Mr. Norm 1969 Charger 500 Restoration

[70Sbird]

Justin,
when you expose hidden areas like at the bottom of the door jam that you cut out or the inside of the t-bar cross member or frame rails, do you paint or coat them with anything to prevent future rust?

[CornDogsCharger]

  been wondering , whats been happening      ,   

Yeah, I haven't taken much time to keep this post updated. Since my little boy in Aug, I don't get as much "computer time" at home in the evenings. Haha.

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Justin,
when you expose hidden areas like at the bottom of the door jam that you cut out or the inside of the t-bar cross member or frame rails, do you paint or coat them with anything to prevent future rust?

I always clean up and brush on POR-15 in the cavities when they are exposed. 

Justin
"CornDog"

[RallyeMike]

I'm still blown away by how good this car looked in the photos compared to how much steel is being cut of of it. You might have to add "AMD" to the title   

[500Jon]

This is the way it will be from now on!
Older restorations being re-done with all new 'AMD' panels...
Complete floors all the way through and one piece quarter skins replacing the half-skins of old!
Once you have the floors out then the frame rails can be replaced too.

The trick is knowing what to change and what to leave behind....
There will always be rust in 50 year old cars, no matter how well they are kept!

Great work and keep the Pictures coming, its good to see for the less brave Charger Folks of the World!!!

[daytonalo]

Nice so far , please tell me this car eventually  will be on a rotisserie . I have not seen pic of the car upside down .
Also have any current day pics of what mr Norms looks like or has it been raised ?

Larry   

[hemigeno]

Also have any current day pics of what mr Norms looks like or has it been raised ?

There are a few threads on this subject, here's a couple of links:

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,110062.0.html

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,37130.0/all.html

[CornDogsCharger]

The body will eventually go on the rotisserie.  I just need to upload other pictures leading up to that point. 

Some of my pictures may jump around a bit because I am trying to keep them somewhat grouped together.  Here are pictures from when I removed the original rear window plug.  I like to take a little extra time when doing this to try and figure out the steps that were taken by Creative Industries while installing the original parts.  You can clearly tell that the Chargers that were sent to Creative were complete with rear glass and trim in place.  In the standard Charger glass channel, this car still had the little rubber rectangular blocks along the bottom channel that were used to keep the glass from sliding down after it was installed.  You could also see where the urethane (or whatever was used at the time to hold the glass in) was cut out, using a windshield knife.  It also appears that the inner half of the pinch weld (channel) was painted black.  This would make sense because you wouldn't want to see 'body color' inside the glass after being installed. 

Anyways, here was the removal process...








Here you can see how the original trunk gutter was cut by Creative, to allow for clarence of the new rear channel that is made on the window plug. 




There were some rust holes in the window opening that I had to weld up before we had the plug dipped and e-coated.  Being a flimsy part, I welded a couple braces on to it just to be safe.  Below is a picture of the window plug and the original upper radiator support after they returned from being e-coated. 







Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Here you can see the inner wheelhouse rust.  Instead of replacing the whole inner, I just made a patch for it.  I'm not really crazy about AMD's inner or outer wheelhouses anyways.  I installed outers but I wish I would have repaired them too. 

Justin
"CornDog"

[Redmanf1]

Nice repair 

[C500]

Very nice work on the repairs. 

[5hunert]

How did Creative attach the window plug to the roof/sail panels and how did you break it loose?  I may be facing this prospect in the future...

[Redmanf1]

I would guess he used a die grinder to cut the welds out.

How did Creative attach the window plug to the roof/sail panels and how did you break it loose?  I may be facing this prospect in the future...

[CornDogsCharger]

That is right. There is a small 90 degree strip of of metal that was attached to the inside of the sail panels and right along the top of the rear glass opening. You can see this in my pictures above with the plug removed. These strips were held in place with Phillips head screws. The window plug sits on top of the metal strips and was tack welded every few inches. I'm sure that some cars got more welds... some less. Then the thin gap/seam was leaded in.  You will need to use a torch to melt the lead out. It will not need much heat though. Almost like soldiering. Then you can use a cut off wheel to cut the welds and then the panel will come loose.

