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

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Hahaha I usually just call em "little bastards" or a few other names that might get me kicked off the forum for posting lol. Good to see you back around the forum kiwi! :icon_thumleft:

And thanks guys, definitely making a dent on the bodywork (no pun intended). Should be done with all the metal stripping tonight and then on to the back-masking party haha

 

[747mopar]

I did that (single stage the jams) on a car and the single stage never matched the luster of the Base Coat Clear (looked allot different), just thought I'd mention it. A little trick I picked up from chop cut rebuild on the seam sealer for getting it really smooth in the visible areas is to use Acetone and a brush (works really well). Progress is looking really good Speady.

 

[CHARGERSTEVEN]

Great progress speedy aw dont we just love the summer with the bugs. Keeps you moving though. No place to hide

 

[Propwash]

And for whatever reason tonight was the night every mosquito in a 50 mile radius coordinated an invasion of my shop, so I broke out one of the oldest forms of entertainment and kicked back to the soothing sounds of my high voltage counterstrike

I'll get one out in the mail for ya tomorrow...

 

[Ron 73]

Sorry to here of the bug invasion speedy but you have things looking pretty good, if any can do it, you'll get it, ive watched your work and it is a pleasure! best of luck to ya man!!

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Thanks guys! Unfortunately no fresh-paint-**** to show yet, but I finished up the last little bit of stripping that needed to be done on the doorjambs and got Chassis Saver brushed on a few areas I thought could use some extra protection; seams, areas that had any amount of surface rust, etc. Gonna do the seam sealer tonight and give it a day or so to cure then lay down some primer





A little off topic but I've been working a deal with one of the good ol' townsfolk of the local craigslist, and might have my '64 Chevelle parts car sold in trade for a fresh powdercoated frame for my '67 plus lca's, uca's, trailing arms, and a couple greenbacks so I'm hoping that works out.

Also scored a sh!tload of carbon fiber cloth for only 30 bucks! Thinking a chin spoiler and some other fun little cf projects for the Charger. Any suggestions on cool stuff to make? Haha thank you Craigslist :icon_thumleft:

I did that (single stage the jams) on a car and the single stage never matched the luster of the Base Coat Clear (looked allot different), just thought I'd mention it. A little trick I picked up from chop cut rebuild on the seam sealer for getting it really smooth in the visible areas is to use Acetone and a brush (works really well). Progress is looking really good Speady.

Yeah time will tell how well it matches up but I guess it's not the end of the world if I end up having to re-jamb it later down the road. At least all the big work of stripping and re-sealing everything will be done. And thanks for the tip on the seam sealer! Charlie told me the same thing so I'm looking forward to giving it a try

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I'll get one out in the mail for ya tomorrow...

Lol reinforcements much appreciated Prop, thought about trying to dig up one of those WWII flamethrowers too, but that'd be the end of my paint budget haha

 

[747mopar]

She's looking good Speedy, seeing a little paint I'm sure will light a fire to get it done. To bad your dash is done, that carbon fiber would look cool on there mixing it into the door panels as well.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

She's looking good Speedy, seeing a little paint I'm sure will light a fire to get it done. To bad your dash is done, that carbon fiber would look cool on there mixing it into the door panels as well.

Oh yeah I'm on a mission now for sure lol and yeah I thought about that too, but I guess it's ok cause I can't say I'll go too crazy with it in the interior. I was thinking lock knobs, shifter knob and maybe something to do with the door panels like the arm rest bases or something.. but I saw this picture on facebook of one of Magnus Walker's Porsches that really got the light bulb going off haha, maybe some cf pedals and/or backing plate like in the pic?



Again off topic but if any of you guys haven't heard of him it's definitely worth the time to watch the "Urban Outlaw" documentary. The design vision and attention to detail that guy has is unreal

 

[cdr]

hey speedy,,,the primer goes on first then the seam sealer, just sayin.

- - - Updated - - -

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

Hey guys, been busy becoming one with the longblock but I finally escaped the daily grind to get an update on here haha. Still no paint to post unfortunately :frustrated: The bodywork has been taking longer than expected, but isn't that how it always is?



Frankenstein won't be getting a vinyl toupe' so I've been obsessive with getting the roof seams really straight, and I'm finally happy with the A-pillars.




Also ground the lead down low on the cowl seams and etch-primed those areas ahead of some All-Metal and body filler that I'll be doing tonight. Pretty crazy how high those spots are from the factory with all the lead



And in between waiting for the filler to kick on the A-pillars, got some good work in on the pass. side C-pillar, about 90% there now. And thought I would mention that I coughed up the extra denero's for a gallon of 3M's Platinum Plus filler, it's a little more expensive at $60 but it's really great stuff! Sands awesome and has zero pinholes unlike the cheaper stuff I've used


And finally finished stripping the grate on the cowl which seemed like it was never going to end. There are a few small waves in the fins and in front of them (towards the engine bay) so that will be fun getting straight but at least all the layers of chipping old paint are gone




Pretty relieved to say I have some other off-topic good news too, the deal went through on my '64 Chevelle parts car and I traded it for a powdercoated '67 frame plus a full set of control/trailing arms and some cash. Saved myself a lot of work, freed up a good chunk of real estate in the shop, and made a good step towards fixing my '67. Feels like I just broke out of Shawshank or something lol



The Craigslist luck kept rolling and I sold a full set of seat covers that came with the Chevelle when I bought it, and took the Charger Fund off life support! lol

Started with buying some LED bulb replacements for my front ambers (since someone switched them to clear standard bulbs at some point), I know it'll be a little while til they're on the car but it's one more thing off the list and was fun tinkering with for a minute. Most places want $15-30 for these little guys and I scored my pair on Ebay for $7 and change with free shipping lol. Seems like they're well-made, 68 LED's per bulb, and they look awesome!
http://m.ebay.com/itm/400677165795?txnId=356248170027





