I traded for this Charger shell last summer. It had been sitting for 20+ years and needs cabin and trunk floor pans but the rockers and frame rails are surprisingly solid. I have several projects that are suffering greatly from scope creep so I HOPE to keep this one as as budget bomber. Something I don't have a ton of money in. The early plan is to ring/gasket a 440 I have sitting in the shop. I also have an 18 spline 4 speed just waiting to be used. I didn't get much with the car, but I plan to use all the cast off/replaced parts from my other 68 Charger resto-mod build. Paint job will probably be a satin or patina job.

First thing that bugged me when I got home with it was the bent corner on the driver's side front corner where the inner fender meets the radiator support.
It was still on the trailer when I did this last summer...



View from the top looking down...


I got an old 2x4 and a hammer/dolly and starting tapping away. It's not perfect, but I don't care...

saw this on FBBO. gonna be a great build.

Right before my shoulder surgery in late January, I made sure I got the cabin floor pans cut out. The floor pans had lots of rust/holes but the frame rails and rockers are in good shape...I wish I had a good "before" picture

Had 1.5 hours available, so I fired up the air compressor and got to work knocking all the undercoating off of the passenger side inner fender. If you haven't used a needle scaler, you need to try it. A needle scaler gun is super cheap on ebay (like $30-40 shipped) and does a nice job in a reasonable amount of time. The passenger side inner fender took one hour and 15 minutes. I will never use a torch and scraper again...

Nice job

Thank you!


I bought a battery powered Milwaukee Fuel DA sander a while back so I went after the rust on the roof. What a nasty job! THE roof skin has plenty of dings but it's cleaning up pretty nicely! Passenger side....

I got the rest of the roof stripped...didn't realize the roof had as many dents as it does!




And I started stripping the cowl...

A previous owner hacked up the k member with a torch so its not useable. I removed what was left of the front suspension. Then I fired up the compressor and knocked all the undercoating off the driver's side inner fender, which took about 1.5 hours.

This update won't wound like much but it was a lot of work....I dug out all the sealer in the rain gutters and the forward pillar channels. Getting back under the lip was a major pain but every bit of sealer has been removed. I also removed all the windshield clips and retaining screws from the front windshield channel. I couldn't believe that they all came out! The rear window trim clips and screws were not as cooperative. It helped that the windshield had been out of the car for 20+ years.

You are certainly making progress. Keep up the good work.

I spent another couple hours with the needle scaler. This time, I did the inner rockers, torsion bar crossmember, cabin floor pan supports, and I started on the rear frame rails and floor pans under the rear seat. I am always amazed how much better they look...

Before I cut out the trunk floor, both rear frame rail needed patched near the top of the arch. Before aftermarket parts were available for these cars, someone had stripped this car. Apparently they really needed the shock absorber mount/crossmember, but instead of grinding welds to remove it, they used a torch. In the process they cut out sections of the frame rail. I didn't want to replace the whole frame rails so some sections were traced/cut and butt welded in.

Before...


After

Great Job !!!

thanks CSK!


I've been trying to find/buy a used rotisserie for the last 3 months and I can't get to one before its sold. I've emailed the seller within 2 hours of listing and it's always already sold. I told a friend and he said "why don't you just use mine?". I didn't even know he had one! So I picked it up and got the Charger mounted. Now I can cut out the trunk floor pan and remove the last of the undercoating from the rear frame rails.

Now that the rear frame rails are patched, the next task is trunk floor pan removal. A previous owner used an acetylene torch to cut out pieces of both passenger side wheel houses in order to scavenge patches for another charger. Again, this car was parted out before aftermarket sheetmetal was available...but it's still a bummer considering how solid the driver's side wheel houses are.





I fired up the compressor and got out the sheetmetal trimmer. I use it to trim around both sides of every frame rail edge. This leaves just a thin piece of sheetmetal along the lip of each frame lip. It took me about 3 hours to get the big pieces out and get to this point...



And the pieces/debris that came out...

I spent about 4 hours grinding spot welds and peeling ip the remaining strips of sheetmetal. It doesn't look too different...

So I guess this is no longer a budget bomber???
Nice to have friends that will lend you things.

