My Thanksgiving - Progress on a Car! (Lots of pics!!!)

[Troy]

It's been a long time since I posted about progress on a Charger...

Quick background: I have several cars, mostly projects. My biggest hurdle/excuse is lack of welding and body work skills and not being able to find a reputable shop locally (or one that doesn't have a long line of cars in front of me). I'm willing to help and learn as long as I have a knowledgeable person around to help when I get in a bind.

A few weeks ago I was talking with Brian (1HotDaytona) and, on a whim, asked if he had any plans for Thanksgiving. When asked why I (jokingly) said I should drag a car up there (Iowa) and we could do all the metal work while the shop was closed. Surprisingly, I heard back from him a day later and he said he'd cleared it with his wife and we could do it. I had to scramble to order some parts, prep the car (clearing undercoating), and schedule my last vacation day for the following Monday (coincidentally the same day one of our software installations went live so that was a fun conversation with the boss). I left (almost) immediately after Thanksgiving dinner at mom's house. I had a few issues with trailer tires. Trust me, you never want to be looking for tires on Thanksgiving day! A little over 9 hours later I arrived in Waukon (about 12:30 AM in 20 degree weather) and we unloaded the car in the shop and Brian got his first look at it.

The subject was my MM1 Bronze 68 Charger. Originally a 318 with a column shift and reasonably solid (and almost completely dent free). A few years ago another shop had repaired some small holes in the trunk lip and on the passenger sail panel where pine needles had sat in the gaps. The same shop also partially welded in a trunk pan. I had stripped and epoxy primed the roof and passenger quarter. During Brian's initial inspection he found some small holes in each door that I wasn't aware of so our "To Do" list looked like this:
Patch rear window channel (bottom corners, part of the sail panel, and top corners)
Patch/replace both lower quarters
Patch passenger side valance corner
Replace rear valance (dented but right on the main character line and repaired poorly)
Patch both doors
Patch small rust holes and extra trim clip holes in windshield channel
Install 4-speed hump
Install Z-bar bracket
Install subframe connectors
Install torque boxes
Install lower control arm stiffening plates
Patch cowl vent "stacks"
Finish trunk pan
Modify an automatic cross member for a 4-speed

Troy

[Troy]

Day 1 Friday
At approximately 8:30 AM (Brian let me "sleep in") we were back at the shop with tools in hand. We removed the trunk lid and Brian sent me to unpack parts and strip primer from the new AMD pieces. The rest is a series of progress pics. For whatever reason we had people stopping in all day long so keep that in mind.

9:11 AM Brian started cutting away the first piece of bad sheet metal.


9:25 Big hole


10:37 Sail panel repaired (but notice small hole in top channel)


10:56 Look at how clean I got those edges!


11:21 No more hole at the top


12:23 Started the other sail panel before I got a picture


12:40 Driver's side sail complete


2:52 Lower channel pinholes filled and driver side dutchman panel repaired



3:52 Upper channel pinholes filled and passenger side dutchman panel repaired



4:57 Covered all the welds with temporary primer for the trip home



Left for The Monster's pizza party.

Troy

[myk]

Oh man that's awesome.  I'm next!!!!

[Troy]

Day 2 - Saturday

So, no sleeping in today - Brian wants to be sandblasting when the sun comes up.

7:28 The rear valance is cut off and Brian notices some weird stuff like a clip that doesn't belong on a Charger and lead on the valance corner seam




Also check these out! Appears to be for a trailer hitch? Brain says the FSM shows how to build one but I forgot to check.



7:53 I'm finished cutting spot welds on the passenger quarter



Brian already had the valance corner cut and driver's side off



As well as one in front of the driver's wheel well and both doors...




Cutting out the rust...



Junk from the quarters - you can see what the inside looked like compared to the small holes on the outside



Inside of valance


Somewhere in there Brian fixed a dent


10:16 All blasted



















11:30 All covered with chassis saver (skipping the pics of everything)


We also dropped the trailer off at the tire store to replace a couple more tires. We did remember to go to lunch this day so we picked the trailer up then.

