1969 Charger R/T SE Disaster

I picked up this 1969 Dodge Charger R/T SE up in August of 2014. I had pretty much just finished the restoration on my 1969 Dart Swinger(or so I thought) I really wanted a big block car. Stumbled upon this car at a buddies place(same guy I got my dart off of) and instantly fell in love. The car was totalled in a major head on collision in about 1971 or 1972 and has been sitting in a junkyard ever since. The car is originally Y2 sunfire yellow with a tan interior, 440 magnum, column shift automatic, power disc brakes, power steering. The progress will most likely be very slow on this one, since I'm only 19.... I'll try to keep everyone posted as I make progress. First things one the list, replace front clip with the one from the parts car, and get the numbers matching motor back(which has been located)

Rear of the car... Not pretty....

Coronet donor front clip before it was blasted.... Fairly rust free.

And finally my 1969 340 Swinger I just finished in June for my high school graduation

Awesome project. Now I know who Mike was going to see yesterday.

Sheldon

Ambitious! Is there a fender tag, radiator support, vin, or any other numbers-related item with the car?

Is Wildcat where the car was?

Thanks Sheldon, Mike loves the car, he wants it so badly, kept asking if it was for sale lol

Unfortunately everything expect the original vin is missing... But the last owner that crashed the car said he might have some pictures of the car before it was crashed!!

The car came from a private collection in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada

Best of luck with the Charger, looks like you'll have your hands full.
Your Swinger looks like it turned out really nice

Dave

the Dart looks great as does your Crew Cab(need more pics of those!
The junkyard looks like it has other treasures. Four door Plymouth and Wagon near the Charger.
Good luck with the Charger and keep the updates coming!

Ken's truck has a 12V in it, it's pretty neat.
Not many cars are worth doing from this stage but a 69 R/T-SE is for sure. This will be a great build.

Sheldon

Thanks Dave!I'll post some pictures of the dart too as I do some stuff to it.... Since at the moment it's my main priority to get it back on the road for the summer...

Ah yes Ken(the guy I bought the cars off of) has a very neat truck, I'll send you some pics next time I see him.... He has a lot more nice treasures sitting around too but that's my secret

Love it when the kids post up - great project, best of luck

big project. Good luck

nice to see you here Forrest. I have no doubt you will make it look like new again.

couple crappy pics of your donor clip after blasting.

another

Hit the jack pot yesterday! I was supposed to buy the entire car off of him but, he wanted to keep it... Instead he sold me every single part off of it for $300!! I got decent hood, some doors, all the side glass, a fairly complete power window set up, dash frame, back seat, both bumpers, a decent grille, tail lights, drive shaft, all the trim and a lot of misc parts! My car is fairly complete just missing a some misc parts. Now I just need to get some work done on the charger but i have to get the dart all back together and running first.... AGAIN.

The grille... Lucky the one piece that is broken on it is the only piece I had....

The parts car... 1969 charger 383 4 barrel, ac, power windows, t5 copper with white interior, rusty floors and the guy hit a light pole in the rear end.. No vin tag but a data plate that he wouldn't let me look at... Seemed fishy...

Wow: Great deal on those parts.

Sheldon

Cudos to you for taking on this project and saving another one!
I know Ken well and have seen this car lots of times before at his place, i always thought he would fix it one day......
You'll have a great car when it's done.
Tom.

Any chance you can put me in contact with the man with the cars. I see he has a 68 satellite wagon and I am currently working on one in Ontario.

Great score on the parts you needed. Keep up the great progress!

Thanks Tom! Ken said he wanted to keep it but he didn't have enough time to do them all and he saw what I did with his old dart, but I think he's happy I ended up with both of them!

Thank you! Your posts on your duster helped me more than you'll ever know on my dart, so thanks a ton!

Well, I've been slowly been picking away at the charger front clip. Mostly done, but I have a little bit more trimming to do. Picked up an air compressor a couple weeks ago so hopefully I'll be able to get some more work done and I can make more posts!

Nice find. good luck with everything.

Well, it's almost been a year since I was last on here and since I've had time to work on my cars! Unfortunately I thought I would've been a lot further a long by now, but I had to stop because I got a last minute acceptance to go to college and I've been going to school an hour and a half way from home. I have a month off of school before I'm back but I've been out in the shop all day every day trying to get as much done as I can. I should have the front clip welded on hopefully this week. Should be able to finish up most of the cutting and grinding tomorrow!

Well, I finally have everything cut off, grinded and ready to go together now! My dad just got home tonight so I'm hoping that with his help I can finally lift and put the two pieces together. First gotta go raid the hardware store for all of their vise grips... We will see how everything goes! Fingers crossed I don't mess anything up too badly!

Finally got it on tonight! I need to make a couple tweaks to it to make it sit in there nicely before I can start welding, but its starting to look somewhat like a car now!

It's gotta feel good to see it coming back together. Keep it up.

This is one of my favorite threads. It's so good to see this car coming back to life. Fantastic work.

It's been a long time since a post, but lots has been done since then...... I finally my college courses beginning of the year(for now) almost done my welding apprenticeship and just started my first year for metal fabrication.... I ended up moving 12 hours away from home so no work has been done until this past month since I quit my old job for one back home. I've now welded the entire front end in, and proceeded to work work on the floors and rear of the car..... it's getting there. A good buddy of mine Chris did all the sand blasting on it 3 days ago and I'm just starting to shoot it in primer. I'm hoping I can get lots done this year while I am working/have money and before I go back to school. First pic will be the night before I took it to blasting after I just finished my casters. I am extremely happy with how sandblasting turned out. No surprises, and the car isn't really pitted. I think I will try to save the quarter panel but not 100% sure yet

Loaded onto the trailer

Keep it up........

Wow a lot of work there. Keep at it

Wow! What a monumental project for someone your age!

More pictures....Sitting with the beater before blasting

After all the long night of scraping the undercoating

On the way to blasting with my precious cargo

At the blast site

After blasting....

The bad..... all was expected though. The quarter turned out better than we thought. Thinking about ordering a skin and just patching it while trying to save the bulk of the original one. The back window is a little rotten; another piece I'm thinking about replacing. Between the massive birdbath, rust and a chunk missing from when the quarter was torched off, I'm going to replace the dutchman panel. The rear crossmember is shot and will have to be replaced as one end is rusted and the other is cut off....

Quarter....

Thank you! It's a lot of work but will be worth it in the end.... all the work is 100% done by myself other than some help from my dad holding and lifting things for me. He knows nothing about cars or welding either, but he loves seeing me do it.

really nice man! i have done a bunch of this stuff and i know how much work it is! you will be so happy to have saved it and done it yourself at the end!. keep it up.

Looks like standard Charger rust. Keep it going

Excellent work. Keep it up, you will have a beautiful car when done.

Wow Forrest, A person can media blast a car and not warp it? but...but...the internet says it can't be done, that blaster must be amazing.

Coming along nicely!