1971 Dodge Charger SE restoration.

[VicsGarage]

Hey guys,

Figured I'd start a build thread here too.

Heres the car. I've owned it since I was 18/19 years old. Been sitting for almost as long. Finally got started last year so excuse the photo dump.

She's a bit of a mishmash of other 3rd gens. It's got a 72 bulge hood I think, Some 72/73 interior pieces.

Prior to me starting it looked clean. But a lot was hidden well on this car. I'm in the midst of doing a full resto on it. In hindsight, I probably should've found a another car and used this one as a donor. But it's MY car so yeah . The plan is to build a great restomod thats going to handle well.

Bit more info on the car here. Excuse the poor quality of this video. First one in the series.

 

[VicsGarage]

Ended up stripping it down over last winter. Bagged and tagged everything. Got the car blasted in the spring. Started to see the full extent of the work that was going to be invovled at that point. Should've hit the pause button then. But I don't like to quit, plus it was my wife's idea to start this. So I can blame her whenever it ends up going south!

Firewall and cowl area were rough. The drivers side floor pan was patched with a sign of some sort. The driver's frame rail was barely attached to the car. Mostly the inner fender and brace holding it in place along with the connection to the cross member. The cross member was shot, drivers frame rails had some gnarly patches. Rear trunk pan needed to be replaced, the rear rails were soft so opted to replace them too.

Plenty more. Made a list here with most of the stuff... There was even more though as you start digging of course.

 

[VicsGarage]

So since then I've gotten 80% of the crud cut out, got the cross member in and new floor supports in, got the rear rails roughed in place but couldn't make the temperament until I got my fronts since the frame dimensions I have are off the locating holes on the front rails.



Fixed up my side cowl panels with a few donors from a friend.



We got the new firewall in from moparmarks (Thanks!), along with my cowl and windshield trim repairs. Test fitted the windshield. Seemed alright given there is now 4 cars that make up my front end. It was a bit high on the bottom corners, but we massaged the top of the cowl a bit and it sat flatter.

 

[VicsGarage]

Test fitted my goodmark full floor. Seems to fit pretty good. Would like to get it a bit tighter along the transmission tunnel. But we'll see.

The cross member was from Sherman. One thing I will note with it was the holes on the bottom are not as per spec. The frame diagrams I've seen for both B body and E body say they're supposed to be 37.5 Inches apart, but they're further than that when measured with a tram gauge. Given the pan fit pretty good, and that the holes aren't used in any other measurement, we went ahead used the part anyways. Supply chain issues have made it hard to get parts, so beggars can't be choosers.

Got new Dynacorn front rails for the 70-74 Challenger. Stripped the KFrame down today and bolted up to the rails. Tomorrow we're going to get to work on locating and getting them in place. Once they're set, I can set the rears and then we're cooking.

 

[VicsGarage]

Now you're mostly caught up

 

[Missurah]

Amazing amount of work

 

[T2R9]

Your in deep, I commend you for that. Great work! I look forward to following this.

 

[71Beeper]

It's alot of work, but you are doing it the right way...

 

[Grabbergreendream]

My Goodmark pan fit high in the hump as well, about 1/2"(original x-member). Sides were very nice so drilled through a few 1/4" holes & used bolts & nuts to draw it down before securing the sides. Your doing great work! Keep on plugging away.

 

[VicsGarage]

Video on the firewall install. Floor is almost done so I'll have a video on that soon.

 

[T2R9]

Nice! I commend you. Did a complete firewall and cowl on a 73 Cuda and it was a ton of work.

 

[VicsGarage]

I have a floor pan now! Front floor pan ended up fitting pretty good I think. I have a few welds at the top. But I need a hammer and dolly. Might add a few stitches on sides by rockers, but not sure yet.

Also welded up the firewall / floor pan seam. Should stiffen it up good!

 

[VicsGarage]

Rest of the floor is installed. Thanks to moparmarks for that rear seat pan! Few issues with the AMD footwells, but we got them in!

 

[VicsGarage]

Got the last bit of sheet metal I need! Took over a year for it to get back in stock.

 

[ct71rr]

Looks like you have about the same amount of work as me. Glad to see you finally got the panels. Moparmarks has saved my butt many times.

 

[VicsGarage]

Looks like you have about the same amount of work as me. Glad to see you finally got the panels. Moparmarks has saved my butt many times.

Yeah! Saved me with the firewall…

 

[2rts]

Checking in on your progress Vic.

 

[VicsGarage]

Checking in on your progress Vic.

Thanks for the bump. Lots happened. But lost track of filming a few things. Here’s an update video I forgot to share. Gonna get back to it this week!

1971 Dodge Charger Build Episode 23 - Is the project dead? Project update

 

[ckessel]

You've got gumption. A rust bucket like that would not get a second look by me. Keep at it.

 

[VicsGarage]

You've got gumption. A rust bucket like that would not get a second look by me. Keep at it.

Thanks man. It didn’t look bad when I started. It looks pretty clean in the first video. The true damage wasn’t known until stripped and blasted.

In hindsight, I probably would’ve tried to find a southern clean shell, and then used my parts to build it.

But here we are…. Plus it was my first car. So idiot sentimental value.