#2

#3

#4

#5

You can see an old repair on the front of the door. Dad had the car repainted atleast once in the late 70's or early 80's.

#6

#7

This is the torsion bar mount.

#8

Here you can see that the filler panel that the rear bumper bolts to is rusted out at the corners.

#9

#10

As you can tell by the pictures, we sand blasted just enough to reveal the problem areas. THere was no point in hitting the top or the doors at that time.

The guy that blasted the car(Tom's Auto Restoration in Vinton, Iowa) said that if you didn't touch it a lot, it should be OK for a year without having to spray a sealer on it. Any longer and the car would start to rust again. That was October of 2007 so I had a little time to try and find someone to do the bodywork. Tom wasn't really interested in working on the car at that time. He was short staffed and had enough work in his shop for a while. He was nice about it and wished me luck with the project.

So now it was time to really look hard and try to find someone to work on the car. I had gone to school from 96 to 98 for Automotive technology and was an auto mechanic until 2001 so I am able to do all the mechanical aspects of a restoration but don't have a clue when it comes to bodywork. I really wasn't interested in learning bodywork on the Challenger either. I have read many articles on cars were the owner has learned to weld and do bodywork on a car that turned out great, but that's not for me.

In early 2008 I started a post on Moparts entitled "Who Can Restore My Car." I thought that people on this site might know some good shops in my area. The few shops that I had found up to that point didn't really impress me that much. One guy seemed to do good work but when I told him the car was a metalic gray color, he said "Oh, man I hate shooting metallics. I can never get them right." I didn't think that was the best thing to tell a prospective client.

Through this website I found a shop called Classic Revival. They were located in Dyarsville, Iowa witch was only about an hour away from me. I called the owner (Tim) and told him that I had a Challenger that needed a lot of work. Tim said that he was accually working on a Challenger at that time and to come by the shop and check it out.

One Saturday morning in February, my dad and I drove to Dyarsville to see the shop and talk to Tim.

When we got there we saw that Tim was in deed working on a Challenger. It was a black 70 R/T with factory red stripes. The interior, engine compartment, undercarriage and trunk were painted but the main body was still being sanded before the color coat. Tim showed us pictures of the car all the way through the restoration process. As it turns out, the cars owner is from my home town. I knew he had a Challenger, but I never thought he would get around to working on it.

Tim seemed like a nice guy and I could tell right away that he had a passion for restoring cars. It looked like he did great work. The best thing was that he had an old 50's Buick or Olds in the shop that he had painted the exact same color as dad's Challenger. It looked awsome.

Before we left the shop that day, I gave Tim a CD of pictures that I had taken of the Challenger. I tried to get a picture of all the problem areas. Tim said that he would get some information together as far as past E-bodies that he had done. He said that was the best way to get a fairly close estimate on the cost of restoring this car. He went on to say that the rust repair would differ from previous projects but the paint process should be very similar time wise.

A few weeks later I got a call from Tim and he gave me his estimate. Although I don't really want to go into the exact amount he quoted me, I though it was reasonable. It was more than I had been quoted before, but a few years had passed since then and he seemed to be the best qualified person that I had talked to. I want to have it done right the first time....accually the second time if you consider the previous work back in the 90's.

Tim said he was very interested in working on the car and that he would give me a call when the Challenger he was working on was done.

A few months passed and I hadn't heard anything from Tim. I sent him an e-mail asking how the other Challenger was going. He said that some changes were going on with the shop and that the 70 Challenger was still a ways from being done. As you may know, it's hard for a small restoration company to charge enough money to make a profit when it comes to all the work nessesary to built one of these cars. Tim was feeling the stresses of this fact and decided to take a great opportunity that was presented to him.

He had done a lot of work for a company in Ohio called "Best of Show Automotive." The owner of that company had just offered Tim a job running the restoration shop there. So, Tim sold his company and took over the shop at "Best of Show Automotive."

Tim was still interested in working on my car but I wasn't sure I wanted it half way across the country. I mean, part of the fun of doing a restoration is being able to see the car during the whole process. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I decided to wait and talk to Tim at the Mopar Nationals.

"Best of Show Automotive" has a tent at the Mopar Nats every year. It is a yellow and white striped tent right by the tower. Tim had taken the 70 R/T to Ohio to finish and had it almost done. He took it to the Nats anyway and I got my first look at it since it had been in primer. These pics arn't that good because they were taken inside the tent, but you can see how good the black looks on this car. I thought that if he can spray black this good, that he would be able to do a great job on dads car.

Here's another.

I had a long conversation with Tim on Friday morning at the Nationals. He said that he was sorry about the whole situation but I understood that he has to look out for his own family first. I came to the conclusion that even though I wouldn't be able to drop by and look at the car whenever I wanted, Tim was the best person to do the job.

I spent the next few months gathering everything together and waiting until Best of Show had a transport in the area. One Saturday my best friend and I worked on removing as much seam sealer as we could to try and save a little money. We reinstalled the hood, trunk lid and front fenders so they wouldn't be damaged on the way out to Ohio. This is how the car looked right before it left.

Best of Show delivered a car to Wisconsin on October 13th and the transport picked up dads Challenger on the 14th. They are going to start hitting it hard in January. I should be recieving a picture CD every month with updates and will share them with everyone as soon as can. When the car comes back,it will be in paint with the fenders, hood, trunk lid and grill installed. That's when the fun will start.

I know some people look down on others who pay to have someone else work on there cars but I believe in knowing what you ARE and ARE NOT capable of doing yourself. Bodywork is NOT something I'm interested in learning on this car. Believe me..I'm not made of money and there is a budget on this car. I hope everyone can understand that. I got married in 06 and my wife and I are expecting our first child in late February so money is going to be tight.

Check out pictures of the 73 at http://www.bestofshowautomotive.com

These next few pictures really don't have much to do with the cars restoration but I thought they were cool.

I have seen other posts on "Dip Lines" and thought I'd post some of my own.

This picture also shows a grease pensil marking on the passengers door. It was too faint to make out though.

This picture shows "869" written on the floor of the car.