my own Ford hotrod, 2 trikes & a Yamaha chop. Yeah, I know, too many toys.
The Ford has to be registered as a brand new vehicle when it's done, as do the trikes, but the regulations are changing in October, making it a lot tougher to get the truck through the test. That means the race is on to get it up to a testable standard before then. Which is why everything else has gone into storage for a while.

[Manky Monkey]

I was in the barn where we keep them all this morning.
At the tail end of last year, Lunatic brought his compressor over & started spraying the interior of the Charger in satin black. Primer paint is hydroscopic -it sucks up moisture, so we need to get all that new steel coated in something better before it rusts. Unfortunately, it's such a big car that he ran out of paint halfway through. As soon as the weather picks up again we'll get him back to carry on. We've covered it in plastic sheeting & the barn's pretty water tight, but there's a couple of spots of very light surface rust appearing that'll need looking at before we paint the outside.
Depressing to see it sat there after we spent literally every penny we had getting it this far.

[Manky Monkey]

Not sure it shows in the pics, but this car is hee-uge. Over 17 feet long & 7 feet wide. It's a vast area to paint.
Taz says to just blow the whole thing over in satin black & we can always change the colour later. I'd rather keep it in primer grey though. There's about 100 Chargers in Britain & about half the ones we see at shows are black. Common as muck.  The latest Nicolas cage film, "Drive Angry", features a girl with a '69 Charger just like this -in black. I'd hate to spend all this time & effort building something that people will look at & say is that so-& so's car? Or whatshisname's? There's probably grey ones out there, but I haven't seen 'em. I'd rather squirt a few coats of clear satin lacquer over the primer.
The plain black powder-coated steel wheels were new last year & give it a very aggressive, built to go, not show kinda look. Still got the old slot mags on the front at the moment cos we couldn't shift the wheel nuts. When Loony brings his compressor back we'll use the air gun on them. Most of the wheel studs are knackered & need replacing, but we plan to fit disc brakes so will have to re-work the hubs anyway. It's possible to fit discs from other Mopar models & kits are available from the States, but both options are expensive -anything from 500 to 1,500 quid, just for the fronts. We've already decided we're not going for a full concourse restoration so will look at making up our own conversion as I did with the Reliant trikes. One of Taz's fellow Mopar owners has converted his using Toyota HiLux discs, so we'll start there.
I know it's not my car, but personally I'd love to build this in a semi NasCar/street racer style, with stripped out interior, 2 60s race seats, a roll cage & very little else. It would be the cheapest way to get her on the road, as we wouldn't have to worry about all the trim, interior etc -plus it'd upset the purists, which is always worth doing. 

[Tony oily bike]

plus it'd upset the purists, which is always worth doing.

Power to your collective elbows!! 

[Manky Monkey]

  A man after my own heart!
Alongside the Charger in the barn are our 2 Reliant trike projects. I started Taz's a couple of years ago now but it's hardly got beyond the basic frame stage yet. Like the Dodge, it's been sidelined while I concentrate on my hotrod. We toyed with the idea of selling it recently, but both eventually admitted we'd like to see it through & get it on the road. I know exactly what I want to do with it, just need the time & money to do the job.
That King Sportster fuel tank was brand new, but the sheet I slung over it got damp & now there's some pretty heavy rust scarring where it laid against the bare metal. It's fixable, but annoying. The whole trike will be gloss grey, like the widened Morris Minor wheels, when it's finished.

[Cabman77]

you can`t beat upsetting a purist...........it just has to be done...............

[Manky Monkey]

Tis true.
John, the guy who runs the restoration company that rebuilt the body for us, was horror struck when we mentioned we might fit HiLux brakes instead of genuine Dodge ones! I've been looking at heavy commercial discs & calipers -think I might go for something like Mercedes Sprinter van ones.
Taz's whole trike frame's got a liberal coating of surface rust now. It'll shot blast off though, then we'll powder-coat it all.
Forum member FLC built the super wide girder forks for us several years ago now. He must be wondering what we've done with 'em. Front wheel's the rear one from a Yamaha V Max by the way.
The engine's a dummy one -just a set of empty casings bolted together to build the frame around. The real one's in the shed at the bottom of our garden & no doubt needs a complete rebuild by now.