Project Silver Fox AWD Updated 7/1

[Charger440RDN]

That one piece floor pan from AMD is a beautiful thing. Much easier to install than the old two piece.

[motorcitydak]

I attacked the car the last 2 days with a drill and a few 3M abrasive stripping wheels. I really cannot afford to have the car blasted so my plan is to spend about 20 hours in there with my method. What you see in the pics is about 3-4 hours of work. The car is primered black, but it was never sanded and I do not think it was intended to be painted over. I also started digging into the quarters to find out that someone has some serious talent for applying gallons of bondo (probably the same guy that put aluminum sheet metal on the floor with small screws and covered it with tar and tar paper). I chipped off some parts that are pushing 1/4 thick. It came off rather nicely because the outside was hard but the inside is still soft, it seems like it never hardened inside. Obviously new quarter skins are in order here and luckily the damage is all below the body line on the sides. Im not sure what happened to the car, but it has similar damage to both sides. Anyway, you can see the roof was rather rusty under the primer which took twice as long to strip since I had to get thru the primer then thru the rust and clean it all off. The rest of the sheet metal is in a lot better shape. After I stripped it, I covered it in a light coating of rustoleum rust stop paint, its actually red, I dunno why it looks orange in the pics. Thats fine tho since the car will the orange anyway. Now on with the pics...











Here is the damage to the drivers side. Someone tried to pull it out as far as they could, then just said f%#@ it and covered it in a ton-o-plastic


as you can see here...


and here...


Now im keeping it protected until I can prime it the rite way




Where the damage stops and where it will be cut off and the new panel will be welded in


Should the rear part of the drip rail be welded to the body? Also, any tips for cleaning the bondo out of there? I chipped out as much as I could now there are still small pieces in there I cannot get. Maybe a wire wheel or something?

[Troy]

I have at least one car now that I never want to strip the paint on because I know there's something under there but I don't want to know what or how bad. I've learned from taking all the rest apart that, just when you think you've seen it all - there's something worse.

Be wary of the primer - most primers are porous and won't protect metal by themselves (actually holding water). Temporarily it's better than bare metal but not for a long stretch. Epoxy primers are a better choice but require mixing. Once the metal work is done the first layer should be epoxy (some people prefer etching primer instead). Make sure it's good stuff though since all the rest of the paint work depends on it.

Those channels were just spot welded to the roof. No matter how you do them they look add - sort of unfinished looking from the factory. The gooey stuff in there isn't Bondo or filler - it's seam sealer and was probably applied by the factory. It can be removed with a wire wheel but it's wedged in between the two pieces of metal so getting the last bit out is tough.

Troy

[motorcitydak]

Well I got my first parts in today, they will be the first of countless I know. They are hinge pins and bushings for the doors. I need to hang the doors to see if the seams still line up and for the new rear quarter skins when I get those and I cannot fit the doors with the worn out hinge pins

[CDN72SE]

Nice work you're doing there motorcitydak, those 3M disks do a pretty good job I'm using them myself. BTW where did you pick up the hinge kit from? Good luck with the resto and keep the pics coming.

[motorcitydak]

Nice work you're doing there motorcitydak, those 3M disks do a pretty good job I'm using them myself. BTW where did you pick up the hinge kit from? Good luck with the resto and keep the pics coming.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/66-67-68-69-70-Charger-door-hinge-pin-kit-pins-Mopar_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c4c14ad60QQitemZ190254984544QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

I just about broke the bank on my first purchase for the car. Don't worry tho, I am trading a steel hood, truck lid and 68 seat w/ brackets plus $ to the guy I bought my fiberglass hood from. I am getting another cowl that I will graft onto my car and a complete front disc setup w/ hard and soft lines and master/booster. After that I need sheet metal, frame connectors, sheet metal, torque boxes, a little more sheet metal, rust conversion stuff from eastwood and some more sheet metal

[motorcitydak]

Here is another pic of my progress on stripping the car. I have just about the whole deck filler panel and deck lid done, I just attacked that part after I took the pic.

[ZSmithersCharges]

What are you using to strip it just sand paper?

