My 1968 Charger Restoration Underway, Update 12/27/14

[Moparman01]

I've had this 68 Charger for about 13 years now, bought when the market was not all that high on muscle cars in general. I used to as a decent weather driver for quite a few years but always new it was getting tired so about 4 years ago i took it off the road for good. I've been debating for the last several years what to do the car, thought about trading it or out right selling it a few times but in the end i've wanted to restore this thing since i bought and have had a clear vision in my head of what i want this car to be some day. So, i decided i can't ever sell it so it might as well be restored. I have to thank my Dad and a buddy of mine who finally gave me the push to do it!! It's coming all apart to a bare rolling shell right now, then heading up to a my buddies father's shop where it will be put on a rotisserie later this summer. I do not have the skills, knowledge, or tools to do all the metal and body work and always knew it would have to go to a shop for that, lucky going to a family friends shop is a good thing because i'll be able to help whenever i want and learn a few things! The goal is to have it in paint by this time next year, then i can take the next year or 2 after that to do the interior and drive train. I plan on buying all the sheet metal in Carlisle this year, all AMD is the plan, it need quarters, floor pan, and full trunk so far, we think the doors and front fenders will be ok and message out just fine. Rear tail light panel is perfect with 0 rust or bone, deck lid and dutchman panel are also perfect. It's a fairly solid car with some normal rust issues here and there in the chassis, but overall it's 100% complete and some of the real problem areas are excellent. The car is a factory gold/white top 383/727 console shift car, i plan on doing a mild resto-mod with better suspension/brakes, sub-frame connectors, AC, and a mild built motor possibly with EFI. As of now i'm not sure if i'm gonna keep the 383 or use a 440 i have in the garage, the current 383 that is in the car is not numbers matching. That is a year or 2 down the road, got plenty of time to figure that stuff out!! Anyways, i can't express how excited, but really really nervous i am to do this project, gonna take some time that's for sure! Here's some pics of the very beginning of my first total restoration project!!



Back when it was a driver, this side is much better than the passenger side but still lot'sa bone...


Interior is on it's way out...(it's pretty grungy and was not done right how ever many years ago it was done)



As you can see, some duct work and an old road sign were used to fix the rotted front floor pans, very state of the art....LOL


I'll have many more pics coming, right now my dad has been messing with cleaning up the console and has polished out the top plate which actually came out pretty good!
 

[Charger4404spd]

Looks like a nice Charger to start with, good luck with the resto!

[JB400]

Looks like a good one to start with.  What color is it going to be when completed?

Time to start popping popcorn

[Moparman01]

Thanks, yeah this is definitely a good first timer resto car, still far from a cake walk tho!! As far as color combo, I decided a long time ago that it will be a deep red color with a pearl white tail stripe, pearl white vinyl top, and the hood scallops will be white as well. In a perfect world I'd love to paint it in Dodges "Redline Pearl" which I have talked about with my body guy, but we'll see if the budget will allow for that or not!

[Moparman01]

Here's some engine bay pics before we pull the engine out tonight. Typical grime, some minor rust in driver side inner fender, and somebody of course spray bombed the engine bay black! Why do people do that?? So the tear down continues tonight, engine and tranny will be out and i hope to get the grille out as well, that seems pretty complicated tho!!





This gives a better shot of how buggered up the passenger side quarter panel is...

[tan top]

    

[twodko]

Oh that's going to be a nasty badass car when you finish it. I'm looking forward
to your resto.

[fy469rtse]

  getting lots of popcorn ready for this
grill out is an easy one once you have done it before,
anyone correct me if i leave something out
step 1 , lower front valance comes out
step 2 front bumper, dont forget the two side brkts as well as undoing irons to chassis
step 3 grill , bolts each side on top to fenders , middle suport to lower radiator suport, bolts through wheel arch's from headlight areas of grill, two lower brkts one each side under grill to fender, two people to guide out, or cumsily own your own , just like i do 

[twodko]

getting lots of popcorn ready for this
grill out is an easy one once you have done it before,
anyone correct me if i leave something out
step 1 , lower front valance comes out
step 2 front bumper, dont forget the two side brkts as well as undoing irons to chassis
step 3 grill , bolts each side on top to fenders , middle suport to lower radiator suport, bolts through wheel arch's from headlight areas of grill, two lower brkts one each side under grill to fender, two people to guide out, or cumsily own your own , just like i do 

Yep, then it's onto a bench or table. Lots of baggies, couple black Sharpie markers and take pictures of everything thing you do to use in reverse reassembling your beautiful new resto'd grille.

