E-Bodies.org Cuda Challenger Forum

Off-Topic => General Topics => Topic started by: RUNCHARGER on August 19, 2020, 06:44:43 AM

Title: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on August 19, 2020, 06:44:43 AM
Ugh: Well I wasn't going to do the bodywork on this car but here we are. I was doing bodywork yesterday and spent about 6 hours sanding in 38c weather. Back today to touch a few places up and throw the windshield and backlite in and shoot the poly. Supposed to be 38c again so another day of sweat. It is coming well though and hopefully in colour next week.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: YellowThumper on August 19, 2020, 07:24:34 AM
Ugg!
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Challenger in NC on August 19, 2020, 07:24:58 AM
Watcha doing working on Fords???? :o Cool car though.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Chryco Psycho on August 19, 2020, 07:52:53 AM
Panama is much cooler !
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: xx88man on August 19, 2020, 01:50:35 PM
Oh that's Greg's project..... is it a real GT?
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on August 19, 2020, 07:33:58 PM
Yes, it's my friend Greg's. It's a factory 5 GTM, mid engine LS with a Porsche transaxle. Cooler today it was only 31c when I jumped in the pickup to come home. Greg decided I should smooth the rough glass surface under the hood though so we can paint it like the outside, so it was 8 hours of straight hand sanding again. Getting there though.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Shoooter on August 19, 2020, 08:18:16 PM
Wow that is cool! Can not wait to see some colour
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: YellowThumper on August 19, 2020, 08:21:57 PM
Yup now that we have been enticed.  Gotta see til the end.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on August 19, 2020, 08:27:51 PM
I'll give an update when I finish it no problem. Car was brought to me half assembled. I've been busy upholstering and fitting the interior, redoing a bunch of rivnuts and installing panels. I wasn't going to do the body but here we are....
After this Greg has a 68 Charger and I have other guys wanting cars done. Keep me busy until I buy a Challenger I guess.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: nsmall on August 19, 2020, 11:01:00 PM
Very cool keep us updated. Thanks for sharing
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: xx88man on August 20, 2020, 06:07:50 AM
Quote from: RUNCHARGER on August 19, 2020, 08:27:51 PM
After this Greg has a 68 Charger and I have other guys wanting cars done. Keep me busy until I buy a Challenger I guess.

I'm thinking you might be busy for a long time!   :wrenching:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: dodj on August 20, 2020, 06:44:14 AM
Hemi Challengers, Hemi GTX, FM3 Challenger, FI Hemi 'cuda, probably lots of others and now a GT40 type car.   :twothumbsup:   Cool cars just gravitate to you Sheldon?
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on August 20, 2020, 06:57:52 AM
Yeah: Not sure whether it's good luck or bad some days! This one isn't mine but I built a 71 HemiCuda for Greg as well. I haven't found a car for me yet (although not looking that hard right now with todays prices) so it's nice to work on other people's stuff to keep busy. He has a 68 Charger I can do after this one and wants to build his wife's Sunbeam Alpine as well, I'm thinking of using a Miata for a donor for the Sunbeam but haven't done the measurements yet. I have another friend that needs a few Chargers built too, it's good to have younger friends that are too busy working and need a hand! I'm after my son to get his 240Z done too and freshen up his 2002 3500 Dually so It's not like I have a shortage of stuff to build, it beats the heck out of sitting on the couch.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on September 16, 2020, 07:18:56 PM
Well it's been awhile. Have only been able to work 1 or 2 days a week on it. I sure hope this was the final sand (again?) today. Greg shot some Epoxy on it last week to seal it in hot weather and I had to go 3 rounds to get it back in shape.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Shoooter on September 16, 2020, 08:33:07 PM
You do great work sheldon.  Keep it coming
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Brads70 on September 17, 2020, 02:39:26 AM
Looks great but I don't envy you. I dislike sanding very much LOL  :D
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on September 17, 2020, 07:17:54 AM
Ha, ha. I'm worried. I told Greg to get a good water filter before spraying it. I may not be done yet. I prefer fabbing patches and welding them in, or wrenching, or grinding, or setting up gears, or changing a clutch.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on September 19, 2020, 07:30:58 PM
Sprayed the bottom of the hood and hatch. We were up glueing inner parts on these assemblies today and will install them and broom out the shop and jack up the car and remove the wheels tomorrow for the final paint assault on Monday. Colour is awesome actually. It's a 4 coat system from House of Color and looks like the most awesome F8 you ever seen in certain light. It should be a fun week I hope. I'll be welding and fabbing on the Charger while this car gets sprayed Monday and set up Tuesday.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: xx88man on September 20, 2020, 06:53:19 AM
Awesome!   :ohyeah:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on September 23, 2020, 07:23:02 PM
Well: Greg sprayed the car today (while I was grinding trunk floor welds and tail panel brackets off the original tail panel on the Charger, fun day), Colour is awesome but I guess there's lots of trash in the paint so I'll be sanding my guts out again on it. Superstraight though apparently so that makes me feel good.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Brads70 on September 23, 2020, 08:06:23 PM
I can't say I envy you, I hate sanding.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on September 23, 2020, 08:55:05 PM
After today, I prefer it to grinding.... Quite a bit of riveting left on the GTM as well. I have to rivet all the underbelly on and a few panels in  the wheelhouses as well as some carbon fibre pieces. Probably 1000 or so rivets. Install windows, lights, mirrors etc. I'd just as soon do the sanding first and get it out of the way.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: JS29 on September 24, 2020, 05:59:23 AM
 :iagree:But i would wait on buffing so if you slip you don't have to buff twice!  :alan2cents:                                                                   P.S. The longer that clear seat's, The harder it gets.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 09, 2020, 11:57:21 AM
Halfway through wetsanding it. Took it for a bit of a rip today and everything is dialed in pretty well. It's about as fast as my Viper (400HP, 2450lbs) but we can fix that. Sick of working on it as there have been lots of frustrating episodes but it's almost over. One day we'll get another sunny day and it will be buffed. Hopefully next week sometime.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: Brads70 on October 09, 2020, 12:50:20 PM
Looks nice!Just a few hours on that one I'd bet!  I'd rather have a Viper but that's just my opinion. :D
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 09, 2020, 03:22:00 PM
Yes, I much prefer my Viper. This car will likely get tore up a bit though. Greg wants to track it and he goes all in, he's raced quite extensively so he prefers the lighter weight of this one. I wouldn't be surprised if he does the One Lap of America with this one. He did it a few years ago with his NSX and a couple times with a 70 Charger (factory FC7 R/T but about the only thing left was a roof skin over an Art Morrison chassis etc.)
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: jimynick on October 09, 2020, 07:50:04 PM
Based on your work and comments, you have to be a well experienced guy and that makes me wonder about your comments that buddy was painting it while you ground off rivets, etc., could that be the reason for all the schmutz in the paint you said you'd have to sand out? I also hear you about all the sanding, as I'm in the same boat with my Challenger and it seems endless. Good for you to stay at it and get through!  :bigthumb:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 09, 2020, 08:16:45 PM
Nope, he sprayed it final all alone. I know it takes concentration to paint anyway plus I don't paint anymore because of the fumes, so I pretty much made a run for it! Lol. He should have rented a booth but wanted to do it in the shop for some reason. So we got lots of crud that is sanding out okay. A few spots missing a pass too because of the lack of lighting but I think it is going to come out fine with some labour. The paint flips from green to the blue undertone in different lighting so sometimes you figure it's thin but it's more light related. The rockers seem a bit blue but again if you change the light they look different, there are Carbon Fibre side skirts to install yet so you won't see the rockers anyway. Body is extra straight so I'm really happy about that, there were a few spots I had to do bodywork (roof added scoop and hole repair, doorframes and b-pillars and a crunched right side quarter from shipping damage) and they are undetectible.
I went back and see where the confusion came from, the day Greg decided to spray it, I went home and worked on my son's Charger,



Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: anlauto on October 09, 2020, 08:19:14 PM
Dumb me has to ask what kind of car is it ? :drunk:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 09, 2020, 09:23:03 PM
Factory 5 GTM kit car. Has a Z06 Corvette LS engine, Porsche transaxle, box tube chassis, fibreglass body. A fellow Greg knew was building it for 8 years but unfortunately succumbed to cancer. Greg decided to buy it and finish the build and wants a car he can race anyway so it all worked out quite well. It will be a fun car to race without the fear of damaging an artifact.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: anlauto on October 10, 2020, 03:39:18 AM
Thanks. Certainly a cool looking car :bigthumb:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 10, 2020, 07:41:54 AM
It does look pretty cool. I'm 6'1" and can't really drive it, my knees are into the dash and my head is into the headliner so it isn't the car for me, Greg fits in it better though. I'm really limbered up now from having my body twisted like a pretzel and head under the dash figuring out what the original builder did with the wiring for a few days. There's Corvette wiring, Painless (painful) wiring and no diagrams of what went where so I had to chase a couple of circuits (worst one was the hazard flashers). Ended up being 2 bad grounds, 2 hot wires into the 4 way relay rather than 1 and a few other surprises. Glad that's over with.
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: jimynick on October 11, 2020, 08:43:49 PM
"Glad that's over with." LOL, I got a chuckle out of that one! I'll bet! He's lucky he has a guy like you to work on that thing, or he'd be selling his children to pay for all the remedial repairs you've done, both body and mechanical.  :bigthumb:
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: RUNCHARGER on October 11, 2020, 09:04:54 PM
Ha, ha: Yes I'm thinking I don't really want to do that again. I had to get the 4 way flashers working and that was a chore, Some Corvette wiring, some Painful wiring and no guide or notes as to how everything connected or what wire did what. Found a couple of bad grounds and finally found the 4 way relay and found a bad ground and two power wires going to it! That was after a full day of cutting looms apart, not cutting wires wily, nilly and twisted around sticking my 64 year old head under the dash trying to make sense of anything. Found the good power wire then figured out how to wire the switched power into the Corvette column harness without frying anything. That was a happy day when I got through that. It was about as much fun as changing the engine in my Twin Turbo Dodge Stealth a few years ago. I think I've learned my lesson now though (I hope).
Title: Re: another day of sanding
Post by: jimynick on October 12, 2020, 08:06:49 PM
" think I've learned my lesson now though (I hope)." LOL, reminds me of an old Red Skelton bit where he was playing "The Mean Wittle Kid" and he said "if I dood it, I get a whippin'.......I dood it!" Hell ,if we really learnt from our travails working on these things, we'd've got out LONG ago! Have fun!  :))