Now that spring is here, things are moving on the project again. Unfortunately, it is not where I hoped it would be. It was supposed to have gone to the painter/bodyguy last fall but (in short) he hosed me. Since he flaked out, I had to find another guy/team that would do the work the way I wanted. After talking with several shops, I ended up talking to a local guy. I saw some of his work several years ago and felt that I would not be able to afford him. Well, I was wrong. He is in my budget and turns out is building a 70 Charger R/T 440 car for himself. Things do happen for a reason. I know this guy will do a good job and he should begin working on it around July. Meanwhile, we decided to have some sheetmetal work completed (original body guy was going to do fab stuff too) to keep things on schedule. So all rust repair is being handled by another capable guy as I type this.

I Picked up the passenger fender today. At some point the original 70 fender had been replaced with a 71 fender. In this "before" pic., you can see the cut-out and arrows showing where the hood bumper needed to be relocated.

And here's the "after". Hope to have more progress pics coming in the days and weeks to follow.

Good to see you working on this again Joe. That 71 to 70 fender conversion looks great! I think the screw hole for the hood pin lanyard also moved just a little 70 to 71. You could compare your fenders. most people would never notice, but it is visible if you're paying really close attention.

Tav

Thanks for the heads up TAV. He needs to do one more thing to the fender that I had found and I will make sure to double check that hole as well.

Looking good Joe! I love making them modifications from year to year. Your doing a nice job on that car!

I'm working on a 70 road runner that came with a 68/69 door. Same thing, did some modifications to make it work.

Thanks Tom. I'm hoping to make some real progress over the next 3 months. Other than the paint and bodywork, I still have a few major tasks. I need to rebuild the rear axle, steering column, and suspension. Also need to polish the bright trim.

I can do everything except rebuilding and setting up the pumpkin. I bought a used sure-grip unit and have a new set of 3:55 gears. I'll probably pull the axles and take the pumpkin with the sure-grip to someone local. I'll have them install the new gears, put in new bearings and set the backlash. I'll pull the axles, put in new bearings and reassemble everything. Once it's back together, I'll paint and detail the whole assembly.

Joe

Few more progress pics. The trunk lid on the car is pretty nice but had breakthrough rust in one area of the lip. Here is a shot of rust after blasting on the inside of the trunk lid.

And and after shot of the repair done with new sheet metal welded in. The cutout shape around the hole is not perfect but is pretty close.

Here's what the rust looked liked on the outside lip of the same area.

And here's the after.

Looks good Joe. It matches your description perfectly.

Thanks Jackie. It was great meeting Mrs. JDMOPAR and hanging out with you guys.

Here's a photo of the rust that was in the bottom of the passenger door after blasting.

And a photo after being repaired by my Metal Guy.

Here's a shot of the driverside front fender. You can also see some "kittyhair" filler on the top of the fender. I had some other rust repaired when I first started this project. For some reason they slapped that on instead of skimming it. I had my new guy sand it down to make sure something wasn't hiding there. Turns out it was fine. My goal is to have minimal filler on the car.

You can see some "jagged" rust where the metal overlaps at the fender mounting flange. This was not repaired before and I had the new guy fix it. This is the before shot.

Here's the after repair. It will get seam sealer on the edge as came from the factory.

Now that all the removable panel rust repair has been competed, it is time to do the body shell. It left yesterday for rust repair and I'll update with those pics as I can. With the car gone, the garage can get reorganized and I'll have room to work on some of the other resto. tasks that need to be done.

Joe

Thought I'd post a couple of progress pics taken today along with the "before" shots. Here is the before shot of the right driverside cowl area.