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My 1st thread - A bit long but BIG MEATS w/ Picts

23K views 96 replies 78 participants last post by  X E Ryder 
#1 · (Edited)
Last October my previous car was totaled (the other guy screwed up). I had been looking at a G35 (coupe or sedan), a FX35 and a Magnum. I checked the Sunday paper and I found a used car that had my name all over it. A brilliant silver Magnum RT!

From the start, I wanted to have a clean and aggressive look while keeping the bling to a minimum. And I had to have some big meats for it!

I dropped it within a week (Eibach Pro). Then to a local speed shop to get a custom cat-back installed. Within a month I bought a refurbished front bumper cover off of Ebay. Had a out of town shop cut and finish the upper and lower grille openings. I had to loose that "Dodge cross". I was supposed to get it back by Thanksgiving. The delays continued and I did not get it until March of '06. I think that the final product was done well, though. I had quite a few plastic tabs added for the mounting of a grille and/or extra support. I built the upper grille using 3/16 x 1" aluminum flat bent the hard way. This involved bending and milling slots in the vertical round supports with the aluminum flats tig welded in place, including mounts. I had the finished upper grille powder coated in a semi-gloss black. I was originally going to leave the lower grille open, but recently decided to massage a SRT8 lower grille to fit (LX Forums Made Me Do It). I think that one of the biggest and least expensive appearance mods was the Charger chin spoiler (LXFMMDI). Thanks 65Standard!

I debadged it and lost the side moldings. I was going to loose them all, but kept the "Hemi" and repositioned it a bit lower. I thought that the rear wiper was a bit ugly so I removed it. I wanted to leave the option open to reinstall it if I needed. Now that I am in Canada, I just might need it. I did not like the off-centered hole that it left so I shaped and painted a piece of aluminum with a small rubber edging and installed it with 3M foam adhesive.

My Mag (used) came with some nice 20x8.5" chrome wheels, although I just had to have some fat meats for her. I searched 1000's of wheels (literally) to find something that I liked that was wide, clean, and without too much bling. I decided on some 9 and 10.5 x 20" Axis GTR wheels in a 5 on 114.3 bolt pattern (FLAME ON!). The offset was a bit much so I had to use some 8mm spacers (FLAME ON AGAIN!). I am working on getting some custom machined spacers with incorporated hubcentric rings. These will be bolted to the wheels. By the way, I recently drove from Arizona to Toronto and have had zero vibrations or problems. One thing lead to another and had to find some longer studs. After a whole lot of searching I got some for both front and rear. With the 10.5" rims I had to find a tire that was not too narrow. A pet peeve of mine is to run a tire that is narrower than the rim. So it had to be a 315/35/20 with a section width of 12.3". And on the 9" a 275/40/20 with a section width of 10.9" worked out perfectly. I found these sizes in a Toyo Proxes S/T and it turned out that for these sizes they were not as heavy as most other manufacturers, especially the 315's. They are W rated and weigh 34 and 35 lbs.

Before I bought the wheels, I measured and researched what it would take to fit them under my MAG while keeping them inside the fenders (not just flush). And boy did I have my work cut out for me. The fronts fit fine, with the spacers but the rears needed some extra clearance. I cut out a hand sized area at the front inside of the wheel well (another opportunity to FLAME ON). I went in about 1.5". This area has ribs in the sheet metal structure. I overlapped and connected to each section while keeping a relatively stock looking appearance. I am confident with the integrity of the resulting structure. After tig and mig welding the paint-locked steel sheeting, I used a heavy zinc paint, both inside and outside of the structure, and an undercoating sealer. Then I had to cut, heat, shape, glue, and fasten the inner plastic fender well and support pieces. I installed a set of Hotchkis anti-sway bars. Since the wheels were so far inboard, the rear bar was actually inside the wheel. When the suspension was at full droop it touched the inside of the rim. I shortened the bar links by about .5" which solved the problem and should not affect the sway bar characteristics by much. A lot of work, but I think it was absolutely worth it to me!

Some other mods (LXFMMDI) that I have done are: LED taillights with matching paint, third brake light pulse module, HIR bulbs for low beam, high beam and fog lights, custom sub-woofer enclosure by Art of Noise with an Infinity 10" sub powered by a MTX amp, 6 Infinity Kappa series replacement speakers (2 ohm), powder coated wheel centers, and a SuperChips programmer.

A couple of projects that I need to finish, are to install my new set of KW Variant 2's (yep, the stocks are about gone) and to fabricate my own ram-air CAI.

Future mods might include hood scoop, headers, cats and upgraded seats. Boy is this fun!