Troy

[Troy]

2:44 Passenger quarter patched (check out the spot welds)





3:19 I trimmed the valance to fit


4:40 Driver's side quarter is patched





4:58 I cut a hole in my pretty floor


But the "hump" fits nice


5:20 Passenger door patched and 4-speed hump welded in





7:54 z-bar bracket welded, valance attached, windshield channel patched, some extra holes in the engine bay filled, "stacks" repaired, a bent piece of rocker put back in place, and the driver's door repaired (whew!)











8:30 Valance finished and some holes filled in the tail panel





Home!

Troy

[Troy]

Day 3 Sunday

Early again...

6:56 Car is on jack stands since we'll be under it


7:40 Jack attachments finished



8:17 Parking brake cable tunnel installed in subframe connector



9:53 LCA stiffening plates installed



10:04 I knocked off some of the black paint on the pinch weld. Original paint underneath!


2:30 Subfame connectors and one torque box finished






3:36 All torque boxes finished




Brian had to take a short break so his son could visit Santa for the first time. I was grinding welds in the trunk...

5:08 Trunk rewelded in all the spots the previous shop didn't quite get, extra holes in engine compartment filled, extra exhaust hangar hole in floor filled, and trailer loaded!





Off to dinner.

Troy

[Troy]

Day 4 Monday

Leaving Iowa...




Troy

[69bronzeT5]

Very cool Troy! Brian sure does some great work. I really wish he was closer to me so we could do my Charger...it isn't as simple as yours though

[Charger440RDN]

Wow!! All of that in just a few days?  Nice metal work 

[SG1022]

Nice buck 

[8WHEELER]

Way to go Troy, I am very jellos. Those lower trunk extentions, were not in as bad of shape
as I was thinking they were going to be, after seeing the quarter panels. Nothing feels better
than getting a crap load of work done on your car, especially that fast. You got to love
looking at new sheet metal, makes you feel good inside......... keep us updated..........

Say hi to the boss for us  

Dan

[G-man]

glad to hear something happening

Brian, nice work!

Now I know how much work to expect to get done in 1 day rather than accept the crap shops tell you how it will take 3 weeks and cost $$$$ for something I myself dont see more than 3-5 days work in.

[tan top]

     wow Brian  you was flying  good stuff   good lot of pictures Troy

[Hemidog]

So Brian did all that while working on his Daytona clone?   


I gotta get out to the garage!

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Brian, you definitely have some serious talent & passion right there bud. 

Now Troy it WILL be painted in 2010 correct?   don't let all that work go to waste!!


PS---oh yeah Troy, you take good pics

[Charger-Bodie]

Brian, you definitely have some serious talent & passion right there bud. 

Now Troy it WILL be painted in 2010 correct?   don't let all that work go to waste!!


PS---oh yeah Troy, you take good pics

Thanks for the compliment Chris. 

Just so everyone knows Troy DIDNT just take pics. He was right in there working the entire time. Getting dirty.Except Friday,Most of that day He mostly ran interference so I could work instaed of talking to the (seems like)dozens of people that stoped.

....And yes those are some great pics.

[1969chargerrtse]

That is amazing !  You have a good friend there.  Not to many people follow through with helping others to that extent.  Brian helped me with hours of advise on the phone as I put mine together.  Great job Boys.

[BrianShaughnessy]

  That's a whole lot better than going to black friday sales!   

     Congrats and good luck with the rest of the project.   Brian did you a solid. 

[Arthu®]

Great job on the Charger and that's really nice of you to help out like that Brian

So when is it going to be finished Troy? 

Arthur

[NHCharger]

Now I know how much work to expect to get done in 1 day rather than accept the crap shops tell you how it will take 3 weeks and cost $$$$ for something I myself dont see more than 3-5 days work in.

Ain't that the truth.
That's an impressive 3 days of work.

[rav440]

nice work  TROY / BRIAN how bad were the AIR DUCT COWL STACKS ? what did you do to repair them ? mine are toast on the runner im looking for donar staks but had to find so ill most likely just make pieces from sheet metal .

here is a pic of one of my stacks .



thanks RANDY 

[moparstuart]

very nice work guys , so when does the hemi go in it  ?  What are all the other plans for the car ? saying the same color  ?
 

