Fantasyland

Long time reader—74 years young—
new Mopars for over 50 years. Have
1989 V6 Dodge convertible project and
’78 440˝ to install. Schumacher & Mancini
can’t help.
Please, I need suggestions. I also need
right side passenger power door glass.

I will assume you mean a LeBaron ragtop,
since there were no ’89 Dodge convertible
cars. Or maybe a 1986 600? The best
suggestion I can give you is to not touch
the car, except to drive it. Still not convinced?
Here’s the abbreviated laundry
list of what must change:
• The car must be back-halved, which
means removing the rear suspension
and chassis rails, and installing something
capable of handling the 440’s
torque, along with a custommade (narrow)
rear axle assembly.
• The rear wheelhouses would need to
be made larger to handle adequate
wheels and tires
• The front suspension must be revised
to handle the huge weight increase,
and stub axles must replace the halfshafts
(to preload the front wheel bearings
properly).
• The engine bay will need huge modifications
to accept the much larger
engine. Ditto the firewall, radiator yoke
and side panels.
• Transmission and propshaft tunnels
must be fabricated, then custom carpet
sewed up
• With the PCM gone, you must figure
a way to get the gauges to operate,
especially the speedometer, or a custom
instrument panel built. And lots of
other electrical details.
• Maintaining the steering rack and
proper geometry may not be easy.
• Custom exhaust, throttle linkage, cooling
system (probably custom radiator),
shift linkage, etc. must be fabricated.
When you’re done, you’ll have a car
with over 60% of the weight over the front
wheel (ugh). Go back and read my first
sentence above. I realize that the OEM
Mitsu V6 (3.0L) setup wasn’t great in such
a heavy car, but think of it as a cruiser, not
a racer—as the factory intended.
The good news: Any local glass shop
should be able to get that window glass.
If not, check the junkyards. This, at least,
will be a cinch.
On the odd chance that you have a ‘89
Dakota ragtop, the way to go is a 360.
That’s fairly easy, at least compared to the
above passcar mess.