'69 Charger Build - It moves!

[Mrs.M0parmanJim]

nice project my husband is also working on a charger as well. your doing nice work on yours.

[chaos52]

nice project my husband is also working on a charger as well. your doing nice work on yours.

thanks! 

[Finn]

Great progress man!!!

[djcarguy]

   looking lots better allready.looked kind of iffy and sad when first got it and unlouding it.  so was front and roof of the 70 parts car good? did it sell?

   all da best on your build..dj

[chaos52]

   looking lots better allready.looked kind of iffy and sad when first got it and unlouding it.  so was front and roof of the 70 parts car good? did it sell?

   all da best on your build..dj

Yeah, it did look pretty rough when I first got it. It will look even better by the end of summer. I've done a lot of work since spring and there's still much more in the plans before I go back to school.
The front end of the 70 was good except for one rotted frame rail. The shell is sold now, just took a long time to work out the details.

Thanks

[NHCharger]

Wow, now that's what I call a project. Looking good.
Kudos to your Dad for his help and guidance with this.

[chaos52]

So, Christmas break 2011-2012...

I did a lot of dollying, straightening and welding on the drivers fender. The nose was smashed (seems like they all are), so I ended up cutting that out a making a new piece. Unfortunately, Jeff had sandblasted the fender and warped it pretty badly. I was able to straighten some of it, but it still needs more work and inevitably is going to require a lot of bondo.

I started doing a lot of thinking about my plan of building a General Lee. While I love the car and the way it looks, I wondered if I really wanted to spend the time building something so unoriginal. The car carries an identity by itself. It would never be anything more than a TV icon and I wanted to create something original that I had conceived--or at least as original as a restoration can be.

The problem was that I hadn't seen a Charger in any other color/paint scheme that I liked. Orange with a black bumblebee stripe is nice, but it still doesn't look really good in my opinion. Somewhere along the line I found these photos online and fell in love with the triple-black scheme. After doing thinking and looking for more pictures over the winter semester I decided on black paint, black interior, black vinyl top and satin black bumblebee stripe.

Quick note: If the owners of these cars see this post, please contact me. I've got some questions for you and would like more photos. Thanks!

[chaos52]

Summer 2012,

One of the first things I worked on were the rust holes around the back window. The damage wasn't very bad, considering that is one of the problem-spots on Chargers. I had to repair the upper-right and lower-left corners. After cutting out the remaining weak metal, I made patches and welded them in. A coat of fiberglass and some sanding finished it off.

Next I worked on the deck filler panel. My best guess is that someone stood or jumped on it. The dents didn't appear to have been caused by an impact from the side where the car was t-boned. I started by dollying out some of the dents, but didn't get very far. The worst of the damage was inaccessible because of the lower plenum underneath the filler panel. I ended up expanding the 2 holes on either end of the plenum to fit my hand through. Of course, once the damage was hammered out, the panel started oil canning in several places. Neither Dad nor I had any experience with shrinking metal. I did some research online and found various techniques. We started out using a grinder and a wet rag. That worked, but wasn't ideal. Next we tried the oxy-acetylene torch. The technique that worked best was to find the weakest spot in the oil can and heat it up to red-hot. I would then use the body hammer to gently tap around and on top of the hot spot. This leveled off the hot bump in the metal, so after quenching it would be flat instead of having a hardened bump.

This technique worked well to eliminate most of the oil canning, but it wasn't enough and I started to worry about what all the heating and cooling was doing to the metal. In the end, I drilled 3 holes on each end of the filler panel and welded it to the lower plenum underneath. This made the panel extremely stable. I was going to have to use bondo anyway, so figured it would be better to not worry about it cracking.

more to come...

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

After getting the filler panel straightened out I started working on the doors. They hadn't been touched since I bought the car and still had all the glass, trim, regulators etc. in them. My cousin helped me out by gutting them so all I had to do was pull them off the car and start grinding them down. The drivers door was beautiful with only a couple small rust holes and one area to patch. The passengers door was dented several times along the bottom and up between the "scoops". After stripping and treating it, I spent several days applying layers of fiberglass and bondo. The lower-most body line that matches the fender was completely gone. I did a lot of measuring from the other door and was able to recreate it with bondo. The area around the 'scoops' was dented enough that I had to build up the edges of the 'scoops' so they didn't get buried.

