My 68 Charger Project....

[HollyWoodCharger]

Got a Couple days Off from work, and after a little Yard work this Morning I started taking the 68' Apart.........

about 5 hours later I have a Naked Charger in my yard with it's Parts scattered all over my Yard......













I was pleasantly surprised that the Front half of the Charger was in Good shape as Far as the sheetmetal goes........ a little sandblasting and we'll
have some Good sheetmetal ready for Etching Primer and some very minor metal work up Front......

The back half of the Charger will be a different story....

[HollyWoodCharger]

Here are a few more pics..........

[69*F5*SE]

Farout! It looks like you've got your work cut out for you.   

[magnum]

 

[PocketThunder]

Good luck man!   

[hemi68charger]

Whooaaa.. Man,  you have a project and a half............  Good Luck Dude............... Saving another '68........ 

Troy

[Dans 68]

Looks like a great project...it should keep you around the house for a while.    I spy a fender tag...what options are on your car? 

Dan

[tan top]

   some project you have got going on there  ..so whats the plan color ...motor etc 

[HollyWoodCharger]

Looks like a great project...it should keep you around the house for a while.    I spy a fender tag...what options are on your car? 

Dan

This was a low option 318 Automatic Charger, it had A/C, Tinted Glass, AM Radio, Power Brakes, 26" radiator, Black Vinyl Top, Buckets, Center Console, the usual SE options....

so it's not a rare Big Block Charger....

[HollyWoodCharger]

  some project you have got going on there  ..so whats the plan color ...motor etc 

This one is being done up a little different.....

Mild Mini Tubs, 10-12" Rear Wheels and Mickey Thompson S/R Sportsmans, body put back to mostly stock with a few items shaved and smoothed, I'm installing a Magnum 360 or 408, A727 Auto, narrowed 8 3/4 rear with 4.56's.

Just making a nice driver that I can whip up on some Honda's with......

It'll look a little like the 70' Charger in the Fast and Furious Series, but without the Blown Hemi!

[tan top]

ok ..i see intresting project    small block route Eh ....  lot of good  SB crate motors now ... with  big block power ...   & less weight up front , better handling   

[HollyWoodCharger]

Now someone see's why I like my small blocks!...... most people don't get it....

[Rolling_Thunder]

I dont get it...    I've had a small block....    had a big block...         if you're going for less weight and alot of power why not just run a new gen hemi ?   

[BLUE68RT4ME]

The front looks great on that car.  As for the back, you could have a small hole or big one, replacing it will be the same.  Some good examples of others work in the body area on here.  Especially when talking about the extensions and what people do instead of going the factory route with the huge amount of filler.  Just noted that you mentioned sand blasting the car, I would use a different media if I were you.  If blasting it, I would use soda as my first choice and maybe nut shells as my second.  Soda blasting has almost zero heat so you won't cause any warping.  You may know this already so take it for what it's worth.  I mean to disrespect no one.  I've just heard horror stories with sand blasting and then seen how they can soda blast the paint off a pop can without it hurting the can at all and found it something I'd never second guess.

Good luck on the car.  Mine is only a touch further than yours.  I'll race yah!   

[Ryan]

Nice!

I cant wait to get to my 68 r/t........ one day

[HollyWoodCharger]

I finally got a Sunday where I could work on finishing blowing the Charger apart, I pulled the rearend and suspension as an assembly, I'll have pics of that later on...

The Front suspension came out as one piece with some creative work using a Floor jack and some jackstands and a few hand tools, and my electric impact gun...

I then got in my garage so I could finish pulling a few last parts of it, in preparation for turning the sandblaster loose on it...

I've sold the old sheetmetal that bolted on it, as it was too far gone to bring back to level I'm after on this build up..

I still have the doors and deck lid, if someone knows of someone looking for parts..
















I've got it up on the body dolly called a "Mopar Cart", it's the best tool investment I've made in the last few years, I bought it out at Carlisle last weekend!

[charge-it]

Nice project. My 68 was a green 318 console auto car. My car took 3 years to build as funds allowed. It went from this:

To this, 440, hemi 4 speed, dana 60.

Just keep picking at it when time permits, you'll get there, it just takes time and lots of $$$.

[PocketThunder]

Hey, you might want to take plenty of pictures and document the location of that dealership decal on the tail panel before you sand it off, in case you ever want to put it back on there.  I think those are kind of cool.. 

[Charger440RDN]

Any new pictures or updates on the Charger?

[HollyWoodCharger]

I've been busy prepping my Dakota for this past weekend's All-Truck Nats in Carlisle, so I've have not made any more progress on it other than getting the Dash Frame pulled and stripped......

I've bought a couple of pieces of 18 gauge sheet steel to fab up a few filler panels and a spot weld cutter, next step will be getting a few 6ft sections of 1x1 square tubing to fab up a few body supports while the roof skin and back half of the charger are removed for some Fresh AMD panels.....

I've made a small change on my driveline selection, since I've found out that auto salvage yards have 5.7 HEMI's available fairly reasonable now, I'm probably going to install a carb' ed version.......

I've also finalized my color selection, I'm going to spray it "True Black" Basecoat / Clearcoat, and have Scott Sullivan of Dayton, Ohio do some of his wild graphic work to accent the Mile Deep Black finish!

[HollyWoodCharger]

Well I have another Update.......

I had a Saturday off and decided to visit a Wheel and Tire Shop I have used for Rims on my past Dakota Projects, I went in primarily looking for 15x10 or 15x12 Reverse offset or Deep Dish Rims, AFTER a few minutes of conversation with an old friend who owns the shop, and his asking about my New Charger Project, he says he really liked my Old Charger from years back and wanted to help in the Re-Creation of My old Charger!

He says Follow me....

Turns out he has a set of Nearly New 31-18.50-15 Mickey Thompson Sportsmans stashed away in a corner of his Tire inventory, He says he'll let me have them for $150.00 for both!



These things New are over $600.00 for a pair!

They had just enough miles on them to wear the NUBS off, and the Tread still measures almost 8/32!

I gave him a $40.00 deposit and I'll go and pick them up on Payday next week and so I can start measuring up to
build the new rear frame back half!

I think I'm going to use a set of these to mount them up, Cragar S/S Chrome 15x14 with 4.5" backspace..