Mitch's 69 Charger restoration -sheet metal

[fy469rtse]

sorry Mitch, i meant cut the fender,

[green69rt]

sorry Mitch, i meant cut the fender,

I didn't know which one but the door profile where it meets the cowl is also off so it will take more than just a fender cut to do the job.  But, hold that thought and we'll see how things develop.  I did a little measuring and we're only taking about 1/16" to 1/8" off so a small weld bead right along the edge may be enough.  I've seen it done before and looks to be a fairly easy fix (have we heard that before??)

[cdr]

i have seen thin welding rod mig welded on a edge & then ground to fit.

[green69rt]

i have seen thin welding rod mig welded on a edge & then ground to fit.

Yeah, or a little piece of metal.  In my case, I think a single run of welding bead will be enough.  But first I need to get the valence on.   Turns out that the wooden "feet" I bolted on the frame rails stick out about 1/2" in front of the rails so I can't get the valence on.   I need to spend a little time repositioning the "legs".  It's always something, right Charlie??

[cdr]

aint that the truth

[fy469rtse]

yes i know that feeling all too well Mitch

[green69rt]

Spent a couple of hours fixing the door gap on the passenger side.  The gap between the door and the cowl did not match at all.  I just added some weld bead to the edge of the door (pic 1.)

Then ground the bead flat and scribed a line where the edge should be (I don't think you can see the scribe line in the pic 2.)

Then started grinding the edge.  I cut a wooden shim, like you can get at Home Depot, so the thick end was as big as I wanted the gap.  Used the shim to fine test the gap till I got it where I wanted it. 

Final gap looks right on to me (pic 4.)  I still need to do a little cleanup on the edge with a file and a little filler or high build primer to clean it up.  Now I need to fix the door to fender gap and the fender to cowl gap.

[spoolinhard]

I am a bit curious as to why you chose to work the gap on the door instead of the cowl? It appears to me that the aftermarket upper cowl was culprit in the contour that you are chasing .

[green69rt]

I am a bit curious as to why you chose to work the gap on the door instead of the cowl? It appears to me that the aftermarket upper cowl was culprit in the contour that you are chasing .

Yes, you may be right.  But, look at the fit between the cowl, fender and door.  To me, it looks like the fender and the door both have problems.   On the driver side, everything lines up pretty well.   So, if I tried to cut the cowl on the pass side, I don't know how I would make all the other parts fit??

Really, it's a case of where you want to do the fix.  I chose where I did and now will live with it???

[JB400]

I think you chose wisely.   It's much easier to fix the gap where you did, then readjust the cowl.  Good job

[fy469rtse]

Good job mitch, just how I would have helped, talked you into doing that way had I been there in your garage, after paint no one will notice, but they would have noticed that gap and how uneven it was ,
Now it's fixed and on to the next thousand task's , 

[spoolinhard]

I am a bit curious as to why you chose to work the gap on the door instead of the cowl? It appears to me that the aftermarket upper cowl was culprit in the contour that you are chasing .

Yes, you may be right.  But, look at the fit between the cowl, fender and door.  To me, it looks like the fender and the door both have problems.   On the driver side, everything lines up pretty well.   So, if I tried to cut the cowl on the pass side, I don't know how I would make all the other parts fit??

Really, it's a case of where you want to do the fix.  I chose where I did and now will live with it???

I would have cut a slit on the edge of the cowl, moved it out and welded in a piece to fill the gap, if that makes sense. The gap seems to be off on the fender now, which could be fixed by welding metal onto the fender edge to line it up with the door/cowl gap. Don't mean to be a pain, just putting in my . If its unwanted please disregard. You are doing good work, I don't mean to imply otherwise.

[green69rt]

Yeah, spoolin, I understand exactly what you're saying.  I wanted to test this on the door before I tackled the fender.  Since I finished the piece on the door I'm not sure I like the way it lines up.  When looking from the very front of the car the gaps look funny because that door to cowl gap now turns into the cowl and on the other side the gap runs straight front to back.   I'll see if I can take a picture tomorrow.    more thinkin'   

[MoparManJim]

After looking at the photos, I think you picked the wrong part to adjust.. I think like the others said it's the cowl area not the door or fender. I think if you slit the cowl area and pull it outwards on the side and use metal filler you'll be good to go bud    

[green69rt]

No more work.  Merry Christmas to all!!

