Interior Assembly - '69 Charger

[Shakey]

I have just begun to install some of the interior components on my '69 Charger R/T SE floor shifted automatic with no AC.  This thread will be similar to my Complete Steering and Suspension Rebuild thread (http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,15396.0.html) that I used last summer to ask questions, answer questions and document as much as I could with regards to the process.  This thread will be around for quite some time as I will continually add to it as I go along and the pace that I work at, well.....   

As some of you may already know, I used Lizard Skin as a heat & sound barrier on the interior of my car which is why you see the sheet metal coated in black rather than the F6 paint that it had from the factory.  If you're interested in reading about that process, you can read more here:

Interior Insulation - Heat, Noise & Rust Prevention - http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,26217.0.html

After that was taken care of, I was able to start with the assembly process.  I was very pleased to reach this point as I spent a lot of time last summer restoring parts only to have them be tucked away into storage.  Although I knew I was accomplishing a lot, it didn't seem that way and there were times when I'd get frustrated and discouraged doing a lot of work and not seeing any immediate benefit, which I know is common when restoring a vehicle.  The same could be said about purchasing parts, months in advance, only to have them sit in boxes stashed away.  As frustrating as this may be, it is worth as the assembly process is moving along at a decent pace now that I have all of these items at my disposal and ready to go.

I started the assembly process by installing the under-dash insulation, wiper transmission, throttle pedal bracket and the firewall insulation.  The insulation was purchased at YO and the wiper transmission and throttle pedal bracket were restored by myself.  The throttle pedal bracket was pretty straightforward, sandblast and paint so there was no thread started for that however I did show off my wiper linkage back in September in this thread:

Wiper Linkage Restoration - http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?topic=17700.msg196353

Next was the parking brake pedal and brake pedal assemblies, which were also restored last year.  The parking brake pedal went in first and before I tightened everything up I installed the front-to-rear cable and the grommet to make sure everything was going to fit like it was supposed to.  I sprayed some grease onto the ratchet assembly to ensure ease of operation for the next 40 years.  The brake pedal assembly went in with no problems, other than some nicked knuckles.  You can read about the restoration of these parts here:

Brake Pedal & Parking Brake Pedal Restoration - http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,18242.0.html

The heater box was ready to go in.  I took the time to test the motor and ensure the wheel was balanced before installing this piece.  I had all of the gaskets installed and installation was easy as although I thought I could use a hand installing this, I did it alone and it worked out fine.  The fresh air vent box on the drivers side also went in with no issues.  Yes it can be awkward laying on your back trying to get it in there but all in all, no worries.  You can read about the restoration of these items here:

Heater Box Restoration - http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,13150.0.html

Next on the list is the dash assembly & wiring and then I'll be under the hood installing some mechanical parts like the brake booster, vacuum canister & hoses, some wiring and a few other odds and ends.

It'll be a while before I get back to the farm so bear with me as the next update will be a few weeks from now.

Here are some progress photos.

[Shakey]

 

[resq302]

Mike,

Youre hired to help me do mine over when it needs to be done.  You certainly have high standards (which is ok in my book)

[Back N Black]

Looking good!

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Looks great Mike!

[Ghoste]

Just a question on the side here Shakey, but with all the time you spend on the road, do you find it a detriment to restoring the car or does it help?  What I mean to say is, does proceeding slowly help you to continue with the attention to detail you keep showing, or does it frustrate the hell out of you and make you want to rush when you get a chance at the car?

[red72chrgr]

oooooo shiny stuff  Looks good and gonna look great when it's all done. 

[Rack]

As usual, excellent work Shakey. You're raising the bar, that's for sure. That's a good thing.

[Shakey]

Just a question on the side here Shakey, but with all the time you spend on the road, do you find it a detriment to restoring the car or does it help?  What I mean to say is, does proceeding slowly help you to continue with the attention to detail you keep showing, or does it frustrate the hell out of you and make you want to rush when you get a chance at the car?

