Re: NHC's 68 Charger resto/thrash-update- it's alive

[NHCharger]

Well it's been a year and a half since I bought the 68. The car has evolved from the original project. No longer doing a Bullitt clone. Seems everyone is painting their 68's black. Plus I live on a dirt road and drive on dirt roads so I've been searching for another color. When I purchased the car the owner had got a quote from a local body shop of $900.00 to install two new floor pans and the trunk pan (owner to provide pans) and get the car ready for paint. My first intention was to just install the pans and paint it, do as little as possible to get it on the road (owner had it on road the previous summer) since it was going to be a driver. After taking it apart I decided to go ahead and fix everything right and just do it once and be done. there were to many little things that bothered me.

I'm doing all the work myself except for final paint. So if your looking for another nuts and bolts resto like Bull's or RideLikeHell's it won't be to that level. Since I only work on the car 10-15 hours a week this is taking longer than I hoped. Plus this is my first serious attempt at bodywork. I've had several WTF moments...

So after my shipment from AMD arrived I was ready to dive in. Figured I'd start with the easy stuff first and replace the floor pans. I probably just could have patched them but decided in the long run it would be better to replace them. After removing the floors I sand blasted the frame rails, brushed on a nice coat of SEM Rust Inhibitor, and topped it with some rubberized under coating. I taped off the tops of the rails and hit them with a light coat of weld thru primer before installing the pans.

In hindsight it would have been easier to cut out all the floor and install a one piece floor (my first WTF moment, many more to come).

[NHCharger]

Replacing the trunk proved more challenging. The previous owner wasn't going to replace the rear valance but since it was sculpted out of bondo I also replaced it. This is where I ran into some issues. The bottom edges of the wheel houses were bad. I cut them out and patched them in with pieces I cut off my 72 parts Charger. Also the supplier I bought the trunk floor pan (two piece) from said a one piece pan wouldn't fit in without one quarter panel off. Well I found out with the rear valance out you can slide a one piece through the rear opening.

[charge69]

Lots of hard bodywork going on there and learning as you go is just the way it is, I guess. You are doing a fine job and just keep at it one part at a time and eventually ......... done!!

[cdr]

lookin great,i know your pain    i'm sure the WTH moments will continue for both of us   

[NHCharger]

This was the worst part of the rear end. Rust in the tail section, but only at the ends. What really irritated me was the way the replacement quarters were installed. They obviously had no idea how to mate the quarter and the valance caps so they hacked off the back edge of the new quarter and filled everything with mud.

[bakerhillpins]

Awesome! You started a resto thread!   Looks like some good work so far. Will be following your work on this and trying to help you make your Carlisle 2013 deadline! Anytime you need an extra hand drop me a line.  

What really irritated me was the way the replacement quarters were installed. They obviously had no idea how to mate the quarter and the valance caps so they hacked off the back edge of the new quarter and filled everything with mud.

I bet it was simply a corner cut to reduce the overall cost and get it on quick.

[RIDELIKEHELL]

  keep it up!

[NHCharger]

I discovered that welding in small metal patches and grinding them down takes way longer than simply filling the holes with bondo . The rust holes weren't that big but by the time I cut back to some solid metal they were 3x larger.
As you can see in the previous pics the ends of the rear cross member was a bit rusty, the left side bent a bit from a hit to the rear. I cut off the ends and fabbed up two pieces to fit. Not sure if this is factory correct but it helps stiffen the corners up.

[NHCharger]

Next was to figure out how to attach the end caps with the rear of the quarters hack off and a 1/4" + short of where they should be.
I ended up welding an ear onto the side of the cap. I had the ear stick out about 2" and set it back from the front edge of the cap by the width of the thickness of the quarter panel metal. I drilled some holes along the edge of the quarter panel, slide the ear behind the quarter panel. Once everything was lined up and clamped I was able to weld the quarter panel to the ear I installed on the cap.
The gap between the quarter and cap was ugly due to the previous work. I was going to simply fill it and smooth it out but since every time someone on this board sees that the car is instantly labeled a bondo buggy so I thought I would take the time to make this seam look correct.

