'69 charger r/t-se: Building my dream car

[CHARGERSTEVEN]

did you get the photos off grill chrome

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

All of the restored headlight bucket arms I have seen were painted grey, so I would have thought they were unpainted originally. Maybe shoot Mr. Cranium a pm as his 68 is really detailed nice - he might know for sure.
Your car was T5? Really? Want to trade? I just love that color on these cars.

I ended up noticing the preserved plating that would be covered by the plastic of the headlight doors, looks like it's got to be some type of cad plating so I ended up just satin clearing it after some cleaning to preserve what was left of it :shruggy:



And man, that's tempting with how gorgeous your car is coming out. But I think I've already passed the sentimental point of no return on my car lol and I like T5 a lot too, so I haven't ruled out going back to that color way off in the future

did you get the photos off grill chrome

Yeah thanks Steven! I just emailed you back earlier, I'll check mine again in a minute :icon_thumleft:

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Well here's a little update, didn't get a lot done last weekend but had a badass time going on a little road trip with my girlfriend to see Alice Cooper haha
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Did sneak a little work in though, one vacuum pod assembly down, one to go! :icon_cool:

 

[daytona kid]

Too cool, Ballad of Dwight, one of my favorites.

 

[tallhair]

Damn before I saw the headlight pods set up I thought that was some funky Charger sway bar. Nice work though speedy and good on you for getting out with the little woman and seeing a cool concert .. he's a car guy btw

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Yeah it was a really awesome show, definitely planning on seeing him again next time a tour rolls around. We had seats about 10 ft from the stage, dead center, so it was a great time for sure. He even did the decapitation and huge Frankenstein thing, wish I could've met him to BS about cars and stuff though. Him and Joe Walsh are on my list of people I want to meet at some point in life haha

Oh yeah, I didn't tell you I upgraded to that newfangled space-age 1/4" sway bar? hahaha I probably should've posted it with a pic of the whole thing put together in the first place lol
:head_smack:

Got all the driver's side assembly stuff stripped and painted last night, so on to the grille frame tonight. Hoping I can have the whole thing put back together and buttoned up by turkey day

 

[747mopar]

I haven't been to a concert since Ozzfest probably ten years ago "what a freak show". I did get to see Def Lepard (awesome), Metallica, Kiss, Ugly Kid Joe, Disturbed, Slipknot, Mudvane, Black Sabbath and more but when Marilyn Manson and all his freaky fans showed up at Ozzfest I clocked out erhhhhhhhhh. Glad to hear you had a good time.

 

[Propwash]

Man....you and the other fella's restoring these Charger grills really do outstanding work. Bookmarked all your threads in case I ever have a Charger with a busted up grill roll in the door. Great work! Keep it up!

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Well it was a busy, cold holiday weekend but I finally got the gas turned on to the shop, heater cranked, and the grille frame all fixed up, sanded down and painted. Had to straighten the outer tabs on each side that were tweaked pretty bad and the wide vertical piecethat goes down the middle had a bit of a bow to it. Nothing some gentle convincing and a pair of vicegrips couldn't take care of.

For once I remembered to do the smart thing and test-fit it before paint haha


Didn't have too much surface rust, so I just took a wire wheel to wherever there was and sanded down the rest. Don't mind my ingenious cherry picker/ bungee cord hanging system lol








Then the usual program, some etch primer..


..and topcoated with some satin chassis black. On to the trim and hopefully thowing this thing back together soon :icon_pray: hope all you guys had a righteous turkey day
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[747mopar]

It's been a while Speedy, looks like your wrapping up the front end "what's your ETA on the paint"? Funny thing you mention the heater, it's a heat wave here after all of the snow and freezing weather we've been getting. Supposed to get snow tonight and back to the frigid weather again by tomorrow.

 

[Ron 73]

She lookin great Jake! You are doing a great job on this!!

Heard the same 747, weather's been warm the last few days and now.... back to it lol...

 

[daytona kid]

Grill frame looks brand new. Love that satin paint. Is that Eastwood spray can?

