Backyard find 1970 Charger DIY Build

[BDL]

Looks like you've got a great project going! Nice job finding her in such good condition! ...and as strange as it may be, I kind of like the light blue on her. Reminds me of an old "boat" I used to have. I can't seem to find any pictures of her right away, but here's an Internet find twin. Your Charger could look much better though!

 

[lochenjons]

This picture brings up some questions.
What are the 3 things that the arrows are pointing to?
One looks like the fuel filler tube. But it is on the wrong side of the car.
Two what is the "trough" that has what looks like fuel lines?
Three, what is this bracket for? A vapor canister?

I have a 69 Charger and there is nothing like these on my car, so maybe its just a change in the model year????

View attachment 728746

Haha, yep. Emissions stuff. It's all going bye-bye. 3 was some weird bracket for the exhaust. Going to probably get rid of it too.

 

[lochenjons]

Did some practice welding on some old scraps I cut out of the trunk. I'm happy with how it turned out. The weldable primer didn't work for s***. I'm going to cut the trunk in half (very carefully with a cutoff wheel I think is the best way unless you guys have a better idea) next weekend and hopefully weld it in there. And yes I'm going to grind off the por15 before I weld it. That was just to keep it from rusting.

 

[lochenjons]

So here's my plan for the weekend:

1. Wire wheel entire outside of tail panel and problem areas of quarter panel to expose more rust areas (depending on how bad it is then I'll decide to fix/scrap/keep in place)
2. Finish sand blasting some final areas then clean off all sand
3. Weld up holes in quarter panel
4. POR-15 everything inside trunk.
5. Remove fuel tank supports from old trunk pan and weld to new one.
6. Cut trunk in half (unless the tail panel is garbage)
7. Drill/mark holes in trunk pan.
8. Weld stuff

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[lochenjons]

Progress!

Wire wheeled the whole tail section down to bare metal and it's in great shape minus a couple tiny spots of surface rust and some holes on the passenger side. It would be a crime to scrap such good OEM sheet metal so the trunk pan will be cut in half (hopefully tomorrow). Coated it in por-15, played 9 holes of golf with my buddies, came back and hit it with the top coat. Going to sand and do another coat tomorrow and hopefully get trunk pan cut in half and holes drilled for welding.

Look at that shine ! Gotta love california cars.

Any of you guys use this? I tried welding with it and it just spattered and popped everywhere. It sucked. Any advice?

 

[Islandkent]

Good morning lochenjons. Great project! Grab her the horns for sure. Just thought I would let you know about bracket# 3.
Don't get rid of it. It's purpose is to stop the fuel filler pipe from pulling out of the tank in the event of a serious hit on the drivers side. Sort of a filler bracket more or less. If it was gone and someone hit you hard enough there on the rear quarter panel on the drivers side it could push the tank away from the filler pipe spilling fuel every where. Could be even a bigger disaster. So it's best to leave there. 10-4?
Keep the updates coming please! Good show!

 

[lochenjons]

Good morning lochenjons. Great project! Grab her the horns for sure. Just thought I would let you know about bracket# 3.
Don't get rid of it. It's purpose is to stop the fuel filler pipe from pulling out of the tank in the event of a serious hit on the drivers side. Sort of a filler bracket more or less. If it was gone and someone hit you hard enough there on the rear quarter panel on the drivers side it could push the tank away from the filler pipe spilling fuel every where. Could be even a bigger disaster. So it's best to leave there. 10-4?
Keep the updates coming please! Good show!

really? That's odd, it's on the passenger side?

 

[Cojohnso1]

I would be careful with POR. Make sure you are done and never want to touch again. It's tough or impossible to weld thru. Even hard to sandblast off if someday to go a different direction. Or repair damage from a road incident. Just forwarding what I have experienced.

 

[Islandkent]

really? That's odd, it's on the passenger side?

