1968 Charger Restoration - 1970Moparmann

[1970Moparmann]

I've had some requests to get a thread going on my car's restoration.

It is a factory, green/green/green, 383, 4 speed with air.  I actually know the person who had the car for majority of it's life through a business deal-pretty cool.  Anyways, I traded a 68 Dart GT Rag top for the car about a year in a half ago. 

This car has been a hell of a learning experience.  First off, here is what it looked like when I got it via a trade- Not bad!





Now for the bad-

After removing the paint, found the worst quarter skin replacement job EVER.   Replaced with AMD full quarters.





Due to this, there must have been 25 pounds of bondo!

Also found a TON of bondo on the rockers- Replaced with the new AMD full rockers. 





You want to talk about frame rails rusting from the inside out??  And this is just one of them!  Two front and two back replaced.....





And for the floors-




A BIG THANK YOU TO AMD FOR MAKING SUCH GOOD PRODUCTS!!!! I'm not like the idea of buying all of the metal though...

As for the frame rails, since this car is going to be a driver, I decided to save some money and buy the rails from Autorust Technicians.  Worked out great! 

Engine is being built. It's a 400 stroked to a 500. 

The car sat for a long time once in my hands.  LONG story.........  It's rocking and rolling now.  I have almost everything to get it 100%

More to come.......

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Is that your shop? It is a beauty. Very nice work on the car. One question, not being critical, just curious! Why didn't you use the entire floor pan?

Keep up the good work! When did you start on the panel work?

[SnoPro440]

Car is looking good!   

[69*F5*SE]

Sounds like everything is coming together for you. Congrats. 

[Charger-Bodie]

Excellent! Cant wait to see more.

Are you going back to the 3x green? That's an AWESOME combo IMO.

[1BAD68]

Thats a nice color combo for a 68.
tell us about that lift, how much weight can it handle?

[Back N Black]

Nice progress. So did you know the condition of the car or do you feel like you got ripped.

[skip68]

    Looking very nice.      I tell you, I think the best way to buy a car these days is to see it without paint or old paint.      Like I say, don't let that shine fool you.   Gotta love AMD.  The cool thing is you cought this now and are doing it right.      I don't know what the Dart looked like but I say you still got a good deal.        Keep the pics coming.   

[r_biccum]

pretty cool 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FREE-SHIP-55-RISE-MID-RISE-SCISSOR-AUTO-CAR-LIFT-LIFTS_W0QQitemZ260398882770QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Automotive_Tools?hash=item260398882770&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A1171%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1309

[triple_green]

Nice job.

Are you going to keep it green?  Which color code is it?

3X

[1970Moparmann]

Is that your shop? It is a beauty. Very nice work on the car. One question, not being critical, just curious! Why didn't you use the entire floor pan?

Keep up the good work! When did you start on the panel work?

Not my shop.  The first couple of pictures is at a friends shop that I worked on the car off/on for a year.  He kicked me out, so now it's at a friends shop.  He's graciously letting me use it and also helping!   

As for the floor pan, pure money factor.  Hind site, should have bought the whole thing.  I've been pouring money out like water-not good.

[1970Moparmann]

Excellent! Cant wait to see more.

Are you going back to the 3x green? That's an AWESOME combo IMO.

I just can't do it again-my opinion.  I purchased black interior so far.  Been thinking about spraying it black also.  I'm not 100% convinced yet, but this is what I'm leaning towards.  Last week, I spent some major time cruising through the photo's on here and saw a kick ass B5 blue 68.  I always liked this also, so who knows at this point.   

Thanks for all of the remarks!

[1970Moparmann]

   Looking very nice.      I tell you, I think the best way to buy a car these days is to see it without paint or old paint.      Like I say, don't let that shine fool you.   Gotta love AMD.  The cool thing is you cought this now and are doing it right.      I don't know what the Dart looked like but I say you still got a good deal.        Keep the pics coming.   

