Bringing it back to factory specs

[resq302]

Ron,

No offence taken! I actually like to get constructive criticism on my work. I will be the first to admit that I do not know everything there is to know about Mopars! A collective input can only make my (or in this case, my Dad's) car that much better! I am truly blessed to have friends on here point out things that I do not have the certain knowledge on. For that, I can not thank everyone enough!

 

[69rag500]

I see in some of your pictures that you resprayed you metal dash housing. Did you use acrylic lacquer paint with a slight organasol texture. Im going to be painting mine blue in a few weeks, and im sure that i cant go down to my local bodyshop supply store and get them to make it up. Maybe there is a place that sells the proper texture dash paint that you might know of.... Cheers

 

[resq302]

The original finish is called suede which gives it that organisol like gritty texture. I got the interior paint from Performance Car Graphics and sprayed it on wet and the while it was drying I sprayed the last coat a little further back and "fogged" the last coat on to give it that same type of suede texture to it.

 

[69rag500]

The original finish is called suede which gives it that organisol like gritty texture. I got the interior paint from Performance Car Graphics and sprayed it on wet and the while it was drying I sprayed the last coat a little further back and "fogged" the last coat on to give it that same type of suede texture to it.

Yes, i have done that in the past but thought by now there was someone making the proper swede texture paint. I though
Yearone made it but only in black. Thanks for the reply..

 

[resq302]

I've heard what is in the paint to give it that texture is talc powder or some other kind of grit that is a whitish color. It might not be allowed anymore due to the inhalation hazards or something along that line. I really don't know. All I know is it is hard to find it and when you do, it is big money.

 

[69rag500]

I've heard what is in the paint to give it that texture is talc powder or some other kind of grit that is a whitish color. It might not be allowed anymore due to the inhalation hazards or something along that line. I really don't know. All I know is it is hard to find it and when you do, it is big money.

Your right, i remember now that you cant get the main additive no more..

 

[RJS]

Yes, i have done that in the past but thought by now there was someone making the proper swede texture paint. I though
Yearone made it but only in black. Thanks for the reply..

Year One make exactly nothing,nada, zilch. They sell other people's products at a higher cost and crazy shipping. Buy from a source.
Ron

 

[resq302]

Ron,

Year One might make their own things but that is a VERY limited amount. I know they had the HP manifolds made up as I got them for my 69 Charger to replace a cracked original one. You can clearly see Y1 cast into the manifold facing the valve cover. I do agree with you that the majority of the stuff they sell is marked up from other vendors.

 

[resq302]

So I got a lot of progress done on Monday! I was able to remove the original dated 68 drums from the car so we can preserve them for an OE event. I put repro's on there in the mean time and painted them with the red face like the factory would have done.

I did find that there was a green inspection mark on each of the snouts for the front hubs. This green mark appears to have been painted over with red when they painted the faces of the drums even though they contradicted the "2 inch" wide paint instructions and to not get it on the lug nut studs which there was evidence of red paint as well.

factory swedging which I had to grind away to remove the hub. Notice the red paint on the tip of the stud.

another view of the hub on the pass. side.

even the bearing caps got red paint. Again, contradicting the factory assembly schematic.

cleaning up some of the gray paint that someone had put onto the drums revealed the factory applied red paint on the faces of the drums.

driver side hub with factory left hand studs. Hard to tell in this picture but the left hand studs have what seems to be a copper plating to them.

behind the front drums.

cant wait to get this all cleaned up when I do the front end! 44 years of grease and grime building up!

The finished product with the red line bias ply tires back on. Dad's happy with the look (so am I!)

original lug nuts with the dimple and the L stamped onto the flat surface near the wheel.

I was also able to remove the incorrect power brake booster and master cylinder and install the correct Midland-Ross brake booster with the correct plating.

ended up going to Dad's today to take the booster off cause of a leak when you stepped on the brake pedal. I ended up taking some pics of the car how it looks right now with the top down.

 

[Ron 73]

Thats such a cool car, im afraid i would be afraid to drive it, afraid but i would be cruising man Looks great!!!

 

[resq302]

Thanks Ron! I still have a couple more big projects to do to it. I just noticed that someone (probably when they reupholstered the seats) put the seats on the wrong sides. Seat tracks are on the right sides but the clips where you attach the female front buckle to when not in use are on the outside part of the seats, not towards the console side like my charger.

I just have the booster to reinstall when I get it back and the only other projects left is the front end and the rear axle and it will be done! Can't wait to do those as that is where all the inspection marks are probably hiding!

Stay tuned..... more to come!

 

[resq302]

So its been a while since I've done an update as to the progress. Some of you might have seen the issue we had with the new Mr. Gasket "fail safe" thermostat which ended up failing in the close position. So much for being "fail safe"! Anyway, on Monday, I started tearing into the front suspension on the car in hopes to have it finished up and buttoned back up in time to take the vehicle to the Slate Belt Mighty Mopar show on Father's Day. This is how the front end looked when I started the work.

some knuckle head painted the body color area with black paint.

I think I must have broken a record or something as I had the entire front suspension out in about 3 hours!

