Chris' '68 Charger R/T restoration

[Glenwood]

Wow! How are you able to grind the welds down so smooth, they disappear? I always seem to have high & low spots around them.

 

[RT68440]

Wow! How are you able to grind the welds down so smooth, they disappear? I always seem to have high & low spots around them.

I make sure that everything lines up and fits perfectly. After I get the piece fitting how I want it, I will make sure that I have a gap where my weld will be so there will be weld left between the panels once its ground. After I'm happy with my gap, I will weld a series of tacks about 4 inches apart from one end of the panel to the other, cooling each tack. As I'm tacking, I have a chisel that I bridge over the two panels to make sure they are the same height. After my first series of tacks are done, I take the distance between the tacks and put another tack in the middle. I do this over and over, tapping with the hammer and dolly, cooling, tweaking with a pick, screwdriver, etc. making sure that both pieces are still lined up. I keep tacking until I have around 3/8 to 1/2 inch areas between the tacks, then I will weld up the areas, which usually takes 3-4 tacks in a row to weld it up. I cool each area one at a time after its welded and I jump around randomly to keep my heat distributed evenly. Its a long and tedious process, especially when you're welding all the way across a long panel like the cowl, but its worth it to prevent warpage and speed bumps along your panel

 

[Glenwood]

Thanks for the details, helps a lot to understand.

 

[RT68440]

Not a problem, glad I could help!

 

[daytona kid]

Nice work! I had to do a lot of similar welding on mine and did it the same way. Yours look better than mine tho.. 68s RULE!

 

[RT68440]

Nice work! I had to do a lot of similar welding on mine and did it the same way. Yours look better than mine tho.. 68s RULE!

Thank you! And I agree, gotta love those '68s!!

 

[Superfreak]

Very nice work.

 

[RT68440]

I got the windshield channel done the other night. Then I went over the entire front end and ground any welds down that needed it. I also had to repair the holes for the rear inner splash shields. They were missing when we bought the car, and it looks like whoever removed them just pulled on them really hard until they released because the metal was all puckered around the holes and the holes were pretty gnarly. Once that was done, I removed the V brace behind the rear seat, and pulled the floor pan out. Tonight I started prepping for the new floor under the seat.

Windshield channel completed:

IMG_20161205_181947790 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161205_182034140_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161205_183856843 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161205_183908534 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Welds cleaned up on the front clip

IMG_20161207_183804687 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161207_183820788 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161207_182108861 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

V brace out:

IMG_20161210_131903813 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Floor out:

IMG_20161210_135440068 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161210_135506889 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161210_135447578_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Test fitting the new floor. It fits pretty decent, but it will need a few tweaks. The foot wells seem like they are going to need some loving to fit correctly.

IMG_20161211_185500413 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161211_185553499 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

 

[RT68440]

Continued working on the rear floor. I did some tweaking and tapping around with the body hammer until I got it fitting how I liked, then I drilled all of my holes, cleaned up the flanges and sprayed them with weld thru primer. Over the last couple of evenings I got the floor pan welded in

Flanges cleaned and prepped:

IMG_20161213_194440388 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161213_194516662 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Holes drilled in the pan and sprayed with weld thru primer:

IMG_20161213_194450779_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161213_194505242_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Clamped in its final position:

IMG_20161213_194737713 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Welding it in:

IMG_20161214_193600586 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Completely welded:

IMG_20161215_185336925 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20161215_185356749 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Next is to fit the V brace back in and grind the welds. Then Ill patch in the lower areas of the inner wheel housings. Id like to get most of that done before Christmas, but we'll see.

 

[showard]

Wow! Great job. It is fun to see your work.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Yep you did well nice job keep up!

 

[daytona kid]

Nice to see how you replaced the rear pan. That is the tuffist one and why i patched mine. It skeered me. Admire your skills and bravery. Lol..

 

[RT68440]

Nice to see how you replaced the rear pan. That is the tuffist one and why i patched mine. It skeered me. Admire your skills and bravery. Lol..

Thank you. It's always nerve wracking for me to set that new panel in place for the first time. I must say, out of all the sheet metal that I've replaced so far, the trunk floor and rear pan required the least amount of modification to fit properly. Hopefully the front pan is as nice of a fit

 

[vintage chromoly]

Nice work!

 

[RT68440]

Haven't posted in a while, but Ive been steadily working on the '68. I got the welds on the rear floor ground down and finished patching the inner wheel housings.

IMG_20170111_184950134 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170111_185937791 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170111_190348396 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170112_201704441 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170112_201754932 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170112_201816475 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170121_192814425 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170121_192827023 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I did the same repair on the passenger side but I didn't take any pictures.

