The Willomet Charger

[Xp29h]

Great thread! Great progress! Awesome job. In response to your "quick vent"

Quick venting:
Neighbor leans on freshly stripped fender. The next day, a flash rust hand and arm print. What part of bare metal car didn't you get?

Back to sanding.

If you were here in Maine, you couldn't even think about leaving those panels bare for too long with all the humidity, they would rust without even looking at them.

Keep up the great work

 

[1970RT]

Great thread! Great progress! Awesome job. In response to your "quick vent"

If you were here in Maine, you couldn't even think about leaving those panels bare for too long with all the humidity, they would rust without even looking at them.

Keep up the great work

Thanks! I have friends in Houston with the same problem. In north Texas, as long as you keep your hands off it, it can take a few weeks to develop significant flash rust. My bare hood is still very clean.

David

 

[747mopar]

Well seeing as you cut the quarters off now would be a good time too widen the outer wheel house, mini tub the insides and dehump the wheel wells all in one shot. The stock wheel wells clear a 275/60/15 easy, a 325/65/15 with the right wheel shouldn't be hard after. You will have too dig around here on the forum but there are some good pic's showing how other guys did it.

I'm running 285's on my Charger with no issues on zero offset rims with about 3/4" clearance on each side, they will rub the inside but you have to get the axle really crooked to do it. Next time around I'll switch to 295's which will easily fit as well, you might get away with 305's where you live but not here haha. Myself..... I'd tub if going any bigger than 295's.

 

[Car Nut]

Awesome!

 

[1970RT]

North Texas Customs works quickly. The charger could be ready as soon as tomorrow. It's taking them a while to blast the paint on the underside and interior floor. Apparently it's something akin to a latex house paint; a final parting gift from the previous owner.

It it works out, I'll hate to miss the Goodguys Lonestar Nationals, but this is a pretty good reason.

David

 

[1970RT]

I'm not one for throwing stuff away, and that includes rusted and booger welded quarters.

My new wall art to be hung soon:

David

 

[1970RT]

Car is getting primed today, and will be ready for pickup tomorrow.

 

[1970RT]

With the charger away, I took the opportunity to pull everything away from the walls, sweep, and generally get my gear squared away.

Feels good.

David

 

[daytona kid]

Nice! A clean shop is a happy shop! My car is about to go to the body shop as well, maybe I can get my shop cleaned up then to.

 

[1970RT]

Back in black...

David

 

[daytona kid]

Nice!! That was quick..

 

[morrow_jacob]

Nice work! Looks awfully familiar!

 

[1970RT]

With the car blasted, all the rust and damage is easy to see. I pulled out my project notebook and filled 3 pages with notes for future minor/major repairs. They fall into three groups:

• Panel replacement - rear deck filler, quarter skins, trunk pan, etc.
• Rust rehab - isolated pitting or through holes
• Repair of the repair - previous owner was unfamiliar with the terms quality or patience. There's lots of work to be redone.

I've been taking out the trunk these last few nights, and waiting on a few parts and tools to arrive. Nothing major, but the rear rails appear solid from the inside:

David

 

[mopar4don]

Looks like your doing it right.

 

[daytona kid]

You are fortunate, those rails look (will look) great. Mine were shot and had to be replaced. Good work and planning!

 

[1970RT]

Spent a rainy Saturday working on straightening out the lower core support.

Worthy of repair, it had a few places of localized damage:

The front crease was easier to cut/reweld:

Welds ground and finished. Overall dimensions were maintained and a test fit back on the car verifies:

More rain forecasted for tomorrow...

David

 

[1970RT]

Continuing work up front, I started patching some of the through-rust on the rails. The recently removed 14ga rear valence reinforcement brackets were used for match material.

Marked up rail highlighting damage:

These first two patches helped dial in the welder - tight fitting patch, raised voltage with a slightly reduced wire speed, 4/30 on my Hobart 210:

The rail under the bump stop brackets has spotty pitting, so I drilled the spot welds to get the clearest view of the rail and the 4 or 5 additional pin holes:

I called it a night here, so the next time will be a fresh look at repair and reassembly.

David

 

[1970RT]

I work slow, but this little bit of metal worm has been exorcised:

Made a drawing and created several reference marks so the bump stop brackets go back just where they were. Also noticed the inner frame braces were deeply pitted, so I'm thinking on how to include those in the repair procedure. Lots of evidence that water collected in this area and never made it to the drain holes slightly farther back.

David

 

[daytona kid]

Good work! Look those front rails over really good, mine had a crack that you could not really see, seriously.. If not found it could have really messed things up for me in the future.

 

[1970RT]

Got the front patch mostly done, including repair of the inner frame brace.

Drilled the rust packed spot welds and cut out the neighboring pitting:

Rebuilt the inner brace:

Fit the patch:

Mostly done. Just have to replace the shock tower bracing:

David