It's always sunny in .......my Charger R/T!
70 Charger R/T SE Daytona sunroof project is starting soon.
- Thread starter chargervert
- Start date
Nice!! Must have been a pretty big pucker moment while it was happening!
I was on the other side of the garage working on preparing the sunroof assembly while they were cutting the roof. It was best for me if I didn't watch the process happening!
I stripped the vynal top material from the sunroof door, to reveal an absolutely pristine sunroof door. Both of the other 69/70 sunroof doors I have have a rot hole in them. One has a rust hole the size of a quarter, the other one has about a two inch by two inch diameter hole in it. This was caused by water getting under the vynal top and rusting the the sunroof door. This one is absolutely amazing! They only had one very light coat of matte black paint over the bare metal when they were installed by American Sunroof Corporation.
Both the door seal.and the weather strip had to be removed very carefully as they are made of unobtainium. The weather strip was in bad shape, all twisted and crushed. I was able to carefully straighten it out and it appears that it will be able to get reused.
The forward interior edge of the headliner was in perfect shape, but it was blue and the interior of my car is black,so I cleaned it up and painted it with some SEM interior black dye. I figured that it would be extremely difficult to rewrap it in the headliner material the way American Sunroof Corporation did,so a coat of black and it's a done deal.
It appears that I was completely incorrect about the sunroof door panel having a coat of matte black paint on it when they were installed by American Sunroof Corporation. The black on the door panel is actually the glue for the vynal top material, it was sprayed on right over the bare metal door panel then the vynal top material was installed over it. After using some lacquer thinner to try to remove the glue, it revealed a perfect metal sunroof door panel. But knowing now that they were never painted with anything that would protect them from the elements, it is no wonder that the other two sunroof doors I have are rusted through.
I can’t believe how nice that sunroof door is. No rust!
It is nearly perfect. Supposedly the sunroof assembly was removed from a 69 b5 blue 383 Charger SE with a white vynal top and a blue interior in 1976 and has been stored inside of his barn ever since. The piece was an amazing find,from a conversation here on FBBO! I was putting off doing this project because the sunroof assembly that I had was from a car that spent 30 years out in a New England junkyard and was in pretty rough shape. I was planning to repair it and use it,but I was hoping that one in better condition would surface for sale. Fortunately this setup did.
Last edited:
I went and got the bottle filled with C02/argon mix for the welder, and I am hoping to get some time to continue on the project over the weekend, hopefully I will be able to get some more work done on the car.
On Saturday I worked on the roof of the car trailer and today I did some prep work on the sunroof. I sanded the rest of the blue paint off the edges and used the grinder to trim the edges so the edges are ready to weld. I took a break to whip up some teriyaki steak on the grille for lunch. Then I cut strips of metal to protect the inside edges of the sunroof assembly during welding
Well after a whole weekend of family events that started on Thanksgiving and went through until yesterday, I finally got a day to go out to the garage and work on the 70 Charger R/T SE Daytona sunroof project! The sunroof and the Charger are one! The welding and metal finishing are done and it is ready to blend and block! It took all day long to do it,but Ian Rouselle said that it would!
440 PHIXX
The Island of Misfit Mopars
Wow! Nice work! 
Very nice!
- Local time
- 1:46 PM
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2021
- Messages
- 7,708
- Reaction score
- 43,758
- Location
- Miserable Smells TX
Excellent!
To me getting the sunroof assembly installed is the biggest hurdle I was facing on this project! I'm glad it is installed!
AAAHHH, with all the experience you got, piece of cake for ya Pete!!! Looks good!!
so when do I drop my charger of for some work 
It looks great
It looks great
It's funny that you mention that, because I was just thinking that I built the garage in 2006,and I haven't seen a single car that I built start to finish come out of that garage yet! I have done a lot of work on a lot of my cars as well as a lot of work on other people's cars come out of the garage, including doing all the metal fabrication on a second Charger convertible for a friend from Ohio,but the last car I built start to finish was my 71 Challenger convertible and I built it and the Charger convertible in my 18x24 foot garage at my old house with no lifts or real equipment in it. It is nice to actually be able to work civilized in the current garage. I am sure you will get your Charger too look just as sweet as your 70 Superbee does! Your Charger was a great find at a time where we all are literally priced out of the second generation Charger market but finds like your car and Greg's 70 Chargers being found for reasonable prices still gives the real enthusiasts hope that affordable second generation Chargers are still out there to be found and restored. I used to pay under $100 for running driving 68 to 70 Chargers in the early eighties, and $300 to $500 for running Charger R/T cars. Those were the days.
I was sweating welding in the sunroof, I considered doing it the other way and building a buck to knock the hole in and putting the cartridge in separately, but the condition of the sunroof piece was so nice thanks to fellow FBBO member Robby who stored it so well since 1976 that I didn't want to disturb the way American Sunroof Corporation installed it and not have it look 100 percent like it was installed in 1970,so I opted to go this route which was more work, but I am very pleased with the results. I have to blend the seams with metal to metal, and the skim and block around it,but it will look like it was there from day one when it is done. Body work supplies are priced absolutely insanely these days. A quart of metal to metal that used to cost $28 bucks,and I thought that was expensive at the time now costs $72 bucks! It's just crazy!
Similar threads
