RUSTY Cuda
In over my head!
That does look pretty solid under there, what are the options your looking at?
A12 - time to get busy
- Thread starter b-body-bob
- Start date
b-body-bob
Well-known member
Both upper and lower cowls are off the parts car and at the shop.
You see how there's little left to weld to so you end up cutting out that bit running across the windshield there and that stuff can get a little hairy if you don't brace it up right.
You can't just fix the top because without the bottom in it the louvers will dump water right on the floor.
Could've just put the wiper holes back in it too but that got lost in the shuffle and it's sure too late now.
That will be fine but it's no small job.
You see how there's little left to weld to so you end up cutting out that bit running across the windshield there and that stuff can get a little hairy if you don't brace it up right.
You can't just fix the top because without the bottom in it the louvers will dump water right on the floor.
Could've just put the wiper holes back in it too but that got lost in the shuffle and it's sure too late now.
That will be fine but it's no small job.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
b-body-bob
Well-known member
The part you see here is where the louvers should be
RUSTY Cuda
In over my head!
Geeze how did I miss that, went back, the passenger side is MIA.
do they make the inner piece yet?
do they make the inner piece yet?
b-body-bob
Well-known member
Found
b-body-bob
Well-known member
My poor road runner
RUSTY Cuda
In over my head!
Wow that's a lot of metal gone, reminds me of the other cuda!
b-body-bob
Well-known member
The sad part is there is very little rust but a whole lot of cutup metal that had to go. There's a rust hole in the bottom of the rocker that I can see. The other side was the same. I had patched that.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
My doors and fenders. Still need metal worked but they're clean and ready for that now.
RUSTY Cuda
In over my head!
Well at the least you can be happy it seems to be moving along pretty good!
b-body-bob
Well-known member
and so far my bank account is keeping pace.
It would drive me bonkers to not be able to stick on a car until it's finished but that's not the way it works. Those worker bees (includes the owner/manager) switch off on an almost daily basis.
I will be over the moon when I see it with the cowl/louvers/wipers back on it.
Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
I'm waiting to hear what happens with mine. I gave the guy more than enough to cover materials, but that was over a year and a half ago. When the estimate comes in way over the number and he says something about materials, I'll remind him that I more than covered that in 2021. It's not my fault he didn't use my money on my materials at the time.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
I went up today and had a look. The quarter panel end of the right rocker has a hole in it just like the other side did. The cowl is still off. I took a deck lid up so they can check the quarters for fit once they get to that point.
Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
The quarters should square up in the horizontal off the deck filler panel and the rear bumper filler. I hope it's a factory decklid. Kev was not impressed with the out-of-box fit of the AMD Charger decklid, leading him to find NOS. An extreme measure, perhaps, but his deck filler panel was rotten too and the AMD version of that was definitely the "better than nothing" option. He could not find an NOS filler.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
Yes the three (3!) decklids I've got are all factory original. The one I took up came off the car so it's got the center of the underside hacked out. I've got another one that has a tough dent running up and down through a curve that runs the opposite direction, and of course I've got one that has the lock cylinder slide-hammered out of it.
Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
My old roommate could've helped with that. When he was restoring his '69 Charger R/T-SE, he cut the underbracing out of both the hood and the decklid so he could access the hidden side. It all got cleaned, primed, painted and welded back together. He then dressed the welds to look like factory spot welds. It was virtually undetectable.
Being that meticulous and methodical, you'd almost swear he was a stoner. This is the same guy that returned his 2017 Challenger T/A to the dealership to get one that had not been transported through areas that use salt in the winter. He also spent nearly a year doing a body-off, ground-up restoration on his 5-year-old Kenworth (I'm not kidding) because he found some surface rust on the frame.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
I thought about making one good one out of two but the underside of that doesn't add anything anyway.
b-body-bob
Well-known member
It's ugly, boss.
For the $500 slide hammer mistake it seems to me like they make a gadget that you fit into the hole, hold one side, tighten the other, and it reforms the lock hole. Or maybe I imagined it and never invented it. I haven't dug that one out to look yet, but it feels like the locating slot is still there so such a gadget may actually work.
For the $500 slide hammer mistake it seems to me like they make a gadget that you fit into the hole, hold one side, tighten the other, and it reforms the lock hole. Or maybe I imagined it and never invented it. I haven't dug that one out to look yet, but it feels like the locating slot is still there so such a gadget may actually work.