Bright Spot in the Dark Disco Ages
For Dodge Magnum
I made this dash panel for my 78 Dodge Magnum Dakota Digital gauges many years ago. I’ve since replaced the dash with white face analog gauges. Selling this panel for a dirt cheap $100 plus $25 to ship in Lower 48 if you can’t pick up at my shop. Use the panel or strip the gauges out for something else. All gauges worked when pulled, although the the tach was dimmer. I never investigated if there was a brightness setting.
I pulled the seats out and replaced the carpet and floor mats. About 20 years ago, I pulled a ratty console and tilt column out of Gilligan, a Magnum parts car. I sent the console to an interior shop to be recovered, and bought a new console lids on eBay. I sanded and painted the non-granny steering column. The original tilt steering is available – if anyone with a 70s B-Body wants to convert their non-tilt steering to tilt. I bought a set of near new black leather BMW Coupe power seats, and installed them in the car.
The seat looked great, but felt too small for my wide back (and fat ass) – as I weighed 330 at the time. I weigh 250 now, and they’d most likely be great – but I ordered and waited 3 months for aftermarket black leather seat that were the widest on the market. They’re now installed. I have the BMW power seats wrapped and for sale. They be great in any muscle car with black interior. Black leather seats from a 2-door (allowing passengers to get into backseat) are rarer than hen’s teeth.
These seats then had a semi-gloss leather coating used on interiors back in the 60-80s.
You may note that the door panels and gauges are also different. Let me tell you about them. First the door panels.
The above is how they looked after 40 years of use. I scuffed and wiped down with wax and grease remover, and masked off.
I generally start with two light coats, and then one wet coat of spray vinyl dye. That worked well for the hard plastic and carpet, but the soft vinyl would have parts that looked like it was soaking it up. It was splotching with parts being gloss and parts being flat. I thought I’d must done something wrong in prep, but it finally came out OK by the time I’d hit the soft vinyl another six or seven times with a wet coat, waiting about 2-3 minutes between. It took a full 12oz can for first panel.
Same deal with second panel. I made sure I’d rubbed off all of the wax and grease remover, and let it air dry for an hour. However, same deal. Hard plastic and carpet looked good after two light and one wet coat, but I had to keep hitting the soft plastic with more wet coats where the dye dries in a flat splotches. When the soft vinyl finally was a consistent gloss, I had just enough left in the can to give the entire soft vinyl an even wet coat instead of just dressing up the splotches.
I think it came out looking pretty good. The gloss made the soft vinyl look a little loose, but it tightened up when clipped onto the doors.
A Couple of decades ago, I made an aluminum upper and lower panel, painted flat black; and then filed then with switches, vents, little lights and Dakota Digital Gauges. That look didn’t work for me, but it’s for sale if it works for you.
So I bought an empty gauge panel on eBay, and ordered about $1000 worth of custom gauges close to the size of the holes. I bought a large Speedometer (with Tach) that works off GPS; and a large gauge that has Volts, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temp and Fuel Level to fill the two big holes. To fill the two smaller holes I bought an Oil Temp gauge and a clock.
The two big gauge holes with the sleeves in them were too small by about 1/16″, so I had to cut the welds attaching the sleeves to the panel and pop them out. Once out, the holes were now 1/8″ too big. On the small gauge holes, I had to cut the inset hoods off as the gauges were too shallow for the screw on collars that attach the gauges to the panel to screw on the back of them.
To make the big gauges fit, I made some spacers from 4″ schedule 80 PVC sleeves, by hand sawing about 3/8″ off the end and wet sanding until they were smooth and the same size.
I mocked the gauges up to make sure they fit prior to doing any sanding and painting on the gauge panel. They did, so I glued the spacers onto the panel.
I wet sanded the panel and masked off the idiot lights.
After painting gloss black, it looked too gloss and cheesy. Some of the glue around the rings (that I swore I’d sanded all of the way off) was also showing.
So I decided to leave the coves glossy black, but have the flat portion in a hammer tone black – to tone down the gloss and hide imperfections. So I taped off the coves, sanded some more on the glue around the rings, and wet sanded the areas to get the hammer tone paint.
I hit it with two light coats with an hour between, and then a very wet coat after another hour.
And ready for installation.
