hemigeno's Daytona restoration - a few more tweaks... again!

[hemigeno]

Thanks, guys - and I do hope that the pictures & other information are of either help or enjoyment.  

I'm more of a lurker in the resto threads (sadly, I have nothing to contribute ), but hemigeno, please don't ever stop posting pics/info.  Not only do they provide a source of info, but of inspiration as well.

...And of course, they are a source of blinding envy. 

Good luck with the rest of your project.

Thanks ds, I hope the rest of the project goes smooth and perhaps a little faster - but I'll be happy with whenever it gets done, as long as it's done right.

amazing stuff. 

about the upper door frame paint--wasn't that masked off so (lots of) paint didn't get in the doors?  i thought there were more defined lines than the organic shoot-and-cover that's on your car. 

am I just wrong, or did some cars come that way?  plant specific? 

Good question Doug.  I have pictures on my work PC of the car's original door frames, so if no one else chimes in before Monday I'll check that out and report back...

[maxwellwedge]

The UDF color was put on first, masked off (really crudely) and the exterior color was applied anywhere and almost everywhere. Here are some pics of Doc...don't have a good overall pic but I can get one in a few days.

[roger440]

Being newish here, ive not seen this resto thread before. What can i say - just awesome. The level of detail and the standard of work is something i can only dream about!

[tan top]

looks Real good HemiGeno     ..... with all your attention to how  Creative done their handy work ...... just goes to show how they were rushed through ................  awesome stuff ..looking forward to seeing more progress pictures .......................

[FJMG]

    WOW, WOW and more WOW. Sure looks great Gene. This incredible level of detail had me going to the beginning of this thread to see if you posted any pics of the dutchmen panel (beneath the package tray) and I didn't notice any before pics. Was yours full of disk sander marks on the hamtramck paintjob where creative might have ground down to weld the plug in? If so, do you plan on having it recreated and who is going to have the cojones to grind up that wonderful paintjob!! Thanks for the pics, I, like others that have replied, constantly check this thread to see if there is any updates. My wife must think I look like that dog on turner and hooch with all my drool!

[maxwellwedge]

Gene is going the extra 10 miles for sure! Go Hemigeno! I have one Daytona where the grinding on that panel is minimal and another (Doc) where they ground the snot out of it - like they weren't sure how far they should go with it.

[hemigeno]

Being newish here, ive not seen this resto thread before. What can i say - just awesome. The level of detail and the standard of work is something i can only dream about!

Thanks, roger - this has been a dream of mine for a long time too.

looks Real good HemiGeno     ..... with all your attention to how  Creative done their handy work ...... just goes to show how they were rushed through ................  awesome stuff ..looking forward to seeing more progress pictures .......................

Thanks again, tan top - rushed through isn't the half of it when Creative Industries was involved.  The workers used to have races to see who could (re?)paint a car the fastest - and you don't win the race by slowing down to be neat.

    WOW, WOW and more WOW. Sure looks great Gene. This incredible level of detail had me going to the beginning of this thread to see if you posted any pics of the dutchmen panel (beneath the package tray) and I didn't notice any before pics. Was yours full of disk sander marks on the hamtramck paintjob where creative might have ground down to weld the plug in? If so, do you plan on having it recreated and who is going to have the cojones to grind up that wonderful paintjob!! Thanks for the pics, I, like others that have replied, constantly check this thread to see if there is any updates. My wife must think I look like that dog on turner and hooch with all my drool!

Thanks, Robert!  I dug through my "before" pictures and didn't find one of the dutchman panel you asked about.  Yet another area I'm wishing I had documented better prior to the teardown.  What pictures I do have of the general area show a lot of barn dust and other crud (and the back glass was still in, which made it harder yet to see) - but I don't think there was a whole lot of grinding work done.

I think Vance is still planning a lot of minor detail work in this area, such as replicating the weld marks where that same brace was installed, some of which are visible (from just the right angle) underneath.  No reason to do weld marks without also working on the paint somewhat to replicate the grinding marks too.

