@@DeadDodgeGarage great video....but...I'd love to see more on the forward look cars .... Ya know.... especially info on the Big C's.... Because the Mopar crowd kinda trends towards you guys..... While us big C guys get left out. So I could use some help.. Plus....give some love to us guys... We have rare ones too. Like the 60 matador... There's only 40 or less left!!! Thanks...
I got to ride in a brand new 68 Charger green hemi 4 speed Roadrunner in 1968. My best friend’s sister had married a guy that had just bought it. We needed a ride to the ball park. What a ride.
That's probably about the coolest Hemi car, the 68 Roadrunner. A bare bones car with nothing but tons of horsepower and torque ready to destroy the skinny little bias ply tires it was born with. And usually the original Hemi cars were purchased for serious racing vs. daily driver and this is why a lot of them are found with evidence of racing mods like this one.
I'm old enough to remember when these cars were new, (but not old enough to have bought one new). There was a Chrysler / Plymouth dealer across the street from where I grew up, and I was constantly checking out the details on the cars for my model building endeavors. One thing I remember from Mopar of that era is that 'If you didn't pay for it, you didn't get it'. The Hemi Superbird they had on the lot FOREVER was a 4 speed car with manual steering and manual drum brakes. It didn't actually sell until 1976, about 4 months before I got my driver's license. Always amazed me that you could buy a '200MPH car' with brakes that were good for maybe 80mph.
Where DO that boy find all his money, I wonder? Yasum, I surely do wonder - where DO he? 🙂 BTW, nothing more fun (and yes, I'll say it - *manly* ) than a big block 4 speed car with manual drums and steering. My '68 GTX, for example...even at my advanced age, I do so love wrasslin' that rascal around these backroads. (Don't cheat with a fancy-pants clutch, either - *B&B* only!) - Ed on the Ridge
Hope to see more of the restoration on this "Coyote Duster" ....it's always enjoyable to see the easy to change sparkplug and bad gas mileage option on a B-body....good content and thanks
Another great video Jamie. Interesting note; my 68 R/T originally came with a 5/16 fuel line and 1/4 return. Changed it to 3/8 a few years ago to match the sender. I bought the car in '87 with 77k miles.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Up until I changed it I always assumed 3/8, but you know these mopars, you find things that contradict the norm now and then. Side note: I used to race it in the '80's and never had a fuel supply issue with the 5/16.
@@scatpack68 Another interesting bit of Mopar trivia- Mopars were often built with whatever was laying around. That was told to me by my grandfather who worked for Chrysler up until 1968.
The '68 Charger dealer data book states that the 3/8 fuel line is included with the 426 Hemi. Nothing is mentioned with the 440 magnum regarding a special fuel line.
The list of options shown are late 1968 model year options. The 3.55 Sure-Grip, viscous fan drive, heavy duty radiator and fan shroud were not originally available on the 68 Road Runner. They were made available after the 68 1/2 Dodge Superbee came out with those options.
That’s interesting. I will have to check for a date on the data book. We were fairly sure it was printed early. It makes no mention of the dress up options that became available later in the year on Roadrunners.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Yeah, I have a Sept 1967 RR brochure and the front shows the 3.55 SG rear and HD radiator as options, but the list of options at the back of the brochure don't show them as options. In the 68 Superbee the HD radiator and fan option was $15, but is rare with the 383. I have seen 68 RR's and SB's with factory 3.55 gears, but the RR's were late 68's. 68 SB's had carpet and the RR was supposed to have the rubber floor covering, but because the RR was so popular, they ran out of that started putting carpet in some RR's. I had a 69 SB with the rubber floor covering, though I don't know why. It was a White Hat Special, with a vinyl roof, Ram Charger hood and 3.91 rear, cheaper than those options separately. The brochure says HD rear springs, but those came in police cars, taxi's and station wagons and were heavier than Hemi rear springs. The 69 manual transmission 383's got special rear springs with a half leaf on each side, to act as traction bars. That's different from Hemi manual rear springs with two half leaves on the right side only. Some 68 brochures show Hemi diameter torsion bars and HD rear springs, but I think they are 383 torsion bar diameter and regular V8 rear springs. Years later, Mopar sold the HD police rear springs as service replacements for the performance cars. The HD radiator option is extremely rare with the 383 without AC. The 3.55 option did show up late in the 68 model year.
