Nobody's allowed to complain...

[69.5CUDA]

you know me ive worked on "too far gone"....and while i think that was pretty gone im very impressed, and he is VERY fortunate to have been able to recover funds that crazy

i do hope he finds an NOS speedo or rebuilds one to ZERO cause that car is officially NEW

 

[thrashingcows]

I paid through the nose to get my coronet rust replaced and thought it was top notch back in the day, but looking at the car now with my years of accumulated knowledge since then I see a ton of short cuts and poor body/panel alignment and fit, and even very poor stamping on the reproduction rear quarter panels I had installed....Oh well just part of the charm of the car and getting it back is worth way more than having to live with the defects.

Kevins car looks amazing now! I missed the original thread from years ago so glad you updated this....such a cool story and I can understand is desire to want the car back regardless of condition and cost!

 

[Dr.Jass]

Prior to finding the NOS tach, as a gift I'd had his cluster restored both cosmetically and functionally. The odometer was returned to zero. It was when the NOS tach showed up that we discovered something: When you have your tach "upgraded" with new internals, the scale is different than original.

Refurbished on the left, NOS on the right. Look at the positions of the numbers, rather than the incorrect color of the redline:




One thing that drove Kev nuts about the "upgraded" tach--and all the reproduction tachs--is that the needle doesn't point to zero with the ignition off. Neither of us realized the scale was different. That's a peculiarity of the movement. The same guy restored my Challenger's 7,000RPM tach, but I only had him do a cosmetic restoration since the movement worked and I'd upgraded it to an RTE circuit board. My restored tach's scale matches the original, unmodified 7K tach in a cluster I bought from 6pkrunner. The numbers are evenly spaced, but the first hashmark is 500RPM. My factory 8,000RPM tach, on the other hand, shows the same "compression" of the scale between 4K-5K.

 

[thrashingcows]

How is it they cant get the colour correct? And seeing the number scales off so much is shocking!

 

[Dr.Jass]

How is it they cant get the colour correct? And seeing the number scales off so much is shocking!

I think he made the same mistake I made on my Valiant. Some clusters used orange, others used red. I'd painted the Valiant's needles fluorescent red, but when I discovered the temp gauge was dead I found an NOS one. My needles weren't faded, they were originally fluorescent orange. I had to repaint an NOS needle to match. D'oh! On my Challenger, he nailed it. The new paint is more vibrant, but it's definitely the same color as the original cluster 6pkrunner sold me and the 8K tach I've since bought.

Yeah, the scale difference was a real surprise... and it can't be unseen, either. Now when I see a picture of a cluster, I immediately look at the scale and needle position.

 

[restoman]

Yup, I'm impressed.
Truthfully, I'd be impressed if the car had been far better before all the sheet metal went on, but once again seeing the before pics, I'm figuratively bowing down to your bud. That's some nice work.
But honestly, it's not really that difficult. Time consuming, yes. And there are many times when you stop beating your head against the wall only because it feels better, but basic concepts on vehicle construction, a solid work surface, several measuring tapes, and a sh*tload of screws and Vise-Grips are truly the only tools needed. And the ability to think, of course.
Still, I am impressed. Not many would tackle a job like that, and win at it.
I hear him on the aftermarket vs: OEM stuff. I've seen so many simple jobs gone off-rail when over-zealous guys start wholesaw cutting and grinding because "all new sheetmetal". All parts are NOT created equal, as good as they might look fresh out of the shipping box.
I've had many, many discussions/arguments & heartbroken customers to attest to that.

 

[thrashingcows]

I see one departure from OEM on the outside...the addition of the 70 style side mirrors.

 

[b-body-bob]

That's a labor of love right there.

The before photos reminded me of a Charger at our local junkyard. Its been sitting on the ground so long there is no bottom in it at all, it's just a hull. I was in it one day taking something off it and a big storm came up and I worried it was going to wash right over the side of the hill it's on. Chances are you could stand in it and lift it off the ground - if you hands didn't go right through the roof when you pushed it up.

 

[restoman]

I should add that a decent compliment of auto body tools would be needed, too...
Just in case my comment should be taken as a "meh" thing, I AM thoroughly impressed with the work.

 

[Dr.Jass]

I see one departure from OEM on the outside...the addition of the 70 style side mirrors.

He couldn't resist. He really likes them and thinks they're a better fit than the round ones on that body style. I agree with him.

That's a labor of love right there.

Well, it was his first car. First love runs deep. He figures he's only got one shot at this, so he'd better get it right.

I should add that a decent compliment of auto body tools would be needed, too...
Just in case my comment should be taken as a "meh" thing, I AM thoroughly impressed with the work.