Gene is going the extra 10 miles for sure! Go Hemigeno! I have one Daytona where the grinding on that panel is minimal and another (Doc) where they ground the snot out of it - like they weren't sure how far they should go with it.

Jim, the 10 miles we may or may not be going will still put this car several miles behind a lightly-restored timecapsule like your DocTona and still a full lightyear behind the former McBryde 'Bird. 

Doc's duchman panel was sure ground around on, wasn't it?       You'd think Creative would have been practiced up on what it took to install a window plug from the C500 conversions, but apparently there was a new guy on the job the day they did Doc...

Also, I looked through all my pictures and could not find one of the original doors' upper door frame paint.  I had the car and the doors sitting around for how many years and didn't snap but a fraction of the pictures I should have...     In terms of what plans Vance has for detailing the doors, I dunno - but the upper door frame application does resemble something like a 'Runner moreso than a Charger.  Another thing added to the list to ask about, since I'm not sure if you can see the edge of the upper door frame peeking out from around the door pad and window weatherstrips.

[maxwellwedge]

Gene - I am in the middle of 2 full resto's right now (AAR and 70 Charger) and I am just happy there is someone else as sick as I am out there! 

[hemigeno]

My Daytona turns 40 today according to the scheduled production date, but I didn't have time to send a Birthday Card...   

I'll be going north this Thursday, and will be checking out the car's progress on Friday - plus Vance and I are taking the engine to a dynamometer shop on Friday too.  I'll have HP and Torque numbers to report next week, plus I'll explain what all Vance had to do to the AFB carburetor to tame it.  Quite the headache.

[hemi68charger]

Happy Birthday !!!!!!   

Geno, any close-ups of the bezel/lanyard system for the hood?

Troy

[69_500]

Troy you should have some mail. with a few close up photo's of the lanyards. If you need a larger view let me know I shrunk them(to about 30% size) to put in the email.

[WINGR]

Hey Gene, she's looking real sweet. It's going to be awesome when done, congrat's. Thanks for sharing the pics.

WINGR/Steve

[hemigeno]

Thanks Steve,

Wanna skip a day at work and drop by Vance's on Friday?   

[hemi68charger]

Thanks Steve,

Wanna skip a day at work and drop by Vance's on Friday?   

Ah Man !!!!!! Some people have all the luck !!!!  All I got to do today was tinker with my orange car and take her to the gas station for some 93.. 

Mopar trips are the best........

[WINGR]

Thanks Steve,

Wanna skip a day at work and drop by Vance's on Friday?   

I'll have to see if that is a possibility, thanks for mentioning it. What time do you think you will be there Gene? Are you spending the whole day there?

Steve

[hemigeno]

I'll have to see if that is a possibility, thanks for mentioning it. What time do you think you will be there Gene? Are you spending the whole day there?

Steve,

Davtona (Dave H.) and I will be getting to Vance's probably around 9am Friday morning, give or take a bit.  We won't be hitting the motel until around 1-2am Friday morning, so my usual start time out of the blocks will be delayed a bit (our fearless leader Troy knows what time of the morning I usually roll).

That being said, one of the major activities is loading up the engine and taking it to the dyno shop.  I'm not exactly sure where that is located... Grand Rapids, perhaps?  I don't know if there's one around Grand Haven, Holland or Zeeland.  Vance may have everything ready to go when we get there, or we may not head out until the afternoon - hard to say.  If you want to give it a whirl, I can PM my cell number so you don't have to play the "Where's Hemigeno" board game...  batteries not included...

[Davtona]

Thanks Steve,

Wanna skip a day at work and drop by Vance's on Friday?   

Ah Man !!!!!! Some people have all the luck !!!!  All I got to do today was tinker with my orange car and take her to the gas station for some 93.. 

Mopar trips are the best........