[motorcitydak]

These things, I have gone thru 2 and a half of them so far on the car. Its not to bad convsidering how much of the car is bare and I have only spent maybe $30 bucks on doing it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Paint-and-Rust-Stripping-Pad-9099-by-3M_W0QQitemZ230267511619QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item359d036343

[ZSmithersCharges]

These things, I have gone thru 2 and a half of them so far on the car. Its not to bad convsidering how much of the car is bare and I have only spent maybe $30 bucks on doing it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Paint-and-Rust-Stripping-Pad-9099-by-3M_W0QQitemZ230267511619QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item359d036343

Thats awesome 2 1/2 for all that stripped is a good deal!

I was doing my 73 with 80 grit on one of those electric ones and it just burns through those pads like they are nothing.  10 comes in a box though but they arent cheap either.  How many passes do you have to do over an area before all the paint is gone?

[motorcitydak]

I do not really do passes with it, but I work an area back and forth a few inches at a time until I cut thru the paint and rust. The great thing about them is that they do not heat the metal up very much and do not eat away at it the way sanding does. It does grain it a little but very little material is actually taken off. I would have to guess that a square foot can be done in around 15 minutes with these.

[ZSmithersCharges]

I do not really do passes with it, but I work an area back and forth a few inches at a time until I cut thru the paint and rust. The great thing about them is that they do not heat the metal up very much and do not eat away at it the way sanding does. It does grain it a little but very little material is actually taken off. I would have to guess that a square foot can be done in around 15 minutes with these.

Thanks for the insight I'm going to go get some this weekend and test them out 

[motorcitydak]

Well I had a good long day to play with my car today. Thanks to some nice weather, I really enjoyed myself today. The first challenge was finding a place that sold spot weld cutters. About 10 calls later I finally located some. I ran out and grabbed that then it was surgery time. As some of you know, I had a big section of the grill on my cowl cut out by a previous owner that had to be replaced. Some bartering with a buddy had me trading the steel hood I did not want for a good cowl cut from a road runner. He has the roof from the car also for anyone looking for that

The cutting begins




I will be replacing the piece with this one, I was just sand blasted yesterday a so I just covered it with the random rattle cans I grabbed


About 2 hours in and I can see good progress




Stupid hole...


Just about off



What I am left with underneath




I was very careful removing this to not damage it anymore. I will be holding on to it since they are hard to come by. Let me know if anyone needs a piece from this


Hand sanded and cleaned up, its a once every 40 some years chance to clean this thing up so I took full advantage of it


Primed up all nice


Then shot with 4 coats of orange while I was working on the other cowl. I know it will be very hard to see my detail here but I think it will be cool for this piece to match the color of the rest of the car, which will obviously be orange, but not a GL


The roadrunner cowl finally separated after I completely dulled out my spot weld cutter. It was getting dark so I just resorted to using a 3/8 drill bit to take care of the last few spot welds. Again, I will be keeping the bottom cowl piece and took care separating them so let me know if anyone needs it


test fitting the new cowl for the first time


The next few pics show how I cut the corners too long so I can trim them back to butt weld them together. I would flange one side but that would straighten out the cowl so it will just have to be lined up perfectly after I grind down all the spot welds still on the car to allow the new cowl to sit flat on it.




old cowl grill on the roadrunner lower piece




This update and work have been brought to you by Mtn Dew

[ZSmithersCharges]

Do the DEW  Awesome progress, good on you to clean out that mouse nest you had goin on in there 

[b5blue]

Good Job! I always wanted to get a good look inside there.

[Charger440RDN]

Wow! I never would have guessed that all of that crap could get stuck in there  , is there a way to get all of that out without removing that cowl piece? Nice job so far. 

[motorcitydak]

I think most of it got in there because of the big hole I had in the grill, but still it is possible for a lot of debris to get in there thru the grill. The only other way I can see that you could clean it out without cutting anything would be to some how snake a shop vac hose into the fresh air intakes. Maybe use some 1 inch PVC with 2 90 degree elbows or something

[b5blue]

I taped a 1 inch pvc u shape to my shop-vac and used my camera to check around in there. 

