Mitch's 69 Charger restoration -sheet metal

[Charger4404spd]

Man all I can say is "WOW". Wished I had just half of your knowledge

[green69rt]

Most of what I know I got off of this site.  Even that doesn't mean that it will turn out ok,  some of the folks here can probably point out plenty of mistakes,,,, so fire away.  It will help someone do their project.

[lexxman]

hey man,the car looks great. The good thing with this stuff you learn as you go.Half the time I`m just winging it. If it looks good in the end ,it`s all good.

[Finn]

Nice work!

[440 Fanatic]

Absolutely amazing work !!  Can't wait to see more!!   

[green69rt]

I decided to start on the roof and ceiling today.  Lots of old insulation glued to the ceiling (pic 1).  I just took a putty knife to it and got most of it off.  I hate working above my head so I'm tempted to take the lazy way out and just leave the old glue up there and put something over it.  Like some kind of sound insulation, maybe dynomat(??).  I can see spending a lot of time removing the old glue.  The rest of the ceiling looks good with only some surface rust around the edges and the seams so I though I would spend a little time knocking the rust down then spray it with a couple of coats of etching primer.   Same for the inside of the sail panels (pic 2.)

Then the roof needs some attention.  When I got the car, some years ago, the vinyl roof was mostly gone so I stripped the rest off then stripped the roof metal down to bare metal and applied Por15.   Seems to have attached itself really well because I took some 150 grit paper to it today and all I accomplished was to take some of the gloss off (pic 3).  

Question is do I paint or just touch up the Por15 or what??  It will have a vinyl roof again.

The roof to quarter seams need to be epoxyed and then a little filler added to build them back up so the vinyl roof will lay flat (pic 4).

Any thoughts??

[The70RT]

I would probably primer and get it ready for paint and just put one coat on it to seal it.

[green69rt]

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing.  I stripped the Por15 off the roof and put a couple of coats of Epoxy primer on it.  My avatar shows the car as it sets.  I just got word from AMD that the floor is in stock now so they should ship it soon and I can get back to work.

[green69rt]

The new floor for the car came in today but AMD forgot to send me the passenger side footwell.   (pic #1)
So the only part of the old floor that is left is the under rear seat area, I left it in just to add some strength to the body while I did all the other work but now it needs to go. (pic #2).   And it's gone (pic #3) except for a little piece to use as a reference point for the new rear section.

Just one question, this bolt exists on each side (pic #4.)   When I took the car apart there was nothing bolted there, just the hole and bolt.   SO what's it for??  The new AMD floor does not have a predrilled hole for it so maybe I'll just leave it out?

[Charger-Bodie]

It was part of the original build process. holds the floor nice and tight for the welding process.

[Ghoste]

I never knew that.  Cool.

[sardillim]

I installed one of AMD's floors and was very suprised how well it fit.  I only had to trim about a 1/16 of an inch off the passengers side front corner.    I would be interested to her how yours fits

[tan top]

 

[Charger-Bodie]

 

[green69rt]

Well, it's been a pretty cold winter in Houston    temps in the 30's at night and only getting up to 50's or 60 during the day.  Plus the holidays and then the wife and I both got a cold so that slowed things down a bit.  But I do have a few things to share with those that are interested.  I've started cleaning up the rear of the passenger compartment in preperation to installing the rear floor section.  Lots of nooks and crannies and since I was doing it all by hand it took a while. Worst part is the inside of the rear quarters (pic #1.)

A lot of 100 grit sand paper and elbow grease got the job done.  I did find a lot of light grey coating that sanded right off along with some paint overspray.  I assume the light grey stuff is some kind of primer or rust inhibitor??  I didn't get it all off but I did hit every square inch with the sand paper so hopefully the new primer I apply will stick.  I can see why some like to sand blast a car.  If I do another it will either be sand blasted or dipped.

The new floor I got did not have a exhaust hanger on the driver side (pic #2) so I ordered one from Hoover auto parts.  Something to remember....

A little side note, I did get a neat t-shirt for X-mas (pic #3.)

As for fit, the rear floor section seems to be pretty good, not great but good.  In my early years of working on cars I used to think that parts would just lay down and fit perfect! Now I know better.  Final note on the rear floor, the bolt holes for the seat belt did not line up but that's not too bad considering (pic #4.)

[JB400]

Glad to hear it's still moving along

[1974dodgecharger]

FCKIN LOVE THE SHIRT 

[green69rt]

Well the rear (under the rear seat) section of floor is in along with the cleaned up seat brace (pic #1.)  Nothing unusual just some hammering and testing to get it to fit well.   You can see I had the front floor section in place for its first test fit.

After looking at the front section fit it seems it's going to need considerable work.   More on that later.  First thing I did was install front seat braces.  For anyone reading this and planning on doing the same, here's a little tidbit.  The four braces are not the same.  Left to right are mirror images but the front to back are not the same.  It's not obvious to a casual look (pic #2.)

A closer look shows that the rear brace allows the floor to set lower(see the one I'm touching in pic #3)   I didn't realize that before I installed mine but the car gods must have had pity on me because I got them in correctly!!  

Oh, a final piece of info, the spacing between the seat mounting holes, from front to back, was 10 7/8 "  center to center on my car.

[cdr]

wow you are doing a great job!!!!!

[Mopar1979]

Impressive

[six-tee-nine]

I'm there myself with my 69 so i know it is a helluva time consuming and nervewrecking job to to all this stuff nice and right.
And my car only needs a trunk floor and a new valance along with some new lower quarters.

Heads up and good job!

[tan top]

   nice work   

[Charger-Bodie]

Really filing a fine job there. 

[mopar4don]

Looking good Mitch!

Say I wanted to ask, when you put the epoxy primer down, did you use a rattle can?

[green69rt]

Looking good Mitch!

Say I wanted to ask, when you put the epoxy primer down, did you use a rattle can?

Nope, used a gun with Dupont Shop-line per the instructions but added 5% medium reducer.  Went on really well once I learned how to do it.   Make sure to use a hood or chemical mask, it's not nice to breath the fumes.   There are rattle can primers but kind of expensive to use on a whole car and I don't know how good they are.  Others probably have a better idea of what's good and why.