Interior Assembly - '69 Charger

[Dan T]

Mike,
Looking great as usual!! I may have to call on you in a few years when I get to the point you are at if I get stuck!! I'll supply the brewskies!!

We still gotta hook up before the summer is over!!

[six-tee-nine]

Great Job Shakey.


But I have a question for you :

Do you spray paint all these parts with a rattle can or with a professional spray gun because your parts look very nice.

[Shakey]

Wow - I guess it has been a while since this thread has been updated.   

Thanks for all the kind words folks and Brian, I know where you were coming from.   

With regards to my painting procedures, the majority of the parts get the rattle can treatment but if I have a lot of items that are getting the same colour or a large item like the dash, a spray gun is used for that.

Since the last update I have put together my vent windows and my door glasses.  I will add some updates as soon as I can and try and breathe some new life into this thread.

[BB1]

 

[1969chargerrtse]

Man you do great work, now I know why that upclose picture of your grille looked so perfect ( on my grille paint thread) , the whole car is done that way.  Awesome work.

[Shakey]

Man you do great work, now I know why that upclose picture of your grille looked so perfect ( on my grille paint thread) , the whole car is done that way.  Awesome work.

Thanks.

As mentioned, perhaps I'll update this today.

[BRS]

Beautiful job.....real craftmenship. It looks great! 

[bill440rt]

VERY NICE, Shakey! 

Looking forward to your progress updates, as well!!

[Shakey]

Well thanks once again folks for the compliments and encouragement!  It's been a while since I've done anything significant with the car however I can add an update to this thread of what I have done since my hiatus.  I am just starting to get back into the project over the past couple of weekends.

Not much has changed in the dash area of the car so there is nothing to update on that.  I did do some work towards getting the doors back together and when I saw Rack's thread/questions in another recent thread I figured this would be a good time to share some photos and some insight as to what I did with mine.

As usual, I took more than enough photos while taking everything apart.  I'll start with the window channel that mounts to the rear inside of the door that the door glass (actually the stainless steel strip) slides up and down in.

When I took this piece out it was in pretty rough shape.  Moisture had gotten between the rubber/felt piece and the channel itself and it had rusted pretty bad.  It was still useable, it just needed some TLC.

The first photo shows the window regulator and the rear glass channel, the second photo gives you and idea of the rust that had to be cleaned out of there with the sandblaster and the third photo shows the rubber/felt piece that is riveted to the channel and will need to be replaced.

[Shakey]

So, as mentioned, the channel had to be sandblasted to clean up all of the rust.  I used some sandblasting tape to cover the small piece of plastic that I didn't want to damage and just avoided it when sandblasting.  After it was cleaned up, it got a good coat of self etching primer and then a coat of Eastwood's Detail Gray.  I know I don't need to add a coat of paint to an item that no one will see but hey....

There is a place called Restoration Specialties in PA.  They have a great selection of items and a catalogue that can be downloaded from their site. 

They can be reached at:   http://www.restorationspecialties.com/

This is where I bought the rubber/felt piece that sits in the channel.  It had to be trimmed to fit properly.  It is on page # 18 of their catalogue and is part # AS990033.

I also take the time to clean all the threads after I wire wheel the nuts and bolts and this makes the installation process much easier.

[Shakey]

The door glasses on these cars have a lot of small parts that need to be replaced or restored before going back together and fortunately most of the items are still available.  I'll tell you what I did with mine.

On the front edge of the glass there is a piece of thin plastic with some felt lining on the outside and is held in place with two plastic window guides.  This piece slides into the rear portion of the vent window frame and the glass slides up and down in this channel.  The pieces are still available from your local Chrysler dealer, when I dig up the part number I'll post it.  I paid about $60.00 CAD each a few months back.

To install this piece, I clamped it in place with some oversized paperclips and marked the spot where the holes needed to be punched and also where it needed to be trimmed.  I used a belt punch to ensure a nice smooth hole for the plastic guides to go through.

