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

[1969chargerrtse]

   Holy smokes.  Where have I been for this thread?  Wow, I've never seen anything so crisp clean and perfect.  Gotta run, but later one I plan on reading every page.  Fantastic stuff. 

[hemigeno]

I'm headed up to Vance's this weekend for another visit.  There hasn't been a whole lot of progress lately (for a couple of reasons), so I haven't posted an update just for the sake of increasing my post count or this thread's overall length.

There will hopefully be a few more things to report next week however, including -- if things work as planned -- a video of the engine being dyno'd for the second time.

More soon...

P.S. Thanks again for the kind comments everyone, and PT, you can halt the Talladega countdown... unless you're starting on the 2014 meet a little early 

[PocketThunder]

P.S. Thanks again for the kind comments everyone, and PT, you can halt the Talladega countdown... unless you're starting on the 2014 meet a little early 

Oh dont worry, i already threw in the towl when i sold my C500 last month.  I was just thinking how long the car has been at this shop though and i checked page 1 of this thread and you dropped it off on November 23rd, 2006.  Since you wont make the Talladega timeslot maybe you can make your 3 year aniversary in 8 weeks from now?..??      

[hemigeno]

i checked page 1 of this thread and you dropped it off on November 23rd, 2006. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah...   

Actually, the length of time this resto has taken is nearly all my fault.  Between the time of year I dropped the car off, the need to replace the rear framerails, my pickiness/OCD on parts (especially the radiator air seals) and a few other reasons, Vance can't be blamed for too much of the 3 year timeframe.  If I wanted to get the car out the door and on the road, all it would take is a phone call to YearOne and about 4-5 weeks later the car could be done.  Instead, I'm still scrounging for as many "correct" parts as can possibly be found.  In the end, I do think the extra time will pay off with an even better finished product than I had first imagined. 

I did make it to Vance's on Saturday, but he wasn't able to schedule a weekend dyno session so that's happening today without me.  Oh well.  There are a few more neat pictures of the progress, but nothing earth-shaking.  I'll post a photo update soon as well as the Round 2 dyno results when they come in.

[maxwellwedge]

3 years.................. I feel so much better about some of my resto's!     

[hemigeno]

3 years.................. I feel so much better about some of my resto's!     

Glad I could help you out there, Jim!     I have a while to go before reaching your level of projects (or completed/survivor cars, for that matter).  One project is enough to keep me busy.   

[hemigeno]

OK, let's see if I can bring this thread a bit more up-to-date from a progress standpoint.  The last pictures posted were from a trip I made back in June, and since then I've made three more visits.  Progress has been a bit slow, partly due to Vance's guys pounding away at a gold 2nd-Generation Barracuda project that was a big rush, but mostly due to waiting on "correct" parts from various sources.

After dragging my Hemi R/T out to the Carlisle show, I took the "shortcut" home through Michigan and left the R/T at Vance's shop for a month.  Our Fearless Leader Troy had the chance to drive the car before the work was done, and he can attest it was a little cantankerous - plus the clutch was extremely touchy.  Vance and his guys made a bunch of little repairs, such as replacing the MP electronic ignition with an MSD, going through the AFB carbs to correct several problems (Dick Katter does a GREAT job of rebuilding carbs cosmetically but that doesn't mean they still don't need some work), putting a thrust collar on the distributor shaft to prevent drive gear walking, fixing a nagging vibration in the transmission output shaft area, and removing the overcenter spring from the clutch pedal (the car has had a Centerforce clutch for 5-6 years, but the spring had never been removed like it should have).  The result was quite impressive in my opinion, as the car now runs like I have always thought it should.  I got to drive it a couple weekends ago to the Monster Mopar Show, and it is awesome...  Well worth it to have a guy who knows Hemi's to play around with it...

The last two pictures were taken because of a question raised in another thread about the Organosol texture in the rear tailpanel area.  Starting to look like a '69 Charger rear end again now...

[hemigeno]

The first two pictures are of the original front wheel lip mouldings, after they've been polished up.  Thankfully, these are pretty much intact and didn't need a whole lot of straightening or dent-removal.  The last two pictures were related to a question a while back about the fuel line routing location - which is tucked right alongside the passenger's rocker panel pinch weld flange.  Vance hasn't applied the gloss black paint along that pinch panel yet, but it's coming...

[hemigeno]

A couple shots of the trunk area, and I'm sure the photo I took of the trunk light switch tab had some sort of a  reference with Troy H. back then, who was looking for a tab for his new 'Tona at the time...  A little late for the party now, aren't I?

[hemigeno]

I took a shot of the over-center spring, which we'll use on this car since Vance isn't installing a Centerforce clutch.  He's using a Ram clutch disc with their three fork pressure plate (is that called the Borg & Beck style?).  I have to admit that the C-force clutch has held up quite well in the Hemicar, whereas the McLeod clutch/pressure plate I had in it before that only lasted about 3-4 years.

The last couple of shots are of the engine compartment area... and don't worry, some of the parts you see have since been removed and given the correct plating treatment (e.g. the master cylinder lid).

[hemigeno]

The first pic was my attempt to capture the date code from the washer jug.  The only jug I could find with a date which pre-dated my car's build is one from early in the '68 model year.  It works for me and is "technically" correct.  The rest of the pics are various shots from the engine compartment as the detailing work inches forward in preparation for the engine installation.  Lots easier to do this work while not working over/around the engine...

[hemigeno]

A few perspective shots...

[BigBlockSam]

Wow! the car's looking great!  