[hotrod98]

Looks great guys. Will we be seeing the car at St. Louis in 2010? Inquiring minds want to know.

[nh_mopar_fan]

You gotta love that kind of progress that quickly. wow. Nice work.

[dkn1997]

Troy, is this the car you got from Long Island?

[TUFCAT]

WOW.    Much better than Overhaulin! 

[Troy]

That took me a long time to post so I had to sleep on it and take another shot...

First I forgot to say Thanks Brian!

Second, don't expect any body shop (even Brian) to do that sort of work that quickly. We tested the limits of the welder and how much heat the sheet metal could take. You really want to let that stuff cool down but we didn't have time. It took both of us a couple of days to recover as well. I did prep as much as I could before I left home and I'll still need to strip all the paint off apply filler and block sand (and block sand, and block sand) before it can be painted.

This whole thing started out of frustration. The car was originally MM1 Bronze metallic with a white top and interior. It was a 318 column shift automatic with A/C, PS, PB, and just two bucket seats (no buddy seat). The previous owner wanted a 383 so the original drive train was MIA. I've had the car for 6 years and it's been in 2 different body shops. It really is a solid car so it bugged me that I just couldn't seem to be getting anything done on it. I put the car up for sale a couple of times but it really didn't garner any interest. So, I decided that I've got a garage full of parts and I'd just stick it together with what I had in a truly low-buck build. The plan was to paint it Hot Rod black, install my spare 68 383 HP and 727 (running but not rebuilt), and throw in some decent (not show quality but nice) black interior pieces (the original white stuff doesn't hold up well). I modified that a bit to include a 23 spline 4-speed setup just because it's a more desirable combination for most people (including me). I figured a running/driving car would be easier to sell in the spring and - if it didn't sell - I'd have a great cruiser that I wouldn't be worried about all the time.

The local body guy who was going to help me paint it stopped by a few days before I left for Brian's and he was really impressed with the car. He said the Hot Rod black would save 40-60 hours in prep on a normal car but mine was so straight that he'd recommend painting it right from the start. Plus it would sell better in color as not everyone is a fan of the flat black look. I heard the same sentiment from nearly everyone over the weekend at Brian's shop - right after they asked me what color I wanted to paint it. So, I have some ideas but I haven't made up my mind yet. I really want a black car but I already have a factory black car and I prefer to drive instead of clean. The best color for a driver that doesn't show dirt very well is silver so that's a possibility. I'd really like to go with a modern version of the factory color. I love that bronze in the sunlight but in the evening or under lights it just looks brown. Perhaps a modern color would still look good in all circumstances. If I were solely going to sell it I'd have to go with black or red but I'm not a huge fan of red cars and neither color would work if I keep it. Either way, the bottom is going to be completely undercoated and I'll probably shoot much of it in black. There's not much original about this car so I'm not going through the trouble of making it "correct".

Another bump in the road that cropped up - it's nearly unanimous that I drop a 440 in it. I have a completely rebuilt one sitting at the shop (zero decked, flat top pistons, balanced rotating assembly, Engle cam for the 4-speed, 440 Source heads, Edelbrock RPM intake, etc.) but that totally blows the low-buck approach out of the water ($4000 vs $200). I question the logic of throwing a 23 spline behind it as well but it should be ok with street tires. I have a brand new 3.91 Sure Grip rear laying on the shelf that would be a lot of fun behind that combination but, again, low-buck isn't happening ($1000 vs free). Adding that motor and trans means I might want to upgrade form the stock 10" drums. I have a complete Dr Diff big brake kit but there goes another $1000 - and I'd need a set of 17" wheels and tires. Luckily, the front end is already built (anyone notice the size of the sway bar and torsion bars?).

No matter the color or drive train, I have a ton of work ahead of me. If I were really ambitious I'd hope to have it in paint by Christmas but January is much more realistic. I'll probably make build decisions as I go - primarily dependent on what else I'm able to sell. I'm afraid new paint and a new motor will make my old trim and interior look bad so I'll tackle that as it comes.