When trimming the top, I used an old one for reference, make sure you trim far enough down so that when you install the glass into the frame it doesn't get bound up at the top where the screw that attaches the rear galvanized piece of the window frame to the front chrome piece.

The photos below show the old one as it came off of the car, and believe me, these are in good shape compared to some of the others I have seen.

[Shakey]

The new one clamped in place and trimmed.

[Shakey]

There is a bracket at the bottom of the glass that is held in place with a plastic rivet and glass setting tape.  I removed mine, cleaned it up on the wire wheel and painted it with self etching primer and Eastwood's Detail Gray.  I didn't paint the track that the window regulator roller moves in as I wanted that nice and smooth. 

The glass setting tape can also be found at Restoration Specilaties (see the link a post or two above this one) and I ended up buying 10' of all three sizes they had available - 1/32", 3/64" and 1/16" because it'll come in handy in other areas of this project.  All this stuff is is a thin layer of rubber, similar to a bicycle inner tube, there is no glue on it so it's not really a tape.

[Shakey]

At the rear edge of the door glass is a stainless steel strip that has a piece of rubber/felt weatherstrip attached to seal the door glass and quarter glass together.  This SS strip is held in place with glass setting tape (see above) and helps guide the window up and down in the channel mounted inside the door.

I removed mine from the glass by simply pulling it apart, took out the old weatherstrip piece and started to clean up the SS strip.  I started by removing the old glue that was stuck on there since 1969.  I used some lacquer thinner and an old toothbrush and it cleaned up pretty good.  I then wetsanded it with 2000 grit paper and then buffed it all to a decent shine.  Mind the piece of plastic that is located at the bottom of the strip.  We'll get to that in a minute.

I ordered the rubber/felt weatherstripping from Restoration Specialties, on page # 67 part # CH2022.  I used Permatex weatherstrip glue to put this piece in place.  It had to be trimmed slightly for the plastic piece in the bottom to be able to slide freely, until we get the spring attached.

To reattach the SS strip to the door glass I used the glass setting tape.  I cut a thin strip and wrapped it around the back of the glass.  I then gently but firmly forced the SS strip into place.  You'll want to get it as snug as possible to the top of the glass to avoid wind whistles.

[Shakey]

Again, make sure it is snug at the top of the glass.

[Shakey]

I mentioned earlier the small piece of plastic that is attached to the bottom of the SS strip that slides up and down.  In reality, it shouldn't slide freely as it is used as an anti-rattle device, it is held in place with a spring and should be snug in place, free to move only with a certain amount of force.  Nine times outta ten the spring is broken.

My Father-in-Law had a miscellanous box of springs at the farm and we were lucky enough to find a couple of pairs that we could work with.  We chose the slighly more robust pair on the left (last photo) and had to cut them a bit shorter and re-loop one end.  It seemed to work out pretty good.

[Shakey]

[Back N Black]

Nice work Mike.  Thats exactly where I'm at right now.

[Shakey]

The vent frame assembly was a project in itself.  Personally, I think re-chroming them is a must and to do it properly it has to be all torn apart.  The difficult part is getting it back together.

To get it apart, remove the glass and rubber (be careful not to tear it as they clean up pretty good and can be re-used) from the frame.

There are two pieces to the frame, the leading edge is the heavy chrome frame that will have to be redone and the galvanized piece that simply needs to be sanded and cleaned.  These two pieces are held together with metal posts that have been peened/pressed over.  There are six posts in all and from all the examples I have seen, only four are ever used, leaving two for reassembly and some ingenuity.  There is also a screw at the top that helps hold the two pieces together.

To separate these two pieces I clamped them to my work bench and used a small grinder (similar to a Dremel type tool) to grind around the peened piece of metal that is holding the two pieces together.  As mentioned, there are six posts, two at the top where only one post is peened, two in the middle, where only one post is peened and two at the bottom, where both posts are peened.  Gently grind around the peened posts so that you are able to separate the galvanized frame from the chrome frame.  When they are loose, remove the screw at the top and they will separate.

