hemigeno's Daytona restoration - a few more tweaks... again!

[BigBlockSam]

He said that the exhaust fumes curling back up from the tailpipes was probably the cause of a lot of that rust.  Any opinions on that? 

i never thought of that but it makes sense. with condensation in the pipes , there's gotta be some steam . steam rises.  intresting. 

[69_500]

Hey Gene, saw this thread after we got off the phone. Talked it over with the sick wife, she has been sick all week now, including all weekend, and the last 3 days of last week. Anyways, no plans for this weekend, so I'm good to go. Only thing I had thought of doing was going to the INdy Swap meet and selling some DVD's and toy cars. However I was too lazy to get a booth space yet, so nothing to keep me here for.

Have Camera's will travel.

[Charger_Fan]

I guess Vance's sand blast guy is better than some then, the stuff just looks cleaner than usual. Nuttin' wrong with that.

He said that the exhaust fumes curling back up from the tailpipes was probably the cause of a lot of that rust.  Any opinions on that? 

i never thought of that but it makes sense. with condensation in the pipes , there's gotta be some steam . steam rises.  intresting. 

That's a first on me, but I could sorta see that happening. Anyone who's driven a 2nd gen Charger for any length of time has noticed that the air sorta swirls around back there. I was constantly having to clean the dust & dirt from my tail lights, even after a 20 minute drive. I suppose the exhaust would swirl back there too, then.

[UFO]

hemigeno, Did that car spent any time in the snow belt?A relative of mine had a 69 charger after some highway miles the entire tailpanel was covered in the white stuff.

[69_500]

I would say that Gene's car spent its entire life in the snow belt.

Its actually a cleaner car than I thought it would be when he got it all striped down Gene. Doesn't look nearly as bad as I pictured it to be.

[onemintcaddy]

Thats what happened to the old man's but worse. That makes dam good sense, Just like on a pickup box with no tail pipe.

[nascarxx29]

Coming along nicely .Looking good.The firewall cleaned right up


.I noticed as mentioned before no tach hole .What are the other holes above the transmission tunnel.Was the wing untouched to have those strange damages from creative.Mine had small pot holes in the upright castings.

[Daytona R/T SE]

Looking good, Gene

[Chris G.]

Coming along nicely Gene. 

BTW, did all Dayton's get the inner fender braces like yours have?

[hemigeno]

Thanks again everyone!

Lemme answer a few questions here...

UFO, the car did spend its entire driving life (March 1970 to spring 1977) in western Missouri, where they do use salt on the roads.  That certainly could have contributed to the rear sheet metal decay.  I don't get my R/T out much in bad road/weather conditions, and road dust collects worse on the tail panel area quicker than any place else on the car - just like you noted.  Hard to say what the cause of that decklid lip rust was, apart from just knowing that the cars are prone to rusting in that area, not just mine. 

Perry, your dad's car has a lot of similarities in where the rust was.  If you saw some of the other "before" pictures of my car, you'd find they had a lot of the same rust issues to deal with.  I don't believe Vance is going to have to cut quite as much of the quarterpanel away as what you guys have done, but the rust is still there to some degree in the same areas.  My trunk & trunk extensions are being replaced too, as Vance said the remaining metal is just too thin to trust holding up for the rest of the car's life (which I hope is a long time).  From the pics of your car's progress in the other thread, you're car's bodywork progress is a little ahead of mine.  While I'm anxious to get my car done, I'm more anxious to see the repairs done "right."  That's also the biggest reason I'm not tackling this work myself - since I'm anything but a bodyman.

Dave, you spied the firewall holes...  There is indeed a story with those.  When the fella I bought the car from went to pick it up in 1982, he found the car sitting engineless, but with the transmission & bellhousing still in the chassis.  The front end of the transmission was held up by a rope, which was run through these two holes in the firewall.       The gentleman who butchered up the firewall is the only one of the previous owners that I have not spoken to, so I cannot say whether he cut those holes in order to gain access to the bellhousing bolts (for engine removal), or whether he cut the holes for the purpose of supporting the transmission.  Either way, it wasn't a good thing to hack holes in the firewall.  They've already been patched back in, good as new, since that pic was taken.

Magnumcharger, you forgot to add one component to your list:
e)  Remember to spend an equal amount on your spouse so that you don't end up sleeping in the car...

Oh, and I'd love to have an A12 someday too, but the musclecar market has passed me by.  I'm blowing my hobby money for the next several years on Vance's restoration - plus, see note (e) above...   

Chris, the Daytona fenders should all have the brace AFAIK.  I remember watching a video documenting Chris Sauer's 16k mile Daytona getting restored, and they had to replace one of the fender braces since it was missing.

[hemigeno]

Hey Gene, saw this thread after we got off the phone. Talked it over with the sick wife, she has been sick all week now, including all weekend, and the last 3 days of last week. Anyways, no plans for this weekend, so I'm good to go. Only thing I had thought of doing was going to the INdy Swap meet and selling some DVD's and toy cars. However I was too lazy to get a booth space yet, so nothing to keep me here for.

