What is hard to find and what is not available to help restore one?

[AZ-Nick]

If I end up looking to purchase a 68-70 Charger, please tell me what is not available to help restore one?
What sheetmetal?
what interior pieces?
What exterior pieces?
You get the idea of what I am asking, I do not what to think I found a great deal on a car only to find out everything needed is not available or $$$$$$$$$ to buy..... Thanks again for all your time..... Nick

[Mike DC]

 
The situation is improving by the month with the '68 and '69 cars.  The 1970 cars are somewhat lagging because so much more of the body & interior (like the ENTIRE front clip sheetmetal for example) was one-year-only. 


AMD is making a ton of new sheetmetal that we're just beginning to see.  It looks very good.  They're making the front ends & rear ends of the '68/69 cars and everything on the 1970 cars that interchanges without major alterations.  (The rear ends of the 1970 cars are the same).

The interior is pretty much covered when it comes to cosmetic stuff.  Vinyl, door panels, carpeting, guage refurbishing, etc.  But the entire replacement items of the interior that you can get with GM & Fords (like an entire new set of front seat buckets, or a whole new sheetmetal dash frame) are still nowhere in sight for Mopars.  You still need to have the original Mopar core interior parts to re-skin and repaint.   




The basic rules still apply with any car restoration.  If you're building a fun cruiser and not looking for matching numbers or trying to flip it for value next year:

--  Get as little rust as you can possibly afford.  This is heart-attack serious. "Rust free" cars are pretty much impossible, but get one that didn't rust too badly before getting fixed or was fixed REALLY well after it rusted. 

--  Any sheetmetal work that wasn't done up to par will usually end up being more of a problem than if they had just done nothing at all. 

--  Overall, it's not worth the money to try to improve a car body & interior's rust and fit/finish in huge degrees.  If you eventally want to end up with a perfect flawless body that doesn't rattle and leak, then buy a car that's within range of that condition already.  Take the quiet & tight-feeling 318 automatic car over the raggedy-but-fast 440 car every time. 

--  Drivetrain swaps aren't difficult.  These cars are all nuts and bolts.  All the bodies/chassis basically rolled down the assembly line exactly alike until the engines & suspensions & stuff began bolting into place.  There are very few situations where it takes any cutting/welding to change a mechanical item like that.  (Even swapping from a 6-cylinder car to a 426 Hemi.)