progress pics of 71....the road begins!

[Hemidoug]

For those who are following along, the 2nd "restoration" of my 71 R/T has begun. The hard work has just started on her. The old adage that beauty is only skin deep is proven in the following pictures. Most of the panels used for patching so far had to be hand made. The only aftermarket piece that was any good was the front inner fender that is being used, the rest were all junk. Any pointers as I go along would be welcome, it's going to be a longer road then I thought. Let me know what you guys think.....

The last time the body was done, the butcher that did it just welded a patch over the original panel. Nice quality craftsmanship.....

 

The trunk floor and the passenger floor are going to need a patch. Still looking for those....





Looks like I'm going to need one here too......





The work in progress....









All these panels are hand made......

[haueter66]

lookin good

[Nupe]

Any progress is good progress!  

The floor pans have aftermarket replacements, but are there any yet for the trunk?  I assume there are STILL no quarters repoed.  

[plum500]

Looks like it's well on its way!

I fount pans for the front, but I never ever found repro rear floorpans -- anyone else?

[andy74]

looking good man,and just think how great shell look when finished!

[Nacho-RT74]

those rear section of quarters looks bob sooooooo familiar... but mines was cut to much ( I hate the guy who made that ), your one it looks better cut

[Nacho-RT74]

quarter cut

home made panels:

[69_500]

I hadn't ever seen the 71 in person, but from pictures it never looked like it was that bad to begin with. Or were you just trying to get it up to the same level as the 69 car?

[Hemidoug]

I hadn't ever seen the 71 in person, but from pictures it never looked like it was that bad to begin with. Or were you just trying to get it up to the same level as the 69 car?

The pictures I have of her just don't show the work that needed to be done. I had a rust-out problem on the right side, so I stopped driving her a couple of years ago. In addition to the obvious work that needs to be done, I want to return her to the original color (F7). She should look like this when painted (sans Vinyl roof and color bumpers)





I plan on going the concourse route with this one. With all the paperwork I have on her, it would be an injustice to do otherwise. I took some liberties with the 69 because I wanted a driver, as well as it was what I always wanted in a Hemi car. The 71 I want to do as close to dealer delivered as possible. That doesn't mean I won't drive it now and then, just not as much as the 69. I will keep the underside stock (undercoated) as well as proper date codes and such. I painted the underside of the 69 body color, as well as added a few performance items I thought would complement a "driver" Hemi car. I'm hopeing that she will be done for Carsile this year, but with the additional body work that is needed I will bust the budgit before long. I'm already 2K in and we havent even gotten 50% of the welding done, let along the striping, prep and paint work done. I'm figuring between 12 and 15K before she is out of the body shop. The same shop that did the paint work on the 69 is doing the work on this one, so I have no doubt she will be straight as an arrow when complete.

[Silver R/T]

nice work, keep up great job!

[WM23N1]

All hail the '71!

[69_500]

Thats pretty cool. See I want to eventually get to having more than one car, and have one done up as a driver car to enjoy, and one done to factory specs from bumper to bumper. But I can't decide if I want the 500 to be a driver, or the future car.

[Charger_Fan]

The last time the body was done, the butcher that did it just welded a patch over the original panel. Nice quality craftsmanship.....

Man, that's for sure! That looks like a terrible job! It will sure be nice having done the right way, this time around. Now watch...after you're all done getting it fuxed up, THEN they'll come out with proper patch panels.

[Hemidoug]

Man, that's for sure! That looks like a terrible job! It will sure be nice having done the right way, this time around. Now watch...after you're all done getting it fuxed up, THEN they'll come out with proper patch panels.

Yea, he just left all the rot in place and welded some sheet metal right over the top! There is no doubt she had to be done ground up. I guess we 71-74 B body guys just have to get used to the fact that re-pop sheetmetal just isn't avaliable. The stuff that is out there just doesn't cut it right now. By the time they get around to re-pop sheetmetal that is any good, the car will have been done for quite some time. The ONLY reason that the inner fender was any good is because it is for both E body and B body. Guess we are lucky we share something with the E body guys, otherwise we would be SOL.

[6pkrunner]

The curse that these old girls can't talk. A lot of them have seem a real rough life and given the level of expertise of "bondo artists" out there, a multitude of sins can be concealed. But at least you're doing it right and while it may take a lot longer and more coins, at the end you'll know what you have.

[General_01]

Looking good. I hear ya on running over the budget. Last year while I had the engine out and we were redoing the engine campartment on the 69, I was thinking of just stripping the whole thing down and fixing it right, but I knew if I did that she would have been sitting for quite a few years waiting for funds to do it.