I'm buying some more popcorn myself.

[Silver R/T]

Very nice Charger to start out with, good luck.

[LeeBoy]

Can't wait to watch the progress 

[Moparman01]

The engine and trans are out now. Later on down the road i'll get to building the engine, for now i'm researching good engine combos, might do a low deck stroker out of the 383. Didn't get the grille and bumper out yet, ran out of time the other night, that will be next weeks project! No turning back that's for sure, i'm fully committed to this resto now! 

[Moparman01]

Dis-assembly On the Charger continues, slowly but surely! It's scheduled to leave my garage and be taken up to my buddies resto-shop in less than 2 weeks! Just got the front valance and bumper off tonight, gonna tackle the grille over the next couple days. I've also worked on decoding my fender tag. My car was factory JJ1 Medium Gold Metallic with a black vinyl top, white & gold interior, 383 2 barrel with a 727 with a console shift, wheel lip moldings and a basic AM radio. Not much else on the option list! Also, not sure what "stripe" it would be, but there is a "W" under the "UBS" on the tag which indicates a "White Horizontal Stripe", what would that look like? Not that it really matters as i'm going the resto-mod style build anyways but i like to know the cars history a little bit. So here's a few pics, yeah nothing real exciting that's for sure but just for reference sake!





This is the only part of the grille that busted out, also the upper silver part of the grille is cracked pretty bad, i think i can fix it and get it looking like brand new, it'll be a challenge since i've never restored a grille before!



And the trunk is a little rusty but not horrible, the extensions are worse, will be installing all new trunk pan and extensions.



Had to throw this pic in, my best friends 7 year old boy helping us work on the Charger! He's my little buddy and is doing a good job helping us tear this car apart! Teaching him early that MOPAR rules!!

[nvrbdn]

most would kill for a project that starts out so nice. i will be glued to the progress.

[cptjohn]

Nice project.  Good to have a little helper.

[Moparman01]

Wel it sure was pain but i finally got the grille out the Charger!! It's pretty rough but i think it can be fixed. Luckily i have a good buddy of mine who has done a 68 Charger from the ground up and he completely restored his grille himself so i will be enlisting his help along the way! Here's some detailed pics...

[fy469rtse]

great job so far,  i will also be watching this one's progress
with that grill , use the search function on here , lots of threads on how why and what to do ,
one thing not posted and is the cause of a lot of the damage to grills , that suport frame, its just not rigid enough to suport anyone learning on that area once bonnet opened, or to suport the weight of grill
once frame is bare , put some mig welds to areas that wont be visable later , only spot welds hold all the pieces together to make that frame ,
done several cars this way and with great results,
do the test shake the empty frame , weld to areas not seen , watch how more rigid it becomes , will held suport that restored grill

[PlainfieldCharger]

Great start! that grill looks fixable me! great looking car! Great to see the kids involved too!

[Moparman01]

Work continues on the '68, so far just more dis-assembly. No big surprises yet, which is a good thing!! Doors are gutted and look to be in excellent shape inside and out! But we have started pealing off the vinyl top, got a few questions answered about the cars history. The quarters and top were re-done at some point in the Chargers life, although the body work was very poorly done! The quarter panel pillar seem was bondo'd over, factory would have been lead correct? I was under the impression the vinyl top was original to the car but it definitely was not, it was a white top that was put on then painted black. Fender tag say's it was a factory black vinyl top car. Oh well, moot point i guess as the new quarters will be going on and i'm going to be going with a white vinyl top out of personal preference! Also, i bought a ton of new AMD sheet metal and all of it has been delivered!! Talked to several AMD dealers down to Carlisle but none of them gave me anywhere near the deal i got from John Forkey Racing up in Watertown NY, i saved almost $400 over the best deal i could find in Carlisle with shipping!! Awesome people to deal with!! Anyways, got the dash out, doors gutted as i said, windshield out, little by little she's coming apart! Here's a few progress pics, can't wait to get to putting the new metal into place!!



Here's some of the new sheet metal from AMD!! I got both rear quarters, full trunk pan and extensions, rear valance and rear frame cross member, outer wheel houses (inners look great), full floor pan, and a driver side front inner fender! 



