Don's 69 Charger Rust Belt restoration

[mopar4don]

Every grille frame I have has at least one missing or badly mangled mounting tab.
There's probably a market for trim-to-fit replacement mounting tabs for the grille frame.   
Id rather buy one with the correct angle/shape, trim it, and weld it on, rather than fabricate, weld, and get it wrong.

I enjoy the heck out this thread Don.

Thanks stripedelete,
I don't wanna get it wrong either, but I figure if I duplicate what I have, (all twisted) then all I have to do is bend the tabs back, were they need to go. This metal is like .030 thick so it's not real strong.

Like Zig Ziglar said "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

stripdelete, I mean no disrespect to your comments, but for me, and the mountain that is ahead of me (with this car) and because I don't have unlimited resources, I have to learn how to fix things! And yeah, I might mess it up, and yes it takes me a while, but I won't quit, I'll learn and move on and try it again. For me it's a challenge! And I really love doing it! And I have to admit, I did consider finding some good brackets. but like you said they are not readily available... and after being encouraged to fix what I have, I went ahead and did it. And you know, it really wasn't all that bad.

I think you misunderstood the comment.  By "market" I meant a guy like you selling them to a guy like me.    

Were good. 

[Pat1973charger]

Being the metal magician you are Don, I don't blame you for fabbing what you can. Haven't had chance to work at the RT, crappy weather plus I took on a big repair job on my cousins mazda tribute. New rockers, rear wheel houses, wheel bearings, exhaust and brakes. She's paying me well so I don't mind, more $$ for the RT. Scored a southern right rear inner and outer wheel house for $120 shipped to my door so that was pretty cool. Keep at it Don! Love this thread

[mopar4don]

Got the outer rocker support brackets welded in.
Here's the front support

[mopar4don]

The rear support bracket was a LOT harder!

To get the placement correct, it has to align to the rear pass window support / lock pillar assembly
You can see the rear rocker support bracket next to the wood 2x2 in the pic. It has the copper weld thru primer applied.

[mopar4don]

This is really tricky as the bracket is sandwiched between the inner and outer rocker, and it has to align to the edge of the lock pillar.
SO EVERYTHING got mocked up, the inner and outer rockers and wheel tubs.

[mopar4don]

I even threw the door on to be sure the lock pillar and rockers looked ok and were aligned properly.

[mopar4don]

When I got the position marked I welded it to the rocker.
WOW what a pain!

[Stevearino]

Gettin' with the brandy new metal. Getting a little bit excited now.

[tan top]

   good stuff 

[mopar4don]

Going back through my pics I found a couple to share
Here are 2 of the 4 cowls that I have (getting ready for the blaster)
I found this stamping on the underside of one of the cowls and thought it was kinda interesting

[mopar4don]

Here is a picture that shows all of the seam sealer they put on.
This raises a question.
When I go to attach the cowl back on, and I apply seam sealer between the panels (like the factory did) will this work? Seems to me that when I plug weld, it would burn off the seam sealer between the panels.
So what is the best way to do this?

[fy469rtse]

Don
i put my hands up through fresh air pots to lower cowl to touch up sealer the best i could ,
applied it by hand, great work by the way,
its coming along now 

[Cncguy]

Must be the steel manufacturers mark.

[six-tee-nine]

Don,

Yes you are right.
I put small amounts of seam sealer as far back as I could and I drilled my holes for rewelding as far forward towards the lip on the firewall as I could. It still kinda squeezed trough towards the holes I had drilled for butt welding the panel again.
I cleaned off as good as I could before I started welding. I went real slow and cooled as good as I could with the air gun close by.
Not much else you can do. Maybe I'll check on it later on like FY496RTSE did.

Just a tip : paint the bottom of the cowl before putting the top back on. Makes it so much nicer later on when you look trough the louvres.

[Cncguy]

Hey Don, How come you didn't use the rockers from the coronet?

