70 base Challenger, 383 4-speed, F8, restoration

[Ifixmycarmyself]

After Covid and 14 days in hospital and some time for recover I'm back in the garage and it's Time for a small update.
Car was painted last year. The paint looked good directly out of the paint boot with some minor clear runs and some orange peel in some places. Now it has been sitting over the winter and oddly some more orange peel has developed in some places. It's time for polishing, starting with a 1500, 2000 grit wet sanding and the 2000 and a 4000 grit polishing pad (Abralon). Followed by polishing. I'm not an expert on polishing so I had to try some different methods and products. What works best for me right now is the 3M Fast Cut Rubbing (big bottle on pic) on a medium corse pad with the rotary machine followed by the Rupes Fine Polishing Compound (yellow cap) on a fine pad with the dual action machine.

[Brads70]

Great to hear of your recovery!    Cars will wait!

[Ifixmycarmyself]

Uploading some pics from the restoration. The carb No. 4367

[Ifixmycarmyself]

The starter was dead. Usual problem easy to fix. Bad connection between field copper grounding wire and housing. Also replaced bushings and brushes.

[Ifixmycarmyself]

Four speed transmission had a bad noise from rear main bearing. Car was also shaking badly when clutch was operated. had to  measure off-center, install off-center studs. then I replaced the cast iron bell housing with a correct aluminium bell housing and had to do the exercise all over again. Main bearing, the 308, has a odd dimension and was not that easy to find. Bought a whole restoration kit were it was included.
Made also a Youtube video while doing the restoration:
https://youtu.be/6ATqV_71CkM

[Ifixmycarmyself]

Leaf spring bushing replacement

[Ifixmycarmyself]

The dashboard needed some care. Built a simple stand for the dashboard and placed it on my table. Kind of copied someone else on the forum with the stand. Was a good idea and much easier to access all parts of it.

[larry4406]

Nice dash stand!

Can you take a picture from the backside showing how you mounted it?

I recall one of our members used a stand and it swiveled on him damaging his pad.

[Ifixmycarmyself]

Nice dash stand!

Can you take a picture from the backside showing how you mounted it?

I recall one of our members used a stand and it swiveled on him damaging his pad.

Yes, Had to angle away the upper beam for the reason you mention. Now I use original upper dash holes to secure it to the stand.

[daaboots]

Wow man, amazing fab work! Truly an inspiration 

[headejm]

@Ifixmycarmyself   

...and great forum handle!

[Ifixmycarmyself]

The car is finally done and this is what it looks like. Thank you all for kind comments advices and inspiration during the build.
My next project is already in the new garage and I hop it will be faster, this car took 6 years.

[Katfish]

Quite the journey, you should be proud, looks great.
Well done!

[70rag383]

Beautiful car! Well done and congratulations!

[anlauto]

You must get such a sense of accomplishment doing mostly everything yourself , beautiful car