'69 Charger Build - It moves!

[Baldwinvette77]

Mmmmmmm  thats looking good 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

 

[Baldwinvette77]

oh hell yeah 

[Charger-Bodie]

Shes looking grreat!!

[Mopar Nut]

Nice, keep it up.

[chaos52]

Wow!

I feel like these last two summers I have done nothing but mutilate mine.  Weather beating it up.  I go out to try and fix what I had previously "fixed".. never ending battle.

and just when I get a little momentum, I lose weeks- to a month with Corps stuff.

then .. it feels like I have to start all over.

Much respect to your progress!  wish I had a couple hands to help me out throughout these years.  My wife quit on me after one day of helping and then she tried to slam the trunk lid with a tool in the channel and I might have yelled at her for a second about paying attention or we'll have to back track and fix S*#t that isn't broken....    that was 2 years ago.  she never let it go.

keep the photos coming!  Loving them!

Thanks. I hope to see yours on the road soon too. Maybe you could invest in a carport to keep it out of the weather and find a buddy or two to help you out? 

[djcarguy]

great progress and befor an after pics remind us of how far you have come on ya charger.keep at it,its looking great.   dj

[tan top]

nice work    , keep the pictures coming 

[chaos52]

Lots of progress is being made. The body is entirely in primer now and the underside is painted. I'm working on fenders now. I'll post some pictures soon.

[lexxman]

Things are looking good. Keep the pictures coming.

[charge69]

Sometimes it might feel like you are taking one step forward and two steps back but, you are really making some progress here!   It is looking better and better. Just keep your head down, keep the faith and enthusiasm and going forward, however so slowly or fast you perceive it to be.

Your Charger is getting closer and closer to being drivable !

[ProDartGTS]

Joe hasn't posted so I will.... we have interrupted his progress with a TOTAL redo of the shop.   Poor guy has been a trooper and POURED himself into it.  its been a MAJOR construction project, but needed before he can proceed with the finish work on the car.   We just moved into this place 2 years ago and have not had a chance til now to make the barn what it SHOULD be for restoring cars...  Hopefully only a couple more weeks and he can start the final block sanding and priming.  

[remta1]

looking great well done on the hard work achieved so far 

[jessejames]

I enjoy seeing this topic and this kids progress on his charger! Keep us updated with the progress!!

[chaos52]

I'll write in detail about the progress eventually...but here's a photo from today. Not too much longer before paint.

[Mopar Nut]

looking good.

[djcarguy]

  Been awhile just asking if we get to see some more pixs before ya are gone back to college ??

sure have brought this 69 along ways,great work an thanks for sharing info with us mopar addicts.     DJ

[chaos52]

 Been awhile just asking if we get to see some more pixs before ya are gone back to college ??

sure have brought this 69 along ways,great work an thanks for sharing info with us mopar addicts.     DJ

I will make an effort to post progress soon. I haven't done a whole lot the past month or so. There's a bit more bondo work around the cowl and engine compartment to do, then it'll be just a lot of blocking.

We had to do a major overhaul to the shop to get it ready to paint cars in. That's almost done, so I can put my energy back into the Charger.

I gradutated this past May, so I won't be going back this fall. Looking at grad school for next fall, but the car WILL be on the road by then. (even if it kills me  )

[chaos52]

OK, I'm finally updating this. Unfortunately I don't have many photos, but a lot has happened to the car over the summer.

As the photos show, I cut out a piece of the driver's side rocker panel. It was solid, but had been hit from underneath. The dent was too big to pull and made the panel about 3/8" too short where it meets the fender. I made the new piece out of 16-gauge steel. It was too heavy, I should have tried to find 18-gauge. I flanged the rear of the patch panel so it slipped inside of the existing rocker panel.

Earlier this summer I bought a flanger to hang the 2nd quarter panel. I had borrowed one while hanging the other side. It's a  pretty decent unit for the cost. Only complaints are that the flange it makes is a bit thin (about ½") and the holes it punches are way too small for welding. Northern Tool already discontinued it, otherwise I'd post a link. This model is almost identical.
http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Pneumatic-605ST-Straight-Flange/dp/B0066LMK7S/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1380679033&sr=8-5&keywords=panel+flanger

The next big thing I worked on was to wire brush and paint the underside of the car. We don't have a lift, so I just parked the car over the edge of the concrete pad in the doorway of the barn. That gave me about 6 inches more height, but I still had to lie on the ground. It was a horrible, dirty job. Some of the undercoating came off and coated me head to toe in a thin layer of black goo that wouldn't come off with any amount of scrubbing. Thankfully the car turned out better than I did.

For paint I used 2 quarts of flat black Rust-O-Leum. I didn't have a sprayer that could be used under the car, so I just used a 4" brush—further adding to the mess.

While I was doing the underside, I also welded some final patches in the floor. I used fiberglass cloth and resin for a couple spots with pinhole rust before painting the entire interior – Rust-O-Leum again, only this time I sprayed it.

[chaos52]

 

[chaos52]

After that job, the car got set aside for about a month (July) while we replaced the 2nd floor of the barn along with 90% of the structural support. It was all pretty well euchred by termites and rot. I've included a few photos of the destruction.

In August I drilled the holes for the vinyl top trim and made sure it fit ok. I also ordered all 4 pieces of wheel-well trim and fitted those.

Throughout the summer I also picked up a fuel tank with straps, a front valance, both front valance lights, a complete set of A/C dash pads and all 4 marker lights.

Next on the agenda were the fenders. I spent a lot of time spreading and sanding fiberglass and bondo on both of them. The driver's side was the worst by far. The previous owner sandblasted it and warped it badly. The wheel-well lip was also torn in a couple places. I had welded those spots previously, but when I went to fit it on the car, I discovered that the fender was sprung and those welds were only making it worse. Both problem areas broke again while twisting the fender back into shape. Having the wheel-well trim was valuable to make sure the shape was correct.

Both fenders needed repairs on the nose where they had been smashed.  Again, the passenger's side was pretty straightforward while the driver's side was bad. It was smashed bad enough that I fabricated a new nose a couple years ago during Christmas break. (more on that later)

After getting the fenders in primer, I started work on the new (used) valance I bought. Fortunately the needed repairs were fairly minor. With some welding, hammering and filling it came out nicely.

I finally was able to fit the fenders, front valance, grille and hood. The gaps around the hood and fenders were good except for the area where the fenders meet the cowl—that was a bit too wide. I have yet to fix that. While fitting the grille I discovered that the fabbed nose on the driver's fender was misformed and the gap was BAD. The vertical fender piece angled away from the grille so the gap was about 3/8" too wide at the bottom. A wooden block and sledge put it back into place, but it meant I had to re-weld and re-bondo the fender nose.

I also did more work on the rear filler panel. We fitted the deck lid earlier in the summer and discovered that the filler panel was too low. Because we welded it solid, it didn't line up with the deck lid anymore—the center of the filler panel was too low while the outer edges lined up ok. I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of getting out the cutting wheel and welder again, so I opted to match the edge with bondo and blend back toward the rear window.

This puts us into September when I took 10 days of vacation time to relax in a rustic cabin on the shores of Lake Superior.

Since I've been back I've started work on the engine compartment. The inner fenders are still a bit warped from the wreck, so they needed some filling. There are also welds from the repairs that needed grinding and filling. I also filled a damaged area on the cowl caused by the impact.

Last week I ordered the transmission mount and Z-bar mount. The transmission mount came. I spent a few hours last week drilling out and retapping a broken bolt on the tail shaft. Now I'm just waiting to get the Z-bar mount so I can get everything lined up and welded the mount on the framerail.

[chaos52]