[green69rt]

Look at page 5 a little more than half way down to see how i sealed mine.  I tested it with a garden sprayer.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,54582.100.html

[mopar4don]

Don
i put my hands up through fresh air pots to lower cowl to touch up sealer the best i could ,
applied it by hand, great work by the way,
its coming along now 

Thanks fy469

Must be the steel manufacturers mark.

Yeah I just thought it was kinda cool.

Don,

Yes you are right.
I put small amounts of seam sealer as far back as I could and I drilled my holes for rewelding as far forward towards the lip on the firewall as I could. It still kinda squeezed trough towards the holes I had drilled for butt welding the panel again.
I cleaned off as good as I could before I started welding. I went real slow and cooled as good as I could with the air gun close by.
Not much else you can do. Maybe I'll check on it later on like FY496RTSE did.

Just a tip : paint the bottom of the cowl before putting the top back on. Makes it so much nicer later on when you look trough the louvres.

Thanks six-tee-nine, I honestly did'nt know what guys were doing about this so that's why I asked. The members here are good about helping each other and for that I thank you.

Hey Don, How come you didn't use the rockers from the coronet?

The coronet rockers were a bit different on the ends, not to mention where the b-pillar joins at the rocker.
I will try and get a couple of pics for you.

Look at page 5 a little more than half way down to see how i sealed mine.  I tested it with a garden sprayer.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,54582.100.html

Thanks green69rt, I reference your build from time to time, but honestly there are so many that I reference, it's hard to remember who did this.

[six-tee-nine]

Look at page 5 a little more than half way down to see how i sealed mine.  I tested it with a garden sprayer.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,54582.100.html

Thats kinda how it went with mine also. The sealer getting on fire is a bit overrated. It does start to smoke a little but when you plug weld a little at a time and cool down, do some other area and work your way around randomly to let the panels absorb te heat it works just fine.

On a side note, I did use lead to fill the seam at the bottom of the A pillar

[Indygenerallee]

Looking Good Don! 

[mopar4don]

Looking Good Don! 

Thanks Indy,
So how is your build coming along? Do you have a resto thread?
I was able to use the tail panel I got from you, (with a little fixing)
Stay tuned for that update!

[Indygenerallee]

It's coming along not as fast as I would like but it's been pretty cold to work in a garage without any heat this past winter. Once spring gets here I will hit it a bit harder! Yes I have a thread over in the Aero section (it's buried lol)
Good to hear you could use the tail panel!

[Steve P.]

WOW!!!  I am completely impressed with all of your work. I lost track of this restoration a while back and just went through the entire thing again. What a thread this is.. So many things I see that I never paid any attention to before and HOLY CRAP are there a lot of parts to building this body!!

Don, you are certainly going to be a pro long before you are done. As I see it, you are well on your way!! 

I am really looking forward to the next pics and posts on your progress. Thank you for sharing and taking the time to chronicle this entire repair and rebuild. My hat is certainly off to you... 

[Dino]

 

What he said!   

[Homerr]

More awesome work Don!

Found your next project for you:
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/cto/4947486569.html

[mopar4don]

WOW!!!  I am completely impressed with all of your work. I lost track of this restoration a while back and just went through the entire thing again. What a thread this is.. So many things I see that I never paid any attention to before and HOLY CRAP are there a lot of parts to building this body!!

Don, you are certainly going to be a pro long before you are done. As I see it, you are well on your way!! 

I am really looking forward to the next pics and posts on your progress. Thank you for sharing and taking the time to chronicle this entire repair and rebuild. My hat is certainly off to you... 

Believe me, I am not a pro. Far from it. I'm just a guy who is learning as I go!

What he said!   

Thanks Dino 

More awesome work Don!

Found your next project for you:
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/cto/4947486569.html

Hi Homerr,
mmmmmmmmm 
I think I will pass
I like the quote in the ad "Front suspension and rails are awesome"