Hi Everyone,

I am in the process of restoring a 1970 Challenger 440-6. The upper cowl is very rough and should be replaced. I am hesitant as this is the only place on the body with the numbers, and they are very clear for a wonder.
I checked the trunk rails and core support, but neither has the numbers.
Trunk rails were pretty shot, but the core support is definitely original and pretty solid.

Anyway, anyone has any suggestions? I want to keep it as close to original as possible.

Also, I see they offer two different upper cowls, with screw in and snap in screens. It look slike this one had screw in, does it make a difference?

Thanks,
Jim

The Rebody Police will be all over me but I think if you document with lots of pictures what you are doing & stamp your new cowl or transfer the numbers section of the old cowl to the new one with documentation I see no foul. If the core support is original it should have numbers on the top or radiator side closer to the drivers side. Is the door vin sticker still there? Front spring hangers boxed? Do you have 2 steel lines running from the fuel tank to the fuel pump? I would use whichever screen fastening type holes that the car has now! GTS

Hi GTS440,

Yes, the door sticker is still there and the torque boxes are all there. Not sure about the two lines, didn't have any when I got the car. She was pretty rusty when I got her After a lot of research, I found that not all early 70 Challengers had the stamp on radiator support (found out on here actually).

Thanks!!
Jim

My Challenger is a Nov 5th spd if I remember right & the core support is stamped. Is your spd earlier than mine?

I wouldn't sweat it too much, cut out the old numbers and weld them into the new cowl, documenting everything as you go, before and after. I would not restamp the numbers, that is another can of worms entirely. Nothing wrong with repairing a rusty car, doesn't sound like you're moving numbers to a different chassis. Lots and lots of ebodies out there with cowl repair/replacement. Yes there are diffences in the cowls year over year, and also not sure if the repops are 100% accurate or not. Compare the old and new side by side and note any differences, correct them if possible to be authentic. No VIN#s are stamped in the trunk rails on ebodies.

I cleaned the core support very carefully and still no numbers. All the spot welds are original, and it is original yellow paint. ANyone else run into this?

Thanks,
Jim

I'd cut out the cowl numbers and throw then into the glove box along with pictures of the process.

yup
why make more work for yourself then you have to.
even putting numbers on a repo cowl
will not cover up it being a repo part..

I'd swap the dash into a decent body, cut out all the numbers and weld those in the new body too! The "rebody police" can go do you-know-what to themselves!! Do what YOU'RE comfortable with, its your car.

The "re-body police and the FBI.
Yep that seems to be the Canadian way. That's why we don't buy cars from Canada. Just don't sell the car to an American and we won't have to send the Goon Squad up to cut your nuts off.

Just my opinion, but I feel if you take photos of before and after, and cut out the old stamped numbers, and weld it into the new re pop panel, that is the best route to go. Its not that much more work to cut out the numbers and patch it into the new.

OK, but still wondering about the core support? Anyone else have one with no numbers?

Thanks,
Jim

I've seen some rad supports where the stamp was done very carelessly, on my '73 Challenger for example it was struck on an angle instead of parallel with the support and very nearly ran off the top of it. I wonder if there are any mis-stamps out there where only some of the numbers hit the metal. Did you check the side that faces the radiator? Could it be the stamp was done very faintly and the paint covered it completely? You might want to strip down at least the driver's side of the support to bare metal to be sure, if you haven't done so already. With only two VIN stamps into the metal on an ebody it would seem strange that the factory would let one of them slide by, but I guess anything is possible.

I have 5 1970 Challengers and they all have the VIN in the core support.

it's not a challenger. but i had a 71 cuda project car that didn't have ANY numbers stamped on the body. no numbers on the cowl or radiator support. the front end sheet metal was original. the car had a 70 rear clip, sectioned in the middle of the doors and windshield pillars, welded on sometime in it's life.
E-bodies don't have numbers stamped in the trunk rails.

Are you looking in the correct area ??? Its usually on the driver's side, on the inside{facing the engine} of the support...And they're very easy to fill in with a repaint sometime in the vehicle's life..

I had the same issue with the cowl needing replaced.
My Challenger was a rust bucket.
I have pictures during the re-body experience. I am keeping the original cowl and storing it in the attic.
I have a title to the car with the correct vin and my core support has the numbers on it. That is the only place left on the car with a stamped number on it.
I don't think I would go cutting, welding or stamping numbers on the car. To me that's raising a red flag.
If you are concerned, talk to your state troopers or licensing professionals on how to properly "mark" your car with the numbers.

I think so, I cleaned off the front and back, left to right, nothing. You can still see the tooling marks, so I don't think they were sanded off.

Thanks,
Jim

Last question for a while. The upper cowls with screw on covers is on national backorder, did the 70's also come with the clip on ones?

Thanks,
Jim

70's had screw on as well as 71's. It may have been a mid to late year change from screw to clip on in 71, but my two 71's have the screw type cowl.