Thanks for all the compliments folks as usual I appreciate them and as I have said in the past, there are many members here on the site that have helped with questions/answers as well as the inspiration to do it right the first time.   

Now as far as being on the road so much, well honestly I don't think it gets in the way.  The reason I say that is because I don't have access to the car throughout the week.  It's stashed at my In-Laws farm about an hour West of my house so I only get to see/work on it on weekends, and not every one at that.  My parents live an hour East of us and believe it or not, they want to see us sometimes too, in reality I think it's my children they want to see  .  We also have friends that we get together with on weekends, so out of a month, I may only get to work on my car about two weekends outta four.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.

I've learned to be patient with this car as there are aspects of the project that can hold up other tasks as I go.  When I bought the car, the fella that sold it to me told me that "with three solid weeks of work, you could have this thing on the road".  He may have been right but I chose to dive right in since the car was already apart.  It was a perfect time to put new wiring in and to restore all the items that could be restored.  When I am done with this car, I want to enjoy it and not have to work on something everytime I come home from a run out in the country.  I don't want to dismantle it every winter to fix this or that, I want it done right the first time and by paying attention to all the details now, leaves me with the satisfaction of knowing that everything will work properly on the car once it's done.  And yes Ghoste, it's frustrating as hell moving at this pace but.....   

I won't be out there until sometime in June and I will continue to document my progress as I go.  I guess a positive aspect of not working on it all the time is the ability to think ahead and plan the next task, order the parts I need and research how it should be done.

Thanks again folks.

[mikepmcs]

Mike
Very nice as usual.  Thank you for sharing your journey with us and taking the time to post pictures and provide detail that we will always have, to refer back too, in case we have questions.
It is invaluable.

v/r
Mike

[Ghoste]

I look forward to seeing it when it's done.  You folks in Toronto are just close enough that I want to get around see the cars but just far enough that it's too far to drive.  Maybe someday we'll have a Canadian Charger meet/ Ontario Region.

[toqwik]

Please keep the pics coming.  Hopefully in the next few weeks, I will be at the same stage....

[Shakey]

Sorry it has taken me this long to update this thread but there's been a lot of activity in and out of the shop.

Some of the items I have been working on are the dash, the door latches, the quarter window regulators and the under dash wiring.

I'll start with the dash assembly.

Although the windshield in my car was not broken, it was definitely showing it's age so it was decided that it will be replaced prior to the car going on the road.  Since I was going to pull the windshield, I might as well do it now and restore my dash as well.  The dash itself wasn't in too bad of shape, the painted surface on the top looked pretty good and the pad was good but I wanted to restore the VIN tag (you can read about the process here:  http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,28336.0.html) and figured I might as well take the time to redo the dash as well.  Not really a big deal as it was already stripped bare.

I used a paint/furniture stripper that I have spoke about in the past, very potent and powerful stuff that makes things very easy.  Simply brush it on nice and thick and wipe away with numerous rags after a few minutes.  The dash was down to bare metal in no time.  I then cleaned it up really good with soap and water and sanded down all the areas I could get at with a 1000 grit and some water splashed on the dash.  I got it really smooth and then washed it again with soap and water.  I let it dry and then applied a few coats of Eastwood's Self Etching Primer.  We then painted it with SEM Trim Black, it got about 3 coats of that.

Door Latches

I was also working on the door latches.  I gutted the insides of the doors and photographed all the pieces that came out as I knew it would be some time before I could get at them.  For all the linkage pieces I simply cleaned them up using the wire wheel.  Got them somewhat shiny and stashed them while I worked on the latches.  I used the same stripper on the latches to clean the years of hardened grease and the paint that was on them from the previous owner.  Once they were down to bare metal I also gave them a couple of coats of primer.  I have read about the gold cad plating process but I took the shortcut and painted them with the Eastwood's Gold Cad paint.