When I was a kid in Mineral Wells, Texas. I lived in a mobile home park, military base was there. A guy named Riley owned one of these . Allsome ride , when I saw him a few years later, he told me someone broke in his garage and stole it. What drag. I don’t know if he still alive. But the car was raced , red, no option. Someone needs to check all the numbers.
Dayam. That’s nuts. All of the body numbers are verified to match the tag which matches vin, matches title. Tag matches options found on car (essentially none.) So while there could still be possibilities there, I can tell you that all of the legal numbers are absolutely present and correct. We wouldn’t have bought it if that wasn’t the case.
I wasn’t aware of those and went and found pictures. I will have to look for those braces on this car. The pinion snubber plate is definitely not present, so we’ll have to find or make one.
You lucky bastard! Yes I'm green with envy. Can't wait for this build, I know you can't either. Caviot; the wiper motor, was it different for a Hemi car? Guessing the difference is the same as a big block.
Normal big block, any of them fit. I know six pack cars use the three speed. This has variable speed, and I’m not sure of that is due to Hemi being equipped or not. But should have thought about that when filming.
Thanks for pointing out the oil drip from my 68. I don't get to see under it to well when i can only do it from the ground. I hope it is as easy as just tightening the pan bolts.
What an awesome Hemi Car! I like the factory body painted steel wheels. I wish manufacturers would build cars like that again. All the performance goodies with none of the frills...
@@BlooMule I believe there are plenty of people who would forgo the luxury in place of analog gauges, big horsepower and manual roll up windows… or maybe it’s just me… haha
HA! You've successfully convinced me out of ever owning a Hemi Car. Not that I could afford one anyway. Sure it's a great _racing_ engine, but the added maintenance requirements, hemi specific parts needed and unreliability outweigh the reality of driving it. Hell, after studying the differences between the engines available at the time, even a good ole 383 would do nicely today. After all it's all about the pleasure of driving Mopars.
OMG! Are those studded snow tires? If so I remember those from the early 70s! Good for traction, car always sounded like you were driving with tank tracks.
Well, this is the second time I've ever seen a HEMI RR with no front torque boxes.... The first I saw was many years ago at a show at Don Garlits place. He puts on a huge Mopar show every year around Thanksgiving. Anyway, that car actually looked "to me", as if it had been a hemi/(re-tagged), car.. I had no proof and didn't really care that much, but one of the guys there was saying that a handful of hemi cars made it out of the factory without the torque boxes as they had made a short run on the parts. I was told, the parts were to be sent to the dealers who sold them and the dealer was to weld them on... I don't know if I believe that either, but hey, who the hell knows!!!!!
I think that's because it is a 68 automatic Hemi car. The E-body Hemi's got them with automatics. Mopar used to sell the heavy duty pinion snubber plate as a Hemi manual transmission part too. I doubt the dealers were taking any liabilities by welding on chassis parts.
Very awesome. Amazing the skinny steelies survived…I bet those got tossed pretty quickly most of the time. Really?? Non self adjusting brakes? I thought all cars had that from early 60’s. The front back plates have 2 adjusting slots…isn’t one for pushing back the adjuster arm?
The heavy duty brakes were intentionally manually adjusted. That may well have been for ultimate control over brake drag. I’m not sure on that. In later years, there were both manual and self adjusting 11” drums. I thought they all had two slots because they’re the same backing plate side for side, except for parking cable hole on the back. If it’s for pulling the arm back that makes sense, but it’s news to me. Haha.
According to the data I’ve seen, disk brakes weren’t tied to any wheel option. The 14s fit over disk brakes. In ‘68, Hemi required a 15” wheel. I haven’t seen mention of other options that did.
Excellent Video. I just bought a 68 GTX J Code car that was hit, stripped and parked for over 40 Years. Looking forward to this build. I do have one Question, Mine has a 150 MPH Speedo, Is that a GTX only, or all Hemi s came with that? Thank-you for the education.
Dang. Sounds like a party to me. In the data book there, it specifically mentioned and only showed the 150 MPH speedo. This one has it, but I don’t know right off hand what’s what there.
Oh dang! If you have any details, or know where to find more pictures of the car in the day, we would love to know! You can email Tom@RocketResto.com if you do.
You're speaking my language on this. There's no secret sauce in a Hemi car, a 340 car, etc. Just collection of parts, most of them not at all exotic (except that engine). A couple comments... The drag racing types wanted drums because they were lighter and didn't have the slight drag that older disc setups do. If these cars came standard with discs you know some guys would have converted to drums. Also, didn't these get a standard 3 speed wiper because the 2 speed motor wouldnt fit with the Hemi? Or am i thinking of something else?
@DeadDodgeGarage that's right, it's the 6 pack cars I was thinking about. You'll have to let us know what's up with the wiper motor on that Roadrunner because it doesn't look like a basic 2 speed unit.
Something more to check on your Hemi car.... There should be a pair of triangular reinforcements on the frame rails near the gas tank. I know '69 Hemi cars have them, not sure about '68s.
I like it. Always liked the post for strength. But other than combustion chamber what does a hemi really offer ? Its heavey. The way folks talk and act about a hemi car, i thought forsure it came factory with a parachute lol.
It offers character, that’s for sure. Lots of it. A power number that’s probably north of the 425 rating. And your car would say Hemi on it… but yeah, they’re huge, unwieldy, have poor street manners, a horrible thirst for fuel, and in many situations aren’t fast enough to justify any of that. But… Hemi 😍
Here's my question. Hemi B bodies did have hemi specific equipment and Duster/Demon 340 had specific equipment. Did pre 70 Darts and Barracudas with 340 (or 383/440) have specific options/equipment too?
I am sure they did, but as I’ve never spent any time around either, I couldn’t tell you what was included. Well, I know ‘70 Swinger 340 had the same Rallye gauges as Duster / Demon 340. I would assume it has torque boxes, but I don’t know that to be true. Any of them would have an 8 3/4 instead of a 7 1/4 axle.
@DeadDodgeGarage 70 340 Dusters came with Rallye wheels, disk brakes, and a front sway bar. I'm not sure in the spring/Tbar dept. Also standard 340 transmission was 3 speed on the floor.
Man… I hate to say this, but the modern 392 makes like 500 right out of the box in a smaller, lighter package. They’re really good… but they’re no 426.
Sorry to pester you again. Just wondering if you could help us out over here in sunny England as you can imagine it’s hard try to keep our sons mopars on the road . We found a 1968 dodge polara in the breakers do you think it shares many parts with our sons 1970 Chrysler 300 .? If so we’re heading off with some spanner’s.
Not that hard. We’ve got a pile of them. Haha. They are ‘68 only, but they came on all Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth cars for ‘68 so they are relatively plentiful.
It would be the air cleaner, yeah. I know six pack cars get the 3 speed, but am not sure on the Hemi. The chrome dome is huge so it makes sense. This has variable speed, but it’s angled like the three speed.
Snow angels in a dog park? That's what I've been doing wrong all this time. I was a bout to comment on torque boxes and ask, I've never actually seen a b-body hemi anywhere i could look under itI just didn't know,
What was the last year, or could you ever, buy a crate 426 Hemi off of The Chrysler corporation? I’d assume they must have sold them Incase someone blew the Hemi in their car…
Oh you sure could - and they were still supposedly available when I bought my ‘66 Charger in 2013. I’m not sure how many were really still out there at that time, and they have since gone away.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Thx for the info! They must have gone for a pretty penny when the stock started to run low. I’m asking this out of curiosity (no, I don’t have one!), but how much would a still running 60’s-71 Hemi engine go for today? PS-Love your Channel!
My very first charger was a 1969 RT and it was original real RT 440 it was Green black vinyl top green interior Indian Head drum brakes on the front that's when I fell in love with Dodge chargers had many more after that first one kind of wish I still had that first one cuz I lived in New York 20 mi south of Buffalo I bought that car for $125 I drove it home from where I bought it it had two rust holes in it the size of quarters I was 19 years old
