It’s early in October, seems like our whole world around here is burning up. Many days are so smoky, we can’t open the house to cool it off. I have a family member that is a firefighter, he’s been very busy this summer throughout Idaho, Nevada and Utah. We don’t know when he’ll be done for the year. Anyway, we’re building a Dodge Charger here, aren’t we lucky? We’ll be building the radiator, mid and rear sections of the chassis, and the mid-section of the exhaust.

Pack 8 Stage 29

The two halves of the radiator fit tight, there is a sprue burr that I needed to cut off to get the two pieces to fit. These are plastic parts, so I pre-tapped them with an extra AP screw. I put the front of the radiator face down with the filler neck pin towards me. Don’t over-tighten the screws.
The filler neck, 29c and cap, 29d have ½ pins to mount the parts on. Make sure to orient the parts correctly. The pins are hard to see with all the chrome.

Now, go find your front engine panel. Put the panel facing with the expansion tank up. Attach the radiator to the front panel as shown. Now get that trusty toothpick and open up the hose. Attach the hose to the filler neck.

Go get your engine and chassis assembly (curl it 10 times, and your exercise will be done for the day!!!) It’s going to be heavier shortly! Turn it upside down, making sure to use something to protect the chrome, and remove the 3 screws holding the front panel plate 6f and the lower radiator cover 6e. The screws are different, 2AM and 1CM. Place the water hoses on the pins on the water pump at the front of the engine. It was challenging to get all 8 mounting points on the front panel radiator assembly to go. I took a photo of the 2 screws that are on the backside of the engine panel 28a, I found it hard to get these started and down tight. Combination of finger gymnastics and tweezer work. Next, getting the 2MM screws put on correctly took some patience. It all went together, finally! Now, replace the lower radiator cover assembly. The 2AM screws to the outside, the 1CM screw on the engine guard plate. Finish up with a couple of EM screws securing the corner to the side housing panels.

On to Stage 30, mid chassis section.

Stage 30

Get the crossbar mount brackets, 27c and 27d, that were stashed awhile back. Put them on as shown. Done.

Not much to comment on, the engine and chassis are getting longer. I had to make a box 2 ft. long to put the car away for safe keeping. Only thing noteworthy, pre tapped the holes the 6 holes with an extra LM screw. Mid section of the chassis is on.

Stage31

Put the 2 jack stand brackets, 31b, on to the rear chassis section as shown. I pre tapped the holes to mount the rear chassis section to the mid chassis with an extra LM screw. Join the mid and rear sections as shown. Took another photo of the screw location for 31.4, they do not show very clearly in the instruction.

Stage 32

This stage is really very straight forward. Put the 2 exhaust pieces together and put in the 8AP screws in. The instructions suggest staggering the screw placement so as not to bind the parts.

Box 8 is complete. Good luck packing the assembly away until next time, it is now about 24 inches or 61cm for any of ya’ll overseas.

‘Till next time take care!!!!