1970 DODGE HEMI CHARGER R/T PRO TOURING
“SUBLIME”

Engine: 572 Aluminum Hemi from Muscle Motors 700+HP
Induction: F.A.S.T. 2.0 Electronic Fuel Injection
Ignition: MSD
March Performance Serpentine System
Cooling: Mark 7 Radiator
Fuel: Aeromotive
Transmission: Silver Sport Transmission Tremec 5 Speed
Differential: Scott’s Driveline-Dana 60 3.55 Gears
Exhaust: TTI Complete Exhaust System
Front Suspension: RMS Tubular K-member Coil Overs
Rear Suspension: RMS Street Lynx
Brakes: BIG 14″ Wilwood 6-Piston/4-Piston Drilled and Slotted/Hydroboost
Wheels/Tires: Boze 20″X 10″ Rears 20″X 8″ Fronts
Mickey Thompson Performance Tires
Paint Color: Sherwin Williams Rod & Restoration-PCCL12″Sublime”
Paint Supplies: Sherwin Williams Automotive Finishes
Body and Paint: Grabill Automotive
Decals/Signage: Hightech Signs
Interior: Interiors by Thomas/Big Hemi
Gauges/Dash: Instrument Specialties/Big Hemi
A/C-Heater: Classic Auto Air
Stereo: Vintage Radio
Polishing: Lee Scott
Extras: Custom Billet Hemi Valve Covers, Air Cleaner & Aluminum Block From HP Performance, Custom Painted Tail Stripe and Hood Black Outs, LED Taillights, H4 Conversion Headlights, Custom Upholstered Trunk, Painless Wiring, Hushmat.
Special thanks to all our sponsor’s: Sherwin Williams Automotive Finishes, Muscle Motors, Silver Sport Transmission, Year One, Classic Industries, Classic Auto Air, Vans Auto, Reilly Motorsports, TTI Exhaust, Mark 7 Machine, HighTech Signs.

Write up:
Is the Dodge Charger the best-looking muscle car of all time? Take a good, long look at this stunning pro-touring Charger and tell me your mouth isn’t watering and your knees aren’t getting weak. It’s sinister, it’s gorgeous, it’s fast, it’s nasty, and that was all before the guys at Bair Customs started working on it. With a mountain of all aluminum, fuel injected Hemi under the hood, sublime paint that you can swim in, and a suspension that rips up chunks of concrete from the road, this might be the finest modified Charger ever built.

Jason Bair and the Bair Customs shop have built a reputation on not only engineering fast cars, but incredible attention to detail. The hardware flat-out works, no question about that: the A/C is cold, the Big Hemi idles nicely and happily guzzles pump gas, and you can hammer it for hours and still climb out feeling refreshed. But what sets a Bair Customs build apart is the little stuff that often goes unnoticed until you know what you’re looking for: the plumbing is hidden, the bolts are all stainless (note how all the visible heads are aligned with one another), and the bodywork is concours-grade. We don’t use words like “perfect” or “flawless” around our shop because no car is perfect, but the stuff coming out of Bair Customs gets awfully damned close.

This car started out as a nice original 440 / 4 speed R/T car with Sublime paint and old school Cragars, perfect for this kind of rejuvenation. As the build photos show, it was stripped to a bare shell and rebuilt from there. With the help of Ken Feber, sub-standard sheetmetal was rejected and replaced with fresh stuff and installed so seamlessly that you’ll never see where the cuts were. On the rotisserie, even the floors were sanded, filled, and smoothed thanks to Mike Roy and the guys at Grabill Automotive. Once the sheetmetal was in order, the body was covered in “Sublime” PCCL12 two-stage urethane from the Sherwin Williams Automotive Finishes Rod and Restoration deck. The result is a surface that reflects like a mirror and is so green that it glows like the Slimer ghost in the Ghostbuster’s movie. Looking down the side of the car and checking the panel alignment there’s not a single area where “good enough” was good enough.

Of course, paint is just the beginning. The choice was made early on in the project to let the Charger shape speak for itself, so it didn’t get any body modifications, no wings or spoilers, and not even a pinstripe. The custom painted factory tail stripe and hood black outs have been cleared over for a smooth look. All the factory trim was restored or replaced, then reinstalled right where it belonged and all the glass is new. From the fully restored grille to the H4 conversion headlights, to the cool side marker lights, to the absolutely gorgeous LED taillights, this car is what the original designers envisioned when they first imagined the car back in the ’60s. There are discreet HEMI badges right where they belong, correct Charger R/T emblems, and if it weren’t for the giant Custom wheels, well, this car could probably sneak onto a concours field and surprise a lot of judges.

The interior takes only a few liberties with the original design, but I promise you’ll love the results. Standard black carpets, new factory door panels, and a freshly upholstered leather back seat are pretty much the way the factory intended, and even the dashboard is OEM-spec. The factory gauges were rebuilt and given fresh factory faces in between the restored wood grain accents. A factory wood grain steering wheel custom fit onto a flaming river tilt column and pistol grip “Hurst” shifter feel right in your hands without being distracting. The all-new Classic Auto Air HVAC system was integrated with the factory sliders and vents, and the system works well enough to chill the black interior down to meat locker levels. A powerful AM/FM/CD/iPod stereo system works in conjunction with about an acre of Hush Mat to create a pretty impressive sound stage for a ’60s car, and all the speakers have been cleverly hidden throughout the interior to keep it looking stock. The trunk is upholstered in black with a custom enclosure for the battery.

