The new Challenger bring's back some memories of the old 71 I had. Those long doors . I love them . But I have put a chip or two on the edge from opening the driver door in my garage. Keep forgetting how long and how much room I need to open one. So far twice have I opened it and touched stuff along the wall on that side of the garage. And touched it up . Have to say I said a few cuss word's and mad at my self still. Not the cars fault . But mine . How many others have opened their door against something. I've seen several Challengers with some really ugly plastic door edge guard's hanging half off.

 

I put pads along the edge of my workbench just for that reason.

 

My 1970 and the 08 are next to each other in the garage...talk about tight squeeze getting into the one without bumping the other...the orange colors are not exactly the same.
Steve

 

I've had RAMs long enough to get use to this. Dodge spares no expense when it come to doors. They give you all you could ever want. I have rearranged my garage 3 times to put the MOPARs where they stand the least chance of dinging the doors.

Sickest moments EVER:

I'd just finished detailing the '02 RAM and litterally showing a nieghbor my patented technique for caring for a car. Theirs my girl all shiny and gleaming when I decide I need to take a picture or two. I had placed the camera on the arm rest while I was spraying water so it wouldn't get wet. One of the 1st things I told my neighbor was that you should never wear anything made of metal or anything that has sharp edges while detailing a car. That means no watches or rings (really any jewelry of any kind), belt buckles and it also meant no jeans which have metal buttons. I had on cargo pants with plastic buttons but I took my belt off before starting. After finishing and after pulling up my pants 347 times I put my belt back on. Not wanting to open the door and causing water to run down the door from the mirror (typically I use compresed air to get all of it but hadn't done it yet) I leaned through the opened window to grab the camera. I will never forget the sickening sound and the even worst feel of that metal buckle grinding into the paint as I leaned in. All the way through to the metal, baby. The depression set in immediately.

Then there was the time I had towed my motorcycle up to the north Ga. mountains for some corner strafing. To get the bike out of the bed of the truck I have to put the front tires up on a curb to lower the back down so the belly pan of the bike doesn't hit. The truck is a 5 speed manual so I'm trying to gently pop the clutch to just barely get the wheels up on the only curb available which is actually a side walk just wide enough to get the wheels on but my front bumper will just miss a wall. Well I'm starting to smell burning clutch as I'm just missing the sweet spot. I finally loose patience and gun it and pop the clutch and immediately get on the brakes to keep from hitting the wall...or so I think. I had stopped just in time to juuuuuuust shave the paint off of a patch of the bumper without doing any damage to the bumper fascia. I mean it just shaved paint, man. I don't know if I was lucky or unlucky.

 

If we are going to change the subject to sickening moments, I have a Lil Red Express story. I had just restored a 1979 Lil Red Express. It was the best show vehicle I have ever owned. It took 1st place at the Monster Mopar Weekend in St. Louis. While in the garage, I was walking past it with a heavy folding lawn chair when the chair decides to fold out. I was getting ready to go to a local show. The chair opened into the driver front fender leaving a gash and dent. I just fell over weak and disbelieving. Sick doesn't cover how I felt. I eventually had to get rid of that truck before it killed me. While going to another show, the water pump broke completely off sending the fan through a brand new three row radiator. That truck was just bad Karma.

 

Whats great is the doors are still 6 inches shorter than my 76 Monte

 

Not only long, but heavy as well...as I remember my 70 Challenger doors...

 

yeah I got in it today and had to slam the door 3 times ...boooo dooor sag, but just to hear the 400 sb is great!

 

I park my Challenger next to my 78 Firebird Formula in the garage - you want to talk about long and HEAVY doors? Not much beats a 2nd gen GM F body for long heavy doors, those things are like freakin bank vaults.

 

Hope the hinges are up to the weight of these long heavy doors. GM used to be bad about the pin's wearing .