All in all, I'm happy to have made progress and I now have the motivation to dive back in. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and have this thing on the road by summer. If it drives like I want it too it will be at Carlisle and Monster Mopar. FYI - my definition of a "driver" doesn't mean a cruise down the block once per month. During the summer I drive my cars at least 3 days per week for 200-400 miles. My classic cars see about 14,000 miles per year.

Troy

[Troy]

Troy, is this the car you got from Long Island?

Yep, the same one you looked at for me. Thanks!

Troy

[jaak]

Great story and great pics. Troy your car looks great and I know it feels good to accomplish so much in a weekend.
And kudos to Brian for "helping a brother out", especially during a holiday weekend. Thats what the hobby is all about.

Great work guys,
Jason

[Silver R/T]

nice job, you guys did a lot of work for short amount of time

[SFRT]

great pix and good reference for what we are going to start tommorrow. Thanks!

[Cooter]

Troy, car looks Great guy...Brian, Don't know you, but I gotta tell 'ya you do very good work bro...Loved looking at the pics and it has be stoked to do my sons '66 Plymouth now. Nice work guys...Making use of every available piece of spare time sure does feel good when your done...

[RD]

looking great Troy... love seeing progress as mine just sit hehe... nice to see somebody doing something!

[jb666]

Wow!! That's some great progress for such a short time, nice work guys!! 

[General_01]

That looks like great work. Awesome work guys.

[KWS]

Sweet Troy!! Nothing like progress to get you motivated! Good luck with the build.

[OneofNoneRT]

  You have almost caught up to where I am  and I have been working on her for 2 years now.. Fascinating I am Just amazed.. It took me 2 Saturdays for the Sub Connectors and Torque Boxes Alone!..And I am on a Rotissirie! Much less all the other stuff!

You guys are My New Heroes!

[bakerhillpins]

Cool, Nothing beats a full on charge through a pile of work. Feels good to get it out of the way I bet. I always find it far to easy after I do something like that to put off continued work for all the "other stuff" that got over shadowed. Hope you can keep it rolling.

Makes me nervous about buying one of my own to work on.

So I take it that its not for sale any more?

[rt green]

nice . love the underneath work. that shop isn't to far from where i grew up.   got my 220v hooked up in the garage yesterday. hope to do some welding like that soon. i like the copper color it is now.

[Dans 68]

Thanks for the photo and journalistic essay, Troy.    It sure is enjoyable to see these beauties fixed up! As far as the 440, if you have a spare 383 HP sitting around I would just throw it in and enjoy banging through the gears.      Save the dinero for the fuel account.

Dan

[mopar_nut_440_6]

That is some serious progress for three days.

My hat is off to you and Brian!

Brian is definitely an awesome guy. He always has great advice and does some awesome work!

[bull]

Well, now you're doomed to finish it.

[dads_69]

Troy, it's about time you start to represent the charger forums. I'm just messing with you...
Good to see you get to enjoy one of your many mopars once again soon. I still long for a 68' charger myself.

Great work Brian also! 

Mark

[dkn1997]

Troy, is this the car you got from Long Island?

Yep, the same one you looked at for me. Thanks!

Troy

That was such a clean car.  Did he actually give you anything else besides the shell?  I can't remember if he said he had the interior or anything else...  I still have a whole folder of pics. 

I'd vote for the modern version of the bronze color, no vinyl top though.  and keep white interior. 

[69 OUR/TEA]

Congrats guys!!!!!! Alot of work accomplished in that little time frame!!!!Car looks like its on its way Troy!!!

[Troy]

Thanks everyone! Brian - and his family - are great! We had spoken several times about me sending a car there but this one seemed like such a short project that making two trips that close together wouldn't have been practical. Now I wish I'd have left it there for block sanding and paint.

nice work  TROY / BRIAN how bad were the AIR DUCT COWL STACKS ? what did you do to repair them ? mine are toast on the runner im looking for donar staks but had to find so ill most likely just make pieces from sheet metal .

thanks RANDY 

Well, I have a picture of mine somewhere. They had rust holes but weren't horrible. I didn't like the idea of having to remove the entire cowl to fix them (and we didn't have time). We had several ideas but, in the end, Brian just welded on a new piece inside the original and sealed the heck out of it. I have since acquired a set of original stacks so I may change that before the body work is complete.

looking great Troy... love seeing progress as mine just sit hehe... nice to see somebody doing something!

