1974 Challenger Restomod

[YellowThumper]

Nice! 

[Brads70]

Wow nice work!  Lots of work accomplished so far! 

[soundcontrol]

Looks great!

[Dmod1974]

The inner and outer rockers are both yanked out now.  It's amazing how much damage a simple mouse nest wreaked over the decades....







Cool views of everything that luckily, did not move at all courtesy of having the subframe connector welded in.  The inner should be plug and play.

[Dmod1974]

The AMD inner rocker is spot on compared to the OE.  Super happy with the way the rough fit is going!  Not sure why Mopar put that large hole in the rear of the inner rockers; it's the perfect entrance for rodents to nest.  I think I'll keep it to spray frame coating inside, but will plug it with a rubber plug once done.

[Dmod1974]

I installed the new inner and outer rockers along with the torque boxes; this car is now 100% structurally solid again!  I'm finally ready to remove all of the interior bracing which will make it much easier to weld in the new seat belt and 4 speed console brackets along with the tunnel hump. 

Prepped and painted





Inner installed; I resprayed it for extra protection after welding/grinding.



And outer installed.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  My door bottom gaps are probably half what they were originally now, and everything fits as it should after reinstalling the 1/4 and fender for mockup. 





I plug welded everything except for the middle beam of the bottom outer to inner flange.  That was done with 3M Impact Resistant Structrural Adhesive for strength and corrosion protection.  I'd do all of the bottom seam that way, but the welding heat from the torque boxes would have compromised it and I didn't want to install them before the outer rocker in the event that the thin inner warped or distorted.

Inner structure sprayed in epoxy primer after clean up:

[dodj]

Amazes me how far you've come in a little over two months!

[YellowThumper]

Wow. Congrats on the milestone!

[Dmod1974]

Amazes me how far you've come in a little over two months!

Yeah, I'm done with school finally and it's winter, so I have a lot more free time!  At least until it gets nice outside again.  And sleep is overrated.

Wow. Congrats on the milestone!

Thank you!  Not a whole lot left to do on this shell; I'm really hoping I'll have it ready to turn over to a painter for spring/early summer.

[soundcontrol]

The rockers looks very difficult!
I see you are welding the seams inside the wheelhouses to the trunk floor and
even the outer wheelhouse back edge to the trunk floor, I'll guess you also plug weld the wheelhouse from the inside like stock?

And now my real question 
Do you upload your pictures or add them some other way?
You can write text under each picture, which is nice, all my pictures appears at the end of my post.

[Dmod1974]

The rockers looks very difficult!
I see you are welding the seams inside the wheelhouses to the trunk floor and
even the outer wheelhouse back edge to the trunk floor, I'll guess you also plug weld the wheelhouse from the inside like stock?

And now my real question 
Do you upload your pictures or add them some other way?
You can write text under each picture, which is nice, all my pictures appears at the end of my post.

The rockers weren't terrible!  Having the subframe connector welded in made it a lot safer and easier.  Nothing budged during the repair since the connector had the chassis locked in place already.  I still think the driver's side quarter was the worst job so far...  Even more than the firewall.

Yup, the wheelhouse is seam welded around the perimeter, and also plug welded where possible.  Some of it has to be seam welded since the trunk floor/frame rail 90 degree flange is trimmed off to make room for the tub.  One thing is for sure - that wheelhouse isn't going anywhere!

I use Imgur to host my photos and then embed the links onto my posts.  I tried using Google Photos but it didn't work out right.  Kind of a PITA to upload to Imgur and then copy/paste links, but so is uploading them to this site and dealing with file size issues.

I gave up on Photobucket since the website runs terribly slow with all of the ads, and I refuse to pay money to host pictures.

[soundcontrol]

Thanks for the info. I don't have a file size problem uploading here at all, it's just that I can't write comments below the pictures.
I got all my photos in iCloud already, gonna check to see if I can share from there.

That cool with the subframe connector and rocker, sure makes it safer.
Same with my driver side quarter, been on and off for almost a year now, finally getting the wheelhouse, trunk extension and all the small stuff done.
Wish I could do it at your speed!

[usraptor]

Wow, you definitely aren't letting any grass grow under your feet.  Great progress and attention to detail!

[Dmod1974]

Got the RH quarter panel and jamb pillar hung.  Other than the inevitable mess and cleanup dealing with the structural adhesive, there were no surprises.

Seam sealing before panel hanging and undercoat spray




Undercoating the quarter panel



Final epoxy prime coat



Jamb pillar prep



And installed



Lower quarter welds



Jamb pillar screwed together while the panel bond cures



Clamps galore!



And the results:

Rocker to door bottom gap






Decklid filler is next up.  Should be the last of the non bolted panel work I'll be doing to this pig.

[larry4406]

Nice job!

One of your pictures shows a corded band file.  What brand is it?