Hemi Charger Restoration thread (Updated 5/28/10 - Nearly complete!!!)

[moparstuart]

  where has she been and no updates , wasnt it almost finished   

[69_500]

I'm not sure what is up with Vickie. haven't heard anything from her in quite a while. Last I knew the car was repainted after the fire, and was ready for reassembly.

[bzabodyn]

Good news - I'll be heading to Taylor Saturday morning to check out the shell of the car because it's arriving back from the strip tank in Arlington this afternoon... also said they've been messing with some misc. parts here and there (and the quarter panels are in also) so we'll have some updated pictures to post this weekend... I'm excited!

Yeah for PROGRESS!

BZ

[ChargerSG]

  Progress

[bzabodyn]

Ok, so I had a chance to pop in to Jeff's on Saturday morning and got to check out the car fresh from its acid bath... and surprising it came back no worse for wear... The pictures speak for themselves, but everything that appeared to be solid was solid, and everything that was swiss-cheese, well... it was swiss cheese.

[bzabodyn]

Pics of worse parts of body...

[bzabodyn]

Couple of pics of HEMI cleaned up... Galen Govier was at Jeff's shop a couple of weeks ago and he had a chance to go back through the motor and authenticated what was "original" and what wasn't - the only things that were changed were the plug wires and the heater hose - everything else is date coded original to this engine...

[bzabodyn]

Few updated pics of the HEMI Superbird that they are restoring... (in the paint process)

[bzabodyn]

Galen being down was the main reason there was so much crazy Mopar iron in the shop... here are pics of a 440-6pk and HEMI 4-spd Challenger... The black/orange stripe car will be auctioned off at RM Auctions in Scottsdale in January...

[bzabodyn]

And the icing on the cake - '70 HEMI/Auto Charger!

[69bronzeT5]

I have a sudden craving for swiss cheese.

[The70RT]

I have a sudden craving for swiss cheese.

Holy moly.......

[PocketThunder]

Holy Crap.  I fear that my car will look like that if i have it dipped, well the floor anyways, not the upper structure.  So do you stand there and look at your car and then look at the '70 and wonder to yourself, "Will my car ever get to this level?"

[Back N Black]

I don't think i would have the courage to push forward on the car. But where there is a will there is a way.
I hope everything goes well for you.

[Needa68]

Think you could ask the shop guys what the paint code is on that Chally with the red R/T striping? Also how many coats of clear went on would be mightly helpful.

Great project, a worthy persuit. Keep the pix coming.

Robert

[69*F5*SE]

Keep pushin' on brother, keep pushin' on   

[bzabodyn]

The beauty of it is - they make most of the metal now!  One thing I didn't get a picture of was a '69 GTX 440-4spd in the back that just had the AMD 1pc full trunk floor panel installed - and it looked spot on... the detail and crispness of the lines looked really good...

We are actually going to get the prototype roof skin to use for the charger, so all we really need to source are the inner/outer sail panels... the guys at Jeff's actually said they've done worse (including a rare color combo HEMI Cuda that ended up selling for over half a mil in '07), so they are looking forward to this stage... One of the quarter from Classic Body Designs was damaged in shipping, so we're waiting for its replacement and then it's time to get cranking...

No worries - it's in the right hands (now)!

BZ

[bzabodyn]

I don't think i would have the courage to push forward on the car. But where there is a will there is a way.
I hope everything goes well for you.

Thanks - but, if it wasn't for me, who would get this car back on the road?  Just hope the Montgomery County D.A. can get me back some of my money from Craig Wood/American Classics so I don't have to pay for the resto twice!

BZ

[bzabodyn]

Think you could ask the shop guys what the paint code is on that Chally with the red R/T striping? Also how many coats of clear went on would be mightly helpful.

Great project, a worthy persuit. Keep the pix coming.

Robert

I looked at the tag briefly (original) - Both cars were TX9 cars but I don't remember the code for it's stripe - they called it the "Halloween Challenger" and mentioned that's the right stripe color... probably will find out more when info is posted on RM's website for the Jan auction... (it's dirty, btw and the flash caused that sparkle-type effect)

BZ

[Charger-Bodie]

BZ,

Has some one been in there before on youre Charger? It looks in the pics like alot of brazing?

[tan top]

BZ,

Has some one been in there before on youre Charger? It looks in the pics like alot of brazing?

yeah thats what i thought  ...

[bzabodyn]

Yep - found out there was a little rear frame tweakage caused by a rear collision - when Galen initially did his report, he noted that it appeared there was some rear quarter replacement, etc (actually documented the code on the inside of the driver's rear quarter when it was disassembled showing it was not original)... had to have been done 30+ years ago....

BZ

[Charger_Fan]

No worries - it's in the right hands (now)!

It definitely sounds like it! That's gotta give you a bit of relief, I would think.
Looking forward to progress pics, it's gonna be beautiful when it's done.

[bzabodyn]

Thanks - another thing - the donor 383-4spd car will be SAVED!!!!

They mentioned several people have asked about it so we are going to bundle the car/motor/tranny/misc parts and sell it in a bundle to apply to his bill... so anyone in the market for big-block, 4-speed (they also mentioned they thought it *might* be an SE) project car, contact Jeff Snyder @ (512) 365-5346 for more info...

BZ

[Dans 68]

Nice that the big block 4-speed will be saved. But I don't think any 383 Chargers were SE's  . Regardless, the restoration is looking fine. 

Dan

Edit...the Red Book states that the SE option was available on the base Charger and R/T in '69, and on the 500 and R/T in '70.