The scope ALWAYS creeps, but my goal is to keep this as budget oriented as possible. I'm not joking about doing a budget paint job either

"Budget paint job".........Look at the paint job Pat did on his charger, I would class that as budget so if you set up like he did then you will have no worries at all. I will be painting my car as well and setting up a make shift booth in my garage. (22'-7"x 25'x 12'-2")

LOL. I'm not even close to being in the same league as Pat. Pat has more skills and patience then me. Mine will be a satin or patina job.

I spent about three hours knocking undercoating out of the wheel wheels and from the hump above the rear axle. I think I have about 3-4 more hours until it is completely finished.

Finally found the time to remove the every last bit of the undercoating...

too bad so much got cut out it looks like it was a very solid car all in all. great work by the way i am going to get myself one of t hose needle scalers!

I finally got back to this Charger. I sent it out to the media blaster...

I am following this with interest, as I love these years of the Chargers. You are doing a very nice job so far, keep up the good work. I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out. If you would like check out our build on a '66 Charger.

Best time to install sub-rame connectors?

I have been doing some real thinking about subframe connectors.....I haven't decided yet


The day after I got it back, it got sealed in epoxy. First three pics are bare metal. Last two are in primer

New rear crossmember and rear valance...



New one piece trunk floor...



fitting a lower patch...

Floor pans are in....

Nicely done!

Cabin floor spot welds all knocked down and dressed



Trunk floor is also in now

Dang, Great job

Thanks!



After some straightening, the driver's side quarter panel end cap fits greats now. before and after...



The driver's side quarter also had rust on in front of the rear wheel well. It was patched inside and out...

Just below the previous patch....also in front of the left rear wheel...

Right quarter needed some straightening...

The area under the battery tray was rusty. Used a solid original donor...

A previous owner cut out part of the passenger side wheel tub...apparently for a patch.

The left quarter panel patch was AMD and needed trimming since it was too long-see the first picture.

Right quarter panel patch...

Rear valance and trunk braces are in...

Next step is to remove some of the dents, dings, and creases. The right quarter panel was definitely the worst but the dutchman's panel had some big dings and the passenger quarter had a few too.

Time for some rear window channel rust  repair. It's interesting that this charger didn't have one spec of rust in the lower channel. The rear lower corners had a few pinholes. I'm sure that it's because the rear window had been out of the car for 20 plus years. But....there were some small holes in the upper channel.






There were also a few pinholes in the trunk gutters where the forward gutter (dutchman's panel) overlapped with the side gutters

A few more cleanup items on the battery trey area and a big dent on the leading edge of the roof



Back side in bare metal and then in primer...

Nice job on the dent. Did you hammer and dolly it out?

Unfortunately there isn't any access from the back side so Zach welded studs on and the dent was pulled

The rear valance corners just didn't want to fit. As you can see, they gap on the forward edge and they don't line up with the tail panel character line either. Hopefully this series of pictures can help some future builders.





A section was cut out. The piece was rotated slightly and welded back in. The rotation created a small "pie slice" shaped gap at the forward edge.




Next the rear valance was sliced along the top to again bring the edge out

Got the car back home and cleaned up the doors/fenders I had sitting in the corner. I was a little bored and I wanted to see it look more whole (and I needed the space) so I hung the doors/fenders. Both doors are 1969 doors...I really love the patina'd F6 green paint on that right door...

I'm not sure where to go next on this Charger. I have another 1968 Charger build ahead of this one. Part of me wants to install an AMD 1970 taillight panel and then install all the 1970 parts I've been stock piling. Ive collected 3 grills, a super nice/solid front fenders/hood, nice reupholstered seats and door panels, etc. Since I have another 1968 in the works, this one will probably either be cloned to a 1970 or I may sell it...in the mean time, I'm going to just push it in the corner while I think on it

Way more valuable left as a 68. Sell your your 70's parts and the 68 and concentrate on the first one.

I think you are correct. I need to concentrate on finishing my 68 pro-touring Charger


This Charger has been sitting in the corner for too long (since September!!). Between working fulltime, my 5 kids activities , and getting back into parting out modern SRT8's I've been busy. I finally tossed some suspension underneath the Charger, unstacked the shop. and hauled it in for its VIN inspection. I always do that as soon as I get a car...I just got distracted I guess.