70 Charger R/T SE Daytona sunroof project is starting soon.

[chargervert]

My nosecone assembly is ready to go. I have a heavy layered mat fiberglass Daytona Charger nosecone from Dayclona with complete headlight buckets,zee bars,and frame braces all in steel from Dayclona as well. I have a steel front valence pan without the marker light impressions which was made specifically for this 70 Daytona Charger build because both of the known 70 Daytona cars used the standard 70 Charger side marker lights. I also have a steel latch tray too. When building a wingcar clone it is critical for the longevity of the car,that you use steel internal nosecone components! Steel zee bars,steel latch tray,steel headlight bucket assemblies, and steel headlight pivot brackets. You can run a fiberglass nosecone, and even a fiberglass front valence pan, but the structural pieces that support the nose and make the headlight assemblies function need to be steel, don't cheap out and take short cuts on these pieces! Fortunately my lower valence pan is steel too,so I will not have any support or headlight function issues. The headlight doors and fender scoops are fine in fiberglass and mine are ready to go on the car. I also have the piece that is welded to the radiator support that the rearward edge of the latch tray in steel, and the front spoiler in heavier than factory guage Aluminum. The grille frame is steel with the correct grille mesh in it. The turn signal housings are 69 Valiant pieces with new lenses from Laysons.

 

[chargervert]

I have to cut out the AC firewall and graft in a non AC piece. I have the non AC piece already. I have the 4 speed pedals and the floor hump is already installed. The rest of the floor pans are sweet California solid. I have to but and install the bracket for the torque arm on the drivers side frame rail for the clutch linkage,as this car was originally equipped with an automatic transmission. I already reupholstered the front bucket seats and rear seat for this car,and I have a new 4 speed B body carpet for the car. I I cleaned up and painted the 6 way drivers seat track too and installed it on the seats,they are ready to go in the car.

 

[chargervert]

As I said before I bought a 70 HP2 engine that was rebuilt for the car from the guy I bought the car from. I have a cast iron Sixpack manifold and the air cleaner already. I will need the carbs and linkage. If I have the carbs rebuilt for my 70 V code Charger R/T I can put the brand new ones I bought for that car on this one,and that would complete the Sixpack setup. I have the correct HP 70 exhaust manifolds too. I have the aluminum bell housing and steel dust cover too. I just had the 18 spline Hemi 4 speed transmission rebuilt for this car. I will need to bu the clutch, pressure plate, flywheel for a Sixpack car,and the throw out bearing. I will need a clutch linkage kit,a shifter box for the long throw pistol grip shifter and a shifter rod kit. I have the console pistol grip shifter handle and 4 speed console already for this car.

 

[chargervert]

I just purchased a rebuilt and power coated Dana 60 rear axle for the car with green bearings so I can install the rear wheel disc brakes I bought for the car. I have the whole polyurethane front end rebuild kit for the front end and new front brake rotors,calipers,hoses and hardware for the car too. I restored a 70 Charger R/T rear tailight finish panel for the car too. My rear Daytona wing is an original wing from one of the 503 original Daytona Chargers built in 1969. I have the original wing washer plates that go under the wing and wing braces from Dayclona. I have a factory tach rallye 70 woodgrain dash cluster that is complete but needs restoration, and I bought a correct 70 radio from an FBBO member for the car. This Charger is the only Charger I ever owned out of close to 200 of them, that doesn't need the rear valance and corners replaced,they are rust free and pretty straight and are still in original paint! I have a nice rechromed rear bumper and bumperettes for the car too. I have e new stainless steel exhaust tips with hangers,but I will need to buy the whole rest of the exhaust system for the car. I have nice original door scoops and brand new R/T emblems for them,as well as new SE emblems for the C pillars, a deal a new gas cap and trim ring. I have a pair of 70 only painted racing mirrors which will be painted to match the car,and new door handles too.

 

[chargervert]

So that's a very long winded summary of what I have for the car,and what is already done and what needs to be done still! I am going to continue to gather up parts and hopefully I can tear into the car in the spring!

 

[chargervert]

More pics of the original car.

 

[hunt2elk]

The drivers side fender came from an f4 green car,has some minor surface rust on it,but it will clean up with some evaporust,and etch primer,before the epoxy primer is applied.

Maybe things have changed recently, but from everything I've been told and have read, you should never let epoxy and etch primer get near each other. Some kind of chemical reaction will cause lifting.

 

[chargervert]

Yes I believe that the etch primer has to be neutralized because it contains acid which allows it to actually eat into the rusty metal. They sell a wash to neutralize the acid,like you would after using a chemical paint stripper.

 

[chargervert]

I am very excited about building this car,especially because I am a huge 70 Charger fan,and a 70 Daytona Charger is exactly what I would have wanted back in the day! MCG was quick to try to write off the factory involvement in these cars,but upon further research I read that the photos of the green car that were taken at the Hamtramck styling studio parking lot were found in a file folder with the words McCurrys Daytona Bob McCurry was the director of the Dodge racing program whose job it was to oversee the production of the street version Daytona's and the large color poster of the green car had Chryslers logo with the pentastar in the lower right hand corner. The car had been displayed at several Dodge racing displays in the Michigan area. I find the controversy over these cars very intriguing and cannot wait to finish and drive a Plum Crazy Purple 70 Charger R/T SE Daytona with a 440 Sixpack, a 4 speed, and a factory sunroof! That's going to be so cool!

