Well everybody its been a helluva past 2 months. I'm here to tell you the story, The whole story as best I can. I waited what seemed like forever to get the car and then completely dismantled it. I was tripping when we took it all apart. I lost alot of sleep over it. I did have faith that it would all get done, I Just knew it would take some time, stress, money, and a lot of luck! I went into this knowing a few things for sure I wanted to do. And some things I didn't want to do. Busting into the 10's is for sure a goal, and then after that I want to do a few mods and get her on the road course's as well. Id like to spend the next year running the car and doing alot less modding. I know Im gonna need to get the tranni worked on and beefed up as well as a few more things to get her up to par with the goals I have in mind. To start with I had a deal going with Pedders for the first Challenger ever with there track II Kit installed, This was golden as we all know how much these kits are. Nevertheless they did there full kit and bushing's and I absolutely love it. I thought my 300C handled well, I was wrong. Real Wrong in comparison. I was just getting used to it when we had to dismantle the car. I knew I wanted a 426 Stroker, I wasn't sure who was gonna build as I was pricing different options. At the time I was over at HoP in HB, I had the option to do it all there in-house but things didn't work out for alot of reasons. Thats not for this thread. Long time friend Mannie de Encio of "Automotive Design Concepts" formally of 714 motor sports, offered up his warehouse space in Huntington Beach to let me do the project there. Along side his 3 SEMA Nisson Builds. Hes got 20 yrs of connections in the industry and over 158 cover shots of his vehicles. I was in great hands. So the stage was set for the build to begin. Since coming to these forums Ive met so many of you people and made some many connections. I thank you all for that. I could have gone with any of the great vendors here. After all was said and done I chose High Horse Performance for my motor. Josh/Bruce at HHP have always taken great care of me, There great guys, we get along and there service is by far at the top of the game. There motor program is pretty tight as well. Tony Bischoff/BES Racing has been building motors for over 25 years and holds alot of titles. I could sleep at night. Josh made me a package that one can only dream about. Heres what I got from HHP, 426 Stroker N/A Sealed motor, 90 mm Arrington TB, Port Matched Intake Manifold, KOOKS long tube headers, Corsa Cat-back, RDP TC, DSS 1000hp axles, Quaife LSD. I had box's all over the place. I pretty much had everything but the motor within weeks. So with all that ordered I moved on to the body/Interior. We took the hood, the front clip, rear clip, trunk, and rockers to Auto Explosion in Gardena for modifications and paint. Esteban and his son Damien "Ruff n Tuff" are award winning painters and there shop puts out show cars all day long. They custom made this 1 off grill/Hood for me. I love you guys. We got the factory "Hemi Orange" paint code from Ted/Jeff at Mopar Super Center, Thanks you guys. MSC played a huge roll in my build. They shipped alot of products straight to Tony at BES for my motor build and help expedite alot of parts for me. About 2 weeks into my build I was invited to SMS and went down there with Cam, One thing lead to another and I worked out a deal with SMS. Had to Call Josh and stop the motor build, We need low compression pistons and a different cam, Josh didnt flinch, Got me the pistons/cam and we moved on. The thought of that Super charger under the hood was all that mattered. Saleen was a name you could trust, There in my area, and there dedicated. For backing like that, I was, and still am thrilled to death. Thank you Sean and Steve. With all that in the works I sent my car over to the fab shop for this 6 pt roll cage, The cage is completely removable and NHRA legal, The door bars come out, and because its removable I was able to powder cote it as well. Im real happy with it, Simpsons sent me the 5pt harness's, as the final touch. We custom made the 3 pod gauge pillar ourselves and Mannie's friend did all the Interior for me. Suede head liner and pillars, They replaced my seat foam with stiffer foam on the sides and the did a little bit of reshaping with the bolsters. All the stitching was done in Orange. I got the shifter from Jeff at MSC. Meanwhile back at the ranch I went down to see Jose at I.D wheels and he cut this 5 spokes for me, Had them powdercoted black and we had "Pinstrip Bob" come down and do the pin striping. TOYO st II's on the front and rear. Moving on to step 300, Josh has the motor shipped to me in 3 days, I had to pick it up at a distribution center in L.A about a hour from my home. They set it in my truck with a forklift and was I off to the shop. The motor was bolted to a pallet and all