Dad and I decide to purchase and restore a 1974 Challenger...

[focusinprogress]

The foam arrived sometime early this past week so today I went over and we did the headliner. WHAT A PAIN IN THE COCK, let me tell you. So we started out installing the foam to the roof with spray adhesive…

then after about an hour and a half we had the headliner braces in place and some of it pulled taught into the jaws along the windshield and rear glass area.

Then we pulled the sides taught and installed the jaw clips that hold it in place, and began installing all the black metal trim peices to secure everything for good.

Then my dad went around and trimmed all the overhangs off

so it’s mostly done now, we have to install the seatbelt mounts, dome light, coat hooks, and visors still.

we are going to wait a few days to see where the fabric settles, and then get it wet and blast it with a hair dryer to get it to shrink up a bit and hopefully get the last few wrinkles out…although at this point I’m almost convinced they HAD to be a little bit wrinkled from the factory, the system that they used to put a headliner in is soooo crude I don’t know how in the world you could get it PERFECT.

anyways, we got the rest of the dash in today as well.

(sorry for picture quality, the black is really hard to capture out in the daylight with the glares that get picked up)

[Wahoo]

Nice work, Im really looking forward to this build!

[focusinprogress]

yeah, I am too. It’s getting pretty close to needing only bodywork and minor housekeeping items.

We found out the seats we were given were from a 70/71…so the covers we ordered online wont fit. Apparently, it’s possible to order 70/71 covers with the 72-74 fabric so they LOOK correct to the untrained eye, so dad ordered those up and now is gonna lose a 15% restocking fee on $400 seat covers. Sucks. So that’s what we are waiting on for a full interior…once the covers come in the upholstry shop should have all the seats back to us in about a weeks time.

Then we are going to go through and clean the engine bay, adjust the lifters and shit (found out the previous owner installed an aftermarket cam, lifters, and pushrods about 8k miles ago so they are due for adjustment) and maybe do an edelbrok intake manifold and 4barrell carb.

I think we’re going to put it on the road in the spring and drive it around a bit to see where we’re at and then tear into bodywork.

[Karter]

I hope you painted over the rust on the inside of the roof before putting the headliner in.

[Minglor]

The interior on this rule.

[focusinprogress]

@Karter

I hope you painted over the rust on the inside of the roof before putting the headliner in.

the pic makes it look way worse. Plus, the adhesive wouldnt work nearly as well against a painted surface, and now the adhesive has “sealed” in the metal surface. It took 37 years to develop that fairly small amount of surface rust with absolutely zero scaling. I’m sure it will be no big deal. I just hope my dad lets me video him doing a sick heater in it when we get it on the road lol

[focusinprogress]

SO, my dad asked me to use photoshop and come up with some alternative colors in case we want to change it from the purple…I came up with these following colors and would love some second opinions…

Dark Blue:

Charcoal Grey

Copper-Orange (this color is really hard to make in PS and it’s not quite right)

Same as above but two-tone type deal…

OR, we stick with purple haha.

What do you think??

[MPD47]

Keep the purple.

[turbo_ls1_ss]

My neighbor has an impeccable purple '71 Challenger I can get a pic of for you to gauge. Not sure what purple, but it looks great. He also has a lime green, orange, and white E-body Mopar I can get pics up of. There is a really nice teal blue that was on those E-bodies that I would go for in a second.

[DetailWNY]

Purple. What condition is the the current paint in?

[Neon]

Purple or at least a different Mopar color.

[focusinprogress]

current paint is SHOT. it was ORIGINALLY tealish blue metallic, then black, then purple.

[Wahoo]

I like the yellow color on the TA’s, its like a highlighter yellow or something, screaming yellow it might be called.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19190[/ATTACH]

[TrueBlue]

@Wahoo

I like the yellow color on the TA’s, its like a highlighter yellow or something, screaming yellow it might be called.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19190[/ATTACH]

That’s a '71 Plymouth Hemicuda, (Plymouth shared many of Dodge’s colors but often renamed them) color is “Curious Yellow” with “billboards.”

[Wahoo]

Yeah I love that year, I almost forgot this thread is about a challenger lol, I want a cuda so bad!

[TrueBlue]

@focusinprogress

current paint is SHOT. it was ORIGINALLY tealish blue metallic, then black, then purple.

LOL. Your original color is likely

drumroll

GB5 True Blue Metallic

Win. :tup:

(only other blue available in '74 was a chalky, powder blue).

[Jam]

PURPLE

i made a model of one of these when i was a boy… well, it was a hemi, of course

[Wahoo]

Plum Crazy!!!

[TrueBlue]

You mean “In-Violet”

[double_j]

@XwalkerX

PLUM CRAZY PURPLE!!!

Correct. On Plymouth’s, it was known as “In-violet”
The code is FC7.

I am pretty sure it was no longer available in '74.

Whatever you do, paint it an original Mopar color.

The chalk blue that was spoken on before might be EB4 “Petty” blue, named after the King himself.