IN the mid-90s, Ginger had it’s vinyl top Ripped off, scuffed and had a couple coats of lacquer applied. After 25 years, there’s some bubbling happening under the paint. So most of the trim was removed, the car washed, and I went over the car with a magnifying glass to mark any flaw with pink liquid chalk. I dropped the car off to the paint shop. They’ll grind and repair the flawed area, scuff the car with 400 grit wet sandpaper, spray a coat of adhesion primer, and a couple of coats of black poly urethane.
I”ll pick up the car after my road trip to Detroit, to replace the trim – after its been polished. I’ve done a ton of work on the car since I bought in the 90s. Search this site if You’re interested.
Daily Driver getting a freshen up
My first new car was a 1978 Dodge Magnum. It was triple black with a 360 motor and a floor shifter, but not highly optioned. I’d actually gone to the dealer to order a triple black Diplomat, then saw a Magnum for the first time coming off the carrier. It was the dealership’s first Magnum, and was causing quite the stir so I went out with the salesman to watch it get unloaded. Afterwards, we went inside to place my order for one.
I drove the car for business for about 3 years, selling it with 126,000 miles on it. Over the years I’d bought a couple of nice used ones, but the color, corduroy seats, and/or Granny Shift did nothing for me, and so I flipped them for a profit after cleaning and fixing up.
Around 1998, I decided I needed to find a nice Black car. I located Ginger in Arizona. It was a black car with T-tops, 400ci and leather interior – although the front seats had its leather very hard from being in the south with T-tops. The car had its vinyl top removed and a repaint sometime in the past. I think I paid about $4000 for it, and trailered it back to Texas.
Over the next couple of years I replaced the stock 400 with a forged rotating 400 short-block that was in a local A-body drag racing. I replaced the Leanburn with a Mopar Performance electronic ignition; the iron intake and Thermoquad with an Edelbrock Performer intake and carb; and the V-belt pulley system with a March Performance Serpentine. It’s a very quick Magnum.
I also replaced the 8.25″ rear axle with a 8.75″ Suregrip out or a 74 Charger, and installed 3.55 gears
The single 2.25″ exhaust was replaced with Schumacher headers and a custom bent dual 2.5″ exhaust.
Finally, I mounted a LeCarra steering wheel, the 85 mph speedo dash was replaced with a custom made dash – filled Dakota Digital gauges (much cooler 20 years ago than now) and an Infinity Stereo out of a 99 Durango,
Oh yeah, I bought a set of Keystone Klassics and 235-60/15 Goodrich TAs. I drove the car like this (sparingly) for the next 15 years.
Recently, I’ve made some major upgrades to the care which I will post here, but I wanted to give y’all the background first. Check back as I’ve made a lot of upgrades and will trickle them out.
The most rare of the Magnums. Dodge only made the first generation Magnum for two years – 1978 & 1979. It was initially made to replace the dying Charger as the B-Body muscle car for Dodge. However, Dodge got cold feet over the radical front end styling and hung onto the slow selling Charger for 1978, just in case. The Magnum was a big hit for 1978 and the Charger was dropped. Only about 5% of the Magnums were the GT model, which had heavy duty suspension, a engine tuned look dash and console plate, and big wheel flares.
As the 1979 Magnums started to trickle out there was an Arab Oil Embargo / Gas Crisis, with long gas lines for expensive gas – and the day you bought you gas was based on your license plate. This killed Magnum sales and the B-Body was forever dropped, to be replaced by the smaller J-Body (Stretched Aspen/Volare) Mirada.
The 1979s are far more rare than the 1978s, and the 1979 GTs are rarer than Hen’s teeth. My first new car was a Magnum, and I’ve owned over 20 since. This is the only GT I’ve ever seen in person!
I bought this car in 1999, from the broker of the original owner in Georgia. I replaced the 85mph speedometer with 67000 miles with a very expensive NOS Police Certified 140mph speedo.
This car is loaded with the E58 Police motor (360Ci 4bbl) with dual exhaust. The original plastic thermoquad carb was warped (as most do in time), and so I decided to go for Performance with an Edelbrock Performer Aluminum 4bbl Intake and 600cfm Performer carb. I also swapped the flaky stock ignition with a Mopar Performance ignition box and distributor. The car goes like a Raped Ape – well for a Disco Era Muscle Car. See below video I made today.