I pass along an indirect "thank you" from Kev regarding body tools. He was very up in the air about hammers and dollies, and I recommended the ones you recommended to me (and I told him that; he knows of you). He was thinking Harbor Freight or Northern Tool, and I told him "The shapes of these tools matter. The faces, the points, all that stuff is shaped specifically for a good reason." After he received the Millers, he said, "These just feel like quality tools. I'm glad you insisted I buy those." Several times since he's mentioned how nice they are to use, and how glad he is he bought them.

So, thanks indirectly. And I'm sure he'll appreciate your thoughts on, and appreciation for his work.


I'll reiterate this for anyone/everyone else reading this thread: He works in product develpment and has for 25+ years. This is his first serious bodyworking project. He's walked away from it for weeks on end, but obviously he's gotten after it. He's neither a wrench nor a body man. What he is, is meticulous and patient. This can be done without formal training, and near as I can tell, there's very little beyond saving if you want it badly enough.

 

[69.5CUDA]

having had both the red and the orange in my hand a few times i prefer the orange..the red is not something ive seen but a couple of times..and so rarely i cant remember what/where

but that scale change is wild...wildly bad on the eyes at that

and i second the switch on the mirrors the round ones never suited the body in the first place

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I need some of what keeps him going. Also, a workspace as roomy as his.

Very impressive work.

 

[b-body-bob]

Also, a workspace as roomy as his

I saw this photo and thought that's not a garage, that's a shop.

 

[b-body-bob]

BTW, did you mention if he's MIG welding or is he using a spot welder? I can't imagine how much wire and grinding was involved if he's MIGging it.

I just noticed that looks like it's even got a different cowl on it.

 

[thrashingcows]

Considering how bad it was I can't say how much of the original sheet metal is left on the car, can't be much, and the fact it now has A/C I assume the cowl and fire wall was just left as one piece when replaced?

 

[b-body-bob]

I drilled and removed a cowl for my A12. It was a nightmare getting that thing off without a sawzall but I made it all the way out to the A pillar before I gave up. Doing the firewall at the same time doesn't seem like it would make it any easier.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Considering how bad it was I can't say how much of the original sheet metal is left on the car, can't be much, and the fact it now has A/C I assume the cowl and fire wall was just left as one piece when replaced?

Actually, he's installing "stealth" AC rather than factory-style heater box, etc. He's using a non-AC heater box, some components from one of the aftermarket AC vendors, and custom-made lines that literally circumnavigate the exterior of the engine bay. That keeps as little AC equipment visible as possible, since the receiver/dryer is on the outer core support by the condenser.




The only lines really visible on the assembled car will be those off the compressor, which disappear under the battery tray.




As such, he's got part of the Coronet's AC firewall with a large chunk of the Charger's non-AC firewall sectioned into it. The ends of the cowl are Charger, the center (and visible) area are Coronet. Which leads us to Bob's comment...

I drilled and removed a cowl for my A12. It was a nightmare getting that thing off without a sawzall but I made it all the way out to the A pillar before I gave up. Doing the firewall at the same time doesn't seem like it would make it any easier.

Apparently it's much easier with the roof off, or rather removing the roof as part of the process... but obviously it's still an enormous pain in the ass. There's a lot of overlap/layers in that area. He fought with it for awhile, and though the details are lost to the fog of time, I remember thinking "I would've been throwing tools halfway through this." It was one of the more-difficult tasks, since there was some tomfoolery with the A-pillars and windshield frame, which are from the original Charger as is the entire roof structure and quite a few other two-door-specific parts (the Coronet donor was a 4-door sedan).

Just one more process to integrate into absorbing the scale of this effort.

For the record, the engine in the pictures does not run. It was literally for getting the AC parts designed, routed, fabricated, and installed. Everything shown below was assembled and installed to facilitate only that, after which it was completely removed and disassembled prior to hanging any exterior panels.

 

[Dr.Jass]

BTW, did you mention if he's MIG welding or is he using a spot welder? I can't imagine how much wire and grinding was involved if he's MIGging it.

It will be MIG welded. Everything you see in the photos above is held together with sheetmetal screws.

He spent much of the last week tearing it back down for the laser rust removal process. While he's waiting for that, he's prepping all the seam/pinchweld areas for final welding and sealer. He's very intent on duplicating the sloppy factory silliness that is seam sealer, noise deadener, and undercoating.

 

[restoman]

"Factory Ugly" is the term I use...

 

[thrashingcows]

The front rad support blackout on my 73 roadrunner had two full on loop-d-loops in the black paint....