My 1970 Charger 500 is almost done

[darbgnik]

I figured I'd give it a shot at doing my own car refurb thread. I bought this car back in 2009 when our dollar was basically as good as the greenback. Prices were low, and our dollar was good. I managed to pick this car up off of eBay from, a seller who was honest, almost to a fault about the condition. It wasn't perfect, but it was a real, solid 1970 Charger! Being that it wasn't a numbers car, or even an R/T for that matter, I could treat it like a blank canvas, not having to worry about committing sacrilege on a car too nice to make my own. It was exactly what I wanted, well, minus the minor rust anyway.

I know the smart money is to buy one done, but honestly, I really bought this car for the journey. That being said, I wanted to do everything myself except body work, and of course the headliner... This car was a very solid example, with at least a 10 year old paint job, so it wasn't hiding any evils. The frame rails were perfect, crossmembers too. Floors were good with a dollar coin sized hole in the drivers floor. It had typical rust in the usual places, trunk floor was more patches than original. Fender and quarter lowers had second rate patches, but that was it. It had no rust around the rear window, or anywhere else for that matter. I bought it in Maryland, but I doubt it spent most of its life there.
The car was a solid 10 footer, easily solid enough to drive, which I did for the first year. In this time I really got familiar with the car, and what it would need. I managed to talk a life long family friend, who owns a well respected body shop, and a 68 Charger, into taking it on. He redid his Charger long before AMD was around, so mine was gonna be a piece of cake in comparison. I sent it to his shop, and started collecting sheetmetal.

Next post, I'll try to figure out how to post pics on here....

[darbgnik]

These are the small pics from the eBay add. This car had started life red, but somewhere along the way, it found it's way under a low quality Sublime paint job. At least it was year correct, right? It also came with a 1967 HP 440, 727, and an 8 3/4, a 4.10 Suregrip, longtube headers, and a highstall torque converter. It was mechanically solid, and a decent driver.

[darbgnik]

The rear window area was surprisingly rust free, and the correct high back 1970 buckets looked to have been redone at some point. The interior was complete, minus the carpet and headliner. Takes away the pain of tracking down all those little pieces later. Roof bows were in the trunk.

[darbgnik]

Brought it to the body shop, and put in an order for 2 full quarters(basically replaces half of the cars exterior metal with something that wont bubble in a year), and end caps, trunk floor and extensions, and outer wheel houses. I also grabbed trunk gutters just in case, as that would be all that's left after the full quarters came off. Rather than pay them to spend hours and hours on the 40 plus year old door skins, I grabbed those too.

Pic of the doors with new skins on, an original rust free skin is leaning on the wall in the background. Pics with the quarters off, and trunk floor going in. A great view of those perfectly solid inner rockers and rear window area.

[darbgnik]

Trunk floors and extensions in, and outer wheelhouses on.

[darbgnik]

Smoothed out trunk on. Quarter panels on. They said the AMD panels fit very well, with very little work. And man, do those body lines pop on the new door skins! I've heard they may not be completely accurate, but what they lose in accuracy, they make up for in crispness.

[darbgnik]

The quarters were also pretty straight, out of the box.

[darbgnik]

The 45 year old replacement fenders I bought were another story. I actually bought them from an Arizona car from a member on here. Thanks Joe! They were rust free, just not exactly straight.

[darbgnik]

Bolt on goodies, ready to get bolted onto the car for the final paint.

[darbgnik]

All blocked out, ready for paint. Finally!

[darbgnik]

Painted. I could have chosen any color, seeing as it was a total repaint, and the original color was red, not Sublime, but the color really grew on me!

[Kern Dog]

Looking at these cars with the quarter panels removed reminds me of looking inside the human brain...
Hey, does your screen name mean King Brad in reverse?

[darbgnik]

Hahaha, yeah it does..... It's actually not as narcissistic as it seems. I copied my brothers lead(his was llibgnik) trying to get an email address to work years ago, after about a hundred attempts using combinations of my name, initials, dates, etc.

On the plus side, this user name is never taken, on any site, anywhere! lol

[darbgnik]

And how it sits today, exterior is assembled. Waiting on rear quarter covers(door panels) to be made by Legendary, and the upholstery guy to show up and install the headliner. New front and rear glass is in.

[Lennard]

Great looking car, awesome color! 

[sean257]

Car look great. Good work!

[Tmb84]

was the car delivered with those side mirrors? if so its very rare 

[JR]

Nice! Its turning out beautiful!

[kokxville]

That looks very good. Love the color.It turned out really nice. Ready for summer cruise this year   

[Back N Black]

Very nice! what size tires? 

[INTMD8]

Excellent pics and very nice work!  Panel alignment looks great. 

[M5Ivan]

Outstanding work!!

[Baldwinvette77]

Nice job! 

[Sublime/Sixpack]

Looks good!

[marshallfry01]

I love reading stories like this! Sweet car too!