Simon's 2008 Challenger

[Gas for GOSH]

Thanks for the comments. Yes Pete spraygun and compressor the way to go. Really heat the 4 litre tin for 30 minutes and have a smaller metal tin to pour it in to when really runny. Dont wear your best kit cause it gets all over the place very easily. Took me a few hours to just blast off the underside with an airline then lag just about everything. If you can avoid it getting on the exhaust so much the better, it takes a while to burn off and smells strong. I did put masking tape over some of the original stickers.

Really not having much luck with other cars......daughter killed the wife's car by ripping the sump off and driving it to death, wife was driving my Outlander last night and hit a badger doing 60 on the Probus bypass (she was doing 60 not the critter)...front end of the Outlander ain't good, so the Challenger will have to be the daily for a while yet. I have witnesses that have heard her say tonight "Thank goodness you have that tank" Miles will know that's the closest I'll ever get in terms of appreciation!!

[Gas for GOSH]

No Diablo, Predator or other tuning done to my knowledge and nothing with the car. Am I right in thinking a Predator has to be 'mated' with one vehicle only; is that the same with Diablo?

[Mossy68]

Jeez. Lady Luck ain't with you at the moment Simon !!!
Or is she ? Doing a good job of keeping you in the drivers seat of that Chally

Hope things get sorted soon for you.

[drewcrane]

No Diablo, Predator or other tuning done to my knowledge and nothing with the car. Am I right in thinking a Predator has to be 'mated' with one vehicle only; is that the same with Diablo?

Yes the Diablo saves the old tune and then installs the new tune, so adding another car will not work,

the Diablo seems to be the popular unit here in the states

[Gas for GOSH]

Decided to do something to change the back end....chrome film covered stick on bumper was way too expensive to buy and ship so went for the polished recess inserts. Liveable price, sent by the New Challenger Store and stuck on. I totally degreased the inserts so we will see whether 3M tape keeps them stuck on And how well they wear - keep you posted. I'll do more of a write up for 'Connected'.

[Gas for GOSH]

Subtle differences between the SRT8 and R/T versions of the new Challenger. Nice meal, hopefully a new welcome convert to the MMA....more in the next Connected

[Gas for GOSH]

more ....

[drewcrane]

LOOKS LIKE A BROMANCE...........


Looks like you had some fun, cool pics :thumbright:I dig those chrome accents too

[MilesnMiles]

The black wheels win it, also Simon, that 3M tape sticks proper!!

[Gas for GOSH]

OK Marmite time....you'll either love or hate how I've dressed up the Challenger for the Nats . My favourite car of all time has to be the Motown Missile. So this is a tribute to, as opposed to a replica of, that car. I don't have the money or skill to go after a total replica. And you certainly would not use a 2008 SRT8 as base for a total replica (though Keith Bakers beautiful black hemi 71 Challenger for sale at the moment at £45k would be a better start point). So this is the closest I'm going to get to getting my car to at least look like a tribute to the real thing.

From the pictures I've seen the original Missile had different graphics but my favourite has always been the broad yellow banner like on the 1/18 scale model that's available. To enjoy my input into the process, and cut costs, I did all the measuring and used flipchart paper to supply templates to the vinyl people. This took a bit of time for me to decide exactly how high and wide to go as the panels on a 2008 are quite different to a 1971. Early on I thought about staying with the modern panels...

[Gas for GOSH]

Then I went with running over the panel lines to the front and rear ends. To maximise my involvement with the process, and cut costs I supplied paper templates to the vinyl cutters and measured up all the writing and fonts to be used. They then cut cut and applied. As for the decals I had been collecting them over the last year in expectation of doing this so I masked up the lines and stuck them on. Although there are different pictures of the Missile with different decals I've gone with the scale model for the most part.

I'm going to do a full piece about the original car and Don Carlton its driver in the Christmas Connected. In the meantime I'm just enjoying driving this tribute and keeping the car and Don Carlton's name alive; because I use it a lot I'm always asked about it.

That's it for side one..........................

[Gas for GOSH]

....now for side two.

The thing about my 2008 is that it wasn't made in Detroit so it's not a Motown car, it's a Brampton built car. So initially I thought about keeping the same yellow size banner with BRAMPTON BULLET instead of Motown Missile and putting modern decals under it. Instead, though, Ive decided both sides should be a recognition of both Challenger eras, so it's a tribute to 40 years of Challenger. The two modern designs I like are the Drag Pack dirt splash and the Redline edition. So I decided to combine them both to create my own modern look........tried out a few options and then went with adding some colour to the Drag Pack and changing the red line with a heart beat.

[MilesnMiles]

speechless

[Gas for GOSH]

....so this is what the driver side now looks like.

I know some people say road cars should not be liveried like race cars but I've achieved what I wanted. One of the things I don't like about the modern Challenger design is the height of the doors....by starting the decals both sides at the door bottom, instead of the plastic trim bottom (where the original Missile decals would have been) it loses that bottom panel from my eyeline and visually elongates the car in my view.

Catch it at the Nats and see what you think Marmite fans!

[Gas for GOSH]

Na Miles don't believe it! You are NEVER speechless!!!