[motorcitydak]

I will be getting some new AMD floors for the car next week, so in the mean time I was stuck doing some rust repair today on the passenger side quarter and tail panel. I trimmed up some pieces of 20ga to back some of the larger areas to reinforce the weak metal. I will be covering the back side with seam sealer to prevent further rust problems. It is a good thing I just got 20# of .023 wire for the welder since there are just so many small holes all over the car that will need to be fixed. Each section I did here took probably 3 times of welding, grinding and filing to get it to where I like. It will still need a very light layer of filler to completely finish the work off, but this is way better than what I started out with. I think the car was backed into a tree or something during storage, but just the right side. The right back corner is rusted out way worse than the drivers, the left only has 1 tiny pin hole in it. Anyway, here is today's progress





I think the entire piece that is hanging off here completely melted away when I was welding it and now is just a big weld. This is one of the places that I backed with 20ga






There is no way I am putting a vinyl top back on my car so these holes can go away now


After an hour or so, its way better. The tail light will cover up a few places I am not happy with and some filler will cover up any other imperfections.


All patched up and ready to go. I used a few small pieces of 20ga here too, they are in there somewhere


I think this area needs a little bit more work, but it is close






Hmmm, I wonder where a low spot could be...

[motorcitydak]

Got a little work done to the car today, but only had about 2 hours on it. I started welding up all the seams on the inner fender to stiffen the front end up. The car will be getting the XV stiffening kit and torque boxes as well. I just noticed on the XV site they show the stiffeners in and the seams fully welded up. Figured I could copy that. Also took a picture for sardillim to show that maybe the same guy put our brace in, since mine is horribly off too. I will have to cut it off and move it to the proper location once I get the XV stuff. I do not have a pic of the welding since it got late and I had to pack it in. I should have a few free hours tomorrow before I go pick up a drivers door for the car ( ). I am going to try and weld up the inside of the inner fender as well as the outside. Figure every little bit helps.  Here is the brace, just a little off...


XV pic showing everything welded up
http://www.xvmotorsports.com/products/detail/image_gallery.cfm?nImgID=371&act=getimg&nPID=24

[motorcitydak]

Well I got a few things done today but still not much. I got a pair of mock up tires a few days ago. They are 315/40zr16. My future tires will be 315/35r17, but these will do. I know I saw something like this but I could not find em and mine are free anyway. As you can see, it just mounts inside the tires and has the plank that I can mount to a hub. I built them to be 16x10 with a +27mm offset just like my wheels will be just so I can make sure they will fit and so I can measure for my rear axle.




These are 13 inches WIDE, that gives me 11 touching the pavement


Here are the fenders from the car. They have been blasted and coated with epoxy primer, but still need a lot of work. I will probably end up using my fiberglass fenders tho




This corner sucks, the metal is actually split at the front


This is the 'new to me' door I just got. It is from a '70 non-RT car and has terrible pain and is holding a little bit of bondo, just the seams are great and with a little more work will be going on the car








Then just for fun I stacked up some stuff and put the tires at around ride height. I want it low and mean. You can also see that the axle will have no problems fitting in here









All the orange you see on the inner fender is where I welded up the seams. I need to grind it nice and smooth. It was a PITA trying to get all the junk off the metal with a wire wheel. Next time I will be using the grinder for prep too

[Brock Samson]

 Nice Dak, I'm very impressed by your hard work, and that tire fittment looks Fantastic! 

[Charger440RDN]

I'm impressed with the old school metal work here, instead of replacing everything with AMD metal such as the quarters, fenders, doors etc you are repairing it the old fashioned way 

[motorcitydak]

Thanks guys! I just do not have a choice with the metal work. I have a welder with a lot of wire, just not the $$$$ to buy all new quarters for the car. The drivers side only has 1 pin hole on the top edge, but the bottoms on both sides are just terrible.

BTW, that tire in the rear is sitting rite around ride height. I will be cutting up the wheel well because it does not have much room to move up rite now. I am going to put the K frame and front suspension back on the car so I can test out the tires on em. I may have to space em out a little and possibly modify the fenders. If I do I want the back to match so I may end up pushing those tires out a little to be the same as the front. 

[motorcitydak]

Small update today. I have only been able to work on it for an hour last week

I plan on all next wednesday being for the car so hopefully I can get the cowl welded on then.

I got my cowl back for the 2nd time. I bought it sand blasted, brought it home and seperated it from the lower cowl assembly and found rust on the inside in between all the grill fins. I brought it back to the guy I got it from. He blasted it all again and then painted it all with eppoxy primer. Now it looks like a brand new AMD part, if only they would make such a thing...