Next thing that I did was get ready to install the main floor. I filled my spot weld cutter holes in the top of the rockers and ground them down:

IMG_20170325_161125210 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170325_161131700 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170325_161146875 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170325_161153530 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170325_165755468 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170325_165813179 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I had to fix one of these brackets. On the first quarter panel that I cut off, I cut right through the one side, so I had to weld it back together...lol

IMG_20170330_162527996_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170330_162537501_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170330_185449697 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I got the drivers side seat braces welded back in. These had a lot of rot in them and I had to fix all 4 of them where the floor pan sits on top of them:

IMG_20170330_185500502 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

 

[RT68440]

I drilled the holes for the vinyl top trim and the sail panel emblems. I cut out the area on the old quarters that had the holes and used them as a template to lay out the holes on the new quarters:

IMG_20170327_175220035 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170327_175245415_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I mocked up the trim in place to see how everything lined up. It looked OK, but I did a bit of tweaking. The long piece of trim didn't flow into the belt molding as nicely as I liked, so I did some tweaking to get things to lay how I like:

IMG_20170331_225102632_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170331_225139301_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170331_225150420 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

In this pic, you can see that the front edge of the stainless trim is higher than the belt molding trim. I ended up moving the holes slightly to line these two pieces up better:

IMG_20170405_192934389_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

This is after. Not a huge difference, but noticeable to me:

IMG_20170406_174439954_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170406_174706028_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170406_174449502_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Ive also been working on a lot of the miscellaneous parts over the winter. I restored the brake pedal assembly and I started working on the e brake assembly:

IMG_20170211_172145291 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170211_172743422 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170211_172752510 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170211_172853998 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170212_130515855 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170212_130604006 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Soaked all of the pieces in Evapo Rust and flat cleared them with Eastwood's diamond clear coating:

IMG_20170212_130953209_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170212_171411920 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170212_172536810 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170215_200256039 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

 

[the mississippi madman]

Outstanding work Chris. Your metal working skills are at level master. I can only hope my charger looks half that good when I get on it

 

[RT68440]

I blasted and phosphated all of the original hardware. I found an NOS brake light switch as well:

IMG_20170218_174003621 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170218_174029859 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170219_203512196 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Soaked the top of the E brake pedal in Evapo Rust then flat cleared it. Then Blasted the bottom of the pedal, and painted it to mimic being dipped:

IMG_20170412_185833070 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170413_173857120 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Restored the brake release handle:

IMG_20170218_173309761 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170218_173657528_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170218_173810441_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I did the same process with the brake pedal except that instead of masking a line to look dipped, I faded the black paint up the pedal like the factory did:

IMG_20170412_185819107 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170413_194824385 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170413_194834208 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170413_194847633 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Next I cleaned up the heater controls. These weren't too bad, so I cleaned up the housing, re phosphated the clips and retainers and painted the buttons with Trim Black:

IMG_20170224_233511088 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_233553364 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_233503119 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Restored the rear view mirror. I blasted the stem and housing and repainted it, then I wire wheeled the pivot ball and cleared it. The splines were worn in the stem and the pivot ball would not stay in the stem, so I drilled and tapped an 8-32 hole in the stem and a countersunk hole in the pivot ball and installed a set screw. This is on the front side and up high so it will be out of sight:

IMG_20170223_174440648 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_233634399 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_233708587 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170223_200918036 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170223_200927737 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

 

[RT68440]

Next up were the ash trays. I soaked them in Evapo Rust and painted the insides silver to match the factory silver paint that was inside:

IMG_20170228_194448458 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170228_194527173 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170228_194541003 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Drivers side fresh air vent. I disassembled and cleaned the housing and front grate. I blasted and phosphated all of the hardware, and cleaned and RPMed the flapper shaft and front bracket. I repainted the flapper Gloss Black:

IMG_20170128_162309767 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170128_162319464 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170128_190010597 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170128_190025864 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170130_193941837 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170130_201156524 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170131_163155858 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170131_163417653 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170201_170458097_HDR by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170206_213106 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170206_212749885 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170201_170754104 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I cleaned and sprayed the kick panels with Herb's paint. I'm very happy with the results. I cleaned one of the sun visors. I need to have the stitching redone, but other then that they are in good shape. The worst part was that they had grey primer overspray allover them from when the car was repainted years ago:

You can see how dirty they were. This pic shows one cleaned and painted and the other untouched:

IMG_20170219_123833762 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170219_125408884 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170219_125446047 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170228_194332324 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

And heres a comparison of the sun visors:

IMG_20170228_194353011 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

 

[RT68440]

I sent the filler tube out to Wilson Productions to lead/tin it. I wanted something that looked original and to me, painting it just didn't look right. I think they did a great job:

IMG_20170408_215148228 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170408_215208118 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170408_215232321 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I polished the tail light lenses. They are in great shape, just dull:

Before:

IMG_20170301_190738883 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

After:

IMG_20170301_190807415 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170301_190817355 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I cleaned up the TTI exhaust tips and hangers. I switched out all of the hardware for ARP 12 point stainless hardware that will match the header and collector bolts that I will be running on my headers:

IMG_20170321_201150275 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170322_193621127 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170322_193627999 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170401_135916180 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170401_140332975 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170401_141852605 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

I polished the gauge lens while I was doing the tail lights:

IMG_20170305_140606600 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170305_142608899 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170305_140637746 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Out of the 4 armrest pads, only one rear was usable. I found an NOS rear pad and a set of front NOS pads that will all get dyed to match each other. I don't like the lack of detail that the repro pads have which is why I opted to look for NOS ones:

IMG_20170403_163723511 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170403_163804392 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

IMG_20170403_164200356 by Chris Campbell, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!