October 13th, 2003

Engine, Transmission, and More Clues About the Car

I took the Charger to my mechanic so he could rebuild the engine and transmission completely from the ground up.

Here are a few pictures from that stage of the project.

One important detail is the engine casting date: 10/28/68. That date is correct for a car built on January 16, 1969. The casting number is also correct for this model.

At this point, I still did not know if the engine and transmission were numbers-matching. I would not be able to confirm that until I could inspect the VIN stampings on them.

Tracking Down Correct Parts

On a side note, I also started hunting down more factory-correct parts.

In the last week, I won a correct intake manifold on eBay:

Intake Manifold Casting number: 2806178 Casting date: 1-31-68

I also won the correct exhaust manifolds:

Exhaust Manifold Casting number: 2843992 Casting date: 11-15-67

Exhaust Manifold Casting number: 2806900 Casting date: 4-11-67

I also started bidding on the correct carburetor:

Carburetor Model: 4618S

As you can tell, several of the parts on the engine were not correct when I received the car. The goal is to get it back as close to factory-correct as possible.

Seat Discovery

I also figured out that the front seats were not correct.

The vinyl pattern was different, and the car originally came from the factory with no headrests. Headrests were not federally mandated until the middle of 1970, and this car had no headrest option listed on either the build sheet or the fender tag.

At some point in the car’s history, the front seat upholstery had also been changed.

The correct front seat design should have six individually pleated rectangles in both the cushion and the seatback. The inserts were originally covered in Ascot grain, while the skirts were done in Coachman grain, all in red.

For some reason, a previous owner replaced or changed the front seats somewhere along the way. The rear seat, however, appears to be original.

The correct one looks like the rear seats: