My 1981 Dodge Challenger aka sapporo project begins

city hunter · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:04 pm

and for the heck of not taking a picture in a long time. Here are a few.

Exhaust, it's hanging out quite a bit right now as I havent installed a hanger yet, It will be sucked back in almost flush with the lower rockerpanel when I mount it. Noise wise, it seems pretty quiet. I'm happy so far. I was worried it might be too damn loud. Quiet enough not to get me a headache I think, plus I can toss a few fireballs

A blurry picture of the engine bay. Pretty much complete. Just a few small things to do in there,

Ahh progress. It might not look like it but at this stage it's going back together. I have to clean and paint the dash still, and find one or 2 pieces of vent ducting.

Man those aus lights look 100000x better. It will even be nicer when I paint the license plate piece and chrome trim around the tails black.

jacbo · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:13 pm

The moment of truth! :lol:

This is exactly what I want to do to my car, but it's not looking like it's gonna happen any time soon. :cry:

I would love a 5 speed in my car. My auto tranny's act up and I have a feeling it's gonna go soon. (pops out of gear for a sec. at like 15 and 25 mph and uses fluid) Every time I look through this thread I just imagine what my car could be.

I have a hard enough time just keeping mine on the road. :roll:

city hunter · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:34 pm

yeah, it's a bit of work. I hate the autos. Doing a 5 speed swap is sitll some work, but it's worth it imo. Start out with a 5 speed and then go to turbo down the road.

jacbo · **Posted:** Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:47 pm

How well would stock carburated engine internals hold up to boost? It seems like one of the main reasons for a starion swap other than the tranny is the bulletproof bottom-end with oil squirters. I'm not lookin to make any major power, maybe about 150 would make me happy compared to what I've got now. (badly tuned weber sitting on top of a stock manifold with a million little vacuum leaks and plugged up hoses, stock 115k mile internals, slightly cracked :roll:

might max 4x4/ montero exhaust mani, no exhaust :lol:

oh yeah and all going through a beat 3 speed a904) I just don't think I can take this car off the road to start such a big project like yours. I'm 16 and this is my daily driver as my parents said I can only have one car. :cry:

I would love to do my car up right, but I think I have too much on my plate right now.

BTW those aus taillight look SWEET!

city hunter · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:11 pm

yeah you can boost a stock non turbo engine, you jsut cant run much boost as it has weak pistons and cast rings.

A stock intercooled or non intercooled starion setup at stock boost would be plenty.

You'd probably want a few things for your engine though

You will need a

turbo timing cover,
turbo oil pan
Turbo exhaust manifold and downpipe
intake manifold wiht all sensors
turbo pcv valve from the valve cover
A good radiator. Fiero v6 late omdels work great and are about 100 new
Water liens and oil lines for the turbo
Turbo water line coming from the water pump, or 88 turbo water pump
turbo oil filter housing with oil cooler
fuel lines will need to be converted to fuel injection hose
external fuel pump, walbro gsl392 or starion/supra mk2 whatever you find.
Full starion harness with relay
180 degree thrermostat

There are some other things im missing, but you get the idea.

jacbo · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:34 pm

I think you've convinced me to do a 5 speed swap at least. I went to the junkyard today and looked at their 1 conquest, an 87 TSI. (this is a big 1000+ car junkyard!) Originally I was told the car had no engine or transmission, but I took a look anyway and to my surprise the car had a 5 speed. After talking to the people again I was told the engine was blown and was removed for a core charge so the tranny is probably still good. The odometer shows 111k so that's not too much IMO. I was quoted $150 for the transmission (they pull) and $50 for us to pull everything else we need. They're giving me a 90 day warranty on the transmission. I'm going to need a flywheel, pressure plate, clutch plate, throw out bearing and the pilot bearing to mount the tranny to the engine. Were going to pull the clutch and brake pedal assembly and clutch lines. The slave cylinder will need to be replaced. I'm thinking the whole conversion might be around $400 said and done. Can you think of anything else I may be forgetting or that would be helpful/ valuable to pull?

Just let me know if I'm jacking your thread here, I thought about PMing you, but I had all ready typed all this stuff.

FireArrow · **Posted:** Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:08 am

I'm not trying to redirect the thread, but I finally had some time to take a look at all of the more recent photos...

Everything looks really good, Shaun. I know you've been working your ass off on this car - and it shows. Nice job on the engine bay, especially. Very tidy. Looks great. Love the AUDM tail lights, too.

I can only imagine how that car is going to perform. Ichi Ban!!

Nice work! :tu:

:D

city hunter · **Posted:** Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:43 pm

thanks man. I have been slacking lately. I still need to do a lot more work. I'm going to respay part of the car here in the next month or so once im happy with how it drives. I'm going to rty and match the clear and blue metalic, and do it a single color and lose the ugly shield on teh hood.

city hunter · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:57 am

almost forgot. I swapped the entire rear end out for one I had bought a year back ebfore I owned the car

I had picked up a sapporo rear end for my lancer incase I decided to upgrade, but since I had some bad calipers on the back, and one of the axles was had a ton of end play I decided to just swap the whole thing out.

Everything went in smooth except I found that the driveshaft bolts are too short for some reason. I suspect maybe the flange is thicker on the rear end. I'll confirm it tomorrow.

john · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:48 am

Mitsubishi_Classic_Owner wrote:

I would have left it an automatic

I thought GoBabyGo was the only girl we had on this forum...

city hunter · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:44 pm

datsunfreak wrote:

Mitsubishi_Classic_Owner wrote:

I would have left it an automatic

I thought GoBabyGo was the only girl we had on this forum...

apparently not :lol:

THere is plenty of room for pedals. This is the same basic chassis as a starion. I';ve done a few starion conversions. it's basically identical.

attack vector · **Posted:** Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:39 am

Wow fantastic project! I love the factory paint job on your car. This is going to be great when it's done.

city hunter · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:53 am

it isnt facotry. the guy I bought it from spiced it up a bit. Went from a dul blue and beige to electric blue and gold.

Oh, and I drove the car for the first time technically

Sat on a dirt bike helmet, no throttle cable hookd up with just an ebrake. Pulled it out of the garage and parked it otuside. It drove great

FireArrow · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 8:33 am

city hunter wrote:

Oh, and I drove the car for the first time technically

Sat on a dirt bike helmet, no throttle cable hookd up with just an ebrake. Pulled it out of the garage and parked it otuside. It drove great

LOL

Yeah.... well done, Shaun. Very nice work. Nothing cobbed.

I love it and can only image what an absolute panic that car is going to be with that kind of power. My stock one is quick. That thing is going to flat out rip - and no doubt shock some of the "tuners" out there.

Be careful and have fun. If I can be of any assistance with parts, you know where to find me. I know how to mold stuff, too.

Again, AWESOME job so far with the car. It's tits*!. :tu:

:D !!!

*Just an expression. No offense meant to GoBabyGo.

attack vector · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 8:37 am

Hahahah! Don't drive over any speedbumps like that, you'll likely injure something down below. :lol:

FireArrow · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:21 am

attack vector wrote:

Hahahah! Don't drive over any speedbumps like that, you'll likely injure something down below. :lol:

Yeah, but wouldn't that be fitting?! He is, after all, a Mitsubishi Classic Car Collector..... badda boom... tish :roll:

Funny... back in 1980, I drove my first Arrow, completely gutted out - and with me sitting on an unbolted-down plastic milk crate - from Hudson, Ohio to East Akron, while taking it to be painted. I'd never do again, but I pulled it off without a hitch. Pretty stupid, huh?

city hunter · **Posted:** Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:00 pm

heheh.

I havemt done anything since i parked it outside. I've been messing with the karts lately. Did a practice day the other night and had some good racing. I'll probably clear the karts back out of the garage today and get the car back in there for front brake work and ti figure out a good location for the exhaust hanger.

city hunter · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:17 am

Well, I finally got the brakes done on the car. They are temporary uintill I track down a full set of flatbody starion brakes. I just need to bleed them. Tomorrow I will start finishing up the dash stuff, and get some interior painting done.

city hunter · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 5:38 pm

Update with a few pics.

I've been working and reworking the exhaust a bit, and may end up changing it again before it gets mounted for the final time.

Small things I've done, install the starion throttle cable, paint dash and driver side door panel, wire the neutral start wires together, started work on a hard pipe instead of the accordian going to the mas, installed the starion seat, routed some more wires, finished the brakes, and I am sure there is more stuff I am forgetting. Oh, I also lowered the back end of the car a bit and finished up installing the axle.

I still havent figured out where I hid the starion carpet I have had laying around. When you lose a entire piece of carpet, you know you have too much junk.

john · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:02 pm

What seats are those? Starion? 3000GT?

My 1981 Dodge Challenger aka sapporo project begins

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