There is about a 5in wide support that spot welds to the top of the window opening as well as a brace that sits on top of the Dutchman (filler) panel. Those weld will need to be cut too. Lastly, where the plug goes into the trunk gutter on both sides, it had a continuous weld across the gutter. The was probably the most time consuming part. If you're trying to save the gutters, then you will need to be careful cutting those welds. After that, the plug should come right out. Hope that helps.

Justin
"CornDog"

[5hunert]

Thanks!

[CornDogsCharger]

Here is where I first test-fit the AMD trunk floor.  After everything was how it needed to me, I cleaned and coated the insides of the frame rails with POR-15 and then I painted the inner structure and wheelhouses before everything was welded in place.  I also like to paint the hinge post because when the final paint goes on, I like for the hinges to be painted in place, where they're supposed to be.  It's a pain to try and adjust the hinges on the fresh paint.

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

The original doors and fenders were dipped and e-coated... that's why they look new... but they're 45 yr old parts.  I bolted them in place and lined them up to where they needed to be before the quarters were installed.  

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Since the original decklid was full of rust across the rear lip and had a few questionable bondo spots on it, we decided to replace it.  Here is the original decklid where I took many measurments to cross everything over to the new AMD decklid.  

Justin
"CornDog"



Here I removed the original close-out panel



Here I cut the new decklid frame and test fit the close-out panel



Old and New

[fy469rtse]

  beautiful work , thanks for posting , love the level your going to with resto

[CornDogsCharger]

I was not happy with the fitment of the rear valance corners.  The gaps just did not seem to fit tight like I thought they should.  I had the quarter where I knew it should be, as well as the tail light panel and rear valance.  But when you tried to put the corners in, they would only fit decent on either the quarter side or the rear valance side... but never both at the same time.  So I just put them where i felt they looked right and made the panels fit the corners.  I wish I would have taken a good 'before' picture but I didn't.  I ended up having to splice the quarter and valance to weld a wedge in place to straighten up the gaps.  It seems like neither gap was perfectly vertical and even when they were, the fold of the metal into the gap was not tight enough.  I know, I'm overly anal about things like this.  So I cut and reworked everything so that it looked a lot better.  I called a friend of mine who has restored a few Chargers with new AMD panels and he said that he never had a problem with the corners... but I may just be a little too picky.  HAHA

Justin
"CornDog"

[CornDogsCharger]

Here, you can see how much the inner sail panel fit up against the original dutchman panel.  I cut a big slit in it to make the curve right in the window opening.  I know you will never see this on the 500/Daytona models, but I couldn't just leave it alone... even though it is covered up.



Justin
"CornDog"

[Homerr]

Great looking work!   

[fc7_plumcrazy]

great job 

[tan top]

  been busy  , looks good    ,  nice work     

[CornDogsCharger]

Thanks guys!  Yeah, been very busy.  The car is much further along than these pictures... I just have neglected to keep this page up to date.  Actually, I'm hoping to be finished with the car sometime in June... possibly July.  The car was featured in the most recent issue of Mopar Collector's Guide (June 2015) in the Under Construction section.  Long story, sort of... Randy Holden, who is the feature editor of the magazine, called me to ask what I knew about the current status of the Wheel Stander General Lee for an article he was doing on it.  I run RealGeneralLee.com and he knew I keep track of all of the authentic GLs... anyways, during our conversation, he asked what my latest project was.  I told him that I was working on a Mr. Norm C500.  I told him the car was originally B5 blue and jokingly, he said it could have been the car in the famous picture.  I told him that actually, we were wondering the same thing... there are only two documented C500's being sold at GS and the only other car I could find was a green one.  The car in the picture is a carbon copy, as far as options and all, as the car in the picture... plus, it was on the lot at the time the picture was taken in Oct. '69.... so it was possible.  In the article, he left some of that important information out... which I feel would have helped the article.  Oh well.  The article is still pretty good though.  Hopefully it might generate some locals who remember the car... and possibly know the original owner, James Rainey. 

Justin
"CornDog"