**Mickey Thompson Challenger IV restoration**

[Sandscorcher]

Hi Rory!So this is your next project!

Very nice one...I'm pretty sure that if you will hit like a hammer...you will be able to find all the vintage spares you need...!!!

Exciting video...

Anyway...just wondering why this thread moved here from the "Vintage Racing"...

Cheers!

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[xdesertracer]

yep that car was fast and mickey drove it hard. i got passed by it at the mint once in a whoop section after the rock pile. mickey went by about 3 feet above me to the left, never touched me and was gone.

[Rory]

I noticed I didn't get a good picture of the car posted from the early days so I thought I'd post a couple. Also, you will see the slight Changes MT made to the car over the 3 year period it ran....



Here's a shot of Challenger IV out of Off Road magazine from the late 70's. I believe this picture was shot right before the 1978 MINT 400 race (probably a day or 2 before the event during testing). This would be just after the car was built (1 race under it's belt) and as you can see it has 1 long narrow wing, and the rear suspension has a 41" smooth bodied shock while the 2 outer shocks are coilovers. Also, from this view you can see the Magnesium Dana 60 center section with Titanium axle tubes (yes, Titanium) bolted to it.



In this photo (1979 Parker 400), you'll see the wing was changed to a HUGE sprint car type wing and the rear shocks were flip flopped....the 41" shock is now a coilover while the outside shocks are now smooth bore with cooling fins.



Still looking for a magnesium Dana 60^^^^^^^^^




And also looking for Halibrand prssure plates and knock-offs^^^^^^^^^

About caught up on artwork (thanks to my clients for their patience) that has been hanging over my head since well before the NORRA race, now I will be able to start S L O W L Y working on restoring this beast. Thanks for the interest everyone.

[Mark Newhan]

Rory,

Have you tried the Cobra world for the spinners? I'd bet that the authentic builders would have a reproction knock off. I think that those were used in conjunction with a wheel that had the center accept the spinner, so no pressure plates. However you could easily have some made.

[Mark Newhan]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Origi...#ht_1123wt_722

[FABRICATOR]

Have you tried the Cobra world for the spinners? I'd bet that the authentic builders would have a reproction knock off. I think that those were used in conjunction with a wheel that had the center accept the spinner, so no pressure plates. However you could easily have some made.

Zap! http://www.erareplicas.com/427/wheels.htm

[Rory]

Well, looks like I might have posted a pic of the pressure plates a little too quick. I talked with Sandy Cone http://www.coneindustries.com/index.php the other day about hubs/pressure plates and knock offs and he said that he had some of the pressure plates that might work and should send them to me to try them out. With that being said I wasn't sure they would work because with the Mark Stahl project it seemed like every time we would find something it didn't fit or it was the wrong part #...blah blah blah. Well, today these showed up from the UPS guy and slid on the Halibrand hubs like butta!!



Thank you to Sandy Cone, he was full of some really useful info and was also able to give me some contact numbers for others who might be able to help. Mr. Newhan, I looked at those knock-offs and they will not work, but I did jump on *Cobra world* and found the company that Fabricator posted and they will be giving me a quote for the knock-offs, which was a great find considering they do replica work even on the Halibrand hubs/Knock-offs.

So I guess now I can offically cross off *Pressure plates*. I'll have to wait on the knock-offs because I'll need to fit and test them before knocking them off the list, no pun intended...well....maybe. Just like with the Stahl Chenowth, lots of help already from the RDC crowd, THANKS!

[Mark Newhan]

[QUOTE=Rory;1288459] Mr. Newhan

Whats up with the "Mr."... haha

[Rory]

Well, today is the first day I was able to tear into Challenger IV. After I took all the body panels off I was able to see the car a little better and see what i'm dealing with, boy is this going to be a nightmare.... There is a lot of one-off stuff on this car that will need to be replaced or repaired. I have a pair of front uprights but only one spindle, and after closer examination the steering knuckle is a little bent. Also, I noticed that the other upright is not the same as the other side, I'm thinking MT had a couple different uprights for desert and short course....I have one of each.



Also, I was a little quick to call out the split brake pedal set-up, thinking it was 2 pedals for front and rear brakes....I was wrong, the upper pedal is the dead pedal while the lower is the actual brake pedal. Looking over the car and pulling out the oil coolers and other stuff, I'm able to get a better look at the chassis and it's in pretty damn good shape. The wiring is pretty impressive as well, I was reading one of the old articles on the car and it seems MT used wiring from the Apollo missions and is all top notch stuff. This was only day 1 and I didn't get too crazy, just wanted to start tearing the car down slowly and take notes/pictures so i know how it all goes back together. More updates and pictures coming later this week.

[Dataguy]

Here are a couple of images I found and scanned. These are from the 1978 Parker 400 that was moved to Mexicali just a few weeks before the event. I think the car was brand new at the time, the body was not painted.

Roger