 

[tallhair]

You are doing some great work and I appreciate your ingenuity and steadfastness speedy! Nicely done young brother

 

[roadrunnerman]

Panel looks good. Ingenious people must run in crowds cuz I use bungee cords hanging from nails on my cross braces when I need to paint several parts.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Man....you and the other fella's restoring these Charger grills really do outstanding work. Bookmarked all your threads in case I ever have a Charger with a busted up grill roll in the door. Great work! Keep it up!

Hey thanks Will, I'm actually gonna open up shop for doing grille resto's for other people, hopefully I'll have some takers after mine is all put back together and on display haha. And good to see ya back, I think everyone was starting to get a little stir crazy wondering how everything's going with you and your lean mean street machine, hope everything's been good!

It's been a while Speedy, looks like your wrapping up the front end "what's your ETA on the paint"? Funny thing you mention the heater, it's a heat wave here after all of the snow and freezing weather we've been getting. Supposed to get snow tonight and back to the frigid weather again by tomorrow.

It's definitely getting close, just about all that's left is the trim and it can all go back together, been a pretty epic little project for sure haha. And I'm actually not sure, might try and get all the basic mechanical stuff done so I can fire the engine off by Christmas, be a cool present to myself lol. But in any case I'm hoping to have frankestein in paint by my birthday in the middle of february, finally gonna be able to hit the bodywork hard with the heater turned on. Its been in the teens here all this week with highs in the 30's, supposed to get hit with some snow tonight, definitely glad I got the gas turned on haha!

She lookin great Jake! You are doing a great job on this!!

Heard the same 747, weather's been warm the last few days and now.... back to it lol...

Thanks ron! Haven't seen you around as much on here lately (or maybe I'm too busy with work and missing everybody haha), hope you've been good and enjoying the holidays!

Grill frame looks brand new. Love that satin paint. Is that Eastwood spray can?

Thanks daytona! The paint is actually the satin black chassis paint from the Martin Senour line I get at the local napa. Sprays really smooth and is pretty damn tough too :icon_thumleft:

You are doing some great work and I appreciate your ingenuity and steadfastness speedy! Nicely done young brother

Panel looks good. Ingenious people must run in crowds cuz I use bungee cords hanging from nails on my cross braces when I need to paint several parts.

Thanks guys! Gotta do what you gotta do, and bungees definitely come in handy for Macguyver'd up painting setups lol. For anyone that's repainting their grille frame, it probably would've been easier to spray it hanging vertically on end like the factory did, but didn't think my engine hoist would go high enough, and it was too damn cold to open my shop bay door and hang it from that lol

 

[hunt2elk]

The front end is looking great Speedy. There sure are a lot of extra dodads on Chargers compared to other B-bodies isn't there? I look back from when I did my Road Runner and how simple everything was.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Yeah definitely, but it was really cool tearing it apart and seeing how everything works with the vacuum pods and stuff. And those pics you sent me a while back really helped with getting the outer tabs straight, thanks again for those! That's funny I was thinking how much simpler my Chevelle grille is too, just a few pieces of stamped tin pretty much lol.

Well I guess the weatherman was on his game this time, got hit with a good amount of snow and the low tonight is supposed to be in the single digits. Gonna crank the heater, throw on some Mad Max movies and knock out some work on the Charger.
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[cdr]

lookin great!!!!!

 

[Ron 73]

Yeah definitely, but it was really cool tearing it apart and seeing how everything works with the vacuum pods and stuff. And those pics you sent me a while back really helped with getting the outer tabs straight, thanks again for those! That's funny I was thinking how much simpler my Chevelle grille is too, just a few pieces of stamped tin pretty much lol.

Well I guess the weatherman was on his game this time, got hit with a good amount of snow and the low tonight is supposed to be in the single digits. Gonna crank the heater, throw on some Mad Max movies and knock out some work on the Charger.
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Weather really starting to suck here as well, cost some to run the heat out there but worth it, its getting out there is the hardest lol, hate to get to far from the stove I do hope your plans work well with the grills, you sure have showed you can do it and do it great and i love the comment about the Chevelle grill, i had a 66 that took me 5 years to do some time back and i had an extra grill (fairly simple compared to a Charger) that hangs above the garage doors just to remind me of the old days, or is that my little bit ago younger days, ummm. keep up the great work!

 

[Propwash]

Thanks MSF! All good here. Great to hear you're extending your craftsmanship out to possible customers down the road. Good stuff man!