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

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Well the metalwork got a little postponed, I'm waiting on my buddy Mopar Mike to come double check a couple things and help out when I fire up the mig. Hopefully that'll be this weekend. ccasion14:

So since I had a weekend of free time I got in gear and painted my dash (2nd attempt) and steering collumn (3rd attempt) that had both been giving me hell trying to paint with the cold weather back in January. Still had to fight the temperature a bit but a lot of sanding and 10 or 15 dusting coats later they both came out awesome lol.

Dash (before). Wasn't a huge fan of the color..


Dash (after). "back in black" :icon_thumleft:




And the pain in the @$$ steering collumn that finally came out absolutely perfect. Guess 3rd time's the charm.


Don't have any pics on my phone at the moment, but I also hit the upper door pads and A-pillar interior pieces with SEM's Colorcoat vinyl/plastic dye and stripped/painted my driveline. I'll post some pics of that stuff soon.

So needless to say I stayed pretty busy all weekend. Then yesterday I picked up the front, rear, and shift shaft seals for the 727 and cleaned up my power steering pump to paint alongside my brake booster/master cylinder this week.

Cleaned up pretty good, should look brand new when I'm done.


So I think I'm keeping up the pace pretty well, fingers crossed I'm on track to light up some tires this summer :headbang:

 

[roadrunnerman]

Dash and column look great. Did you sand down your dash or just clean it and spray? Just wondering the best way to do mine when the time comes.

 

[tallhair]

Lookin good Mr Speedfreak

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Dash and column look great. Did you sand down your dash or just clean it and spray? Just wondering the best way to do mine when the time comes.

Thanks rrman, I didn't completely strip it, actually left the instrument cluster in, taped it and the wiring off really well, and just sanded to rough it up and feather some scratches it had. Etch-primed over that then used just a krylon satin black. Was worried there would be tape lines but it ended up completely covering really nice. Probably thanks to all the light coats.

Could've completely disassembled and stripped it but it was in nice enough condition I didn't really need to. The end product is just as good as if I had anyway.

 

[1970 roadrunner lover]

nice work what color are you going to paint it

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

nice work what color are you going to paint it

Thanks! Going with black (no vinyl top) on black interior, with flat black R/T bumblebee stripe. Also considering the hood treatment where the "scallops" are flat black with the motor callout inside them in gloss. Think it was a '70 Charger thing ? But will probably just do a full gloss hood at first.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Alright, got some better shots showing the finish of the dash and steering column. Satin black interior should look pretty sharp. :icon_cool:




Some of the door pads/ a-pillar pieces redyed black. Can't say enough about how awesome SEM Colorcoat vinyl/plastic dye is! Would probably be pretty hard to even tell them apart from factory black pieces :icon_thumleft:


And random but one of the things I was most excited to see when I first saw the (pieces of) Charger in California, tic toc tach and pretty sure I'll need all 150 miles per hour on the speedo :icon_biggrin:

 

[hunt2elk]

Your dash turned out great, and you are right about the SEM paint - it is some nice stuff.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Your dash turned out great, and you are right about the SEM paint - it is some nice stuff.

Thanks elk, and that's for sure I love that stuff. With as nice of condition my door pads were in to begin with, that stuff made them look brand new

 

[Ron 73]

Your dash looks great! Getting there is as fun as cruising when doing your own..

 

[Propwash]

Dash looks great...good work Speedfreak.

 

[ChargerRTguy]

Great project, will be following your progress too. Like what I see soo far.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Thanks guys, that dash was a serious pain but glad to hear the compliments on it :icon_thumleft:
And that's for sure Ron, lately I've gotten a nice little ritual going listening to "Nights With Alice Cooper" on the radio and working on the car a little every night. Good way to unwind after work :toothy5:

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Alright guys, a little more progress getting the Charger prepped for surgery. Spent some quality time with the abrasive wheels last night and got everything stripped I needed to except the areas underneath to do the trunk extension. And on track to cut out the rot tomorrow and get welding :icon_cool:

Rear valance was pretty decent aside from the hole in the center behind the bumper, and a lack of backup light holes. More quality work courtesy of the unknown amateur-hour bodyshop, must have used a '68 lower valance. :icon_confused:


But otherwise not too bad, won't be hard to make it work.


Rear window surround, the vinyl top wasn't kind to the car :icon_neutral:







And finally the amateur-hour quarter patch with the lopsided plasma-cut marker light hole. :eusa_eh: can't wait to have all this stuff fixed

 

[mopar4don]

So what's your plan? Full quarters? What about all of those holes along the top of the roof?
Can you patch them?

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

So what's your plan? Full quarters? What about all of those holes along the top of the roof?
Can you patch them?

Nope, the other quarter has already been patched and is fine and the rest of the one pictured is fine so I'll just be doing a lower quarter patch (rear section with the correct marker light hole).

And yep it can be patched, just bend a strip of sheet metal horizontally (so it will not only patch the face that's rotted but also the lip the window will sit on), drill holes in that lip to spot weld it to what's already there, and stitch along the roofline. Figured it would be the best way to do it then saw hunt2elk did the exact same thing on his. Fingers crossed lol

 

[Ron 73]

Thanks guys, that dash was a serious pain but glad to hear the compliments on it :icon_thumleft:
And that's for sure Ron, lately I've gotten a nice little ritual going listening to "Nights With Alice Cooper" on the radio and working on the car a little every night. Good way to unwind after work :toothy5:

Yes sir! and so many other things, Each night after a day on my 73 i would sit in front of the garage with a magazine and cigar and just enjoy the night sounds and mentally thinking where ill start in the AM. Im going to start another project and with me, it really is as much fun as when there done, this time i have the 73 to keep me company shootin out the tunes while i work! Your thread and others here is my way to wind down a night when i come in and see what everyone else had to contend with in the day, I love all the cars but, i have my favorites and yours is on that list, thanks for the update and the pictures, If i ever get started i guess ill need to start a thread myself.. I cant let you guys have all the fun! lol

 

[hunt2elk]

Looking good, your pictures are bringing back a lot of memories from my project. I'm sure glad the metal work is done on mine.

 

[tallhair]

Dash, interior parts, and column all came out great. Nice job speedfreak

 

[northerndave]

Those window trays are a sumbish. Looks like you'll charge right through that little bump in the road though, great project!