My new patina'd RR1 burgundy 1968 Charger ("Ribeye")...mostly original paint

[70B5Cuda]

The trunk floor had a big hole in the middle where water had collected. I spent about 6 hours cutting out the majority of the trunk floor and grinding spot welds.

[tan top]

Since my survivor 1969 Charger was totaled in December of 2018, I have been wanting another driver quality Charger to drive while my pro touring 1968 Charger is being built. I spent three months on the couch recovering from surgery so I spent a lot of time looking but I didn't get serious until about 6 months ago. I really wanted a B5 or Q5 Charger, but so does everyone else! We all know, most original paint cars seem to be green....IN January I found and bought a really solid R4 Charger out of Texas. It had a cheap repaint but was complete. Not two weeks after buying the R4 Charger, I came across this RR1 Charger just 30 miles from me. It had mostly original paint (with a few spot ins) and some greats options like black vinyl top, white interior, cruise control, rear defrost, power breaks, power steering, AC, 3 speed wiper, etc. It had great patina and the paint was chalky/oxidized but I knew my paint detail guy could do wonders with it. The grill is perfect!! It had been a Kansas car all its life. It spent inside for the last 5 years but was outside quite a while before that.












It spent one more night outside while I cleaned up and reorganized the shop.

awesome   love that color  

[Troy]

Awesome car!

Too late now but a product called "Goof Off" will take that glue off the roof. Not to be confused with "Goo Gone" which is useless. Lighter fluid works too but it has some hazards...

My blue (early) and bronze 68s have leaded seams. My black 1968 (late, built in May) had bondo.

Troy

We are only talking about original vinyl top cars, right?  I think it's understood that all painted roof cars were leaded, and generally thought that all vinyl top cars were Bondoed at the roof seams.

Yes, vinyl top cars. It seems (at least some) early 68s got lead either way but I imagine they stopped that for cost/time reasons.

Troy

[70B5Cuda]

I'm that guy that keeps pulling the string when it comes to his cars....

I started knocking undercoating off the bottom of the car. I wanted to stop at the seam where the rear passenger foot well pans meet the sheetmetal under the rear seat, but the vibration of the needle scaler would knock loose undercoating up to 12" ahead of where I was working so I ended up removing all the undercoating. The needle scaler has a way of finding the soft spots. The cabin floor pan had looked so good prior to removing the undercoating but now showed pin holes in both front floor pan troughs where water in collects. The worst damage was under the passenger seat, which seems very odd. I called 521 Restorations and ordered a full set of cabin floor pans. It's overkill for sure, but I've come to hate floorpan patches when I can remove and replace the whole cabin floor so easily. Tomorrow I start removing the cabin floor pans...

[70B5Cuda]

Well, the day got busy and I only had 1.5 hours to work on the floorpans but the right air chisel makes quick progress of the sheetmetal removal...I still need to go back and remove all the spot welds/sheetmetal strips.

[GreenMachine]

Do you crank down the torsion bars when you remove/install the floor?

[70B5Cuda]

Do you crank down the torsion bars when you remove/install the floor?

The engine isn't in the engine bay so there isn't much weight/torque on the box at the moment. When the the floor pans are welded in, the car will be up on stands so the torsion crossmember isn't loaded

[70B5Cuda]

I pulled the dash frame yesterday so I could clean the window channel and firewall a bit and found a Chrysler inspection tag on the A/C box. I thought that was pretty cool. I ground down a bunch of spot welds in the cabin and trunk. I was surprised and pleased with the overall condition of the wheel tub lips. They were all solid except for where the two tub halves meet at the very back.

[tan top]

 

[70B5Cuda]

I've been putting off removing the undercoating from the rear wheel tubs because its such a nasty job but I finally started in on it yesterday. Small areas of the undercoating had fallen out over the years. This way I can seal and undercoat everything from the firewall back.

I used a $30 ebay needle scaler and if you haven't used one to remove undercoating, you really need to. It FLIES off....which is why its so messy!

[hemi-hampton]

Can you post a pic of this Needle Scaler? THANKS, LEON.

[70B5Cuda]

Here's a picture. If you go to ebay and search for needle scaler, it will come up. I just buy the cheapest one. It will get you through 1 or 2 whole cars if you oil it.

Can you post a pic of this Needle Scaler? THANKS, LEON.

[Kern Dog]

Last week I bought one too and tested it on a panel. That thing works!   

[Troy]

When I posted up my experience with a needle scalar I was warned that undercoating has asbestos in it. It sure does a great (and fast) job though!

Troy

[70B5Cuda]

When I posted up my experience with a needle scalar I was warned that undercoating has asbestos in it. It sure does a great (and fast) job though!

Troy

Yikes! I sure hope not. I always wear a filtered mask but that stuff covers me...and I've stripped undercoating on 5 cars now...

[70B5Cuda]

Since removing the rear bumper, the oxidized paint that was behind the bumper has been annoying me. Sounds stupid...but its polished now!

[hemi-hampton]

Not stupid, I think I would of Polished it too.

[70B5Cuda]

I'm finally getting back on this one. I am going through the dash now. I cleaned up the dash pads....so nasty. Just cleaned them and used saddle soap to condition them. They turned out better then I expected.

[AKcharger]

keep up the good work!

[Kern Dog]

Holy crap....That looks a lot better!

[Chargerguy74]

Very impressive!

[73rallye440magnum]

Awesome car. I enjoy following your progress.

[67440chrg]

Great car keep up the good work and pictures of progress.

[fc7_plumcrazy]

keep up the good work

Carsten

[TexasStroker]

Not sure if it was the saddle soap, or elbow grease that did more, but the pads turned out really nice!