JR_Charger
Well-Known Member
Welcome aboard!
I've spent the last 4-5 years restoring my 72 Charger and it is still not finished.
The best thing you can do is to have a lot of garage space available. Car parts take up a surprising amount of space when they're not on the car. I'm using 3 car spaces to work on my Charger, and I frequently have to shift parts around to make room for more parts coming off the car. This is a good way to lose the little stuff, and a great way to lose your time to what I call "The Find-It Game." I hate "The Find-It Game."
If you can live with "patina," make it mechanically sound and drive it as-is. If you're like me and you want it clean, clean, clean, the ideal way to restore the car is going to be to strip the car down to the shell and send that out for paint/body work. But that may be inadvisable if you're not an expert on 74 Chargers. I'm having a tough time getting mine back together, and I've got the factory service manual, two forums to draw on, and I started with a complete car with most things working.
One of the best things you can do is to photograph everything before you take it off the car. I can't tell you how many times that has saved my butt, and how many times I still haven't had the picture I needed, even though I tried to photograph everything.
I've spent the last 4-5 years restoring my 72 Charger and it is still not finished.
The best thing you can do is to have a lot of garage space available. Car parts take up a surprising amount of space when they're not on the car. I'm using 3 car spaces to work on my Charger, and I frequently have to shift parts around to make room for more parts coming off the car. This is a good way to lose the little stuff, and a great way to lose your time to what I call "The Find-It Game." I hate "The Find-It Game."
If you can live with "patina," make it mechanically sound and drive it as-is. If you're like me and you want it clean, clean, clean, the ideal way to restore the car is going to be to strip the car down to the shell and send that out for paint/body work. But that may be inadvisable if you're not an expert on 74 Chargers. I'm having a tough time getting mine back together, and I've got the factory service manual, two forums to draw on, and I started with a complete car with most things working.
One of the best things you can do is to photograph everything before you take it off the car. I can't tell you how many times that has saved my butt, and how many times I still haven't had the picture I needed, even though I tried to photograph everything.
