SO IT BEGINS....my 69 Charger!!!!--August 29/2007 **Updated March 18th, 2019**

[tan top]

looking good Cody !! great stuff      

nice set of slots 

[Baldwinvette77]

Awsome  

[TUFCAT]

Great effort Cody!    I also like the signboard.  Nice touch.
Keep up the steady work...pretty soon it will be done.    Make a "doable" plan and stick to it.

You know it only takes time and money right? (very cheesy smile)

[Ghoste]

Great work Cody!  (I was wondering when you update it here )  It'll be interesting to follow it over the next phases.

[Old Moparz]

I like the slotted mags on it, looks cool. 

[hemi68charger]

Very nice........ It is a great feeling driving one's beloved classic to a car show and it's even sweeter when you make it back home with no worries... 

[69bronzeT5]

Thanks guys!

[family_dodge]

Wow—so I got sidetracked from my work this morning and read through this thread. It reads like a coming of age novel where there are two characters: a charger and a young man.

Great storyline! So cool to see the car in a show at the end.

Hope you are doing well, 69BronzeT5!

[69bronzeT5]

Wow—so I got sidetracked from my work this morning and read through this thread. It reads like a coming of age novel where there are two characters: a charger and a young man.

Great storyline! So cool to see the car in a show at the end.

Hope you are doing well, 69BronzeT5!

Thanks! Yep, doing well! Been picking away at disassembling the car to get it blasted.

[69bronzeT5]

I thought I'd update this. After the Mopar show in July 2014, I left the car alone. I had plans every year to get it running and driving as-is but never had the space. As most of you know, I've had my '69 Charger for 20 years now (man, time flies!) and have never driven it. In early 2016, rather than getting it running and driving as-is, I decided to start the restoration so I started taking it apart while working with the tight space in my grandparent's garage. I removed the front fenders, grille, bumpers, tail lights etc. In summer 2016, I bought my '71 R/T and the plan changed. I decided I wanted to fully restore the '71 R/T first when funds would permit and went back to my plan of getting the '69 running and driving as-is. The '71 R/T got put into storage and the '69 continued to sit half torn apart. Last year at this time, my now estranged father had offered to bring the '69 to the shop he was working at to get it running. I bought a bunch of parts needed to do so and was getting ready to bring it there. Then he made some bad decisions (which is no surprise with him) and got fired and locked up; we'll just leave it at that. I ended up putting the boxes of parts I bought for it in the trunk of the car and put the cover back on it.

When I had storage issues with my '71 R/T and made the decision to put a four-post hoist in my garage, I decided I'd bring the '69 home to start working on it and put the '71 R/T in it's space at my grandparent's. When I get more shop space (we are working on buying a bigger place in the next year), the '71 R/T will be torn apart to start the restoration but in the meantime, with the '69 finally home, I have started to get to work getting it back together and getting it driveable.  

[69bronzeT5]

Bolted the front end back on the other day. Now it's looking like a car again!

My original plan was to get it running, do the brakes (and upgrade the fronts to disc with a used E-body set-up I have) and a new fuel system. The car has quite a bit of rust in various areas but the main areas that needed to be addressed before it could be driven were the torsion bar crossmember and front floor pans. My plan for now was to patch the front floor pans and get my grandpa to weld caps over the crossmember. Upon further inspection of the crossmember, it's a lot worse than I thought to the point where I don't feel comfortable with caps. That being said, the plan is to get the car running still right now just to see if runs. Then I will be getting a new torsion bar crossmember and a full front floor pan and getting a good friend to weld them in (my grandpa is a heavy duty welder so he can do the caps no problem but not the actual sheet metal replacement).

[69bronzeT5]

Man, time flies. 1998 to 2019.

[VegasCharger]

Great update! 

If you do decide to get a new torsion bar crossmember I have a nice original from a SW car.

[69bronzeT5]

Great update! 

If you do decide to get a new torsion bar crossmember I have a nice original from a SW car.

I'd be very interested in the very near future. I'm definitely going to need to get one.

[VegasCharger]

.....I'd be very interested in the very near future. I'm definitely going to need to get one.

Okay sounds good. I'll start getting it prepped. I was going to do that anyway for the upcoming swap meets. Then I seen your story and thought I would mention it to you.