Overwhelmed??!?!?!?!

[Mopar2Ya]

Overwhelmed, most definitely. Saving for 4yrs to then wait again for a body shop to fix the other body shops mess. The second time will be the last, another screw up & I'm done.

[jaak]

Oh man been there (still there sometimes)! My car sat in body shop hell 2 years, I got it back it looked rough. Decided to do the work myself. The last 6 months or so has been cool (car was sitting on stands with suspension and rear removed) I installed all refinished suspension components, painted and installed my rearend with new leaf springs (so its a roller again!) Cleaned out all brake lines, installed front disc, rebuilt rear drums, bled everything (now it'll stop!) and have accomplished alot on my body work.. got the hood/doors stripped and epoxied. I have the rear half almost ready for high build primer. So Im getting stuff done I can actually see, that gets your blood pumping! The best advise I heard so far is you do need to take a BREAK every now and then, there has been times I just dont touch it for 2-3months, after that you sorta have a new enthusiasm for it.

Good luck,
Jason

[jdiesel33]

Oh man been there (still there sometimes)! My car sat in body shop hell 2 years, I got it back it looked rough. Decided to do the work myself. The last 6 months or so has been cool (car was sitting on stands with suspension and rear removed) I installed all refinished suspension components, painted and installed my rearend with new leaf springs (so its a roller again!) Cleaned out all brake lines, installed front disc, rebuilt rear drums, bled everything (now it'll stop!) and have accomplished alot on my body work.. got the hood/doors stripped and epoxied. I have the rear half almost ready for high build primer. So Im getting stuff done I can actually see, that gets your blood pumping! The best advise I heard so far is you do need to take a BREAK every now and then, there has been times I just dont touch it for 2-3months, after that you sorta have a new enthusiasm for it.

Good luck,
Jason

Sounds like you are well on your way and making some great progress. Good for you.
Another thing that slows me down is before starting this whole thing, I had no experience in any of this whatsoever. So everything I start to do, I have to research and then learn how to do it. I wish I could just go and do it and be done. Would be a lot quicker. Next time I do this though, it will be much easier.

[440charger68]

i do, every time i look outside and see my car im thinkin that i have gone no where. It ran, i drove, it blew a head gasket, it didn't run, fixed the gasket, runs, hole in the radiator, cant run or it will never run again. now im in the process of getting a new radiator, this is vary hard for me cause i have college and work on the side and this is my daily driver. Best thing to do is just soldier on, you know how cool your charger will be when its finished, it a indescribable feeling to bring something back that has been literally dead (non op) for so many years. Once you get it done you will feel its all worth it 

[Brock Samson]

 What helped me through was the newest copy of Hi-Performance Mopar and going to cars shows as much as possible, of course mine was allways a driver, i think if she had sat on jack stands in the garage for years, i would've maybe given up...
I think my strategy of resto-modding was quite abit different them most folks..
I ran mine with a small block gradually making improvements to the car itself, and collecting the 440 and correct r/t & S.E. parts intill i finally swapped in all the parts i had collected in '99... that of course means i had to put up with negitive comments about my r/t having a SB for all those years...
Part of me wanted to just prove all those asshats wrong and the other part was holding a vision in my head of what i was gonna have in the end.
Hang in there... you can do it!

[jdiesel33]

What helped me through was the newest copy of Hi-Performance Mopar and going to cars shows as much as possible, of course mine was allways a driver, i think if she had sat on jack stands in the garage for years, i would've maybe given up...
I think my strategy of resto-modding was quite abit different them most folks..
I ran mine with a small block gradually making improvements to the car itself, and collecting the 440 and correct r/t & S.E. parts intill i finally swapped in all the parts i had collected in '99... that of course means i had to put up with negitive comments about my r/t having a SB for all those years...
Part of me wanted to just prove all those asshats wrong and the other part was holding a vision in my head of what i was gonna have in the end.
Hang in there... you can do it!

Great looking Charger!!!! I thought about selling the driver I have now and putting that money towards the Charger (in hopes of speeding up the process) and making it my driver, but I drive about 15k a year and I think the amount of gas I would have to buy would break me!!!!!!

[Chatt69chgr]

I felt that way once but then reminded myself that I started the project to have fun and that I didn't want to get in a hurrry.  So I just plod along and take a system at a time to play with while keeping tabs on what resto products are coming available.  I've been accumulating parts for about 3 years now.  Some stuff is hard to find so it takes a while.  And tech info on the restoration of some items that wasn't available when I started has appeared making the project a whole lot easier.  I've learned a lot since I bought the car about 4 years ago.   Now realizing that it will be several years before I get this thing done, and realizing that I want to enjoy driving a neat MOPAR sooner than later, I pulled the trigger on the 26th of Jan and ordered a new 2009 Challenger RT.  That way I can enjoy one muscle car while working on the other one. 

[moparstuart]

 This one took me 11 years and two different body shops to finish . They can cause depression and even nervous break downs (or so my first thief of a body man claimed) .  Just keep telling your self how fun it will be when it's done .  I have completed two project and have 4 more waiting ,so to me it has been well worth it i'm still plugging away .

