My '68 Charger resto/build!

[MxRacer855]

 , the household must make sacrifices. If bringing you car inside is part of that, then it must be done! 

PlainfieldCharger... you wouldn't happen to live in Plainfield, IL would you?? I'm in aurora. That's next door to me if you did.

Jeff

[PlainfieldCharger]

Yes, Plainfield IL.....Looks like I got a Charger neighbor!!

[MxRacer855]

Hell yeah man! 

That's so rad! I'm literally at the intersection of Kirk and Butterfield if you're familiar with that (Fermilab, Marmion academy, Outlet Mall, etc.)

I'm actually going to Tamaraz's in Plainfield to pick up a front valance this week for the body guy!

So cool to hear! you have a few more "Charger neighbors" as well! 

Jeff

[PlainfieldCharger]

I just drove through there today. I am on the north side of Plainfield about 4 miles south from Tamaraz's. 135th and Rt 59. Looks like you having some fun there. I will have to drive the car out in the spring to start the year off right...
Kevin

[MxRacer855]

Please do Kevin! 
Not that I need it, but give me that extra motivation to hurry up! I'm shooting for Fall to have a running driving car after 2 years!

[fy469rtse]

Jeff , yeh started one , havnt updated for a while but from almost the start , do a search on fy469rtse it will come up
was a big plain rusty stripped pig ,
chassis rails to the rear  , trunk floor bottoms of qtr's outer sections trunk floor, speaker panel rear deck and window frames , door skins front valance , i new fender ,

[MxRacer855]

I'll check it out! 

Definitely sounds like a project! 

[tsmithae]

That's the recurring joke that just doesn't seem to go away! 

I agree. It will definitely be worth it. I'll keep 'em coming! 

It's the joke I kept hearing when I started on mine! Hell, I even told the joke at my expense several times!    

I'm sorry I never managed to meet up with you, Mx.  Life got crazy, I moved away from Chicago, and my car is nowhere near done. I did swing by Tamaraz's before, too bad I never realized you were out there Plainfield!   Once I get my car done, I will probably be all over the Illinois car meets/cruises though! 

Nice to see some fellow Ill-n-annoyed Charger folk!

[MxRacer855]

I give you loads of credit for that one! 

We'll meet at some point in time! Hopefully when our cars are good to go! 

Where are you living now tsmithae? Away from Chicago, but still in the general area!?

I just found out there is a member from Plainfield! Happy to have so many fellow comrades out here!

Jeff

[PlainfieldCharger]

I have meet AWESOME people from this site so far as I went to Carlisle this year. Ride Like Hell came down to Joliet and came to meet up at the local show from Canada. 70Moparmann with his 68 Charger to some shows!! Got to see Bill Mann 69 Charger. Meet Tuffcat and his old man, BannaDan. Any of you local guys want to get the cars together and go to a local show I am up for that. Here is a the link from this year from the Plainfield Cruise night...http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,111720.0.html

[tsmithae]

I am living in Urbana, which is about 2 hours south of the city.  Life dealt me an interesting card and I am going back to school.  Plan is to spend a little time getting used to college again at a community school and transfer into UIUC and an eventual engineering degree.

I'd love to meet up with you and some of the other guys on here.  I don't know how long it will be for my car as this card I've been dealt is forcing me to reduce, if not eliminate, the money I spend on the car.  I hope to have the car in primer before I start school... not holding my breath though.

Hopefully I can meet both you gentlemen sooner than later! 

[MxRacer855]

Definitely guys! I'm going to respond to both of you in this one post. I CANNOT wait to meet either of you!

Plainfield- That Charger of yours looks great! If you don't have anything going on during the winter and have a few hours here or there to kill time, come on over and see the project! We'll be dropping in a full 4 link/coil over suspension setup with discs in all 4 corners. It would be awesome to swap advice/stories from one '658 guy to another! 

Tsmithae - I originally went to school for mechanical engineering at NIU. I actually switched to special education after my associates and pursued that for a bit. With the job market being so sketchy right now (even for people who are graduating with degrees), I jumped at the first chance I could get to get an electrical union job with the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and jump on board at ComEd. That's what's really getting this project rolling. I would totally advocate for you to inquire about a job through the union if it interests you. If you get in, sign up for apprenticeships and go to lineman school, you could pull some serious $$$. Every job in the electrical union is a great job. You don't need any experience, they're NOT even allowed to bring people on without re-training them to some degree. You'll be set for life with work, great benefits, and retirement stuff. Let me know if that's something you're interested in and I'll do my best to help you out with everything I know/can do! 

Jeff

Gentleman

[MxRacer855]

Here was a bad section of the rear frame rail that we cut out and replaced. The rest of the rail was good, just needed to be cleaned up.

Believe it or not... a lot of that "rust" looking stuff inside the rail was red clay! I think the car went the Dukes of Hazard route for a while...

[MxRacer855]

Perfect fit! 

[MxRacer855]

All better. 

[MxRacer855]

We obviously had to remove all of the undercoat on the inside of the quarter (removed all of it everywhere anyway!) to see how far up the decay went.

When we found a good stopping point, we made sure it wasn't on a body line and then we cut the whole bottom off.

The upper portion was in great shape and had no pitting or rot.

[MxRacer855]

Here is the passenger one cleaned up. This was replaced when the car got the half-ass resto the last time around.

You can still see some rot on the wheel wells/housing that we took care of later.

[MxRacer855]

Here's when we started welding the perches, valance, rear cross member, tail, panel, etc. back in.

[MxRacer855]

Here's the back side.

[MxRacer855]

Bottom of quarter tacked back in before we threw a full weld in.

[MxRacer855]

Everything is back in before the trunk floor and extensions are put in. I don't have any pictures of it (I think I forgot to take them because I was so frustrated with the mess  ) but I sandblasted the inside of the rails and all around them completely before we EDP coated everything. I wanted to do this even though the car was going to get fully sand blasted again because there was a lot of spots (like the inner rail) that were obviously going to get covered and access is going to be lost. At least that will all remain protected. 

[MxRacer855]

It's incredible how happy this made me from where it was before. The stuff actually looked smaller because it wasn't so globbed and hacked up!

[MxRacer855]

Hmmm... missing some pics. I guess I wasn't as good with documenting everything as I thought.

I missed the whole trunk floor, bumper brace, extension install. But here's us finishing up the back end. It's all new metal.

Not as cool as you guys that literally cut everything out, but this was second best. Keep in mind, I still didn't have a positive direction with the project yet, and I was working off of a limited budget still.

[tsmithae]

Way cool!   

[fy469rtse]

I like how you skip ahead so you don't show any of us guys up with how quick you can work ,
Huh don't want to show off  good quality work Jeff   
Another one being saved