1974 Challenger Restomod

[Dmod1974]

That roof patch is so nice! What tools did you use to make the piece?

Most of it is the original piece.  I simply patched up several spots of heavily pitted or pinholed metal to fix it up.  Just basic hammer/dolly work.  Again, I shouldn't have taken the entire piece off.  Having access to the backside was nice, but welding that whole thing back on was not fun.

[Dmod1974]

Finished up the last rail patch and sleeved the bolt hole locations for the Alterktion frame.  Not really necessary, but I like having the bolt sleeves to prevent the frame rail from being crushed or distorted if the bolts are tightened too much.  This anchors them solidly.


Here's how I sleeved the RH rail.  I had to patch both sides of this rail, so it was pretty easy.  I installed the frame first to drill the holes, then I installed the sleeves and bolts with nuts to clamp them in place.  On this side, I welded the inside and the around the perimeter.








Since the LH side was a new rail, I did not have the ability to open it up and weld from the inside at all.  Instead, I drilled the bolt holes.



Then I used a step bit to bore the holes out to fit the bolt sleeves perfectly using the bolts to keep everything centered.





Then I welded them to the rail.





I used a hole saw to cut out a circle on the other side of the rail for each sleeve, and then welded them to the outside of the rails.  Pretty happy with the way it turned out!

[anlauto]

Wow...that looks real solid

[jimynick]

"Pretty happy with the way it turned out!" And SO you should be! good job! 

[soundcontrol]

Nice work! Thats a great mod for those suspensions!

[usraptor]

Great work!

[Dmod1974]

At a time where most people have tons of time to work on their cars, I feel like I'm the complete opposite.  Go figure....  Started on the door skins since that is one of the last things left to do before shipping the car out for final body and paint.

I thought these would be pretty simple, but the bondo master struck again!  Once I started hitting the door bottoms with the wire wheel I found more hidden surprises.  The driver side door frame required a fair amount of rust repair, and I think the passenger side will be even worse.  Grinding through the door skin edge made for very quick removal though.













Here it is fully stripped; it took a lot of work and time to get all of the hidden areas clean and rust free.  I ended up soaking it in Eastwood Fast Etch with plastic over it.  I'm hoping to epoxy prime the frame and skin on Monday along with spraying the skin with undercoating.





I think after that I'm going to reinstall the door with the skin fit on it and fit everything up before I tack anything.  I think I might use panel bond on the bottom, but I will weld the sides since I'm pretty sure I'll need to do some welding to get the gaps perfect.  The bottom is the area that needs the rust protection the most.

The AMD skin fits the door frame perfectly; I can't wait to see how it fits the car body lines - hopefully just as well!

[soundcontrol]

Not too bad though. I guess the skins are spot welded to the frame?
Thats an area where I would use panel bond for the new skins, seals it up nice for rust.

[Dmod1974]

Not too bad though. I guess the skins are spot welded to the frame?
Thats an area where I would use panel bond for the new skins, seals it up nice for rust.

Yup, the skin flange is folded over and spot welded to the frame. They're tiny spot welds too. I had to patch a number of areas and repair the door frame flange. My rocker gap should be good, so I'll panel bond that bottom flange that is prone to rust.

[Rich G.]

Very nice work. Should be very satisfying knowing you did it.

[YellowThumper]

Very nice. You are doing it proper justice for sure.

[Dmod1974]

All done with the driver's side.  No visible distortion to the outer skin and it seems to fit pretty darn good.  I ended up welding the sides and panel bonding the bottom flange.  I'll hang it again after it cures and figure out how much welding/grinding I'll need to do to get the gaps 100%.

[YellowThumper]

Very nice.

[usraptor]

Wow! Perfect!

[soundcontrol]

Nice! Makes me wanna take my doors apart just to get them like that.