elacruze '68 resto thread (Heavy photos)

[elacruze]

I have a little bandwidth now, I'll post up some of the photos of my ongoing restoration...so far it's only bodywork. Engine stuff will come after July when I get home.

Eric

<edit>
I thought it would be nice to put a link to the engine thread up here.
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,73529.0/all.html

[elacruze]

more..

[tan top]

looks a good project 68   R/T  floors look good  from the pictures  ,
four speed also   what your plans repaint it stock color ??
   do i spy  end  A/C  dash vent  pipe     

like looking at this sort of stuff , keep the pictures coming dude 

[elacruze]

Good eye!

Unfortunately this is not an original R/T. The donor car died an ignoble salt-belt death in about 1984. Sad to think that it would be savable if it was in that shape today but back then there was no hope. I did save all the pieces I could, from the bellcrank bracket to the Dana 60.
This car was originally a 318 A/C car, I bought for $300 in 1980. I paid $200 for the R/T the year before.
It's returning to it's original color combo, Silver with vinyl top, blue interior and adding the buttstripe.

[HITMAN 149]

verrrry nice brother!!!! and from one VET to another... a BIG THANK YOU!!!! 
keep up the good work on her!! love the hurst 4 speed!!!

-john

[twodko]

What HITMAN 149 said!

Tom

[SG1022]

verrrry nice brother!!!! and from one VET to another... a BIG THANK YOU!!!! 
keep up the good work on her!! love the hurst 4 speed!!!

-john

[tan top]

Good eye!

Unfortunately this is not an original R/T. The donor car died an ignoble salt-belt death in about 1984. Sad to think that it would be savable if it was in that shape today but back then there was no hope. I did save all the pieces I could, from the bellcrank bracket to the Dana 60.
This car was originally a 318 A/C car, I bought for $300 in 1980. I paid $200 for the R/T the year before.
It's returning to it's original color combo, Silver with vinyl top, blue interior and adding the buttstripe.

silver &  black   awesome color combo
oh i see , doner car was a R/T , yeah i often think about the amount of  awesome mopars that went to the crusher in the 70s early 80s   that would of been saved today !!  

[twodko]

Hey Gunny,

When are are you back from the 'stan? get home safe Bro.

Tom

[elacruze]

Fellas,

I don't want any confusion-I'm not military, nor have I ever been. I got wrecked up real good right after I took my ASVAB after high school, and wasn't able to meet the physical requirements. I'm over here as a civilian contractor, working for Navistar on the MRAP program.
I have worked with the US Army, USMC and USAF since deploying and I'm proud to say that I have done what I can to serve alongside our servicemen and women; that I've been deployed for 2 years without being home more than 12 days every 6 months, and that I've been outside the wire with them-but I'm not taking orders and doing it for peanuts like they are.
I have to be satisfied with a direct support role, and knowing I have a direct affect on soldier survivability.
I also have a profound respect for them, and although I sincerely appreciated our Armed Services before coming over here, I would never have had this depth of understanding without deploying. I truly feel part of the military and will be very uncomfortable without them for a bit when I come home to stay. My inability to enlist is the only regret in my life I've been unable to correct.

[elacruze]

Back to the car 

[elacruze]

The focus of this 'restoration' is rust. I told my body guy that if I own this car another 100 years, I never want to see another spec or pimple on it. Of course this is technically impossible, but the point stands. In order to get as close to the intent as possible, the quarters had to come off. Since they were off anyway, and had significant dents/creases and a little perforating rust we decided to replace them with AMD. Unfortunately he misunderstood my direction and used the originals as a source of filler material. I intended to sell them off to someone who wanted to do the work and use them on another car. Pity. That's one of the serious downsides of long-distance work.

[Hemidog]

Nice work! 

[elacruze]

Sneaked away...

[elacruze]

trunk floor

[elacruze]

Rear valance.

[elacruze]

US Cartool frame connectors. These were actually installed before removing the original quarter panels.

[Rayzor]

Man them frame connectors are super fly. I like the fit! 

[elacruze]

roof repair

[elacruze]

AMD quarter panels

[Magnumcharger]

I love this thread! Keep up the good work!

[BB1]

 

[elacruze]

I'm about out of new pictures-been gathering these for a year and a half now but never had the bandwidth available over here to post them. There are probably 5 more pictures for every one of these back home in the shop, the job is being extremely well documented.

I guess I should give props to the guys doing the work; Paul Grasso and Bill Cullere from Stuart, Florida. Paul worked in a well-known restoration shop for many years, decided to go with more stable money/retirement and only works on cars in his garage now. Still has to beat away customers with a stick, and mine is the first full resto he's done at home which isn't his. Paul and Bill are Mopar freaks, they don't own anything but Mopar. This is one of Paul's; http://miami.craigslist.org/toooldtoview.html
Bill owns Lane's Trim Shop in Stuart ( http://www.lanestrimshop.com/ )  specializing in convertible and vinyl tops and interiors. He can make interior parts for anything from scratch.

I have some decisions to make once the body's painted-I have three engines now   the 440 I built originally in 1982 which is very stout, I bought a 505" Edelbrock headed RB because the price was right, and I have a late-model 400 which is mild, but I plan to make wild. The 440 and 4-speed are numbers matching so I may sell them to somebody who could make good use of them and just put in the 505 with a different transmission. Maybe I'll find a cheap A-body for the 400 build...

Suspension is mostly Firm Feel stage II, although I can't use the fast ratio pitman arm because of the 2" Hooker Super Comps. I already have the Gear Vendors overdrive, and I'm adding Vintage Air A/C upgrade under the hood as well as cruise control. XV power windows are on the shelf. Redline gauges has the instrument cluster doing the clock-to-tach and amp-to-volt conversion and restoration.

I'll add a premium sound system, I haven't decided exactly what but Bill and the local autosound guru are pre-wiring the car with all options in mind, so whatever I do the interior won't have to come back out to wire it.

The car has a Dana 60 suregrip with 4.10:1 gears, and I aquired an 8-3/4 center section with 3.55 gears and ARB air locker-that will be the 'touring' axle...and maybe the Saturday night suck-em-in no posi show...

I was getting a little worried about the budget for the restoration when my GF pointed out that the 'restoration' portion was only at about 1/2 the budget, and the rest was me buying parts for upgrades. LOL...I think.  

[Back N Black]

Wow! nice work! 

[elacruze]

Rear end.