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2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:52 pm
by ah8tk
For this year my son Noah decided to build one of his favorite cars, a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. His favorite car is the Roadrunner, Superbird.

The Superbird and the Charger Daytona were Chryslers “Aero Warriors”, built in 1969 (Daytona) and 1970 (Superbird) both cars had huge nose cones and rear spoilers that made them legendary among the competition. These were the first stock cars to be modified aerodynamically. Due to NASCARs homologation requirements vehicles to be raced must be available to the general public and sold through dealerships in specific minimum numbers. In 1969 they only needed to produce 500 Daytona’s for sale to the public, in 1970 the number increased to 1920.

Noah’s Tiger Pinewood car was a Superbird, here is his 6 year old plan for the car. And a picture of him and his first pinewood derby car:

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Late last summer, we were at a car show looking at a Superbird and a Daytona parked together. Noah was really looking closely and commenting on the parts of the Superbird, The car owner came up to me and asked if Noah would like to sit in the car so I could take a picture of him in it. That was all it took, Noah was telling the guy he wants a Superbird when he get a license. I guess we will see how that goes.

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In November we were at a hobby store and Noah was looking for some paint for a Challenger model he was building. The model was molded in red but he did not want another red model. I was showing him the Mopar “High Impact Colors” (Plum Crazy, Go Mango Orange, Panther Pink, etc..) he decided on Sublime Green. I said if he decides to build a Daytona for the pinewood derby this year he could paint it Sublime Green (even though the High Impact Colors were not available until 1970).

Noah took one of his toy cars and drew up a plan for his car:

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The Superbird and Daytona are extremely long cars, with my plan I wanted to stretch the wheelbase as far as possible, trying to keep it looking like a Charger Daytona. So we kept moving the rear wheel back until it looked funny, then we did the same with the front wheel. We eventually had the wheelbase at 4 1/4" (the slots are at 4 3/8”):

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Now with the plans complete it was time to build, the pinewood derby was only 8 days away. Noah had Boy Scout camping planned for the weekend. We ended up starting the car on Monday, 5 days before the derby. Time to move.

Noah chose a block and drilled the rear axles at 2+ degrees using the Derby Worx, Pro Railrider Tool. Drilled the front wheels straight, with one wheel raised. We added some semi prepared wheels and axles and ran it down the test board. Then we glued some wood to the top and trimmed the DFW side of the block 1/16”:

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Noah then cut out the wheel openings in the side boards and used the spindle sander to adjust the wheel openings to the wheels on the body. We then cut the weight reduction pocket out of the block:

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Cutting this pocket saved us 1.3 oz. At this point we were able to glue the sideboards onto the main block:

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Then the block was run through the table saw to get the width to 2 23/32”. Noah marked the cuts onto the block and I made the horizontal and vertical cuts on the bandsaw:

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The car body with the wheels was now at 4.51 oz. We then rough carved the car:

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The body was rough sanded and the rear wing was cut out, glued to the body and rough sanded. We then removed as much weight as we were comfortable with from under the car. The complete assembly was finished sanded:

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The car was primed and sanded, body work completed, primed and sanded again. Noah then painted the Testors Sublime Green, Lacquer paint, we waited a while masked off the front of the body and painted the white on the car:

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While waiting for paint to dry Noah decided to paint the lettering on his wheels (he has done this on a lot of old wheels but the new wheels have very thin lettering).

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Noah then added weight to the car and applied the decals we made for the car, and it was out to be cleared:

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This was Thursday night, Friday we needed to setup for the pinewood derby. After setup we came home, Noah polished the axles and wheel bores, lubed and assembled. While we were attempting an alignment we found the DFW axle hole was not drilled deep enough and we had compromised the hole when removing weight from the bottom. I tried to clean up the hole using the pin vise with a #44 bit, this did not help. We decided to over bend the DFW axle and run with it. We got the drift set and were ready to run.

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The Charger Daytona was quite fast but the alignment held it to 7th place in the open race at his old pack. A couple of weeks later we attended a pinewood derby sponsored by a local motorcycle shop. Before the race we took the off the DFW and axle, fixed the axle hole and re-aligned the car. The Daytona placed 3rd in that race.

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Not a bad car for a 5 day build…

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:14 pm
by whodathunkit
Not bad at all for a 5 day build.. Guys...WOW!!!!!!!
Sublime Green.. :bigups:
Noah, I like your art work also!

Mark.

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:16 pm
by Noskills
How did you get the side boards flush with the block after shaving off 1/16 on the DFW side?
Noskills

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:49 pm
by Oddzilla
Awesome! I'm a Super Bee guy myself, but can always appreciate the taste in old classics! :D

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:10 pm
by sporty
Wonderfull looking car, I love the color !


Sporty

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:47 am
by drathbun
Noskills wrote:How did you get the side boards flush with the block after shaving off 1/16 on the DFW side?
I think you can see how in this image:
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Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:10 am
by ah8tk
Noskills wrote:How did you get the side boards flush with the block after shaving off 1/16 on the DFW side?
We just make a negative version with the opposite side cut down 1/16”. Here is a picture of another block showing the cutout and the matching (negative) side board.

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Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:52 am
by botomgun
Beautifully done!

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:26 pm
by davem
Just too cool.
Thanks for putting a big smile on the face of a guy whose first car was a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:51 pm
by Noskills
If you ever build a regular 1968 Chargwr in homage to the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard, let me know as I have extra confederate flag decals. :rofl:
Noskills

Re: 2012 car-1969 Dodge Charger Daytona

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:31 pm
by jacksdad
Awesome looking car, and very impressive artwork. Seems that someone is a Mopar fan. My kid is too, and he's been drawing Superbirds and Daytonas since he was a toddler. And we have a '67 Charger that he's made me promise I'll pass on to him :)