I've been saying the same thing forever it seems. I haven't actually made progress on a Charger in years - other than some bolt on upgrades to the R/T.

Makes me nervous about buying one of my own to work on.

So I take it that its not for sale any more?

It helps to have a plan, realistic expectations, and a reputable shop/helper. It seems that a lot of "projects gone bad" started out with good intentions but failed due to one or more of these reasons.

My primary reason for putting the cars up for sale was to finish my 68 Charger 4-speed Track Pack. That's still a huge goal for me. This car is still for sale (not advertised) - but the price just jumped due the "upgrades". It will probably also be for sale once it's finished/drivable depending on whether the other R/T sells (my only drivable Mopar) and how some other things work out.

Thanks for the photo and journalistic essay, Troy.    It sure is enjoyable to see these beauties fixed up! As far as the 440, if you have a spare 383 HP sitting around I would just throw it in and enjoy banging through the gears.      Save the dinero for the fuel account.

Dan

The 383 runs but it a bit of an unknown. The primary reason for choosing it was because it's cheap and I figured it would be easier to sell a running car than a disassembled project (although my disassembled projects are generating much more interest than the drivable cars). I have a feeling that if the paint turns out real nice on this car - and there's a good chance that I can keep it - then I will not be inclined to install an engine more than once. The 383 won't get that much better mileage than the 440.

Well, now you're doomed to finish it.

Let's hope. At the very worst I have yet another running car to choose from instead of a huge mass taking up space in my garage.

Troy, it's about time you start to represent the charger forums. I'm just messing with you...
Good to see you get to enjoy one of your many mopars once again soon. I still long for a 68' charger myself.

Mark

Hey! I've been driving my R/T for 2 years.

Troy, is this the car you got from Long Island?

Yep, the same one you looked at for me. Thanks!

Troy

That was such a clean car.  Did he actually give you anything else besides the shell?  I can't remember if he said he had the interior or anything else...  I still have a whole folder of pics. 

The car was complete minus the engine (and half the other stuff in the engine bay), front seats, and windshield. He was trying to part it and actually advertised it as a rolling shell.

Troy

[grdprx]

Awesome work!  Metal work is my Achilles too. 

[six-tee-nine]

Great job from brian as usual.....

Nice pictures, theres always something to learn for the amateur body guy like me in pictures like these.....so thanks for sharing.

BTW that's about the same amount of work that my 69 needs so I'll urgently have to get starded......

[Charger-Bodie]

Thanks everyone! Brian - and his family - are great! We had spoken several times about me sending a car there but this one seemed like such a short project that making two trips that close together wouldn't have been practical. Now I wish I'd have left it there for block sanding and paint.



Troy

Your very welcome Troy and wernt even too bad of a house guest. Never even had to dump cold water on ya to wake you.

[firefighter3931]

Nice work guys ! 


Ron

[mikepmcs]

 

[Al]

great Job 

[Troy]

Wow! Back from the dead. Just don't ask me how the progress has been going since I got it home...

Troy

[Steve P.]

Ok Troy. Back from the depths of thread hell once again.. How about an update on the bronze beast?