OK, OK, here’s the lowdown on the hardware. The engine is an all aluminum 572 cubic inch HEMI built by Muscle Motors, the HEMI experts. Yes, that’s right, 146 extra cubic inches were crammed into the already impressive HEMI V8. But as impressive as that sounds, it only gets better with the F.A.S.T. 2.0 fuel injection system up top, so it starts quickly, idles evenly, and pulls like the hand of God just gave it a quick punch. With over 700 horsepower on tap, you know performance is, shall we say, entertaining.

All of the plumbing is race-grade and wherever possible, it was hidden out of sight behind the inner fenders (which were also filled, wet sanded, and buffed). Real AN fittings and premium braided nylon feed the system from a custom stainless steel gas tank with an Aeromotive pump inside, and an MSD 6AL box, Blaster coil, and billet distributor light the fires. There’s a giant polished aluminum radiator from Mark 7 up front that’s big enough to cool a Kenworth, so no worries about the Big Hemi getting hot under the collar, even idling in traffic with the A/C cranking. Speaking of A/C, the serpentine belt system is from Billet Specialties and includes a 140 amp Powermaster alternator, Sanden SD-7 A/C compressor, Mopar Performance aluminum water pump, and a trick power steering pump with more braided stainless fittings. Like I said, nothing is merely adequate on this car.

Ceramic-coated long-tube headers that surely qualify as works of art handle the fumes, dumping them into a custom-fabricated 3-inch TTI exhaust system with X-pipe and Flowmasters and terminating in correct tips just under the rear bumper. It looks stock but sounds like a giant can of Whoop-Ass being opened, and if you flip a switch from the Doug’s exhaust cut outs, it sounds as if Big Daddy’s drag car just pulled up. A Silver Sport/Tremec 5-speed manual transmission channels the torque aft and with a deep overdrive 5th gear, it keeps the HEMI loafing along at highway speeds, even with the 3.55 gears in the Scott’s Driveline Dana 60 rear end. A full coil-over Alter-K-tion front suspension from Reilly Motorsports includes a tubular K-member, custom A-arms, and a fat sway bar to make this Charger dig in instead of rolling over. Out back, there’s a Reilly Street Lynx setup with trailing arms and adjustable coil-overs that are a vast improvement over the stock leaf springs. Giant 14″Wilwood BIG brake kits live at all four corners with six-piston calipers grabbing each of the cross-drilled and slotted rotors. Controlled by a Hydro-Boost power assist and a billet master cylinder, there’s enough braking power here to detach your retinas. Trick Custom Boze wheels measure 20×8 up front and 20×10 in back and carry slick Mickey Thompson Rubber to help this Charger take a bite out of the pavement.

This Charger neatly improves every single aspect of the original, but keeps all the critical things that make these cars so special. Respect is what makes this car remarkable, and respect is what it demands, both from the driver and from anyone unfortunate enough to try to give it a run on the street. It’s brutal, but it’s also exquisitely detailed with a no-compromises philosophy that shows in every single aspect of the build.

About the owners Greg and Valorie Monette.

Greg and Valerie Monette are the proud owner’s of this beautiful Sublime 1970 Dodge Charger R/T, being built by Bair Customs. The car is getting a complete Hemi / Pro Touring make over.
Here are some pictures showing Greg and Valerie getting ready for Prom in the 70’s with the Charger.

THE LOVE AFFAIR OF A GUY, A GIRL AND A CAR
By Valerie Monette
The summer of 1977 was winding down and a new school year was about to begin. I was a new incoming sophomore at Meridian High School in our farming town of Meridian, Idaho. I was excited to be part of the school’s marching band program where I would be one of only two girls in the trumpet line. As practice began on the first evening of the season, no one in the band could miss the lead drummer who arrived late in his bright lime green car with it’s black vinyl top. The loud rumble of his car’s engine could be heard long before he made his entrance on the school’s single lane road next to the football field. The first time I saw him he took my breath away. His hair was shoulder length blonde and he sported a mustache. He definitely captured the image of “the wild Senior Stud” as he entered the field in his very short cut-off jeans and bare chest, with his black tri-toms on his waste. As August rolled into September, I saw Greg arrive every evening in his lime green Charger. I didn’t know it at the time, but he confessed that he had spotted my ‘long blonde hair’ moments after arriving that first night, and was angling to find a way to invite me out on a date, of course, in his lime green hot rod. A few weeks into the school year he asked me to accompany him to the powder puff football game. He had just bought his Dodge Charger the first part of August and although I was not the first girl to ride in his new car, I soon became his girl. The car was fast and fun and we would take it downtown Boise on Saturday nights and drag main street. I would sit up on the console next to Greg when we went out, as there was not a seatbelt law back then. Often we would be challenged to a race where many times the winnings would become our date money. On those occasions I would strap in tight, close my eyes, say a quick prayer and wait for the adrenaline rush! We also enjoyed taking the car to the drive-in movies, and we arrived to all of the school dances in style in his Sublime Green Charger. Greg’s Senior Prom is probably one of the funniest memories with the car. He wanted it to look it’s best and had spent time washing it that Saturday morning. Then he drove it to Ann Morrison Park in Boise to enjoy the warm spring afternoon of Prom day waxing his baby. Halfway through putting the wax on he realized he had not picked up the corsage he ordered for me and the flower shop was closing in minutes. He jumped in his car, still covered with the un-buffed white wax and raced to the flower shop. He made it with only seconds to spare, and then had to finish the wax job in the flower shop parking lot. He treated me to a very expensive dinner that night in downtown Boise at a local favorite called The Gamekeeper. On the way to the Prom, the water pump in the Charger went out and I remember how frustrated Greg became as he tried to figure out how to save his Senior Prom night from being utterly ruined. Everything ended well and thirty-five years later we still reminisce and laugh about the events of that day. We enjoyed those young years together so much and we are very excited to continue making memories in our new pro-touring Sublime Green Machine!