[hemigeno]

Thanks, Rene!  It's starting to get there, and certainly looks more like a car than it has in the past...


This batch of pictures I took to try and capture the location of the VIN stamping on the trunk rail.  After thinking about it a while back, I had never documented that stamping (that I remembered), and once the trunk weatherstripping goes on it's not practical to do so.

[hemigeno]

This last pic from July was to show the wiper pivot, and the seal that goes around it.  Hard to see this once the wiper arm is installed...

More from my August trip here in a second...

[hemi68charger]

Geno..
The Daytona is looking absolutely stunning !!!!!! Wish I had the bank-roll to do my Daytona like my '68 and your '69, I miss the amount of detail, but definitely not the cost associated with it.........

Troy

[hemigeno]

The big news during the August visit had to do with the engine.  There is a much better description of the problem we had contained in this thread link.  Here are the pics from that thread:







In general, the problem was with the hydraulic lifters/tappets.  The plungers have a bad habit of sticking inside the barrel of the lifter itself, due to the tolerances being too tight.  This makes the valve lash increase by, oh, about 0.100".  Not good.  It apparently did no harm to the engine, and the only pushrod which fell off was replaced with one of the spares Vance already had on hand.  What it did do, was make us question the dyno results to the point that the engine will be re-dyno'd this week.  The Comp Cams lifters were replaced with Scorpion Racing Products pieces, which are (from an external standpoint) nearly identical.  The plungers and retainers are totally different though, and do not appear to have the same super-tight tolerances.  So far, the people Vance has talked with on the subject have all had good luck with the SRP's.  We shall see...

[hemigeno]

Geno..
The Daytona is looking absolutely stunning !!!!!! Wish I had the bank-roll to do my Daytona like my '68 and your '69, I miss the amount of detail, but definitely not the cost associated with it.........

Troy

Thanks, Troy!  I'm on the three-year payment plan (see PocketThunder's post a little earlier), and it ain't over yet 

[hemigeno]

A shot from August of the engine compartment, showing not a whole lot of changes from the month before. 

The last three shots are of the tailpanel blackout treatment.  If I remember right, the Organosol was applied at the factory before the color coat was applied.  That means the black should be taped off, and overspray may or may not be visible - although it would mostly be hidden underneath the trim.  I think Vance has intentions on doing some detail overspray here-and-there to replicate this look.  More on the overall paintwork with next month's pictures...

[hemigeno]

More detail shots of the tailpanel Organosol blackout treatment, from the topside and left corner.  The last picture is of the latchtray... notice a similarity there?  Yep, it's Organosol also...  Depending on the car (and mine is NOT the only one Vance has seen with this treatment), the latchtrays were painted either in a semi-gloss black or Organosol.  Most are the semi-gloss, but this is how my tray was and it's the way we're taking it back.  Vance and I talked Saturday again about whether to paint the front spoiler in Organosol, and we're still debating that subject.  He already knows it'll stir up an above-average level of controversy, but again - this is not the only car which showed this original trait (despite the somewhat-foggy recollections of my car's original owner).

[hemigeno]

A couple pictures of the car still in the paint booth, although it was rolled out of there just a few days later so the gold Barracuda could be rolled in.  Two of my kids went with me on this trip, which included a side-trip to the 'Nationals swap meet in Columbus, OH.  They had a great time playing in the Fort Rapids water/play area while I looked through all the aisles of parts at the 'Nats.  Fun was had by all...

[hemigeno]

These last two pictures are of that new driveshaft, after it's been cleaned with Evapo-rust.  Vance said that flash rust appears very quickly after they pull the shaft out of the chemical bath, although it looks great when it's first cleaned off.  I've heard different people talk about using a product called MP-50 or something like that... Anyone know where to get it or what else might work to prevent flash rust on bare metal?

[hemigeno]

OK, on to the pictures taken this past Saturday (I wasn't able to make a trip in September, just too many things going on and not a lot of resto action anyway).  The car has been made mobile for the moment, and they've moved it out of the paint booth.  When it comes time to put the engine in, they'll have it on the 2-post lift for installation from underneath.

[hemigeno]

They started installing some of the stainless trim, after polishing & straightening it all up.  This first picture shows how some of that trim was damaged during installation of the A-pillar trim.  We didn't worry about replacing that piece, since if we use the same holes for the A-pillar trim we'll end up skinning up that piece in the same fashion.

A couple of passenger compartment shots are followed by a shot of the roof - showing the level of orange peel in the paint that Vance would like to see on the whole car.  They have been trying to "nurse" the paint by lightly sanding it down, but some areas are actually shining up as if it had been intentionally wet sanded and buffed.  You'll see that in a minute...

[hemigeno]

The first two shots I took to try and show how the paint reacted differently to sanding in very close areas.  You can see in the first shot that the paint looks pretty smooth - but then just a few inches over it still shows quite a bit of orange peel.  We're going to address all the problem areas to make sure that the paint doesn't end up looking "too good".  There should be natural differences in the spray pattern and residual texture (maxwellwedge has his cars painted by two different guys doing a side of the car each, to replicate that differential look to the "Nth" degree).  For instance, Vance will try to intentionally show a difference between the doors and the fenders/hood/nosecone, since those were normally painted at two different times (Hamtramck vs. Creative Industries) by at least tow different people using two different methods.

The last two shots get into some of the fun detail stuff (at least for me, anyway).  Vance went back and did some grinding/welding on the existing dutchman panel to replicate how the plug would have been installed by Creative's workers.  Neat stuff in my book...