When I reinstalled them I used a clear rubber hose around the linkages to keep the rattling to a minimum.  I used a lubricant inside the hoses to ensure they do not bind up.  I cleaned all of the linkage clips with the wire wheel.  I had my door handles re-chromed and they turned out very nice.

Quarter Window Regulators

I've heard a lot of horror stories about these things and although they were a pain, in reality - they weren't that bad to deal with.  Yes, getting hem in and out can be trying but all in all, not too bad.  Same as the latches, I took numerous photos to ensure an easy re-assembly process.  To restore them I simply used the wire wheel for almost everything and a small wire wheel attached to an electric drill for the larger surfaces.  I feel they cleaned up pretty good and I didn't bother to paint them.  I bought the roller kit from YO a while back and used what I could from the kit.  There were a couple of rollers that looked too difficult to replace so after a quick inspection and cleaning, I moved on.

Dash Wiring Harness

I bought this from YO and prior to installing it in the dash I used my wiring diagram and labelled all of the wires so that when it comes time to start installing the cluster and other items in the dash I can simply locate the wires and plug them in.  I figured it would be easier to do this while it was on my work table than lying on my back on the floor.  The harness fit in no problem and the lengths look to be correct.  I'll update you later when I start plugging stuff in.

[Shakey]

 

[Shakey]

And some more progress photos.

[Shakey]

 

[Shakey]

Wiring harneses come up quite a bit so I thought I'd take a few shots of the M&H Harness only available at YO.  Nice stuff!

[DC_1]

very nice

[Charger-Bodie]

its looking great but i have 1 question , why do so many people put the dash in and THEN put it together? it is SO much easier to do a really nice job routing the harness , adjusting the pads etc when its on a stand! then you just flop it in hook up the heater cables speedo cables and snap in the bulkhead and viola done.

[Shakey]

its looking great but i have 1 question , why do so many people put the dash in and THEN put it together? it is SO much easier to do a really nice job routing the harness , adjusting the pads etc when its on a stand! then you just flop it in hook up the heater cables speedo cables and snap in the bulkhead and viola done.

I can't speak for so many people but my reasoning was that I have plenty of work yet to be done which includes farming the car out for a vinyl top and a headliner.  I have a cluster that was restored by Redline that I have plenty of bread into and it's much safer in the basement as opposed to sitting in the dusty garage for the next few months.  It'll be a while before I install the front padding and as far as routing the wiring harness, I did not find it that difficult to while the dash was in.

Perhaps when I do my second restoration I'll consider assembling the dash first but for now, things seem to be going OK.

[Charger-Bodie]

its looking great but i have 1 question , why do so many people put the dash in and THEN put it together? it is SO much easier to do a really nice job routing the harness , adjusting the pads etc when its on a stand! then you just flop it in hook up the heater cables speedo cables and snap in the bulkhead and viola done.

I can't speak for so many people but my reasoning was that I have plenty of work yet to be done which includes farming the car out for a vinyl top and a headliner.  I have a cluster that was restored by Redline that I have plenty of bread into and it's much safer in the basement as opposed to sitting in the dusty garage for the next few months.  It'll be a while before I install the front padding and as far as routing the wiring harness, I did not find it that difficult to while the dash was in.

Perhaps when I do my second restoration I'll consider assembling the dash first but for now, things seem to be going OK.

just so you know i wasnt tring to be a a$$ just stating the way i feel . by the way the results of you work on that charger is very very nice !!

[keepat]

its looking great but i have 1 question , why do so many people put the dash in and THEN put it together? it is SO much easier to do a really nice job routing the harness , adjusting the pads etc when its on a stand! then you just flop it in hook up the heater cables speedo cables and snap in the bulkhead and viola done.

[tan top]

 real nice job as always Shakey   , look foward to seeing more pictures as you progress 

[resq302]

Mike,

You should print all of these postings out and make a nice book when you are finished with the car.  It would certainly show off all of the hard work that you put into it.

[Ghoste]

AGREED!!  There is always room for another Charger restoration book on the market too in my opinion.