Dynacorn Body Shell

[HEMICUDA]

When restoring a body, 90% of the skill set needed is well before paint.  If you've ever studied original cars, fit and finish really isn't to the level a customer would expect on a totally restored car even with all its original sheet metal.  We just finished a customers pink AAR Cuda body that had reproduction everything sheet metal wise, we are on final block and ready for paint.  We had to weld and metal and finish front/rear of both doors, back of fenders and most of the perimeter of the deck lid not to mention creating and moving all the body lines around.  That's just the nature of using reproduction sheet metal.  AMD has done an excellent job releasing the metal available today, however, they need bumped around a bit.  As a restorer, for me, I'd much rather find good original or AMD rather than all the hours metal patching and fixing all the pits on a rotten part.  I cringe when I hear there having their body and paint done by a "collision" shop.  It takes "old school" talent to get a car to the highest level.  There's, so called restorers in the hobby that are dangerous, they have no clue, they don't know what they don't know.

If you're going to dive into the deep end and have your passion restored, I learned years ago, pay a little more for better quality, at the end of the day, low price is long forgotten with poor quality.   

With all that said, yes, I can see 100 hours fixing gaps and metal detail work.  It all depends what your expectations are.  To say, "all you have to do is line up all the reproduction sheet metal", is crazy, it's not going to happen if you're looking for the highest results. 

[anlauto]

  1000% 

[HEMICUDA]

1000% 

And you have your finish work and body/paint done where?  Have you ever done "old school body/metal work?  That's why I have hands on, manage and control every aspect of the metal/body work and everything else done in my shop.   Train and educate my guys what my expectations are and that it's "my way or the highway".  I get accused of being an anal retentive POS from my guys in jest.  They know the expectation and are like minded.  I'm fortunate to have 2 metal guys that have been doing this work for years from other high end custom/restoration shops and we are all the same age.  They have keys to my shop and come and go as they plz, they can work as many hours as they want to get the job done.  So when I say "I guarantee" your car will be done, it's done.  My guys love it here, we are a family of guys that love this stuff and we all have fun, we start around 1am or earlier, when the phones are quiet, and work our 10+ hours a day 6 days a week. 

When I retired at 45, I'd been a mopar freak my whole life, when I was 9, one of my uncles had a 70 Challenger and the other a 70 Roadrunner (thank goodness it wasn't a Mustang or Camaro").  Any swinging hotdog can drive one of those, when you go to the local cruise-in with a cool MOPAR, you get attention.  The first car I ever restored was a 6bbl Cuda when I was in my mid 20's that I still own, it took almost 2 years to get a rust free body done at a "collision" shop.  When I retired, I swore that would never happen again.  That's why I bought all the tools, spot welder, down draft booth, and a 15,000sq building for the shop to restore all my cars.  For me, it's not about the money, I love, as close to, "perfect" as you can get, I felt the only way to get "perfect" was doing it myself.  Now that I have 13 restored cars in my warehouse, mama said I have enough (she's right) so I opened the shop to customers 2 years ago.  The first few cars we did were for other shops that were jammed up with work.  If you go on "forabodiesonly", you'll see the red 70 Duster body we did for Kevin that he's doing an outstanding job putting together.  I don't post progress pictures of customer cars, it's theirs so the extent of metal/body work is between us, if they want to brag, that's up to them.

I'm all about the "process", I love the "process", I get a car done then I kicked it to the corner "Jonesing" for the next.  I've had many cars featured in magazines, only because they asked, it's not a big deal to me.

[anlauto]

And you have your finish work and body/paint done where? 

Like I said Mike, we share the same passion.

...but since you asked.... I've been using a friends "collision" shop to have my cars painted in. They did 20 cars for me before calling it quits. All of them were done by an "old school" body man who was in his 70's when he retired...At the collision shop the owner would welcome my "old cars" because this employee loved working on them and he taught a lot of the new kids his tricks of the trade along the way. he was doing body work for over 50 years...
I'm currently switched to a different shop that's been in business in the same location since 1968. The owner, now in his 80's still works on the cars in the shop. The shop is run by his son and his wife, and his grand children are the only employees...a true family business. They are now on their third car for me.
I've also used a very high end custom car shop to paint 3 cars for me in the past...including two black ones, a six pack Cuda and a Hemi Charger.

The own of the black Cuda is on here, he may chime in as to the quality of his black beauty.

So I surround myself with qualified professional people, just like you, they understand what level of quality I want, and my customers expect, but I don't feel the need to watch over them on a daily basis. My system works perfectly for me.

[HEMICUDA]

Yeah, ok.

Like I said, it's dangerous when you don't know what you think you know.  Plz quit trying to compare yourself to me as you have in other posts, you're not remotely close to be on the same ball field.  And when you charge the same money for your type of "so called" restoration that I do for the "bargin" price you advertise that only goes up before it's done? Plz.  I don't self promote like you, I don't have to, so get your nose out of the bowl I'm eating out of and get back up on the porch.   Remember when you came down to my other shop to pick up a 70 Cuda grille and wondered how I was able to simulate bare metal on all my suspension parts without gingle can painted parts for an OE restoration? I do, that was years ago and you haven't changed.  Don't you dare compare what you do to what we do here.

[Shane Kelley]

Rude , crude and completely uncalled for. 

[Cuda Cody]

I've seen some great work out of collision shops, full restoration shops and home garages... I've also seen some really poor work from all those places too.  It's simply not possible to paint everyone that works in a "specific" shop or field with a broad brush.  It really boils down to passion.  If someone has the passion they normally take the time to do good work.  And the term "good work" is different for everyone.  I love my cars that are restored to a high level, but I also love some of my beaters that don't have much correct on them at all.

Let's all share our passion without calling out other members.  This forum is not the place for bashing another members or putting someone else work down.

[Blake129]

Back on topic... so I found the first problem with this shell. The trunk lid wouldn't line up properly. Turns out the deck filler panel was welded in too low and I confirmed this with the window reveal molding. I'm praying that this one mess up isn't a hint of what I'll be dealing with on the rest of the shell.


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[Cuda Cody]

Easy fix with that trim.  The trim can be adjusted to fit the metal pretty easily.  Most body shop can make the adjustment to make sure it all fits good.  It's good to have the glass too so you can double check the window opening.

[Blake129]

I brought them the molding initially since it seems to be exact fit against the edge whereas the glass  has a little up/down side/side play. Strangely though the passenger side fitment test is almost perfect. So it's just the driver side of the deck filler that's off.


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[Blake129]

Passenger side is much better.



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[Cuda Cody]

I see the gap now.      Test fit the rear glass.  That will tell you if it needs to be moved.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I just finished polishing my Challenger trim and snapping it all on. The sides insert into the bottom piece about a 1/4" yet it looks like yours Leave a 1/4" gap. That would make it 1/2 short on that side. I'd take a couple measurements of the opening top to bottom all along the width of the window and see if it really is off.

[70 Challenger Lover]

Looks like you have your old car for comparison but I measured mine and the top to bottom opening is about 17 1/4." I measured it where the top curve ends and went straight down to the bottom lip.

[Blake129]

Yeah it's probably off about an 1/2" considering the trim is supposed to tuck into it. The odd thing is that the bottom edge of the deck filler that create the trunk edge is perfectly in line with the quarter panel that creates two curved corners in the trunk edge. I don't get how this can be so off.


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