THANKS LXFORUMS MEMBERS for all of the great information and entertaining posts as well as for helping me spend my money! Also, it has been great meeting many of you in person, from California to Montreal, at the various meet and greets and the virtual meets on LXFORUMS. This is a great connection we all have here. I was pleasantly surprised today as HAZMAN set me up with a cool avatar and signature graphic display without me asking. That just shows the gracious mentality of folks we have here on this forum.

Cheers!!!














315/35/20


MORE PICTS...
http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j312/jonnfx/
 
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11
#6 ·
Cam said:
Dude, nice ride, looks great. But could you change your settings on the post, it's a mile wide. Thanks.
Sorry, what kind of settings are there and how do you change them? I am learning on this forum stuff.

Cheers!
 
#8 ·
i love the custom frt bumper......hard work but well worth it. Thats the exact look Mikespy and I were talking about last week.....

I also like the enclosure........if someone made a kit that was a drop in 10" woofer, I would be all over it!

Nice car........:thumbs_u:
 
#9 ·
Great looking ride Jonn, the subtle touches you've done to her really finish things off. The grille, wheels, tails... masterful execution.

Awesome pics, even though they are side by side, especially like the last one, the close up of the insanely wide tire with the Canadian flag in the background.

Yup, Jonn's in Canada now, working in Toronto..... and we just might keep him.
 
#10 ·
That looks Awesome, I'm glad to see a fello sheet metal artist on board !

As for your post being so wide, it has to do with your pictures being side by side in a row. If you hit enter after each pic that can be avoided.
 
#12 ·
That looks awesome...

I really love the fat rubber, and the sub enclosure looks good too.
The grille makes the car look very sleek. Not too much bling and chrome.
Just simple silver and black. All business, but high-tech...

It looks really cool overall.

Good job!
 
#13 ·
Cam said:
I think its the way you laid out your pics that did it. Maybe align them vertically. I'm not certain, I still suck at this stuff.
If you hit the Enter/Return key after pasting each photo it will place them vertically. Makes it hard to read your post.

Well worth it anyway though, sweet car man. Very clean.
 
#14 ·
:thumbs_u:
Last October my previous car was totaled (the other guy screwed up).
I had been looking at a G35 (coupe or sedan), a FX35 and a Magnum. I
checked the Sunday paper and I found a used car that had my name all
over it. A brilliant silver Magnum RT!

From the start, I wanted to have a clean and aggressive look while
keeping the bling to a minimum. And I had to have some big meats for it!

I dropped it within a week (Eibach Pro). Then to a local speed shop to get
a custom cat-back installed. Within a month I bought a refurbished front
bumper cover off of Ebay. Had a out of town shop cut and finish the
upper and lower grille openings. I had to loose that "Dodge cross". I was
supposed to get it back by Thanksgiving. The delays continued and I did
not get it until March of '06. I think that the final product was done well,
though. I had quite a few plastic tabs added for the mounting of a grille
and/or extra support. I built the upper grille using 3/16 x 1" aluminum flat
bent the hard way. This involved bending and milling slots in the vertical
round supports with the aluminum flats tig welded in place, including
mounts. I had the finished upper grille powder coated in a semi-gloss
black. I was originally going to leave the lower grille open, but recently
decided to massage a SRT8 lower grille to fit (LX Forums Made Me Do It).
I think that one of the biggest and least expensive appearance mods was
the Charger chin spoiler (LXFMMDI). Thanks 65Standard!

I debadged it and lost the side moldings. I was going to loose them all, but
kept the "Hemi" and repositioned it a bit lower. I thought that the rear
wiper was a bit ugly so I removed it. I wanted to leave the option open to
reinstall it if I needed. Now that I am in Canada, I just might need it. I did
not like the off-centered hole that it left so I shaped and painted a piece
of aluminum with a small rubber edging and installed it with 3M foam
adhesive.

My Mag (used) came with some nice 20x8.5" chrome wheels, although I
just had to have some fat meats for her. I searched 1000's of wheels
(literally) to find something that I liked that was wide, clean, and without
too much bling. I decided on some 9 and 10.5 x 20" Axis GTR wheels in a 5
on 114.3 bolt pattern (FLAME ON!). The offset was a bit much so I had to
use some 8mm spacers (FLAME ON AGAIN!). I am working on getting some
custom machined spacers with incorporated hubcentric rings. These will
be bolted to the wheels. By the way, I recently drove from Arizona to
Toronto and have had zero vibrations or problems. One thing lead to
another and had to find some longer studs. After a whole lot of searching
I got some for both front and rear. With the 10.5" rims I had to find a tire
that was not too narrow. A pet peeve of mine is to run a tire that is
narrower than the rim. So it had to be a 315/35/20 with a section width of
12.3". And on the 9" a 275/40/20 with a section width of 10.9" worked
out perfectly. I found these sizes in a Toyo Proxes S/T and it turned out
that for these sizes they were not as heavy as most other manufacturers,
especially the 315's. They are W rated and weigh 34 and 35 lbs.