That's right pass side. Just think about it. If you get hit on the drivers side it's going to push the tank towards the pass right? Therefore pulling the tank off the filler neck. That bracket is "suppose" to stop the tank from going over to the frame rail. If that bracket wasn't there the tank would go over to the frame rail thus pulling the filler pipe out of the tank. Make sense eh?
Head over to the Charger Registry and look for it in their parts PFD. The section is 14-86-27 Bracket, Fuel Tank Side Restraint, Charger Part Number 3404697

 

[lochenjons]

That's right pass side. Just think about it. If you get hit on the drivers side it's going to push the tank towards the pass right? Therefore pulling the tank off the filler neck. That bracket is "suppose" to stop the tank from going over to the frame rail. If that bracket wasn't there the tank would go over to the frame rail thus pulling the filler pipe out of the tank. Make sense eh?
Head over to the Charger Registry and look for it in their parts PFD. The section is 14-86-27 Bracket, Fuel Tank Side Restraint, Charger Part Number 3404697

That's awesome. Thanks for that bit of info

 

[lochenjons]

Progress from yesterday:
it was a mopar day. Mellisa showed up to help with her challenger.

Action shot: You never can have too many safety glasses.

Trunk pan cut in half, support members marked with a paint pen. And I got the fuel tank support brackets off.

Another buddy showed up with his new demon. This was the slowest it could go and it's still blurry.

projects for today and tomorrow.
drill holes, grind what I have to for a perfect fit, mark spots for welding, hopefully weld trunk in.

Any tips for holding trunk in place while I'm welsing?

 

[dadsbee]

 

[moparnation74]

The UV rays from the sun will damage the POR 15........
https://www.por15.com/POR-15-Technical-Information_ep_62.html

 

[lochenjons]

Self tapping screws, okay. I've heard that. How often do you guys screw them in along the frame? I started drilling holes yesterday for all the welds I'm going to be doing.



I just saw this video and it looks like he hasnt drilled a single hole... just all screws. Wouldn't you have to come up from below the car and weld in all the holes in the frame too? Seems a bit much...

 

[Billccm]

Dylan McCool just did a YouTube video on his charger trunk pan replacement
He explains the screw dance for welding

 

[lochenjons]

Dylan McCool just did a YouTube video on his charger trunk pan replacement
He explains the screw dance for welding

Thanks... That video was gold, I just watched it. I was totally using the wrong technique today for welding in the fuel tank strap brackets (it worked but it was a PITA to weld in those holes that were left by the sheet metal screws I was using). Dylan Mccool had a much better technique that I'm grateful for.

Today's progress:
Got all the holes drilled, grinded down, and sprayed some copperweld on the underside. I am not grinding anything on the car at this point because its supposed to rain next weekend and I'm not going to be welding in the rain.

After that was done I tried my luck at welding one of the brackets in. Not bad for my 3rd time welding I'd say... but not great either... Sprayed some POR-15 over it after I ground the welds down. The lower part of the bracket didn't quite sit flush with the trunk pan even after some "coaxing". So I just took my time with the welding and made sure both pieces were together.

The finished product from the top side:

Next weekend if it doesn't rain:

-Finish welding trunk bracket to other half of pan
-Weld trunk pan completely in
-Start putting drivetrain back together.

 

[lochenjons]

Got about half the trunk welded in. I'll see how far I get tomorrow

 

[lochenjons]

All inside welds done and gound down.
They're not pretty, but they'll hold. I have to re-weld a couple of them and then do the wheel wells and tail panel. Ran out of gas yesterday

 

[lochenjons]

Trunk pan is officially 100% welded in ! So happy to get this done. I tried my best to form the trunk pan and the sheet metal together, some times it worked great, other times not so much. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me. Going to rely on seam sealer to cover up my noob welding in some areas. POR-15'd all the welds and seams underneath. Next weekend going to undercoat everything and then start installing the good stuff!

 

[flypaper]

when I did my one piece floor it took 2 of us
one standing and pushing down on the floor to seat it in properly and the other to weld it home.
nice progress.