This was a long time coming. I had wanted to do this about a year ago but was finally able to get it done today. 2 Stuck Torsion Bars gave me a fit but after I got them out today I decided to keep on going.

A short while later, I lifted the car away from the drivetrain. BTW, That's me all dirty.

And fully out with the front of the car on casters.

I got a call this week from the media blaster that he had finished blasting the driver door of the Challenger. When I went to pick it up and started talking to him, he said he had an opening next week and could blast the car for me. So we loaded it up today and moved it to his shop. They will start working on it on Monday and the car will go on a rotisserie.

Joe

Checked on the car today and it was still being blasted. He will continue blasting on it today and more tomorrow.

As expected, more rust was uncovered than could be seen. In fact some areas that looked really good had a bit of rust. Like the area near the window channel on top of the cowl.

Also, it's taken him longer to do because of the super thick undercoating that seems to have been added by the dealer. All the usual methods of removing the undercoating have not worked this time and it is just slow going. The good news is that the undercoat really protected the floors well and they are super nice. The guy blasting said it's the nicest E-body he's seen.

Joe

Met with a body guy today at the Media blaster to go over the car. All the undercoat is now off the car and blasting continues. Here are a few pics from today and rust areas found.

I knew there was rust at the cowl, but this was a little more than I thought would be there.

Trunk floor had more holes than originally thought also. This is about 1 of 4 spots we found so we plan on welding in a new 1 piece floor.

Car will also need new trunk gutters which I have already and lower rear patch panels on both sides. Everything else will get fabricated patches. Frame was solid also. Good floors thanks to all the undercoat.

It's looking really good. The car is really very solid. I wish I could have started with a body that good.

Your front bumper brackets look great. What paint did you use on them? Did you have to fill in any pitted areas?

Car looks great. Isn't it nice to be able to quantify exactly what you are looking at with all that paint gone? No secrets!

If the rust is just in the upper cowl, it should be easy to fix. You can use parts of the old trunk floor bent to shape. Gotta recycle that original Mopar metal ya know! I know you have got to be excited. It's lookin good.

Thanks guys.

BURBAR, I'll have to look and see what paint I used. Can't recall at the moment but I'll let you know. The brackets were painted nicely in the 80s by the previous owner and that kept them pretty nice. The only pitting that existed was where it bolts to the frame of the car and they were small and would be hidden once bolted up.

Yes Jackie...I'm very stoked to have gotten the car this far. Once the car is completely blasted and primed, I'll bring the car home to do some mock up stuff for the power brake conversion and a few other things. I'm interested in having the bodyguy/painter that I spoke with today do the car. My gut tells me he's the guy. He said he could take it in this fall and the car would be done late spring or early summer of next year. That would be an ideal time frame for me. Hopefully it will work out.

The body guy said he would make the patch for the cowl area so I believe that is exactly what he had in mind.

Joe

Here are some pics of the car taken yesterday.

I really thought long and hard about how I was going to use the car. The car was a factory undercotated car and then appeared to have extra undercoating put on at the dealership. After much consideration, I deviated from factory specs and decided to apply Raptor Liner to the bottom and to the interior floorboard. It will provide good protection form the elements and will make the car more quite. Not to mention that the underside will be easier to keep clean. I really love painted bottoms and cars restored to factory specs with primer and overspray, but I felt if I did that to the car I would be reluctant to drive it. Since the car has had an undercoat finish since new, I felt it was good to treat it in a similar manner.

Good choice on the liner. Glad to hear it WILL be driven. Cant wait for more pics

Here's a pic of the passenger side. You can see rust spots in the lower rear quarters that will get cut out and replaced with new metal.

Driver side shot. Again, rust in the lower rear quarters that will be cut out and repaired with new sheet metal.

In this topside photo. You can see rust holes in the trunk channel and rust in the floor. As mentioned earlier, those will all be cut out with new a trunk floor installed along with rust free gutter sections from a donor car. If you look towards the rear of the roofline just above rear window you can see a dent that will need to be removed.

Last one, front side of the car. Pretty solid with the exception of rust holes on top of the cowl area and a few rust holes in the roof just above the windshield area.

If you look on the passenger side firewall, you will notice 2 extra holes. That was for a dealer installed air unit. New metal will be welded in to fill those areas since the car does not have air. I also need to cut the hole for the reverse light wire into the firewall and will do that when the car is back at the house. Thanks to TAV, I have those specs.

Joe