Have Camera's will travel.

Cool...  I cleared it with the wife this morning to head to Michigan on Friday afternoon.  Of course, that involves a movie and dinner at a white-tablecloth restaurant the following weekend, but c'est la vie.

I'll give ya a call and set up all the particulars.

We'll have pics galore next week, for sure!!

[Magnumcharger]

Seeing how porous your quarterpanels appear to be, I'm wondering if you're planning on waiting for the release of the new full-sized reproductions to be released before contemplating the replacement of said rusted components?

[BigBlockSam]

BTW, did all Dayton's get the inner fender braces like yours have? 

my 68 r/t has them . 

[hemigeno]

Seeing how porous your quarterpanels appear to be, I'm wondering if you're planning on waiting for the release of the new full-sized reproductions to be released before contemplating the replacement of said rusted components?

I saw John's post about those q-panels on the GD forum just today.  Hardcore does a nice job of pitching them in the ad, and I certainly haven't seen them to know whether they will live up to their advance billing or not.  I honestly don't want to hold off the body work betting on the come that the parts:

1. Fit like they should; 
2. Have the proper radiuses/contours/bodylines; 
3. Are widely available when they are introduced for real;  or
4. Actually come out when they say they will.

For the sake of the hobby, I hope they are all of the above.

I actually purchased a set of clean used quarters along with the car when I bought it several years back.  Before I took them up to Vance (didn't have room in the trailer on the first trip), I asked him if he needed them - but he said to wait until the chassis got back from the media blaster.  That was the first question I asked him after it came back, was whether or not he needed these other quarters.  He said that they could patch what was there much easier than it would be to change out the whole quarter.  Don't forget on a Daytona you have the added headache of the rear window plug, the trunk lip modifications, and the welded-in wing washers to contend with as well.

Good question, considering the potential for some decent quarterpanels, but I'm forging ahead without 'em.

[69_500]

Alrighty then, I'll let my wife know that I"ll be heading to Michigan on Friday when I get home from work. And  that I"ll be back on Sunday some time. I do intend on stopping on my way back at my buddies house and checking out his 500. That and drolling over his other HEMI cars. Can't pass up a free ride in a 6 pac Bird either, I know its not a Daytona but its still a wing car.

[nascarxx29]

Thanks Hemi Geno I was thinking that as the position on the 2 cut outs.Accesed 2 bolts on the bell housing are in that position.

[XXHEMI]

Looks good Geno. It won't be long know!

[onemintcaddy]

MAN,,, I must have read this post 15 or 20 times now and I still can't get enuff,,,,,

[hemigeno]

Perry, there's more pictures on the way...

Even though I'm not going up to Michigan this weekend (due to the nastiest winter weather Vance remembers having since he was a kid  ), he has sent me a CD with 93 updated pictures.

Oh, and one way or another I'll be up there next weekend to get my own ration of pics.

Thanks, Ed!  How's that 500 of yours coming along?  That paint job was looking fantastic the last look we got at it.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

Can't pass up a free ride in a 6 pac Bird either, I know its not a Daytona but its still a wing car.

I would give anything up and including my dignity to go for a ride in a wing car

[onemintcaddy]

WEATHER,,,, Yaa,,, I think I'm going to kickit with the dog until this is done. This is only the first wave.   

[FJMG]

After the blasting, did you notice any markings on the firewall (behind the pass. side tire). After scraping and washing the undercoating off mine i noticed a very large (approx. 12 inches high) A1 pitted into the metal surrounded by nice body color paint. It almost looks as though this was applied freehand with a 1.75" wide paint brush.

[69_500]

Okay well I'm making my plans now then to go up next weekend instead.

[hemigeno]

After the blasting, did you notice any markings on the firewall (behind the pass. side tire). After scraping and washing the undercoating off mine i noticed a very large (approx. 12 inches high) A1 pitted into the metal surrounded by nice body color paint. It almost looks as though this was applied freehand with a 1.75" wide paint brush.

I haven't seen the chassis myself, so I cannot say.  There also haven't been any good pictures of that area sent to me yet, but I will definitely look. 

That's an interesting observation you made though...  I wonder if there was another "1" that went with that?  "A11" would have made sense to plaster on it somewhere, especially if it was not part of a big batch of cars going down the line together.  If you don't mind my asking, what is your car's VIN sequence (or perhaps just the the first 4 or 5 digits of the sequence #)?  Any other details you could share with all us insatiable Wing Car fanatics??

[hemigeno]

Okay well I'm making my plans now then to go up next weekend instead.

Good deal!  Sorry about all the confusion, as I didn't know until last night after I got home that they were getting all that bad weather up north.  It figures that the first weekend I could have gone up there would be messed up...