HOW TO MAKE A 69 OUT OF A 70


Well, you are ambitious! Many have thought this could not be done, but they are wrong. I'll post some pics of mine soon so you can see that it actually looks exactly like a 69. The obvious difference is the front end. First, rip off the fenders, hood, bumper, grille, valence, and frame extensions. Be careful and take your time - you will most likely be trading or selling this stuff to get 69 pieces. The fenders are bolted on, so they should come off easy, unless some of the bolts decide to just spin in the hole. If that happens, you'll have to burn them out. It will be a real pain to get the 70 grille and bumper off, so get yourself a lot of liquid wrench and about 5 vice grips. If I remember correctly, I used a saw and a chisel at one point. If the grille and bumper are pretty nice, you may want to have a body shop take them off for you. I really hacked mine up, which didn't matter 'cause they were shot. You'll have to heat up the bolts on the frame extensions to get them off. If the 70 door have side scoops, don't worry, they come right off, revealing a stock door. Hold on to the scoops though, originals are worth some cash. Then get the corresponding parts from a 68 or 69: fenders, hood, grille (see 68 conversion for a trick to make a 68 grille work), bumper, valence, and frame extensions. (NOTE- a 68 hood will need a 69 hood latch. If you are in a hurry or can't find a latch, put on hood pins.) All this is tricky, but do-able. Get that all together, including the harness for the grille, which includes the vacuum lines. Everything will bolt up perfectly, like it was always meant to be there. Next, take off the trim panel around the taillights, if it's still there, and have all the stud holes tack welded and filled over. You can either put on the 69 trim or not. You will need 69 taillights because the 70's don't have the chrome trim around them. Take out the marker lights and have the holes bondoed over. You can try to put in the 69 markers, but they are only reflectors and not worth the trouble. If you need to replace the quarters anyway, get 69's and you can install the reflectors. The big thing is the interior. Everything goes! Switch that steering column (or at least the wheel) for a 68 or 69 model. The interior panels are different, but cool; the decision to pull 'em out is up to you. The big problem is the dash. The 70's came with high back buckets, which will have to be changed to low back ones available in 68's and 69's. If anything will tell people that you have a 70, other than the bucket seats, its the dash; mostly beacuse it has a differently shaped frame than the 68 and 69s. Pull the windshield.(I suggest you do this anyway to see if the channel is rotted out) Find a 69 dash and put her in. A 68 will work too, but you may want to change the pointed upper dash pad to a flat 69 one. 68's also have a smaller turn-key ignition lock. The 69 dash uses padding instead of plastic trim, as well as a different cluster. You will need a 68 or 69 dash cluster to work the headlights. There is a big difference, but you can put in a 69 dash and surrounding plastic. I suggest trying to get a 69 dash harness, too. 68 lowback seats can be reappholstered as 69's. If you can get a 68 interior for a good price, decide which you want. Since the show often used 68s and frequently showed 68 interiors, I think both are close enough to pass the acid test. Follow that and you will have a 69 dodge! Yeehaw! .


Questions? Email: v2charger@aol.com


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