At it again! 1970 Charger resurrection

[tsmithae]

Honestly the knee injury/surgery has been the biggest reason I haven't been around much. It makes it difficult to work on the car.  Getting her on all 4s  was probably the most excited I've been for months! Now I just need to replace a rocker and then start the bodywork. 

[tsmithae]

Rocker work, finally.   

Out with the old.


In with the new.  



I haven't burnt it in yet but the plan is to do that tomorrow.  I decided to throw some primer and whatever paint we had laying around at it, just for good measure.  Is it overkill, yes.  Am I ever going to have that rocker off in order to do it again... I certainly hope not!  

[moparsr2fast]

  Looking good Ted!     Were those complete rockers, or just the skins?

[tsmithae]

Thanks, Bob!  They were complete rockers but seeing as how I changed my mind on replacing them after I burnt in the new quarters ( ) I cut out as much of the old as I could w/o removing the quarter.  They will be brand new except for the portion under the quarter, which wasn't in terrible shape anyway.

[crj1968]

Wow nicely done. Surgery is rough stuff....keep on keeping on.   

[Stevearino]

Nothing like new metal to raise your spirits

[tsmithae]

I have been working on the car periodically and have actually made a lot of headway.... this will cover the past several months of work. 

I came across some original disc spindles a while back.  They even came with old calipers so I threw those on and checked clearances with the new rims.  :whew:







Anyway, I tried out this all-metal stuff and I was quite impressed with it.  It went on great and was easy sanding.




I managed to get the c-pillars to the point where I was happy with the all-metal.  I worked on slinging more all-metal at the dutchman, where it had to be sliced and extended and also the rear valence where it also had to be sliced and extended; however, I failed to take many pictures. I welded my wire loom covers in place and also drilled the holes for the charger script and had a brief moment of brilliance... I wound up taking masking tape and running it along the old quarter, marking the edges, marking the holes, and then measuring at a few points.  








I designed and built a rotisserie...





And it all folds up into a nice 5'x4' footprint.


I managed to put the final coat of paint on the dash frame, which will be taken home with me to assemble as I have time at my new house. I also welded in the buddy seat brackets and fixed the holes for the C pillar scripts. I have a long list of things to do tomorrow...  :burnout:







I was waiting on a buddy with a frame rack to fix my front frame rail and I got sick of waiting... so I did it myself with some heat and a fine precision adjustment tool.




However, the bumper and everything up front seemed to fit just fine.


Aaaaaaaaand, the dash got mostly assembled.





I got my uncle to come over and help me out and we got the K-frame out and upon removal I found another section I need to fix... the frame rail has a section underneath the shock that has a couple holes...  :hammer:  I will fix that tomorrow and I think that is the last bit of metal that I haven't gotten a chance to look over.  Fingers crossed that this is true and will be my last metal replacement.   :fingers crossed:

[tsmithae]

Well, I have been working on this slowly and here's what's been done lately.

I repapired the front frame rail.  

[tsmithae]

I spent several days stripping the many layers of old material and have started shooting epoxy on things. 

[Stevearino]

Tremendous progress. It looks like you are really turning the corner here. Nice when the fab work is done and you can start to smooth the edges.

[tsmithae]

Thanks, Steve!  How is your project coming these days?

[Homerr]

Wow, just went through the whole thread.   

Nice job!

[tsmithae]

Wow, just went through the whole thread.   

Nice job!

Thanks, Homerr!

[tsmithae]

Not a ton of work on the car lately.  i had to move and with my work schedule I don't get a chance to make the 3 hr drive to where the car is located.  I will soon be moving to Madison and will be much closer to the car. 

I have been working on restoring my second grill (sold the first one to pay bills...  :brick wall: )

Before...

[tsmithae]

After a LOT of time.  This one was split completely down the middle.  The plastic near the door supports was split almost straight through. The one side had sagged an inch or better and was cracked back about 3 inches.

[nvrbdn]

very nice work.

[Stevearino]

The grill looks great. Hate that you are so far away from the car. How is your back. I hope you don't need those crutches in the background there.

[tsmithae]

Thanks guys.  It does really suck being so far from the car.  That will soon be remedied though. 

The grill looks great. Hate that you are so far away from the car. How is your back. I hope you don't need those crutches in the background there.

My back is fine, however, my knee is still pretty destroyed.  I'm not on crutches currently.  I need another surgery but there is no telling when the insurance will finally approve that... 

[Stevearino]

Thanks guys.  It does really suck being so far from the car.  That will soon be remedied though. 

The grill looks great. Hate that you are so far away from the car. How is your back. I hope you don't need those crutches in the background there.

My back is fine, however, my knee is still pretty destroyed.  I'm not on crutches currently.  I need another surgery but there is no telling when the insurance will finally approve that... 

Sorry I forgot it was your knee that put you out of commission for a while. Don't know why I thought it was your back. Well. Luckily they are giving you an option to fix it. A few years ago the looked at mine and said. " Yeah. Your just old and so is your knee so it's going to be crappy from now on." At any rate glad to see you back at it.

[tsmithae]

No need to be sorry Steve.  It felt really good to be working towards getting something done on the car again.  I don't know what else I can get done on it until after I move. I really need to finish my rotisserie and get the thing painted...

Your car is coming along nicely I see.  Looks good!

[Stevearino]

Your car is coming along nicely I see.  Looks good!

Thanks.Haven't posted  on it in a while. I am currently in bondo hell so not much to see.

[tsmithae]

I finally had a weekend of progress that fell like progress.  It's funny how you have months/years where you feel like you are going backwards and then there's one weekend of what feels like progress.  

Before



After!







When I finished priming my uncle and I went to the gas station to get a drink/snack and this guy rolls up.  He's one of the guys that runs Mopar City in Oregon IL and this was one of their clients cars.  

[tsmithae]

I just got the bottom painted with Raptor Liner tinted A4 Silver. 

[marshallfry01]

Man that looks great!!!

[crj1968]

Indeed! This car is going to be really awesome!  Nice work!