Around this time I started doing some calling around to find a grille, hood, deck lid and quarter panel extensions. The hood I had was very rusty and dented in a few places. The deck lid that came with the car was the original, so it was damaged pretty badly from the car being t-boned. I had the money, so I figured it would be a good time to get the last big piece I needed for the car--the grille. I called the guy I bought the '70 from. He had a deck lid for me and got me in contact with a friend of his, Dave. I was able to buy a beautiful hood and grille from him along with a nice fender, wiring, quarter panel extensions and lots of other goodies.

Earlier in the summer I had double checked the measurements on the end of the quarter panel before welding it solid. Unfortunately, I didn't think to measure where the taillight panel connects to the quarter. (The area that is covered by the quarter extension) After it was welded, it didn't look quite right--the lower portion was about 1/4" thicker than it should have been. This is obvious if you look in the picture below. The fix was to drill the welds and tap the edge of the taillight panel outward. I specifically bought the quarter panel extensions before doing this so I could be sure everything was right before welding it again.

The new deck lid had a couple minor dents in the surface and one on the rear edge that were easily filled. The only damage to the new hood was a low spot in the rear passengers corner. The edge of the hood was clearly bent. I put a sledge hammer handle (vertically) under the edge of the hood on the damaged spot. After pressing/hammering on either side of the bend the low spot turned into an oil can. I used a straight-edge to compare the contour to the other, undamaged side of the hood. After a bit more work it was stable enough to apply a skim coat of bondo to finish.

More to come...

[chaos52]

 

[grizparker]

I'm jealous of your beautiful grille... 

[Ghoste]

So are all the 68 and 70 owners. 

[lexxman]

It looks like your having fun,and yes I like your grille I wish mine was in that shape.

[cdr]

So are all the 68 and 70 owners. 

NOT 

[6pkrtse]

So are all the 68 and 70 owners. 

NOT 

Me either. I love all 3 years 68-70.
You progress looks awesome.

[Cooter]

Wow! You are really in there gettin' busy! Love to see this type resto work. Making all those little patches is time consuming isn't it? I still can't figure out why the aftermarket hasn't come up with a front/rear window channel pre-bent and formed for these type repairs yet.

[Hemidog]

Bookmarked!

[chaos52]

Next priority was to finish the quarter panel repairs. The quarter panel skin I got with the car was a little beat up, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I started fitting it. It was obviously a cheap panel to begin with, but it was dented/twisted/rusted in a couple places and one of the body lines was missing altogether. Instead of spending hours trying to fix that panel, I sprung for 2 new skins. The passengers side arrived on time, but the drivers side didn't come until 3 days before I needed to leave for college, so unfortunately I didn't get that side hung.

I cut a piece of wheel well out of the '70 to aid in patching where the '69 was smashed. That car was so rusty that the lower portions that connect to the trunk extension and the quarter panel were gone, so I had to make patches for those areas. Having the new quarter helped with the contour of the patches, if not the actual location. Even with taking measurements from the other side, I struggled to know for sure if the pieces around the wheel opening were correct. Once the wheel well was at least tacked together, Dad helped me do the initial trim and fitment of the quarter skin. Once we made sure everything was lined up, I welded up the wheel well solid and finished the visible areas with a layer of fiberglass/bondo. It turned out beautifully considering how hacked together it was.

While I was working on the wheel well, Dad started fabricating the rear valance corners. I was grateful to have that done and not have to make them or buy them myself.

After the wheel well was finalized, Dad and I did the final trim and fit before tacking the quarter skin on. After that was just the arduous process of welding and grinding. I spent a couple days applying layers of fiberglass and bondo and sanding. When it came time to prime, I sprayed the new passengers fender, the roof, the rear filler panel and the new quarter. The new fender still needed some patching that I didn't have time for, but I had to get it in primer because I had already stripped it down to bare metal. It was amazing to see the car mostly in the final color after staring at a multicolored, smashed mess for 2 years.

More to come...

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[Chippa]

Awesome!!!! keep up the good work