[Silver R/T]

I get that feeling once in a while. Maybe it's just winter and not-so-warm garage that kind of keeps me away? I try to concentrate on one thing at a time, it seems to be going much better that way. Once part is done I put it in storage and start on another part/section of the car.

[The70RT]

Im working on gathering parts.

I hope to gather most of the rest within a month or two so i can start taking it apart and immediatly putting it back together 

Lets see how that works out

What are you doing to yours? Looks like your paint is done.

[FLG]

Im working on gathering parts.

I hope to gather most of the rest within a month or two so i can start taking it apart and immediatly putting it back together 

Lets see how that works out

What are you doing to yours? Looks like your paint is done.

I WISH!!

She just looks good in pics. Shes a bondoed up beauty.

Shes been trough ALOT, someone slapped bondo on every spot of this car. Quarters, doors, fenders, trunk....floor had a hole in it on driver side and is "fixed" with some sheet metal and fiberglass...heck just about the whole floor is coated in it.

I already got 2 doors and a k-frame from a member on here (73ChargerSE) from AZ and they are MINT! No bondo, just very little surface rust. K-Frame will be sent out to FirmFeel to be re-done and strengthened. Im waiting on fenders from another member.

After i get the fenders,

Trunk Floor
Quarter panels
Floor Pan (full front and both rear)
Trunk Floor extensions
Panel behind tail light
Gas tank
Im getting 2 rear frame rail caps (no not because they are that rotted) theres 1 bad spot in one of em about the size of a quarter, but for strength im capping both of em.
Spring relocation kit
Rear Bumper
Sub-Frame connectors
Front grille
Get roll cage installed
Rocker panels

..ect ect all the other misc exterior parts the list will go on

Then comes the engine...right now its a 400 and i plan on doing a 440 > 512 stroker build...but unless the money comes in more ill probably have to wait another year on that.

My goal in the next couple of months is to compete all the body work and floors. Yea i know this might seem impossible, but im young and weekends ill work hours on end.

For all the people who might tell me "its not worth it" well.....its honestly NOT worth it for me to restore it and im better off buying one in better condition, but its my car and this is what i want to do with it.

Its drivable and i do enjoy it, but i know i will have a all new respect for this car and the hobby itself once its done...though its never really "done"

[The70RT]

Im working on gathering parts.

I hope to gather most of the rest within a month or two so i can start taking it apart and immediatly putting it back together 

Lets see how that works out

What are you doing to yours? Looks like your paint is done.

I WISH!!

She just looks good in pics. Shes a bondoed up beauty.

Shes been trough ALOT, someone slapped bondo on every spot of this car. Quarters, doors, fenders, trunk....floor had a hole in it on driver side and is "fixed" with some sheet metal and fiberglass...heck just about the whole floor is coated in it.

I already got 2 doors and a k-frame from a member on here (73ChargerSE) from AZ and they are MINT! No bondo, just very little surface rust. K-Frame will be sent out to FirmFeel to be re-done and strengthened. Im waiting on fenders from another member.

After i get the fenders,

Trunk Floor
Quarter panels
Floor Pan (full front and both rear)
Trunk Floor extensions
Panel behind tail light
Gas tank
Im getting 2 rear frame rail caps (no not because they are that rotted) theres 1 bad spot in one of em about the size of a quarter, but for strength im capping both of em.
Spring relocation kit
Rear Bumper
Sub-Frame connectors
Front grille
Get roll cage installed
Rocker panels

..ect ect all the other misc exterior parts the list will go on

Then comes the engine...right now its a 400 and i plan on doing a 440 > 512 stroker build...but unless the money comes in more ill probably have to wait another year on that.

My goal in the next couple of months is to compete all the body work and floors. Yea i know this might seem impossible, but im young and weekends ill work hours on end.

For all the people who might tell me "its not worth it" well.....its honestly NOT worth it for me to restore it and im better off buying one in better condition, but its my car and this is what i want to do with it.

Its drivable and i do enjoy it, but i know i will have a all new respect for this car and the hobby itself once its done...though its never really "done"

Sounds like you have your work cut out for yourself. You will have to start a thread on it unless you already have.   

[FLG]

Sure do!

Ill be starting a thread as soon as i start the tear down.

[Long Island RT]

I stripped my car over 15 years ago.  After 5 years of once-in-a-while body work I got so disgusted I basically gave up. A few years ago I stumbled onto this site, lurked for a while and came to a conclusion:  I can't build this car just to finish it.  It's more like a marriage -   I had to enjoy the process or I wasn't gonna be married for long....

So after some marriage...uh...um... charger counciling, I'm a new man

I would say the majority of the people on this site get as much satisfaction on building/fixing/maintaining their cars as they do driving them, or let's face it - We wouldn't be on here.  We would have saved our time and money and just bought something already finished.

Stick with it and you'll have a better sense of satisfaction when your done. 

[jaak]

Funnything, after reading this post, it lit a fire under my ass. This morning after I posted the first time on this thread, I went outside and got to work. Here's a link to what I accomplished today.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,53889.0.html

Jason