FoMoCO-powered Charger - reader restomod

By: James Secher, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 15.12.2021

Take one Chrysler Charger in very poor condition, rebuild it using a Barra engine. The result is a turbo Charger

My name is Dennis Pukallus and this is my 1972 VH Charger. My son, Shane, and I built this car together. He’s the fabricator and I was the body man. It took me about five years. His job was over in a couple of weeks. It wasn’t on my mind to do the engine swap, but Shane had thought about it for a while. I just wanted fuel injection, rack and pinion steering and better brakes, because these things are pretty woeful in the brakes department. He turned around and said, "how much is all that going to cost, with a Holley sniper, and the bigger brake kit and all the rest?" That was about 10 to 12 grand. So, he said, "Well, why don’t we do a Barra? I know where we can get a motor and box and the whole front end of a BA Falcon for three grand," which we did. So really it was the money that swayed me.

My son had organised the Charger, so I hadn’t seen it till the truck dropped it off at the house. First thing I noticed when I hopped in was "Oh, look, there’s the road," through the passenger floor. She drove all right. Went pretty hard actually, for an old 245 inline six-cylinder. It was a red R/T replica to start with and had the Ford nine-inch and close ratio R/T box in it.

We got it all in the shed and got started with the rust repair and body work. There was a lot of rust to deal with. The plenum chamber and tunnel were shot, but luckily we had an old ute sitting round here, so we cut the plenum out of that and used the trans tunnel from the BA. We ended up using the complete Ford front end, including the BA’s brakes. We dropped the Valiant K frame and motor and everything out, pulled it to the side, then the two of us just picked up the front end of the car, dragged it over with the hope it would fit. We just dropped it straight down, and it pretty much went all the way and lined up with the Falcon K frame with the chassis rails, right in the middle where it should. Not either side of it, right in the middle, like it’s meant to be. So that part was relatively easy, with all the Falcon running gear including the BA bar.

"We used the complete Ford front end, including the BA’s brakes, it was a lot easier for the engineering side of things as well. The whole build took five years, but the actual Barra conversion part only took a couple of weeks.

The motor is a stock BA XR6 Turbo that came with 70,000km on the clock. We had it tuned running 8psi and Shane built a 3-inch exhaust, other than that it’s pretty standard. It’s making close to 300hp (225kW) at the back wheels and 650Nm of torque. It’s backed by the Ford four-speed auto, while the rear end is a BorgWarner solid axle out of an XR6 ute, rolling on Wolf wheels – 18x10 rears and 18x8 fronts. The horsepower varies, depending on what dyno you go to. But the torque is usually the same. So, it’s a big, lazy engine and it just pulls. Heaps of torque. 650 is a lot. I don’t think I’d even want more horsepower.

The colour we picked is 2017 Dodge Hellcat Sublime Green. It was a big argument between my son and I. He wanted to go magenta, which, to me, being a little bit colorblind, looks pink. I just couldn’t fathom a pink Charger. Then there was the light blue. It’s a really nice light blue, but I just don’t think it suits a Charger. I just wanted something like the Hellcat to give it some pizazz.

The interior has been completely updated. Strangely enough the car came with two left seats, I don’t know why, someone’s obviously decided to pinch the right hand one, so I ended up with two left ones, which wasn’t any good, So I picked up a set of Mazda MPS seats and got Southeast Auto Upholstery to match the font and back seats when they redid the interior.

The steering column is not finished. It’s still the raw Falcon item. I didn’t want to put the Falcon cover on it, because it’s too boxy. It just doesn’t suit it. So, it needs a nice round cover.

The only other thing I’d like to do, to finish it off, is covering up the intercooler piping properly with the stone tray. The current setup is iteration number two, but it’s not quite right. The first attempt looked like a bit of an overbite, which you can see in the story Street Machine did on the car a few years ago at Chrysler on the Murray. Apart from that, anything down the track is just motor related, like getting the valve springs done, if I want to up the horsepower.

I try to take it out weekly, sometimes it might sit for a couple of weeks, if it’s blocked in the garage with other jobs on. If nothing’s here, I can just back it out and take it down the coast and visit the daughter and the grandkids. It’s a very easy car to just get in and go.

We’ve taken it to quite a few car shows over the years. We went to the 50th anniversary of Charger and the Queensland Chrysler Show at Rocklea.

The first show we took it to was Chryslers on the Murray in 2018. We took it down there on a trailer. We’d only just got it on the road. It would start and run. At the time we didn’t even know what the tune was like.

It wasn’t good, but it ran, so we took it down there to see how much hate we could get from the purists. They actually liked the idea, once you explain it and show them the photos of just what we had to do to the car.

We saved this car. Twenty years ago, I would have taken it to the tip. I just would not have even looked at it in the condition it was in.

I’ve had a few Chryslers over the years, I had a 1967 VC Valiant and a 1974 Chrysler by Chrysler. I’m still keen for either a CM Regal or a CM, like a sedan. Or, maybe one of the two-door hardtops, but they’re getting up there in price. So, I’ll probably end up with a CM, either Regal or a GLX Sportspack, something like that, just to play with. It might still end up with a similar engien to this one!

THE RESTO:

Barely there

There is more rust than metal to be seen here.

Aged metal

Little rust proofing and age have caused this.

Fits like a glove

Even the console is out of a BA and has received the black modern treatment.

Noiseworks

The Barra and entire front end lined up neatly.

Big boots

Smart looking big wheels and tyres.

Instrument check

Check out the numbers on the speedo.

Original car: 1972 VH Charger
Length of restoration: 5 years

From Unique Cars #459, Nov 2021 

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