rust issues as usual --- 69 rt/se

[miamivice]

uhhh, thats a lot of rust huh ...there is a whole lot more rust in the back ok 1/3 of the car but their are junky mopar patch pannels and replacemnt metal out there...but for this area, i dont think there is.     and it looks like its gonna suck.     what do i do???      any idea aprox what it would run to get all this fixed?     is it worth it?  

back of roof:





top of quarter pannel:


more:

[Blown70]

Well I will eventually have an extra roof, Not much rust if any but some dings......Which is why the angry car is getting a new lid.

You do have some work but nothing that could not be fixed.... Again it will be some work....

[Mfr426]

WOW! That will be TONS of work. My SE was not as bad as your shots and I'm in my 9th year of resto  The Paddock used to sell that upper window channel but not anymore. I think an entire new roof from a donor car IS a good suggestion!

Honestly, having done something similar to what you are talking about, I would NOT have done it had I known what was involved. Check out my hours and hours of work.

www.mikesmopars.com

Now, if you have all the tools, a good garage and a VERY cool wife/girlfriend/other then it's a fantastic learning experience! But, f I had it all to over again, I would search for a cleaner car. I would have 1/2 as much money into a cleaner car and be done the project by now...

Just my thoughts.

Good luck!

Mike R in Reading PA

[Charger Aficionado]

I'll hook you up with the roof man... 

[miamivice]

a better shot of the roof, taken over the summer

[cudaken]

 A round the rear window panesl and rear deck lid was not bad to replace. I did them on 41 husk 68 Charger and you are dong better than him. His glass fell into the rear seat Rear panel is not bad either, did it on DFS68 Charger 68 Charger. On the sail panel well I never seen rust there and my 69 Charger is the poster car for A R T. But still not that tuff ao a repair.

By the way, I got a hoot after seeing what your friend's did to you Charger House paint on the other hand is a bitch to strip.

Where do you happen to live anyway?

                               Cuda Ken

[miamivice]

A round the rear window panesl and rear deck lid was not bad to replace. I did them on 41 husk 68 Charger and you are dong better than him. His glass fell into the rear seat Rear panel is not bad either, did it on DFS68 Charger 68 Charger. On the sail panel well I never seen rust there and my 69 Charger is the poster car for A R T. But still not that tuff ao a repair.

By the way, I got a hoot after seeing what your friend's did to you Charger House paint on the other hand is a bitch to strip.

Where do you happen to live anyway?

                                              Cuda Ken

well thanks Ken, makes me feel a little bit better.   was a big discouraged this morning, but after your post and talking to Charger Aficionado im feeling a bit better.

yeah the 'general lee' they did to the car SUCKS!!!!   the few times i have gone out and checked on the car, i have pulled strips of paint off...it just comes up in sheets.   but yeah, its gonna suck getting it all off.   i think having it media blasted would be the best.....although it might gum up like the ruberized undercoating, i dont know.

for those of you that dont know, the car went from this:

to this:



and i live in seattle washington........anyone out here want to lend a hand and get this thing fixed

[8WHEELER]

NEEDING HELP?? I feel your pain, I am still trying to finish my rust bucket. Got screwed over by
a local looser from Monroe that talked me into letting him do the body panels and finish the body
work. Well the trunk pans need to come back out and the new rear corner pieces. Find a good
credible shop or a guy that you can see his finished product and talk to there owners, this is a
big project that will need someone with exp and a good back ground. I wish I had been told
and listened to advise like this before I got ripped on my blue 68 RT Charger 

Dan

[miamivice]

dan, i feel your pain man.

i got a bit 'screwed'....well, big time actually on this project.   transporter picked up the car and never came back, and it took about a year to find the car....in chicago sitting outside for the winter rusting away.   

some tell me to sell the thing and buy a better one, but after spending the money trying to get it back....and then just paying another transporter to bring it back here i cant really afford another one at the moment.   i just kind of put this in the corner and will save up the pennies and do it right next summer

good grief,   new motto:  trust no one

[cudaken]

 Miamivice, here is 41 Husk's 68 Charger. I would say it took us about 8 hours to save. Only problem we had was installing the chrome trim. It was a two fold problem. First I thing the glass guy used to thick of beetle tape, second was the top guy stuffed to much of the top into the channel. We did get the chrome on but took some work.

Sorry I did not take any PIC's of the working being done. But here are PIC of after the repair.

                              Cuda Ken

[DC_1]

(Bugs Bunny voice) looks beauty full!

[cudaken]

 We did all the way around the top, I blew up and croped so there be some details of the panel.

Sydmoe, yep it is the most stricking color combo have done to date.

                               Cuda Ken

[miamivice]

ken,
so did you just patch the back part of his roof?   i guess that is an option for me.
the thing is that the car was originaly a vinyl top car and i dont know how long the car saw w/ the vinyl stipped off and the roof just thinning out.   you can tell from my pic that the paint on the rest of the car was in decent condition but the roof was just bare metal.   i have no clue how thinned out the roof is.   i mean, if you bang on it it "seems" solid.   but there are a few pin holes in diffrent areas



so it might make more sense to put a new roof on.   i have no experience w/ body work, but im sure swapping the whole roof is going to me much more work (= cost a fortune $$$$$). 


------------------------

ok, option 2:
there is a guy here that has a somewhat solid 1969 318 car, must better shape then mine.  i actualy took the hood off that car for mine.   when i was talking to him he said he would be selling the shell when he gets done w/ his car and said i might be better off using his car instead of what i got.   
i could just swap the parts off my car onto that one.    then i wouldnt have to deal w/ the roof issue or anything.   i think the floor pans were good in that one too.   although it does need trunks and i think lower quarter patches, like i would have to do on mine.
but i have a RT/SE car, not numbers matching, in fact i dont even have a engine.   is it worth keeping the RT/SE car and fixing that or does it really matter.    personaly i would rather have the RT car, what, only diffrence being the VIN number...everything else i could swap out from what i have.
ive put a lot of money into my rust bucket because of what i had to go through to get it here so it would be like throwing it all away if i change directions and get another car.

what do i doooo?

[miamivice]

one other thing, Because my car is not numbers matching, or anything...dont even have the fender tag
its not giong to be restored to stock, and i am not going to do it green.   havent decided what exactly i want yet.
and i am not even sure if i want to make it a vinyl top car........which i dont know if that makes any diffrence in what i do to the roof as the metal work wont be covered up by anything.

F

[cudaken]

 I would go with a new vinyl top, will make the repairs much easyer. Padding and semi falt top will hide a lot. We also did the back part of the top as well. Yours is a little worst than his but would not really effect the time of the repair.

From the factory they did have some paint of the roof but not much. I will post a PIC of DFS68 Chargers roof after I pulled the top. His Charger is gold and you can see a hint of it. I would guess the sun just wore it off. Called crazing but that is a driffrent subject.

As far as doing the 318 Charger VS the RT/SE your asking the wrong man. Only numbers I care about is what is on the ET slip. 318 Charger with a Hemi in it is still a Hemi Charger to me.

Here is the sad part, when your Charger was getting the Lee house paint job it was at the Max 50 miles from me.

If you want to talk, PM me your number and we will in a few days. I will have unlimted LD calls Tuesday.

                                  Cuda Ken

[miamivice]

ok, now...got another problematic area



this is the pass side A pillar, peeled some of the old vinyl off (that was covered w/ orange paint ) to find this.