Mitch's 69 Charger restoration -sheet metal

[cdr]

great to see your making progress. 

[green69rt]

great to see your making progress. 

Yeap, back to work again.

[green69rt]

Hey guys,

Been a while.  I've been working and lurking on the web site.  The big floor patch is ready to weld in.    I had to cut out several braces to move the front clip around (pic #1 shows what I'm talking about.)   It was OK because I had hand made one or two and the other old ones where in pretty bad shape so AMD made some more money off of me.  This is really old news and nothing new so... pic # 2 shows the hole ready, silver weld thru primer and the new braces already installed.  I did prime and paint the top/backs of the braces because once the floor is in I won't be able to get to those areas.  I just used some rattle can Rustoleum primer and some old grey paint I had lying around.  Pic #3 is the patch in place.  Hopefully I will finish welding it in this weekend.

[green69rt]

I did have one change as I am mounting this floor.  On the previous floor, I had to cut and weld the front of the floor edge to match the profile of the fire wall.   This time I am just making the cuts, then mount the patch while pushing the edge to match up, THEN I'll weld up the cuts.  These pics show the cuts I'm talking about.

[fy469rtse]

good to see your atit again Mitch, looks great,

[fy469rtse]

Mitch one area you should look at , is those aftermarket new fenders, barely noticable, but once you know its there it will bug even if no one else knows
compare the area where the the fender meets grill at bottom of opening ,
mine not finished correctly , have a look and see what you think, hopefully yours are better than mine were finished

[green69rt]

Mitch one area you should look at , is those aftermarket new fenders, barely noticable, but once you know its there it will bug even if no one else knows
compare the area where the the fender meets grill at bottom of opening ,
mine not finished correctly , have a look and see what you think, hopefully yours are better than mine were finished

Can you put up a pic?  Up till now I have just worked on making the lower valance match the fender...

As I welded up the frame I left the fenders/hood on so the gaps look good.  I don't want to go thru this again!!

[1965gp]

Wow- fantastic thread. Really enjoyed reading through the developments. Great work and determination.

Where in Houston are you located? I am located in Spring. I just picked my 69 charger up from the body shop and when I get home I have to go check all of my gaps! I was happy with them but now I'm not sure...

MoMuscle builds some badass cars but they are very high end.

Keep the progress movin!

Jeremy

[green69rt]

Wow- fantastic thread. Really enjoyed reading through the developments. Great work and determination.

Where in Houston are you located? I am located in Spring. I just picked my 69 charger up from the body shop and when I get home I have to go check all of my gaps! I was happy with them but now I'm not sure...

MoMuscle builds some badass cars but they are very high end.

Keep the progress movin!

Jeremy

Yeah, I actually went to them (it's in the thread), just couldn't afford them. I'm in Katy.  ever go to the Nifty Fifties show???

[green69rt]

Where in Houston are you located? I am located in Spring. I just picked my 69 charger up from the body shop and when I get home I have to go check all of my gaps! I was happy with them but now I'm not sure...

Jeremy

I've kind of found that gaps are all over the place, even on show cars.  I've decided that it is more important that the gaps look even than really close.  Just my 

[fy469rtse]

Mitch , will take a couple photos to show you the difference at bottom area on eyebrow section, I missed it and now it bugs me ,
I have to post some up date photos anyway
I agree with your gaps even comment , you would have to weld every edge then file fit ,

[fy469rtse]

Mitch, here you go

[1965gp]

Trust me- I can't afford them either! Only brought them up because you mentioned them in thread and agree that they are a high end shop. I have quite a few projects and could never get anywhere if I paid that kind of money. Same reason I do my interior myself now. Guys want $1000 to put seat covers on! It's not fun but a crappy weekend is much easier to handle than the $1000!

I go to Niftee Fiftee's all the time! I live a block away from where it's held now. I am usually in a blue 70 GTO judge on 17" honeycombs.

The guy that painted my Charger is in Katy and is more 'driver' focused. You are welcome to stop by and check out his work on your way to the cruise sometime. I am pretty happy with my 69- 1 flaw and they offered to fix it immediately. He has done about 10-12 cars for me.

[green69rt]

The guy that painted my Charger is in Katy and is more 'driver' focused. You are welcome to stop by and check out his work on your way to the cruise sometime. I am pretty happy with my 69- 1 flaw and they offered to fix it immediately. He has done about 10-12 cars for me.

I've still not settled on a paint shop.  Who's the one that did yours?

[1965gp]

I sent you a PM with the shop info. You are welcome to stop by and check out the work sometime on your way to the cruise- I have seven cars here at the house he has done. It's not 100 point work, but I can't pay for 100 point work so that's fine with me.

[1965gp]

Any updates?

[green69rt]

Any updates?

Nothing worth telling.  Haven't visited the shop.  I have been working on my car (heat makes it slow going.)  More later.   I did get your notes.

[1965gp]

It really does. Hoping to get the grill and front bumper / brush guard on mine this weekend. I at least want it to LOOK complete.

It's already pretty damn hot.

[green69rt]

Got the floor done, nothing that we haven't seen many times.  Worked on the cowl to door to fender gaps.  

I've been looking at my solution for a long time and just don't like it.  Adding weld beads here and there just seems like a mess and the more I looked at it the less I liked it, so.....

I cut a piece of scrap metal to fill up the gap and fitted it up (pic #1.)  I just didn't like the idea of cutting into the cowl and didn't like the appearance of adding weld bead to the edge of the door.

Tacked it in place with the top tack well below the finished surface. (pic #2.)

Used epoxy putty to fill the top edge, this will take some care to make the finished product match the rest of the cowl (pic #3.)

A little sanding, grinding and things are getting pretty close (pic #4.)

This will take a little more work to make things ready for final paint but maybe some high build primer will be enough.

And, oh yeah, it took some work to restore the door edge but it's a good lesson to learn....

[Charger-Bodie]

That looks tons better.

[green69rt]

Yesterday I finished welding in the driver side inner fender and brackets (made a little "how-to" on another thread. http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,112192.msg1379742.html#msg1379742)

Hung the fenders back on and laid the hood in place (pic #1) to make sure everything is still good.  Looks like it will all go together correctly now!  Yeah!!

During the work I did find a place on the firewall that had thin metal.  It was right under the firewall to inner fender bracket (pic #2.)  if I hadn't pulled the old bracket I would have never have found the hole (pinholes.)

So what's next, you say?  I want to find a rotisserie and get the car up and flipped over so I can finish the bottom.  It needs some screw holes filled and a lot of cleanup so I can prime it up.

[1965gp]

Good to see some progress on it Mitch!

[charge69]

Just keep going forward with the work and ,soon, you will be driving that beast!  Showing some great skills with a welder. Welding, especially on a car, is more of an art form rather than something that anyone can do with enough practice. AMD got a considerable amount of my money during my restoration and considerable "fitting" was needed to get everything right. Luckily, my guy is an artist with a welder. Hope to meet up sometime and swap stories about our restorations!  I live in the Spring area close to Old Town Spring.

To 1965gp: I went to the nifty 50ees show last Saturday for the first time this year. Did not bring my Charger as I wanted to wander the show and talk to the other MOPAR heads I could find. Actually found a few of them there including a 1969 Charger R/T F8 auto that was here with the son of the original owner. The son is the owner now. Also a fairly rare 1968 270-trim Dart 2-door hard top also there with the original owner!  Had a better time than I expected but left before dark as I was tired.

Carl

[bill440rt]

Always good to see progress! Keep chipping away! 

[green69rt]

Always good to see progress! Keep chipping away! 

Chip, chip, chip!!!