1968 charger sheetmetal estimate guess's

[gtx6970]

Gentlemen,

a friend and myself  have been approched to do the sheetmetal work on a 1968 charger r/t

Car in question needs , floorpan, trunk floor, drivers side 1/4, a patch on the pass side lower 1/4, tray behind the rear glass. and maybe asome work around the lower rear glass. I've not seen it yet , so I don't have pictures or know how extensive the rust is right now.
But the owner already has an amd floor and 1 piece trunk pan, rust free  original drivers side 1/4 with wheelhouse and ext. I'm not sure about the pass side 1/4 and/or the rear valance yet.

basically , we are to remove all the old rusted dented metal  then hang all the new metal, and essentially get it ready to go to an actuall body main for finish , prep and paint.
the painter he has picked out doesn't want to do all the metal work, but is more than capable of taking over where we leave off.

All I have to do is get it solid and rollable.

so, my questions is, any body guys here able to provide some kind of base estimate I can work off of ?

I really would appreciate some kind of baseline anyone can give me and I'll take it from there.

Thanks in advance

[Patronus]

2 guys, 2 weeks

www.521restorations.com

[Dino]

When all the old sheetmetal is cut out be prepared to do some extra work not visible at this time.  You will definitely need to do work around the rear glass, likely windshield, wheel wells, rear crossmember and maybe some frame rail patches as well.  I have seen it many times before, there's always more work to be done than initially thought.

Will this be a complete resto?  Ideally you strip the car, cut away all the bad sheetmetal, hang the car on a rotisserie and blast it.  No point in blasting sheetmetal that will be removed later.
If it remains on its wheels I would still do the same thing, just be more careful blasting or try to soda blast it.

I would do the job in two parts.  Remove all sheet metal and show the owner what needs to be done to finish the job, that way there will be no surprises for him and you.  If you tell him now that it'll be two weeks and it turns out you have a ton more work to do, he won't be happy.

[gtx6970]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I think some of the rusty metal is already cut away, I just don't know how much yet.

I do have a rotisserie so thats not a problem , and I had already thought about  blasting the cut open carcess once it's up on it's side and nothing  bolted to it.

'2 guys 2 weeks' meaning 160 hours ?

[Patronus]

Yeah, 160 'bouts. If you have to re-work the rear glass jamb, could be more. And of course the prep. work...?
You could use a skin for the quarter, then you won't have to mess with the b-pillar..?
ANd nO scRew[n' around     

is the glass out?
do you have two welders?
Lead?
You have the experience of having done it before?
Tis just a number, but I would think good, fun work.

[gtx6970]

Yes, all the glass is out, it's actually a stripped rolling shell right now.

Only one welder - both a stick and a decent 110 gas type mig

I have a little experiance with lead, but am more than willing to learn

I've done basic body work and painting of small parts , but this will be the 1st major bodywork side of the restoration  for me. The guy helping me is a much more capale welder than I am. and he will be doing most of the welding on external / visable sheetmetal joints.
I'll probably stick to the floorpans and maybe the trunkfloor( under carriage stuff )

We will not be doing the final prep work or exterior paint work. for that he already has someone lined up.

my thoughts are strip it of un-essential exterior metal, roll it up on it's side and blast anything and everything to bare metal.
set it up on jacks getting it nice and square and work slowly,,, inside out and one piece at a time to retain as much structial integrity as I can

[NHCharger]

I'm doing a 68 right now. So far I have replaced driver and passenger floors pans, trunk pan (two piece). Had to cut out some rot out of both wheel wells and make some patches from my 72 parts car. Patch in part of both trunk floor extensions. I've gone overboard on some stuff like sand blasting the inside of the frame rails while they were exposed and then painted them with SEM rust inhibitor, then applying rubberized undercoating. I've been keeping track of my hours, which I'm beginning to think is a bad idea. So far about 140 hours but I have several days into disassembling the Charger and storing the parts.

[Mike DC]

Don't hesitate to weld temporary bracing onto the body if you're cutting the car apart.  You don't need to put a Pro-Mod rollcage into the car, just some thin angle iron across the big expanses of space is enough to do the job.