Also ordered a full set of speakers; 2 Polk Audio db351 3.5" Coaxials for the dash, 2 Kenwood KFC-1094PS 4" coaxials for the kick panels, and 2 Kenwood KFC-6965S 6x9" coaxials for the package tray. The Kenwoods were on sale too, so I ended up only paying $125 total for all 6 speakers! Big thanks to Prop for helping me out on figuring out this whole setup, this is basically what he used on Skelator and I'm really looking forward to hearing how it all sounds :icon_thumleft:

Other parts I picked up were a door hinge bushing/repair kit, the passenger side lower front quarter patch I still needed, and thinking about buying a pair of Global West subframe connectors Mike's got out at his place. Sounded like they're pretty nice, anyone have any experience with em?

I feel bad I've been so busy and haven't had time to chime in on everyone's threads but I've been lurking when I can, and thanks to Dev, Joel, Charlie, Goon, Kahn, and all you guys! Your cars are all looking amazing and keeping me motivated to at least get mine back on the road this summer, I'm on a mission! haha
ccasion14:

 

[hunt2elk]

You are making great progress Speedy. Bet you cant wait for the bodywork to be done. Here is the custom built cowl fin straightener tool that I made.

 

[benno440]

looking really good speedy, dont get on here enoguh to see progress of everyones rides, my bad

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

You are making great progress Speedy. Bet you cant wait for the bodywork to be done. Here is the custom built cowl fin straightener tool that I made.

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That's a cool little tool elk! Is it just a hook tool to grab and pull the fins up that are low or does it locate them to each other or something?

And thanks Benno! Good to hear from you, pretty sure I've got all those magazine shots of your car saved on my phone haha hope you're keeping the tires well broken-in lol :icon_thumleft:

 

[cdr]

IT'S great to see progress on your car,having all of y'all on this site has helped me A LOT also, keep at it

 

[747mopar]

Looking good Speedy, those pics really bring back some bad memories errrrrrrrrrrrr. I think if I had it to do over I'd cut that dam cowl vent completely out and throw it in the trash haha, you spend all that time making it pretty (I even had mine off and painted the underside) and then you have to look at the overspray down inside. Wonder if you could spray some kind of washable lube down in there so you could clean it back up afterwards (sorry, it bugs me). Can't believe you have a speakers coming already, I'm driving mine and still don't have any tunes well except the exhaust. Your cars looking great, can't wait to see done.

 

[hunt2elk]

That's a cool little tool elk! Is it just a hook tool to grab and pull the fins up that are low or does it locate them to each other or something?

Just hooks them to pull the fins up. I used it along with a carpenters square to get mine straightened. I swear a kid walked right down mine - then turned around and did it again lol.

 

[Mr.SpeedFreak]

IT'S great to see progress on your car,having all of y'all on this site has helped me A LOT also, keep at it

Thanks Charlie! And good looking out on the seam sealer heads-up, makes more sense than what I was probably about to do lol. Gonna try and put the acetone trick to work that you and dev told me about pretty soon too :icon_thumleft:

Just hooks them to pull the fins up. I used it along with a carpenters square to get mine straightened. I swear a kid walked right down mine - then turned around and did it again lol.

Oh ok that's a good idea with the carpenter's square too, mine aren't too bad but definitely have some waves Colonel Kilgore would deem surf-worthy lol.


Wouldn't want to let me borrow that fancy hook tool would ya? Haha

Looking good Speedy, those pics really bring back some bad memories errrrrrrrrrrrr. I think if I had it to do over I'd cut that dam cowl vent completely out and throw it in the trash haha, you spend all that time making it pretty (I even had mine off and painted the underside) and then you have to look at the overspray down inside. Wonder if you could spray some kind of washable lube down in there so you could clean it back up afterwards (sorry, it bugs me). Can't believe you have a speakers coming already, I'm driving mine and still don't have any tunes well except the exhaust. Your cars looking great, can't wait to see done.

Oh yeah I know exactly what you mean, I'm sure the overspray will nag at me too but I'm hoping it won't be too noticeable when all is said and done. And I think I have a good idea on how to get some chassis saver down in there without taking the cowl off but we'll see how that goes..

I guess I did jump the gun a little on speakers, but I think Goon would give it the "fer racin" stamp of approval at least lol! Plus they were 56% off on sale so I didn't want to miss out, spent as much on the Alpine 6x9's in the Chevelle alone as I did on all 6 Charger speakers :icon_scratch: (Polks still on the way)


I'll be going a little "Mad Max" but my goal is to make this big local car show here at the end of July. I'll probably have no side glass but vent windows bolted in, half an interior (no door panels), and a flat primered body, but I'd have tunes, 440 cubes, and a huge grin on my face so that's what counts lol

 

[HYRDGOON]

GOON STAMPED!!! "FER RACIN'"!!

Everything's lookin great brother you are making some serious progress!

 

[hunt2elk]

Wouldn't want to let me borrow that fancy hook tool would ya? Haha

No problem. If you think you need it, I can cut it in 1/2 and send it out to you.
You can test it out, we could throw a little paint on it, and maybe get a patent on this new fangled specialty deluxe tool. On the package we could state that straight fins make your car go faster - fer racin of course. Just think, we could quit our day jobs and just play with old Mopars with all the money we would have rolling in.

 

[conv67bdere]

Good to see you being able to spend some time working on your car there Speedy . . . lots of progress going on too ! !

Fer Racin' . .. . LMAO ! ! !