Dash in...Dash out! Plus you can see the road sign floor pan patches put in with what looks like roofing tar!





Windshield channel is in very good shape, factory gold paint is still nice and shiny! The dash has been out of this car before however, why i don't know...



And here you can see the quarter seem where we pealed away some of the vinyl, over all it doesn't seem to be to bad under the top but there is some rust under that bondo!



And one more of my buddy Jimmy working on the doors!!

[tan top]

 

[hemi68charger]

 

[Troy]

The quarter panel pillar seem was bondo'd over, factory would have been lead correct?

No. Hardtops had leaded seams but most vinyl top cars had filler. And it sagged so you can see the seam through the top in many cases! I have had two early 1968 Chargers with vinyl tops and both had lead in the seams from the factory but my later cars all had filler. By 1969 I'd assume that none of the vinyl top cars had leaded seams.

If you car did have any quarter work done... it's likely they'd have done it like one of mine: vinyl top lifted at bottom edge, quarter cut and overlapped in that area, weld dressed and covered with filler, and top glued back down over it. To replace the quarter all the way to the seam would mean a lot of extra work and a new top. If they were going to paint the top any way they'd have just replaced it with the quarters.

Troy

[mowdawg]

Looks like you're well under way with a clear plan.  My new favorite thread to watch!   

[Moparman01]

The quarter panel pillar seem was bondo'd over, factory would have been lead correct?

No. Hardtops had leaded seams but most vinyl top cars had filler. And it sagged so you can see the seam through the top in many cases! I have had two early 1968 Chargers with vinyl tops and both had lead in the seams from the factory but my later cars all had filler. By 1969 I'd assume that none of the vinyl top cars had leaded seams.

If you car did have any quarter work done... it's likely they'd have done it like one of mine: vinyl top lifted at bottom edge, quarter cut and overlapped in that area, weld dressed and covered with filler, and top glued back down over it. To replace the quarter all the way to the seam would mean a lot of extra work and a new top. If they were going to paint the top any way they'd have just replaced it with the quarters.

Troy

Thanks for the info!! There has had quarter work done for sure, how far or where they cut/patched/bondo'd is not really clear as of yet. If the vinyl was replaced who ever did it actually did a good job as it really looked factory to all of us, but the tag says factory black vinyl and mine was clearly white and painted black at some point (the black has flaked away in a many spots and the under the trim moldings was white).

As far as the car goes now, yup i have a clear picture in my head of how i want the car to look when done, we hope to have it fully painted by the spring which is definitely feasible, then i can take the next year or 2 and do all the re-assembly. I have to admit, looking at the pile of parts and the many tasks i have to do it's pretty over whelming to say the least, again this is the first total restoration job i've ever done! I'm debating on doing the whole dash resto myself or sending it out to be done. Budget wise, and because i want to, i'm leaning towards doing it myself, plus i'm gonna tackle alot of the mechanical stuff myself too! Luckily i have a few close friends that are hardcore Mopar like me to help, and this forum to keep me going!!  

[Moparman01]

Ok guy's, here is some pics of how NOT to fix rusty trunk or floor pans!! LOL this thin sheet metal (aluminum or tin maybe) was riveted and tared over the rusted out trunk floor. They also used the same sheet metal to fix the front floor pans on one side (road sign on the other side). We hammered and chiseled all the cheap little rivets out, then pealed the sheet metal back, as you can see the trunk is pretty much shot! I have brand new AMD trunk metal all ready to go in when the time comes!!

 

[MxRacer855]

Awesome project! I just got over this stage on my '68. Looking forward to seeing updates! 

Jeff

[Homerr]

Well the good news with that sheet metal removed you now just have a standard rusty Charger trunk.  It could have been hacked up underneath too.

[Moparman01]

Well it's been a while since i've had an update on my 68 Charger resto project but slowly but surely things are coming around! The car is now up on the rotisserie, floors are cut out, and of course a few more issues have been uncovered, nothing too unexpected tho. Progress is progress, having it on the whirly gig is a major milestone, to me anyways! Here's she is!

[six-tee-nine]

I was gonna say, time to scrape the undercoating off the floor, but you have almost no floors left, so thats a job less to do.

it's awesome to work on on a rotisserie. I dont regret building mine a second....