The truck then returned to the painter for the remaining parts to be installed now that the down pipe and was able to be measured with zero obstruction from outer and inner fenders. It was found during the install of the doors and fenders that they did not match color wise though. It would then return home to so assembly could continue on the interior as well as under hood, and the remaining body parts would soon follow after a repaint.
Assembly of the interior was the next main thing tackled. First part of the install was to put in the steering column:
Next was cutting the hole in the floor. Notice the old hole is welded shut:
Now heater core box install.
Next up was adding sound deadener into all the areas that could possibly take some. Two layers were added in main sections to help reduce drove as well as keep the echo of the engine out of the cab. Wiring was then added for the radio, gauges, and toggle switches (for all of the accessories).
Another item that could be expanded on was the motor itself. Remember said comments about liking power? Yeah well…. For the 350 HP target I now had upgraded to in my head (remember I was at 200 or so?), I stayed with a stock HX35 turbo, but went with a Banks twin ram intake, DDP stage 2 injectors, 60 PSI valve springs, timing advance, Amsoil oil filter relocation kit, 3000 RPM GSK, taper cut 181 PDR delivery valves, and a #10 fuel plate. This was a simple and proven power combination for the times and this is what I felt would be good for what I would do with the truck.
To ensure I did not have any head gasket issues, I decided to install a Cometic head gasket and ARP head studs.
Cylinder walls still looks good…
Timing was also set at 16.5* at this point for a moderate advance (if my memory serves as to what I set it at 5 years ago!!).
Due to the head studs, the casting line in the top of the valve covers had to be removed:
Next was starting of the rad core/intercooler (charge air cooler) shenanigans. Back to the way I think, if I run more power (now at 350 ish), I will need more cooling (found that out after nearly overheating the 1990 after a uphill towing session and I was only at 250 HP). As a larger rad facilitated now needing a larger intercooler (read wider), I now needed to change that too. So I came up with the grand idea of a 2nd gen (94-02) rad and intercooler. Only issue is, they are about 70% bigger than what this truck came with. So out came the saws-all, grinder, die grinder, welder and many hours.
The before look:
I have drawn out what needs to be removed for it to fit:
And the cutting begins:
Then the new mounts added:
And the new rad mounts:
Although I don’t seem to have pictures of it, the rad core was pulled off the truck and sent out for paint as the paint on the core support was sliced, diced, burnt, scrapped, and just plain mangled after all of the work.
Over the last four years, I had still been pondering what to do with the seating arrangements. I started off with doing two bench seats as original. I then decided front buckets with rear bench. Then moved to four bucket seats out of a Ramcharger. Then I got a set of SRT Ram seats but they did not fit. And then I came across these from a 2008 Charger SRT that had been totaled in OH with 2,000 miles on it:
As I found out after, the rear bench was too narrow for the rear of the truck. A second set of front buckets were found locally in a wrecked Magnum SRT.