Tazet's 69 Dodge Charger.

[Manky Monkey]

The yellow engine behind her trike's another 383ci Dodge V8. That's 6 1/4 litres in real money. We've got a 383 engine that came with the car when we bought it, but it's completely stripped. Looks O.K, but needs a total rebuild. This one came out of "Pinball Wizard", a well known hotrod from the mid 70s. It was a Ford Pop, same as I'm building, & was the car that inspired me to get into hotrodding when I was still a schoolboy. I dreamt of driving that car. It's still on the road & has had half a dozen different engines over the last 35 years or so. The current owner, Mick Le Grys, took this 383 out & replaced it with a bigger 440, (about 7 1/2 litres). I met him at a show & got chatting to him.
Not only did I get to live out my boyhood fantasy of sitting at the wheel of the Wizard, but he offered us the old engine -for free. We had to rent a van & drive to Derbyshire to collect it, but now it's sat in our barn, waiting for a spruce up before going in the Charger. We'll keep the yellow rocker covers & I've found a yellow Pinball Wizard badge, which I'll mount on the oil filler cap, as a tribute to it's previous life. I may not have driven the real Wiz, but we'll have the heart of the Wizard in our car, which is kinda cool I think.

[Manky Monkey]

The wee green beastie is my own trike. Another Reliant. Mine's smaller & more lightweight than Taz's cos she's more macho than I am!
This one's been nearly finished for more years than I care to remember. Probably 5 or 6 now.
All it really needs is the exhaust system, which is almost finished & rusting gently in the shed, the steering stops on the forks re-working, which will involve the front end coming apart again, & wiring up. Easy.  Most of the rubber hoses now need replacing as it's been sat for so long they've started to crack.
Again, it's taken second place for now to the hotrod, as that's the one with a time limit on it. Been tempted to sell it several times as it just doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but I'd hate to see someone else finish it differently than I planned, or take the credit for all the work I've put into it. 
It'll get done. Promise.

[poprodder]

that needs to be on the road!!!! but get pop done first!!!!

[Manky Monkey]

Yessir!

[poprodder]

 

[Manky Monkey]

I was in the barn this morning, hunting for some parts for my truck project.
There's some contractors working on the estate at the moment & their foreman stuck his head in the door while I was there:
Bloody 'ell, is that a Dodge Charger?
Yeah, I said, pleasantly suprised that he knew what it was.
Yours?
Nah, it belongs to Tanya, the girl who runs the stable yard.
What, A Charger -owned by a girl?!
Yup. I dare you to say that to her face! 

[spanners]

if he had said that to  ,nice little , TAZET thier would have been  .one .dead. contractor.  lol

[poprodder]

lol, has taz been charged yet!!!!!

[Firery Fred]

Yep,thats us builders,stone mad

[Manky Monkey]

The Charger's still in storage while I concentrate on my truck project, but I found this pic on
www.dodgecharger.com
This is exactly the colour Taz wants for hers. Mettalic gun metal grey. She wants all the chrome parts powdercoated in satin black though, with plain black steel wheels.
If your'e enough of a muscle car anorak to be thinking -those brake calipers don't look like the originals -that's because this is a 1968 Charger body, grafted onto a 1977 Dodge chassis. 

[Manky Monkey]

Spanners sent me this PM earlier:

been to look at yet another truck today and found a mint General Lee Dodge Charger.

Does the name Tim Whitely mean anything to you?
He used to own Taz's Charger, many, many moons ago. He saved it from being used in a crash scene in a movie.
He then sold it on and it may have changed hands again before the lady Taz bought it.
Tim's a very nice bloke and very helpful.

[spanners]

i might have to start a new resto/hotrod thread soon  staring the above mentioned truck 

[Manky Monkey]

Ooh! I love the start of new build threads! 

[spanners]

Ooh! I love the start of new build threads! 

could be a couple of weeks got to find some temperoy storage for now

[Manky Monkey]

Not more stuff in sheds Mike!
Taz did a little research on her Charger a while ago & got in touch with Mr Whitely. I think he sent her a couple of photos of it when he owned it. Seems someone planned a remake of the famous "Bullitt" film car chase, which featured Steve McQueen in a Mustang & two baddies in a black Charger. For my money, they had the cooler car.
The story goes that a Mustang was bought & restored, but after finding a Charger they ran out of cash & shelved the project.
Mind you, looking at the state of it when we bought it, it'd been in a serious smash at some point in it's life. It'd had a heavy smack on the driver's side, (left, of course). Chargers are monocoque -the body & chassis are one unit, but have two chassis legs that run through the engine bay to support the engine. They were bent to the right by 2 or 3 inches. We started replacing damaged body/chassis parts in the engine bay & ended up in the boot, (sorry, "trunk"). Virtually every single panel was replaced. Everyone warned us this car would soak up every penny we could find -& they were right!