Don's 69 Charger Rust Belt restoration

[mopar4don]

Here are some pics of the heater box complete.
I am very pleased with how everything turned out.
One thing I would recommend is to by the kit 1st. Then go through there instructions.
They had suggestions on disassembly. Mainly with the internal door arms and how to get them out

[mopar4don]

great work Don !!!!!

Thanks cdr,
I had to have something to keep me busy during the winter...... I will try and get this thread updated

[keepat]

Don,

Great job resurrecting your heater box, looks awesome!

Pat

[birdsandbees]

I see your heater box kit may have actually came with the thicker foam washers for the flapper "washers". I had to make mine from some packing material because they were awol.

[tan top]

 

[mopar4don]

I need some help fellas with my trunk pan and rear valance......
And please comment on that page
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,123434.0.html

[ht4spd307]

yes it is correct with that gap i'm doing mine at the moment but make sure the tail panel is also in line as i just found out with mine the turkey that started the restoration on my car had the car on a rotisserie while removing the floor pan which in turn has bent the chassis rails upwards  by a a half inch or so which when i try to align the tail panel its a 1/2 inch to high or if i connect the tail panel to the 1/4 panels the trunk pan is to high so some how i have to bent the chassis rails down a half inch which don't sound a lot but the rail are under like a spring load.if any one has any suggestion on how to approach this any tips would help   

[mopar4don]

While I'm working on the back end of my car, I thought I would update you all with my e-brake restoration

before

[mopar4don]

after....

[cdr]

 

[mopar4don]

It's been a while since I have updated you all. Been really busy with that thing called life.
I did manage to get a vacation in.  
To me it was the vacation of a lifetime....
My wife and I had the opportunity to take a cruise to Alaska,and all I can say is WOW,
Its not every day you get to see such pure magnificent beauty!
Here are are few pics..

[mopar4don]

Here are perfect examples of our "purple mountain majesty"
I've never seen purple mountains before!

[mopar4don]

This is the Dawes Glacier, The ship stopped 1 mile from from it. (Notice the double decker excursion boat)
I was truly overwhelmed by the sheer size of everything and I thank God for giving me the opportunity to go and see it!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TRIP TO EVERYONE!

[cdr]

WOW!!!!   

[Charger4404spd]

Awesome, Id love to go there!

[mopar4don]

Yeah WOW.
What is really awesome is if you look at the pictures of the mountains notice how the sides have been smoothed and how they are very steep.

These channels were dug out by glaciers of long ago. We were told that as the glaciers moved they dug these channels and they smoothed out the sides of the mountain as they went along. Where you see jagged rocks twords the top, thats were the highest point of the glacier was. Below the jagged rocks the awesome force of the glacier smoothed out the sides of the mountain. So as you look up along the sides you see it smoothed off.
This gives you a little bit of a perspective.

[Charger_Fan]

Neat pics, thanks for sharing them. Which part of Alaska was that?

[mopar4don]

Neat pics, thanks for sharing them. Which part of Alaska was that?

South East Alaska.
These pics were from the Tracy Arm-Fjords Terror Wilderness.

Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness contains 653,179 acres (2,643.32 km2) and consists of two deep and narrow fjords: Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm. Both fjords are over 30 miles (48 km) long and one-fifth of their area is covered in ice. During the summer, the fjords have considerable floating ice ranging from hand-sized to pieces as large as a three-story building.

[mopar4don]

Car update

I cant believe it's been 3+ months since I started foolin around with
the back end of this car!

Basically with the help and advise from some of the members here and over at
forbbodies.com I was able to get it together. A BIG thank-you to ALL who helped!

The biggest problem I had was getting the quarter panel
(with the corner cap mounted) to line up with the rear crossmember.
Either the quarter is not far enough back, or the crossmember is not right.

[mopar4don]

I know some have addressed this problem by slicing the quarters and
welding in a pie shaped piece.
But after advise from our members I got my BIG OL HAMMER out and bent the end
of the crossmember back, far enough, so I could attach the corner cap.

[mopar4don]

Once I got that close (on both sides) I fit the rear valance and tail panel
and got everything to go together with clamps and screws.

[mopar4don]

Once I was satisfied with the fitment of those parts, I started over and fit
the trunk drop-offs in. this took a lot of work, as the crossmember, corner
cap with quarter panel, and the trunk drop-off all come together and have to
fit and look right! (WOW I'M TIRED JUST THINKING ABOUT ALL THAT WORK)

Here she is with the back half all put together (temporarily)
I even have the deck filler panel and trunk gutters in.
I set the trunk lid in and I was pleased with the fitment and gaps!

[mopar4don]

I have a little bit of work to do to the deck filler panel.
Need to work the right and left sides to get a better fit to the quarters.

[mopar4don]

I also got my dash and the other buckskin tan colored parts painted.
I am extremely happy with the results!
(A huge THANKYOU to my friend Rafael who did the painting)
I had our local PPG paint distributor color match the glove box door hinge.
In the picture it looks a little darker than the real thing which turned out
REALLY CLOSE! The parts even have the correct suede finish!

[mopar4don]

So now that I am happy with the fitment of the sheet metal on the rear of the
car, It's time to get serious and start welding her up!
Here I have the sheet metal removed again (I must have done this a 100 times)
And I have the inner rockers welded to the front cross member and rear frame
rails.