These photos will give you an idea of what I am trying to explain with regards to the peened posts.  The last photo shows the pieces separated before going out for re-chroming.

[Shakey]

After the items came back from getting re-chromed, there were some minor issues that I'll touch on later.  For now, we'll focus on getting things back together.

To reattach the galvanized frame to the chrome frame I mentioned the un-used posts that I plan on utilizing.  Remember, there were two that I could use, one at the top and and one in the middle but at the bottom I had to think of something else.  I had read about using epoxy and some folks will swear by it, other say it won't hold.  I read about using a screw at the bottom as there is plenty of space down there and it would be as solid as a rock, so that's the route I went.

Prior to putting it back together I sanded the galvanized piece really good and polished the stainless steel trim that runs along the back of the vent window frame.

Clamp the lower frame to the work bench and clean up the old posts that you peened over when taking things apart.  To ensure a firm hold while clamping this piece to the work bench, put a small piece of steel or wood in the channel as shown in the last photo. 

During the chroming process small bits will have stuck to this area and you'll find that the galvanized frame won't seat properly.  Use the same grinder and be careful as you don't want to muck up your freshly chromed piece. 

[Shakey]

Now that everything is clamped in place we were ready to drill the hole and tap it for the screw.  At the bottom of the vent frame, right in corner is where you'll want to drill the hole.  There is plenty of meat in the chrome piece for this.  Drill through the galvanized frame, right into the chrome, deep enough that the screw will grip firmly.

Then tap it creating a thread for the screw to grip.  We chose to use a nut between the galvanized frame and the chrome frame to keep things nice and snug.  It's as solid as it's gonna get.

[Shakey]

With that screw holding the bottom in place and another (factory) holding the top in place, it's now time to press the posts over to finalize the re-assembly process.  I was fortunate enough to have access to a press that, with some minor modifications, worked like a charm.

[Shakey]

The rubber vent window gaskets can now be installed.  I had two pairs, picked the nicest ones and cleaned them thoroughly with hot soap water, an old toothbrush to get into all the grooves and then sprayed them liberally with Vinylex Rubber cleaner.  They looked as good as new when I was finished and were soft and easy to work with.

I had mentioned earlier that I had some issues with my chrome pieces after replating. 

The lower channel that the vent frame sits in needed some TLC.  The lower pivot, that goes through the bottom of the vent frame had chrome removed and was thinner than it should be.  In the first photo you can see an original one and the one I got back from the plater.  Not to worry as we used a piece of brass wrapped around the pivot to ensure it was nice and snug yet still rotates.  To set the glass in the lower channel I once again used the glass setting tape.

[Shakey]

Now it's time to put the door glass and the vent frame together as one unit, preparing for installation.  We're almost ready to install them into the door but we were cutting it close on time and it wasn't something we wanted to try and rush through.  As is the case with removing them from the door, they will be installed all as one piece.

It's good if you have someone to help you with this as it can get kinda tricky.  Lay the vent frame down and carefully slide the door glass into place.  You may recall I had mentioned that I had sanded the galvanized frame, when you do this, make sure you sand the track that the door glass and it's plastic window guides slide into as it will make it much easier on you.  Be gentle when sliding this glass into place and do not force it as you will ruin the plastic strips along the front edge of the glass.

Find a safe spot to stash it until you are ready to install it into the door.

As always, many thanks to the folks here as well as to Bill from the 1970 Charger Registry and Sandy from Moparts for pointing me in the right direction.

Hope all this helps.

[rare69]

as always, great stuff shakey, and just when i needed it most you help me out with some awesome pictures and very thorough directions. thanks a bunch. you've done almost as much for my restoration as i have and you haven't even seen my car. i owe you one.