The car was a 20/20 car when I got it.  All of the body looked "decent", due to the good mud job.  A good friend told me a car is like a chick-you never know the truth until you get her naked!   This is so true......  My 68 Coronet looked a ton better than the Charger and had the same issue with the quarters-rust was at all the seams.  What I was really surprised about were the frame rails.  The frame rail in the picture above with all of the rust, looked decent from the outside!  No holes just some surface scaling.  The floors weren't too bad, but decided to get the AMD's versus the patches.  Good thing I did, because I was able to treat the torsion boxes.   Caught it early enough though, so they didn't need to be replaced. 

Like I mentioned above, the saddest thing is the guy who owned the car in the 80s and 90s, paid $15k on the car for paint/engine rebuild ect in 1997.  This guy got totally ripped off.   He is shocked when I told him I stripped the car and need to replace some metal.  I didn't want him to feel too bad, so I didn't give him all of the details.  I'll tell him when I bring the car to him after it's completed. 

I can only imagine how many cars on the road, especially in the midwest, that have unsafe frames....

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Is that your shop? It is a beauty. Very nice work on the car. One question, not being critical, just curious! Why didn't you use the entire floor pan?

Keep up the good work! When did you start on the panel work?

Not my shop.  The first couple of pictures is at a friends shop that I worked on the car off/on for a year.  He kicked me out, so now it's at a friends shop.  He's graciously letting me use it and also helping!   

As for the floor pan, pure money factor.  Hind site, should have bought the whole thing.  I've been pouring money out like water-not good.

I know what you mean on the money! I have been a runaway train over the last 3 months and finally have decided that once the car is in paint, approx 6 weeks, I will stop and pick away at the inexpensive things.

You are doing a great job and that car is going to look awesome!

[1970Moparmann]

Well, progress is continuing .

The AMD panels needed some work, but turned out great. The shell is ready for lots of blocking..........

[Back N Black]

So, there is no such thing as a bondo free car, even with all the aftermarket sheet metal. Car is looking real good BTW. 

[1970Moparmann]

Depends on how straight you want it .  Also, as good as these are packed up, they still are shipped in HUGE boxes and you never know what kind of stress on them happens.  As you can see, the drivers side was much better than the passenger side.

[69*F5*SE]

You're doing a very nice job on her.   

[Magnumcharger]

Looks like you know what you're doing.
I'll be following your example shortly. My '68 Charger has the replacement quarterpanels like yours did, and I'll be replacing them with the AMD panels as well.
And I'm planning on putting the one-piece floor around the same time.

And by the way...if you're looking for the correct color for 1968 Blue, it's not B5. In '68 QQ1 was the code, and although it's often confused for the 1969 B5, it's a bit greener and (in my opinion) a lot nicer looking.
On the "search" button above, type in "QQ1"...there's lots of threads here about it.

Robin

[1970Moparmann]

Looks like you know what you're doing.
I'll be following your example shortly. My '68 Charger has the replacement quarterpanels like yours did, and I'll be replacing them with the AMD panels as well.
And I'm planning on putting the one-piece floor around the same time.

And by the way...if you're looking for the correct color for 1968 Blue, it's not B5. In '68 QQ1 was the code, and although it's often confused for the 1969 B5, it's a bit greener and (in my opinion) a lot nicer looking.
On the "search" button above, type in "QQ1"...there's lots of threads here about it.

Robin

Robin,

Good luck with your car.

I'm very familiar with QQ1, my Coronet is this color.   It seems to be fairly rare because I don't see that color much.

[Magnumcharger]

Well there you go! You're already edumacated!

[1970Moparmann]

Well, picked up the paint today!  The body will be sprayed next week.  Here's some updated pictures-

[Finn]

Great progress! Cant wait to see it painted.

[426HemiCharger]

love it man, can't wait to see it when it's done.

[tan top]

been busy dude    looking good