[fy469rtse]

The only down side to that if you were to modify cowl, you will have to get in try to put some sort of coating where you weld Mitch, remember the cowl Carries water making any unprotected welds a new rust area,
Post some photos so we can see difference , I think it looks god mitch,
Finish the door to fender gap next , high fill and prime it, then look at it

[timmycharger]

Just read this thread Mitch. Great job! My wife got a kick out of that old pic with your wife in it. My wife is petite too and seeing that pic reminded her of driving around in my car when we were in our 20's. Keep up the great work!

[green69rt]

To all that comment on my work or others, welcome!   Just a point to start the new year.... I always read the comments, sometimes they fit with the way I want to do things and sometimes I just get stubborn and do it the way I want (come hell or high water.)    Do any of you feel the same way??   But, it's always fun and I wouldn't miss it for a any reason.

And to Timmy... yeah...lots of great memories.

[cdr]

To all that comment on my work or others, welcome!   Just a point to start the new year.... I always read the comments, sometimes they fit with the way I want to do things and sometimes I just get stubborn and do it the way I want (come hell or high water.)    Do any of you feel the same way??   But, it's always fun and I wouldn't miss it for a any reason.

And to Timmy... yeah...lots of great memories.

yes

[Ghoste]

I bet that describes most of us. 

Here's to doing it our way.

[fy469rtse]

Yes Mitch , always only friendly advise always, if my mistakes and things I overlooked or wish I had done better can help you, but you do it your way , get stubborn, if we weren't we wouldn't take up doing these cars and the amount of work needed to bring them back

[green69rt]

It's been a long, hard winter and I haven't done much but I did keep pinging away at stuff.   Time to put some more pictures up and continue the saga.

Most of this winter was spent spending an hour here and there trying to align all the doors, front fenders, hood and front valance up.  

Previous posts covered the problem with the pass door to quarter, that's done.  Driver door did not take any extra work (pic #1), it sets a little high at the rear because I figured that adding all the innards to it would cause it to sage some, we'll see.

fenders and hood actually went in fairly easily.

But I never want to put another front valance on.    The valance came with the car and was bought by the previous owner, I got it as part of the package.   Not an AMD part.   It took a lot of cutting, bending and a little weld filler to get everything right but one day I put it all together and it fit!!  I still need to clean up some weld bead and maybe route out mounting holes to get a little more adjustability but I think everything looks pretty good.

I've been going around to cruises and shows and checking out gaps on car I see.   The gaps are all over the place!!

Just to let you know some of the things I had to do you can see the pics.

Pic #2 -  the bottom of both fenders needed to be pushed in to mate up correctly with the valance.  I could have pulled them in with the bolts but I didn't want a lot of tension on the small ears that the bolts go thru, they would probably bend with time and the gaps widen out.

Pic #3 - Here's where I had to add a little weld bead because the AMD fender and the valance did not match up at all.

Pic #4 - shows the problem on the driver side, I'll have to add some weld metal to correct it.

[green69rt]

So here it is altogether, though, I don't know if you can see the valance?   Also you can see that the hood is new.  I was trying to get it aligned and it kept sliding out of adjustment.  Finally figured out that three of the hinge mounting threads in the hood were stripped>

A dent in the front, the warped hood and the stripped nuts were too much, I just didn't want to deal with them.   AMD made some more bucks off of me.


Now on to putting everything back together where I had to cut the front off.  Pic #2 shows the hole in the floor so I could get to the TB cross member.  Also the new floor patch is visible.

[Stevearino]

Great to see you are still plugging away. It is all looking great

[fy469rtse]

Saw you had posted Mitch , so went back and read the whole thread again,
It does look very good , it's come a long way from what you started with ,
Great work in correcting that front sag, gaps look excellent Mitch ,
Told you those front valances were trouble !