 

[chargervert]

I have the sunroof assembly in hand now,and I picked up the Dana 60 rear axle. I bought a good passenger door too. I got few more trinkets, and wrapped up the Carlisle adventure for 2022! It was blast, good friends and good times!

 

[chargervert]

This 70 Charger R/T in plum crazy purple is what my 70 Charger R/T would have looked like if I were to restore it to stock condition.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

This sounds like a really cool project, I’m a big fan of wacky 70s builds, and a plum crazy sunroof Daytona sounds awesome.

 

[chargervert]

It's going to be a cool car to build. I got the last part that I needed for the body, after grabbing the passenger side door. Now it is just a matter of pulling the car out of the storage trailer and getting started! Getting the factory sunroof assembly was the key to moving forward with this project. The other factory sunroof assembly that I have is just the cartridge and the door. The roof of the car it came from was too rusty to save. It would have had to be cut into the flat roof and a wooden buck would have had to be built to form the sunroof opening. This would have been days of manual labor in building the buck and cutting and rolling the edges of the opening to match the way American Sunroof did them. The passenger side of the cartridge was missing the corner with the water drain tube nipple. I did fabricate a piece to repair it, but I didn't mate it to the cartridge yet. The cables are rotted and the motor and switch need to be replaced. The sunroof door has a silver dollar sized rust hole in it that would need to be repaired too. So getting this sunroof assembly from Robby was a game changer,now I can just graft it into the flat roof,weld and dress it out, and this complete and rust free sunroof assembly will be in the car and ready to go!

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Chris Birdsong on YouTube has an excellent video welding a sunroof assembly. I’d take his advice over Mark Wartman.

 

[chargervert]

Chris Birdsong on YouTube has an excellent video welding a sunroof assembly. I’d take his advice over Mark Wartman.

Absolutely! Chris is a hard-core fabricator. I did see his video on the sunroof car he was doing the metal work on. I will definitely revisit his videos on that car before I get started. I learned from watching Ian Rouselle from full custom garage that if you are welding on the roof of a car,plan on spending the whole day doing it. It is a slow process if you want as little distortion as possible. Thanks for reminding me about the videos Chris made doing the sunroof Charger. You cannot have too much information when taking on a task of this magnitude!

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Absolutely! Chris is a hard-core fabricator. I did see his video on the sunroof car he was doing the metal work on. I will definitely revisit his videos on that car before I get started. I learned from watching Ian Rouselle from full custom garage that if you are welding on the roof of a car,plan on spending the whole day doing it. It is a slow process if you want as little distortion as possible. Thanks for reminding me about the videos Chris made doing the sunroof Charger. You cannot have too much information when taking on a task of this magnitude!

Ian is one of my favorite fabricators, no plans, no rules, no special tools, just seat of the pants and hope it works. He comes up with some wild stuff!

 

[chargervert]

Ian is amazing to watch. I used his methods when I repaired the roof of my 70 Charger R/T V code 440 Sixpack car. It worked excellent, and I was going to change the whole roofskin to repair a 2 inch by 20 inch strip of rust right above the back window. I used the new skin as a template and used some of Ian's techniques to shape it,fit it and welding it,and it came out great! He inspired me to fix what was there verses changing the whole rookskin.

 

[Grizzlys Garage]

Don't overthink the sunroof installation process.

Flanging and grafting the roof section with the original sunroof opening is not necessary.

When I installed the sunroof in my ( Now Dormant ) '69 B-5 Daytona clone project, I figured out an easy way to do it:

Remove all the rails, cables, motor, etc. form the sunroof donor roof.

Remove whatever remains of the roof skin from the actual sunroof framework. (My donor sunroof roof skin was rusted where it was spot welded to the sunroof frame)

Remove the inner cross bracing from the project car's roof-(the one that the dome light is screwed onto).

Then screw the "cassette" in place up under the project cars roof.

I used some clamps and boards cut to length to brace it up tight during this process.

From below, I traced inside the opening with a sharpie marker.

Remove "cassette"

Cut the opening in your project car's roof slightly undersize- 3/8" or so ?

Reinstall "cassette", this time for good, as you do this brace everything in place with your boards and clamps, then replicate the original spotwelds around the opening, screw all the original brackets in place and don't be afraid to put in a couple of extra braces on the sides/front. Then trim the opening close to it's final size and while supporting the "cassette" frame from below with the dolly of your choice, work your way around the opening with your body hammer, rolling the edge over as was done originally.

You'll get an idea of how this was done when you strip the donor roof skin off of the "cassette"

I welded and finished the edge all around the opening-slowly to avoid warping.

Since you'll be using a vinyl top on your '70, you could probably get away with a lot less welding and finish work.

 

[Grizzlys Garage]

In the raw...

 

[Grizzlys Garage]

In the raw...

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