[Troy]

Call me a "distracted restorer"! I got the car home and it sat for a bit before I stripped most of the paint off the outside. I did my 70 Challenger 340 at the same time. Put them both back in the garage. Got to messing with the Challenger and found out it was rotted worse than expected so I ordered a bunch of sheet metal. Since 1009... I sold my turquoise 68 Charger R/T, sold my 97 Toyota Tacoma, sold my 1999 Cummins Ram 3500 (for a huge loss after rebuilding/replacing nearly everything on it), sold my black 68 Charger (after assembling it so it would roll onto the truck), bought a 76 Power Wagon, bought a drivable-but-needing-restoration 70 Mach 1 for my dad, bought a 70 Challenger 440 Six Pack 4-speed clone (because I didn't have any drivable Mopars), sold the Power Wagon, bought a 1993 Toyota pickup, sold my Tahoe (in the pictures in this thread), bought a Kia for daily driver duties, bought a 1998 Toyota Tacoma because the Kia DOES NOT move in snow, and recently bought a 1995 Toyota 4Runner (to flip). After a couple summers the Mach 1 was having some issues with the steering and dad was uncomfortable driving it so I put it up in the air, removed the entire steering system and sent the parts off for restoration. I got the sheet metal for the 340 Challenger, borrowed a welder, and started replacing panels. I convinced "Dino" to come visit for a few days and he helped trim/fit some panels and get the welding started. More importantly, while he was here he knocked out all the dents on the bronze Charger and smoothed a bunch of the panels. Lost 2nd gear in the 440 Challenger so yanked it apart for a rebuild. I "upgraded" a bunch of other parts while it was apart for over two months and it has hardly run right ever since. Lots of troubleshooting time and fuel in that one! Lost reverse in the Power Wagon so yanked that transmission and waited nearly three months for a rebuild. All these inoperable cars blocked the only two garage doors at my shop. Found my rust on the 340 Challenger so ordered more sheet metal and did more welding. After four years the Mach 1s steering was still MIA so I ordered all original parts elsewhere (and got reamed for "core" charges). Pulled the motor at the same time to replace the clutch and also resealed all the leaks. Put in the steering, took it for a test drive, and it still sucked! Found out the ball joints were toast so ripped out the entire suspension this time. The 440 Challenger would run great 1 day then barely make it out of the garage the next. Fixed and replaced about $8k worth of other stuff (some was visual like console, shifter, etc.). While I was messing with all that I managed to toast the electronic tach/clock that was in it when I bought it so I replaced that (gauges have been out 6-7 times now). The Toyota pickup decided to randomly stall. Sometimes it would start after a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. Very frustrating! Along this time I had a family issue crop up and only made it to the garage once in 14 months. After that I started traveling for my job. Not often - but enough to cut into my free time. I also moved twice - and went from 5 miles from my shop to 16. Bought a rotisserie and a brand new welder and stuck the 340 Challenger up in the air. More welding, grinding, sanding, priming. Repeat. Repeat some more. But it's soooo much easier! Got the new 1" lowering suspension for the Mach 1 along with some really neat alignment tools so I can do my own. Installed everything and took it for a drive. Great! Except now it is severely tire challenged. More money flies out of the wallet. This was in the fall so really no time to enjoy it before winter. Swapped the engine in the pickup to a 1998 3.4 (along with the wiring harness, sensors, etc.), fixed the A/C, fixed the power steering, and added electric windows. Took the old motor and put it in the 4Runner with the blown 3.0 (but perfect wiring and other components so the random stalling is no longer an issue). Flushed and replaced all the coolant in the 440 Challenger, put in new plugs, and reversed all the changes I made to the carburetors. Runs reasonably well again! Now that I've freed up space in the shop I can actual rearrange the cars. However, I need to get the 340 Challenger back on the ground so I can put the bronze Charger on the rotisserie! The biggest hold up right now is deciding on whether or not to "pretty up" its suspension while it's easy to do. Put the Tacoma and 4Runner up for sale which will get me back down to only seven vehicles (three projects).

So there. Had the car for like 11 years and have realistically spent about 80 hours on the restoration. For someone who'd rather drive than work on cars I certainly seem to have it backwards!

Moral #1 of the story: focus on one thing at a time. Life gets in the way very often and long-term down time on a project can be a killer!

Moral #2 of the story: "finished" cars can take seeming unlimited money and time to keep them running. I've put $18k into the drivable cars (Charger, Challenger, Mach 1) since this thread started. Prior to this thread I spent about $13k (other Charger, Barracuda). Multliple cars = multiple headaches. I have no idea how much time I spent on them.