Here is something that is weird..... both fenders have what appears to be a access plate or splash shield missing. The screw holes are there but have no threads cut into them. Factory mistake maybe? Or did the GTX never have a splash shield up here where as my 69 Charger has a metal splash shield with a rubber gasket going around it. Also, note the red oxide primer!

Body color reapplied after cleaning and removing the incorrect black paint.

Undercoating reapplied with cardboard template held in place to mimick the factory process.

Cleaning up the lower control arms, I revealed even more of the orange inspection mark I had seen when it was still installed on the car.

what they looked like before!

Upper control arms. Left side is before..... right side is after an overnight soak in evapo-rust! Amazing stuff!

Blue paint from an inspection mark found on spindle.

This appears to have been a black inspection mark on the center link. This was after it was soaked in evapo-rust.

with another black stripe more towards the center.

Lower control arm after new bushing and pivot shaft installed. A nice coating of cosmoline (man that stuff stinks!)

All of the hardware and other miscellaneous parts waiting to be treated with RPM. Strut bars and center link have also been treated with evapo-rust at this point. Torsion bars still need to be restored.

 

[resq302]

While cleaning up the backing plate for the right front wheel, I came across some more inspection marks. A yellow dab at the 6 o clock position and also a white dot which will not be seen once the spindle is mounted to the backing plate.

Also found this yellow mark on the inside (drum side) of the backing plate.

Also got the left lower control arm degreased and found a couple inspection marks on that. I was actually surprised when I was cleaning it off as there was still a good amount of cosmoline left on the lower control arms. What I thought was surface rust was mostly cosmoline still.

Light blue inspection mark on the torsion adjuster ear. Also a light tan stripe going across the adjuster ear more inboard towards the torsion bar.

I also got a lot of pieces of hardware RPM'd but there is no real visual difference so I did not take any pics of the before and after with the RPM treatment.

 

[TUFCAT]

The lower control arms were obviously painted black (as remnants of black paint is clearly visible in your pictures) and you left them bare with cosmoline coat?

 

[resq302]

The lower control arms were obviously painted black (as remnants of black paint is clearly visible in your pictures) and you left them bare with cosmoline coat?

Where do you see they were painted black? There was a heavy coating of grease and grime on them which gave them a dark appearance. I actually thought a lot of it was rust but ended up being grime. When I cleaned them up with simple green, the grease and grime came off and left the cosmoline still on there as you see in the pictures above. After those pictures above, I soaked them in Evapo-rust over night to remove what little rust there was.

Lets think about this logically.......IF (and they were not) they had been painted black, why would the cosmoline been under neath them when the paint would not have stuck to the cosmoline? Would Chrysler have wasted money to dip them in cosmoline as a rust inhibitor only to dip or paint them again with yet another rust preventative measure?

 

[resq302]

Got some more things done the last time I was at Dad's house. Its coming alone nicely! Just have a few more things to install and the front end is done!

Alignment access plates appear to have been originally a flat black color. Screws were a silver cad or zinc plating.

Torsion bars all restored with paint daubs in same spot.

Driver side backing plate with spindle and lower ball joint removed. Original closed cell gasket. I was lucky enough to have some of this stuff from some packing material that someone had sent me over the years and I was able to reproduce it and haveit appear as new!

Driver side brake assembly prior to disassembly and cleaning.

Left side torsion bar.... prior to restoring it.

Right side...

Original wheel cylinders still on the car!

Pass side brake assembly all cleaned up and ready to be bolted back up.

Original factory installed bumpers (upper and lower)

Hardware all cleaned up with Evapo-rust and treated with RPM.

Power steering box had been painted silver at one point.....

correct date coding for our car too! Yet another original factory installed part!

Power steering box all cleaned up and repainted in the correct sheen black.

Inspection marks located on front backing plates and restored. Yellow brush mark at the 6 o clock position and a white dot that is behind the spindle.

Pass. side upper and lower control arms and strut installed.

K-frame all cleaned up and repainted in satin black.

 

[69RRGTX]

Man that is a beautiful car! Awesome work on the front end too.

-Mark

 

[resq302]

Thanks Mark! I occasionally go back and look at the before pics to see what the car looked like. Granted, it was nice to start off with but it really is shaping up to be more than what I ever dreamed it could be.

 

[TUFCAT]

Lots of lower control arms were painted black. Not sure about 1969, but I can tell you I've seen many original cars (mine included) that are factory black under all the dirt, grime, and grease. In fact I have pictures of lower control arms showing the majority of their original black paint. Chrysler did not always dip the LCA's. Sure some were, but just as many weren't. It appears that yours were painted black from the pictures I saw. That's all I'm saying. If you want to see some originals with a majority of black factory paint still one them I will be happy to post. I don't want to cause a debate or war, just sayin'.

 

[resq302]

Tom,

No debate. I am aware that some cars had them painted black, , however, the majority of them were dipped in cosmoline. Ours clearly had cosmoline still on it under all the grime. If you look closely, you can still see the amber color after they are cleaned up. Even the pics where they were dirty you can still see the amber of the cosmoline. I'm also aware that some upper control arms had a rust preventative coating but most were left bare. Again, ours exhibited no evidence of any kind of coating. However, the top side of the upper control arms did have some black spray paint on them from where someone had painted over the body color on the inside of the wheel wells.