Body Building 101- 1968 Charger

[Homstead]

I love seeing builds like this! It confirms that I`m not the only crazy out there turning s&#t into gold! More pics please!

 

[BarrsRestoration]

Now the trunk floor has been welded in place to the frame rails, but not to the wheel housings yet. That allows for some slight height adjustments to the rear of the rails so that all of the outer panels align. The weld grinding and filler work was done prior to enclosing the rear for good. It's much easier to get the floor finished off with the outer skins gone.
You can see one of the problems with the quarter panel shape. Both new quarters had to be cut and shaped to conform to the original inner window structure. That meant splitting it in the bend and adding wedge shaped pieces to fill in the gaps left when the two layers were pulled together.
The original dutchman panel is still in place to give us a reference for the correct shape. The new dutchman had it's small issues, and when you have two new adjoining parts that don't match up, you better know which one to alter and how much. If possible, leave the original in place as reference to build off of until everything else is corrected. In this case I built the entire rear of the car around that piece and marked the exact location of the new panels. Removed the new panels again, and replaced the dutchman, with some slight modifications in the corners for a better fit.
You can also see where the rear flange had to be removed and replaced with one that extended back another 3/8". It seems the press folded the new flange too far forward and left it too tall. Sliding the pan back was not an option, so we extended it slightly.

 

[BarrsRestoration]

Welding begins again soon.

Now the quarters are in place and the back window opening and trunk lid are being checked.

 

[jm8881]

Amazing build so far. Any updates?

 

[mopar4don]

AWSOME! I absolutly love looking at these pics! As far as I am concerned your pics are not boring to me so keep em coming!

 

[snakeoil24]

Now htat i see more pictures i would never have restored that body way too much invested in metal work.

 

[daytona kid]

BIG THANKS , for this thread. Very good info on how to keep everything in place.:hello2:

 

[pat1969charger]

Looks really good, love these threads!

 

[BarrsRestoration]

Since there is still some interest in this, I'll get some more pictures up by the weekend. So yes, there has been progress beyond the pictures I've posted here. Maybe I'll post about some issues with aftermarket doors and fenders, and what had to be done to make them fit correctly.

 

[mopar4don]

looking forward to it!
thank you

 

[Super Rob]

Man that's sick! Very nice work - will you have a new title issued with build year "2014"? ;-)

 

[BarrsRestoration]

Door and valance/It's Miller (welder) Time!

You can see we replaced both doors also. Notice how uneven the leading edge is on the passenger door top. The driver's door and fender had an excellent fit at the top, but was angled wrong at the lower front edge. The cure for both was to grind away slightly beyond an even fit, then build with weld to rejoin the layers and get a correct gap. The welds were shaped with a small grinder afterward and required just a thin coat of filler to fill any grinder marks.
The lower fender fronts were another issue. This is not the first Charger I've had this problem, and it's not the valance, but the fender that is the problem. I've put these valances against factory fenders and had pretty good results. The fix involved making some slight pie cuts in the flange of the fender and rolling the lower edge upward to close the gaps. Once welded, everything was fine. This can be done without the need for filler most of the time.
Next I'll post pictures of how we blast every weld that we do. It's not just rust and paint we remove, but all traces of weld contamination. Putting primer or filler over those black weld edges, rainbow colored heated metal or tiny rust specks will only lead to problems later on, so eliminate all of it now. Then all bare, clean steel is sprayed with epoxy primer. After that has had a few days to cure, we sand the epoxy enough to give adhesion for the filler.

 

[smyythe68]

Fantastic work! Lots of good information. It's nice to see a professional at work instead of me blindly walking through my build. Thanks for posting.

 

[747mopar]

Thanks for posting all of the work, I love seeing them come together and congrats on what looks like some top notch work. I can remember having to do the same thing to my doors to get the gaps evened out, way to go!

 

[CharGer]

Awesome job, you definitely are doing it right.

 

[BarrsRestoration]

Now it's Filler Time....

Here it is again with the panels removed so that the welds on the rear wheel housings and front body section can be blasted and put in epoxy primer.

- - - Updated - - -

In one of these shots you can see a roof brace being repositioned about a 1/8" lower because it was putting pressure on the roof skin, when it was clamped down into the drip rails. At that point, the crack-prone front cowl lead seams have already been welded solid (note the ugly factory welds pictured) and the roof and lower panels welded on. Then a little more blasting to clean the welds, etc.

 

[Darius]

DUDE!!!! I have only 5 pieces of original metal left on the GTX I started with and it looks like you have me beat! Awesome job and I know how much fun it was for me, it shows in your work too.

 

[Blackheart]

Good work Steve! Thanks for sharing! Isn't it amazing what can now be done to a car like that with the availability of reproduced body panels??

 

[Ron 73]

Wow, You sure are going to town on this Charger, It and your work look great bud!!!

 

[Riverdawg]

Great thread. Looks like you are doing excellent work. Keep the pics coming. Love seeing the progress.