Started Disassembly Tonight!

[HollyWoodCharger]

I went and paid a visit to Muscle Car Pitstop today in Beaver Falls, Pa, they are an AMD dealer on sheetmetal and stock all the sheetmetal for my Charger Project, I found out that the Full door shells will be available in about 3-4 weeks.....

so tonight I figured I'd start by removing the quarter panel extentions, only to find that they were already loose and only 1 sheetmetal nut held each one on........

Then I found out why......

The tail light panel and Quarters were so badly rusted, the nuts had fell off!

The panels were so badly rusted the edges were ragged and the panel pulled apart from the Quarters, and gravel pan with just a little effort and drilling out a few dozen spot welds that were actually pretty tough along the bottom of the panel.

The metal was so thin and rusted it looks like I hacked apart!

With the tail light panel out the way I can remove what's left of the trunk floor and weld in a couple of support rods made of 1x1 square tube, before I remove the quarters and roof skin.

here are a few pics!







I'm probably going to pull what's left of the Gravel Pan and see if the Rear Frame is in need of a new
rear Cross member.....

[tan top]

good start  , keep the pictures coming 

[69bronzeT5]

Call me weird but I can't wait to see my Charger like that

[Matthan]

Nice, Was it hard to take off the tail light panel?

[HollyWoodCharger]

Nice, Was it hard to take off the tail light panel?

there is about 6 dozen spot welds along the bottom of the panel where it meets the gravel pan, you have to grind the paint off to find the welds or you have to play hit and miss.......

toward the end I had to find about 6 or 7 that were not as easily seen, then I just used a long screwdriver to pop the panels apart, and snap a couple of welds that were a bit stubborn...

I had about 3 hours in doing it...

[HollyWoodCharger]

well I managed to cut some of the Old sheetmetal in the Trunk out to get a few measurements, this thing was a mess!

But my newly acquired Craftsman Reciprocating Saw made short work of the mess, this allowed me to get in and under it to remove the Shocks, brake cables, and the fuel and brake lines....









I'm looking at possibly ordering a Chris Alston Rear Frame clip in the 26-28 inch width, I may see if I can adapt it
to accept a set of Leaf Springs, or just bite the bullet and go with a 4-link and coil overs...