Troy

[NickJ]

Troy,
  Awesome work brother. Quick question.. What did you guys use to patch the upper portions of the rear window? I've seen patches for the lower but nothing for the upper. I know I could make the patches but if I can buy em pre-shaped it would save a ton of time. Thanks!

Nick

[G-man]

Hi Troy,

Is it not just easier to buy a good charger than spend months/years and MORE money to get that done from a car that looked like a wreck?

Good progress either way... I just remember you saying you had projects more than 5 years ago and it seems that is all you ever got. Come on man, get something on the road  

[Steve P.]

Damn Troy, I thought I had it bad!!!! I have been jumbling helping out family for ages. Playing games with my back. Shuffling both the wife and myself from doctor to doctor and hardly had a chance to even get over to my 1 car to fill the front left tires that slowly leaks down over time.

I have been working on my back shop here readying it for everything from the old shop to come here and let me tell you I am sick as hell about rebuilding other peoples stupidity...

Side note for anyone reading this: If you are going to build a shop. Draw it out. Every part of it. Find all your flaws before you build it. When you think you have killed off all the stupid things, go over it again...... My back shop was built by a "CAR GUY". He is the second "CAR GUY" I would call an absolute IDIOT!!! I am stuck with what he had built and having to do way too much to correct his foolishness... Talk to others about their shops. What they like and do not like and fix the STUPID "BEFORE" you build.

Back on track now: So Troy, did you ever decide on a color??

I think you should spend the next pile of cash on a 2-post lift. It's a huge time and BACK saver and with the use of some home made dollies you could have anything rolling around to keep working space available.

[Steve P.]

I forgot to mention: At least you can remember what you've been doing for the past 3-4 years!!! 

[Troy]

Troy,
  Awesome work brother. Quick question.. What did you guys use to patch the upper portions of the rear window? I've seen patches for the lower but nothing for the upper. I know I could make the patches but if I can buy em pre-shaped it would save a ton of time. Thanks!

Nick

That upper edge is just flat. Brian hand made the patches on this car and I repaired several spots on the Challenger with patches that I cut out of flat sheet and bent into shape. Just be aware of the structure behind it since these rust in the seam and you usually have to put all the layers back in.

Steve, I've been eyeballing a scissor lift for a while. I rent my shop so installing anything permanent isn't going to fly. Plus the ceilings are only 10'. Of course, I thought about buying a rotisserie for about eight years before I got one. I wish I had done that much sooner!

Hi Troy,

Is it not just easier to buy a good charger than spend months/years and MORE money to get that done from a car that looked like a wreck?

Good progress either way... I just remember you saying you had projects more than 5 years ago and it seems that is all you ever got. Come on man, get something on the road  

A wreck? Wow, you must not look at too many of these! I paid $4k for this car and it was complete except for the engine and transmission (which I wouldn't have used any way) and windshield. The front fenders, hood, deck lid, and grill are mint (the headlights still hold vacuum too). If you want to see a wreck (literally!) you should have seen my black one. It's not all that easy to buy a "good" Charger - especially if you're picky about what you want. Moreso if you're straying from stock. By the time you buy a good candidate them rip it apart to change the drive train, paint, interior, brakes, and suspension you couldn't do it anywhere near what I'll have in this car.

It's not always about money. If you count them, I mentioned several cars that I purchased that I could hop into and drive (68 Charger R/T, 73 Barracuda, 70 Challenger 440 Six Pack clone, 70 Mach 1). All of them cost me money after the purchase - but I also drive a lot more than most people (put 14k on the Charger R/T and 10k on the Mach 1 in the same summer and 18k on the Barracuda in another). I have lots of projects because I sometimes find exactly what I want. For example, my 68 Charger R/T 4-speed in blue/white to restore to factory condition and this car which was a 318 column shift auto without a drivetrain to "modernize" and build however I want. I've had some sort of old car (and sometimes newer ones) torn apart for almost my entire life. The green 340 Challenger was supposed to be on the back burner until the Chargers were done but I started messing with it and screwed up my order. I have the space and tools. I usually have the money. What I'm short on is time.

Troy