Saturday, July 14, 2012

Streching the Charger's tired legs

Last weekend I went to the Carlisle Mopar car show, it was amazing, I got to meet Catherine Bach and Ben Jones. Inspired by shaking the hands that actually worked on the General Lee, I started the restoration of my 1974 Dodge Charger.
First thing was first, I need to do what I can do on my own before I pay a body man to do the rest. This will keep the cost down, fixing some things on my own. There are some things I just won't be able to do and I fully understand that, but I'm also not paying a guy to do what I can do myself.
Friday night I turned the Charger on to let it run, it has been running on a daily basis for the last two weeks, just part of the process, I want that engine moving much more than it had been. Running the engine is one thing but the gears and transmission need to get moving too, and my dad said he drove it down the driveway and back up the other day. I decided it was time for a bit longer trip. I drove it all the way down to the fire hall, not even knowing if I could make it back! Later I heard my dad was mad that I did that saying it was too far, but if something was going to happen, it was going to happen out there. I made 3 more fire hall trips and it did fine. Each time was a smoother ride. I understand it is far from road worthy but it needs to get used to driving. On my last trip my dad came with me, he said, "this is about as illegal as you can get, it isn't inspected, it isn't insured, and I'm drinking from an open alcohol container." I told my dad I would be damned if I was going to get caught in Westoever PA.

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