Before I bought the wheels, I measured and researched what it would
take to fit them under my MAG while keeping them inside the fenders (not
just flush). And boy did I have my work cut out for me. The fronts fit fine,
with the spacers but the rears needed some extra clearance. I cut out a
hand sized area at the front inside of the wheel well (another opportunity
to FLAME ON). I went in about 1.5". This area has ribs in the sheet metal
structure. I overlapped and connected to each section while keeping a
relatively stock looking appearance. I am confident with the integrity of
the resulting structure. After tig and mig welding the paint-locked steel
sheeting, I used a heavy zinc paint, both inside and outside of the
structure, and an undercoating sealer. Then I had to cut, heat, shape,
glue, and fasten the inner plastic fender well and support pieces. I
installed a set of Hotchkis anti-sway bars. Since the wheels were so far
inboard, the rear bar was actually inside the wheel. When the suspension
was at full droop it touched the inside of the rim. I shortened the bar links
by about .5" which solved the problem and should not affect the sway bar
characteristics by much. A lot of work, but I think it was absolutely worth
it to me!

Some other mods (LXFMMDI) that I have done are: LED taillights with
matching paint, third brake light pulse module, HIR bulbs for low beam,
high beam and fog lights, custom sub-woofer enclosure by Art of Noise
with an Infinity 10" sub powered by a MTX amp, 6 Infinity Kappa series
replacement speakers (2 ohm), powder coated wheel centers, and a
SuperChips programmer.

A couple of projects that I need to finish, are to install my new set of KW
Variant 2's (yep, the stocks are about gone) and to fabricate my own
ram-air CAI.

Future mods might include hood scoop, headers, cats and upgraded seats.
Boy is this fun!

THANKS LXFORUMS MEMBERS for all of the great information
and entertaining posts as well as for helping me spend my money! Also, it
has been great meeting many of you in person, from California to
Montreal, at the various meet and greets and the virtual meets on
LXFORUMS. This is a great connection we all have here. I was pleasantly
surprised today as HAZMAN set me up with a cool avatar and signature
graphic display without me asking. That just shows the gracious mentality
of folks we have here on this forum.


Cheers!!!
Wow, Dude..
You have been busy, looks really bad. Congrats on a lot of work.
btw, if you can, it would look better if you would put a Cr-Return between each of your pics so they would flow down the page. At least on my sys they stretch all the way across the top and this a hard read.

I just copied your text and posted in quotes and added Cr's so I could read. I see others are having probs also.

Yell if you need a hand.
BillyD..
 
#15 ·
Thanks. I did something. Hopefully this works. It is funny that when I view my post, it goes vertically.

Wow I learned something today. "If you do not learn at least one thing each day, you are dead."

Cheers...Thanks all for the nice comments!

Charg-um said:
That looks Awesome, I'm glad to see a fello sheet metal artist on board !

As for your post being so wide, it has to do with your pictures being side by side in a row. If you hit enter after each pic that can be avoided.
 
#17 ·
Wow!

Great look. I love the big meats on that ride and was looking for the biggest I could get, just without all the cut, cut, cutting. That grill area is perfect. It looks like I should have bought the Silver one.
 
#19 ·
Cam said:
Dude, nice ride, looks great. But could you change your settings on the post, it's a mile wide. Thanks.
Although Jonn has fixed it now, we all missed his subtle message:
The post was as WIDE as the rear tire.....

Excellent write up Jonn! I missed that rear subwoofer install at the last 2 M+G's -- gotta be sure to see it next time!
 
#21 ·
**drool**
 
#25 · (Edited)
MAGFX said:
Sorry, what kind of settings are there and how do you change them? I am learning on this forum stuff.

Cheers!
Go into edit mode and put a carriage return (enter) infront of the pic that is to the side.

damn dat sure is purty! I especially like you choice of color hahha.

Tire wheel combo-Perfect!

Front end treatment- very nice

Removal of the wiper-dang you must have been reading my mind. I tried to take my wiper off again today(no friggin luck). I was going to looking using one of them oval domed emblems with magnum in it.
 
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