I'll have to see if that is a possibility, thanks for mentioning it. What time do you think you will be there Gene? Are you spending the whole day there?

Steve,

Davtona (Dave H.) and I will be getting to Vance's probably around 9am Friday morning, give or take a bit.  We won't be hitting the motel until around 1-2am Friday morning, so my usual start time out of the blocks will be delayed a bit (our fearless leader Troy knows what time of the morning I usually roll).

Yup a day off work spent tinkering with a Red Daytona that is luck!!!!  Tomorrow will drag at work for sure. But then   

[WINGR]

Hey Gene, as much as I would love to meet up with you guys on Friday and stare at that awesome Daytona, I have too much going on at work so yet again I am going to have to wait for my chance. Thanks again for the invite and if you ever get over my way when your in town, you'll have to come by.

Have a safe and enjoyable trip.

Steve

[69_500]

Darn, another missed chance at seeing your car Gene. I actually requested to have tomorrow off of work (as of wednesday) but guess wasn't a long enough notice for them. Access denied to me.

[hemigeno]

Steve, sorry you couldn't make it - maybe next time...

Danny, I'd have given you more notice about the trip up north, but didn't think that your coaching responsibilities with the little league baseball season were over yet.  I'm thinking the next trip will be on the way back from Carlisle, by taking the "shortcut" home through Michigan... maybe through both Detroit and Grand Haven if I can spare the time away from work.

It was a good trip overall this time 'round, as there was some progress to report plus some parts issues were resolved as well.  No dyno sheet to report just yet (long story), but that will hopefully happen soon.

I'll update everything next week when I get a chance.

[69_500]

Tuesday night will be the last game that I am coaching for baseball this year. I think Dakota will be on the "travel all star" team, but I'm not signing up to coach that headache. I just don't want you car to feel left out, I mean I haven't taken a photo of it in nearly a year.

[hemigeno]

OK, I finally had time to resize all the pictures from the last visit to check on the car a few weeks ago.  Had a dickens of a time getting the short video of the engine running on a test stand to work, and I HOPE the link below actually works:

Engine Test Stand Movie Link

Anyway, we weren't able to take the engine to the dyno shop as planned.  I was told the owner of the shop had an accident a few days prior to my visit, and had cut his hand pretty badly.  His wife told Vance that he was popping Vicodin pills like they were candy and wasn't going to be much help around the shop for a while.  Vance has been to that shop enough and knows them well enough that we could have still used their dyno equipment to test/tune the engine to a point - but the owner is the only guy who can run the computer equipment which would give us numerical feedback on how the engine is running.  I had taken a day off from work just for that purpose, but we didn't know how bad things actually were until that Friday morning.  Oh well.

One thing that Vance discovered recently is that the reproduction fan belts look great but have enough stretch in them that they literally flip over in the pulley grooves.  We ran the engine with a generic auto parts belt for the video, and right afterwards Vance swapped out to the repro belt just to show me that little trick it pulls...  there must have been 4 or 5 inches of oscillation in that belt at half throttle, even though they stretched it as tight as you'd ever dare.  

[hemigeno]

As you can see from the pictures below, they've started installing components in the engine bay in preparation for installing the mill sometime soon.  It's kinda nice to start seeing some "clutter"  

For those of you guys who gasped at seeing the K-member installed, have no fear - the K-frame and all the front suspension will be removed and the engine installed from underneath... just like it should be, right? 

[hemigeno]

More detail/component shots from the engine bay

[hemigeno]

One last engine bay shot, and the beginnings of a series of under-dash shots.  The second one also shows the window channel with the moulding retainer clips installed.  It's debatable about whether the screws for these clips are a gold color (not sure if it's gold zinc or not) coating, or silver as these are.  I know that gold zinc screws in that particular size are not readily obtainable - because I looked high and low for them - and Vance was still researching the issue.  Even though these are concealed once the windshield seal and moulding are installed, we're still making every attempt to get the details right.