sealed up. A few days later I was able to get my good friend Cam to donate a full day to do the motor swap. Without Cams help I would have been lost, it would have taken days and I would have bloody knuckles and a million worries, Thank you Cam!!! :rockon: Cam even got my WideBand AF, tranni temp , Boost Gauges installed that day for me. Cam and I got started about about 8:30am that morning and we were fired up and running at 6:00 pm with the BES/HHP Stroker. It was a great day. Dan "HemiCharger" showed up as well and helped all day, Thanks Dan! I also want to thank John "MagFX" for his time as well, He showed up 2 different days to wire up my gauges all stealth and make sure everything was perfect. Thank you John! Nick from BFXenon came over a few times and got me all hooked up with HID Headlights/Fogs. Lights are bright as fu*k! Thanks Dude! So with the motor swap done, the new convertor in, Axles, and quaife, It was time to install the powdercoted cage and all the interior pieces. Everything went together great. I must say this is not what I first envisioned, Im used to a stealth Black car, This was a huge leap for me. The whole Orange/Black theme. Not sure how long I will keep this theme, we will see, Im gonna at least race it this way for awhile, See what develops from SEMA and maybe do a stealth black makeover later. It definitely says "WOW! in a big way, Cant see myself even thinking of going over the speed limit, Ive driven it around a bit and people trip out hard. Nothing low profile about this car. Once it was all back together we put the cat-back on and vinyls. I got it detailed and took it over to "RCH Designs" in Huntington Beach for some photo studio time. The photos turned out great. I still got a couple more surprises left for SEMA, and the SMS Blower will be installed this week for me down at SMS's facility. For sure, it will be on the vehicle at SEMA. Then its off to Vegas. The Car will be the feature vehicle in DIABLO SPORTS booth #21021, Id like to take a few and thank all my sponsors formally here. Not in any special order, Without ALL these folks help and support this build would not have taken place. HHP Racing, Diablo Sport, BES Racing, SMS Supercars, Pedders Suspension, Kooks Headers, Corsa Exhaust, Innovate Motorsports, Automotive Design Concepts, Auto Explosion, Mopar Super Center, Black Flys, Hoodpins.com, BFXenon, I.D Luxury Wheels, Billet Technologies, Ultimate pedals, Superior Mats, RedFox Racing, RDP , RCH Designs, TOYO, Cam, MagFX, 1bad4dr, HemiCharger, Inferal, USCGCharger,SRTConnection, LXForums, and a very special thanks to "A.J" Adrienne Janic for her help/support. The final build is as follows. HHP/BES 426 Blower Stroker Motor HHP/BES Ported & Polished Cylinder Heads HHP/BES Stage 4 SRT-8 Blower Cam Custom Ross Pistons & Rings, Callies Compstar Crankshaft & Rods, 2000 ARP Bolts, ACL Bearings, PSI Valve Springs, Manley Titanium Retainers, Manley Pushrods, ATI Balancer 8.5 to 1 compression SMS 296 Twin Screw Supercharger Diablosport Custom CMR Tuning Kooks Custom Stepped Race Headers Corsa Performance Cat-Back Exhaust RDP Motorsport 2800 Race Torque Converter Driveshaft Shop 1000hp Axles Quaife Limited Slip Differential (LSD) Pedders Full Race Suspension Full 6-Point Removable Roll Cage Custom Race Seats & Harness Custom T/A Challenger Hood Custom Front Grill & Lighting Custom Front & Rear Carbon Fiber Spoilers Intro Ram 5 Custom 20" Wheels w/ ID Center Caps Toyo 255/45 front & 275/45 Rear Proxes ST II Tires Enjoy the pictures. We will be doing a celebrity photo shoot with "A.J" Adrienne Janic and the Challenger for a SEMA poster. Special Thanks to HAZMAN for all his hard work. And yes its official, Thanks Matt, "elcobra44"
Well Chris, you know how I feel about the Chally... Infrickencredible. You NAILED the look bro. Congrats and thanks for FINALLY unveiling the new beast. hehehe
That is simply stunning! Speachless. There isn't anything there that isn't just absolutely perfect (maybe the left tip is crooked). That should be declared a national treasure and you shouldn't be allowed to change anything. If you want to do an all black theme you'll just have to buy another and start over.
Tooooooooo fricking clean buddy. I'm glad I could help!. This build is testiment that a little bit of planning (OK, a lot of planning) nets a superior finished product.
You got detail pics of the interior? Can't really see that shifter you mentioned. and the pedals. and the instrument cluster installed. and...
ummmmmm.........i would love to come up with some very articulate thing to say chris, but all i can get out of my mouth is.......WOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!! unreal my friend, unfricken real!!!!
wow dude, totally beautiful. i would change out the vinyl stickers for a single color but im sure you had to have their colors advertised to get your deals. awesome anyway. cant wait to see some live pics.