[NHCharger]

Awesome! You started a resto thread!   Looks like some good work so far. Will be following your work on this and trying to help you make your Carlisle 2013 deadline! Anytime you need an extra hand drop me a line.  

I may take you up on that offer for a day. I need to pull the motor in a couple of weeks and I can never get anyone to help. Being the family carpenter and mechanic I always end up helping someone with a project. Instead of helping me with my project they usually end up buying me some beer or ammo (probably not the best combination )

[cdr]

lookin real good!   your gettin ahead of me,havent been able to work on mine for about 2 months

[Ghoste]

It is looking good and you'll be glad you used patches instead of bondo in th long run (which I'm sure you already know).

[bill440rt]

Lookin' good, NH!!      

[bakerhillpins]

I may take you up on that offer for a day. I need to pull the motor in a couple of weeks and I can never get anyone to help. Being the family carpenter and mechanic I always end up helping someone with a project. Instead of helping me with my project they usually end up buying me some beer or ammo (probably not the best combination )

Anytime!  Would be a grand way to spend a day - tinkering on cars!    Give me a little heads up if you have an idea of when as the wife is going on business travel for 2 weeks at the end of the month.

Looks like you are getting lots done!  

[lasvegas69charg]

looks like a fun project.

[Back N Black]

Nice work! 

[NHCharger]

While working on the ass end I had another WTF moment. My new quarter panel end caps arrived. When I tried them on for size there was a problem. Drivers side ended 1/2" short of the trunk rail. The passenger side was a 1/2" to long. I then remember that the bumper stuck out a 1/2" to far on the passenger side, at the time I just thought that the end of the bumper got tweaked. Now I was thinking that the car got rolled and the ass end is tweaked. After inspecting the car again I saw no signs that would point to a roll over. The quarters were replacements so I figured someone did a crappy job.

There were only a few spots with heavy filler when I bought the car, the rear being one spot. I sanded the paint off the left quarter knowing that the panels were overlapped not butted and discovered that the panel had a previous repair with filler and the idiot that replaced the panel didn't remove the old bondo, just overlapped the panels by 1" and welded it on This caused the panel to stick out 1/2" further than it should.

I ended up cutting/grinding out all the welds, lined the panels back up, screwed them together, then cut the overlapped area and but welded the quarter panel back together.

[NHCharger]

The passenger side quarter was overlapped on the top of the quarter. After taking some measurements I discovered that from the back edge of the quarter window to the end of the quarter the panel tailed in from 0 to 1/2" 

I ended up cutting and grinding out all the welds on the seam and after a lot of tugging, pulling and  I had the quarter back to where it should be. I didn't take a whole lot of pics during this phase because I was so pissed at the poor workmanship and was concerned about what I would find when I stripped the rest of the car.

[bakerhillpins]

Your a pro as far as I am concerned.     Nothing like sweeping up behind someone who shouldn't have been there in the first place. 

[Ghoste]

You make me feel bad about turning up my nose and closing my wallet at cars for bad bodywork.  You are proving they can be fixed.

[472 R/T SE]

You make me feel bad about turning up my nose and closing my wallet at cars for bad bodywork.  You are proving they can be fixed.

Yeah, no kiddin'.   

[JB400]

I'm floating in the same boat that your in.  Bad bodywork sucks.    Having to fix it sucks The end result

[nh_mopar_fan]

Nice work, Brian!

Been a while since I was up there. Lots of good work. Wow.

I'm gonna stop by for a visit when I get back from my trip.

[tan top]

    

[Fred]

I'm so lucky i came away with an unmolested car. Everything was straight and perfectly aligned with hardly any rust.

You're doing a great job, keep it up.