Reviving the green 68 Monster

[Eifelcharger]

The story starts in early 95 somewhere between Cisco and Abilene Texas..........
3 Dutch guys in a V8 rental T-bird cruising the area with a pile of cash in their pockets.
Manuel got an 85 Mustang GT, Maurice found a sweet 68 Ford Galaxy XL and I was still looking for a 50's Chevy when I spotted something big and green just of the main road.
It turned out to be a 68 Charger 383 auto with non powered (and non existing) drum brakes.
The owner had just advertised the car one day before as he needed cash after divorcing (sad but true)
I had the brakes fixed in Abilene and we started our trip to Jacksonville FL to ship our treasures to Amsterdam.

Converted headlights to EURO spec and got a Dutch registration on the car.
Drove it in Holland for a year, than decided it would be a good idea to save money on parts import duties by shipping the car back to the US, restore it and send it back again. 
This didn't really work out (as with many interesting plans) but I got to drive the car on Dutch plates from FL to Texas again which was a great experience.
Car was left in FL until i retrieved it to Holland in 99 on a trailer.
By this time I had gutted the car and it was in need of a proper restauration.
Wanted to upgrade the suspension & brakes by using a Corvette C6 frame.......never got to it
Moved to Germany in 04, car stayed in open storage until 3 months ago.

I decided it was time to revive the beast and pulled the car to friends workshop.

Current status:
Gutted and on a rotisserie (pics will come soon)
Requested a shipping quote for US car Tool body stiffening kit
Engine options: 383 HP, '57 392 HEMI, Nissan GTR (not decided yet)
suspension upgrades = must, but it seems XV is out of business and i am not sure about others (looking into using 350Z front suspension incl Brembo)
Color: still in favor of some green with green vinyl roof (original color)


https://db.tt/Soa4gdRy

[NHCharger]

Welcome to the site, cool story

[cavemanno1]

First of all welcome!

Don't wanna it to sound bad or anything negative but wouldn't be just cheaper to get every parts you needed in a container and ship it to you?Or just buy a pos car for $50 load everything in it ship it to you and then have a good day.They don't tax you for everything that is in the car,do they?When i got my '69 shipped to Holland it was like 3000 euros,so shipping back and forth a car is gotta be more expensive than getting a container,but that is your business!

[Eifelcharger]

Hi All,

I am thinking of galvanizing the whole floor and frame rails (see link below) to keep the rust devils away for ever........

http://www.zinc.org/info/zinc_thermal_spraying

Has anybody got experience with this?

[Ghoste]

Welcome to the site and its good to know the car is being brought back to respectability.  As for the galvanizing, never heard of anyone doing it to a whole car floor that way. 

[Eifelcharger]

I uploaded some pictures for the old metal lovers out here.........


View Album, http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mattijsdemailnietdeman/library/Charger%20resto%20folder

[Eifelcharger]

Welcome to the site and its good to know the car is being brought back to respectability.  As for the galvanizing, never heard of anyone doing it to a whole car floor that way. 

Thanks,
It doesn't warp the metal like the hot zinc dipping, and if it works on off-shore wind turbines...........

[Eifelcharger]

First of all welcome!

Don't wanna it to sound bad or anything negative but wouldn't be just cheaper to get every parts you needed in a container and ship it to you?Or just buy a pos car for $50 load everything in it ship it to you and then have a good day.They don't tax you for everything that is in the car,do they?When i got my '69 shipped to Holland it was like 3000 euros,so shipping back and forth a car is gotta be more expensive than getting a container,but that is your business!

Back in the days the cost for a roll-on roll-off transport was about 750 euros US > Amsterdam and 500 euros Amsterdam > US that was a lot cheaper than getting all new parts shipped over and paying import duty on them, oh and it was worth every cent driving a Classic dutch registered car in the US !!!!! At that time Phillips Gold headlight bulbs were popular and they gave a very yellowish light. Little did I know it is mandatory in Texas for slow farm equipment to have yellow light on the rear of the vehicles..........Imagine the shock for the patrol officer when he saw 2 Yellow lights blasting towards him at 90 MPH    Good thing for me he once visited Amsterdam in his Navy days.......