The paint and leather are in great condition. The headlights are clear. The intermittent wipers work, as does the power windows and locks. The car has leather wrapped steering, pedal dress up and floor console. The AC blew cold last month, but not as cold today with 96 degrees. I assume there might be a O-Ring leak as it was cold for about 4 months since I last recharged it. There are no chips in the glass or cracks in the dash. The photos speaks for the car. It is most likely the very best GT left on Earth. I wouldn’t think twice of driving this car cross country.
I love this car, and the only reason I’m selling is that in my mid-60s, it’s time to downsize my life. I have 31 cars and need to sell about 3/4 of them. Those ready to sell now can be found at www.DaveSchultz.com. It is located in Beasley TX. The reason for the Georgia tags is I never titled in my name. It’s been a museum car, driven occasionally to keep gas fresh and car exercised. The Georgia title has the buyer’s name blank.
This car is a rare time capsule and well worth the FIRM PRICE OF:
Ginger is the name of my favorite Magnum. Twenty years ago I had two beautiful black Magnums, Ginger and Maryann. I gave Maryann to my now 31-year-old son for his 15th birthday. Sadly for ten plus years, it has sat disassembled, waiting for my son to restore. But back to my story, I recently have been freshening up Ginger. I replaced the original leather seats with more comfortable modern leather seats.
Click Here for more information on the car’s freshening up.
Now I’m replacing the digital dash I put in the car about 17 years ago with some nice white faced custom gauges.
This is the current dash with 17 Year Old Dakota Dash gauges. It is for sale if you’re interested.
So I bought an empty gauge panel on eBay, and ordered about $1000 worth of custom gauges close to the size of the holes. I bought a large Speedometer (with Tach) that works off GPS; and a large gauge that has Volts, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temp and Fuel Level to fill the two big holes. To fill the two smaller holes I bought an Oil Temp gauge and a clock.
The two big gauge holes with the sleeves in them were too small by about 1/16″, so I had to cut the welds attaching the sleeves to the panel and pop them out. Once out, the holes were now 1/8″ too big. On the small gauge holes, I had to cut the inset hoods off as the gauges were too shallow for the screw on collars that attach the gauges to the panel to screw on the back of them.
To make the big gauges fit, I made some spacers from 4″ schedule 80 PVC sleeves, by hand sawing about 3/8″ off the end and wet sanding until they were smooth and the same size.
I mocked the gauges up to make sure they fit prior to doing any sanding and painting on the gauge panel. They did, so I glued the spacers onto the panel.
I wet sanded the panel and masked off the idiot lights.
After painting gloss black, it looked too gloss and cheesy. Some of the glue around the rings (that I swore I’d sanded all of the way off) was also showing.
So I decided to leave the coves glossy black, but have the flat portion in a hammer tone black – to tone down the gloss and hide imperfections. So I taped off the coves, sanded some more on the glue around the rings, and wet sanded the areas to get the hammer tone paint.
I hit it with two light coats with an hour between, and then a very wet coat after another hour.
This is where I’m at right now. I’m out of town until Tuesday, which is little more than 48 hours to cure. I’ll pull the tape off Tuesday, mount the gauges – and I’ll post some photos of the finished product. Continue reading “Ginger Gets A New Dash Panel”
As a huge fan of the 1978-1979 Dodge Magnums — I created this web site back on January 1, 2002 to promote the marque to other Magnum enthusiasts. In addition to this site, there is a fairly large Facebook Presence and a forum at MoparStyle.
However, now that I’m in my sixties, my life has evolved to where I spend most of my time drag racing, on motorcycle trips, traveling with my wife, and spending time with my grandchildren. I just don’t have the time to give this site the justice it deserves, and as such I’m selling the domain name and web site for a mere $1000.
This site has an established following that is perfect for those selling Mopar parts, a magazine, or even just a Magnum enthusiast. There is a lot of advertising revenue potential for someone who will put forth the effort.
The new owner will get the domain name with remaining time before renewal (about $9.95 a year), the web site data and full administration, two month free hosting with CP accesss, and the Facebook presence. I will also help with the transferring the site from a dedicated server to a shared server with a hosting plan as low as $2.26 a month. Further, I will turn over the administration of the Facebook page, which can be used to grow the activity of this site. If interested — email me at davetheoldhippie @ gmail with the subject MagnumGT.com
