'71 R/T, fixing a parts car

[Flatdad]

Short Update

The floor is welded in solid, & the welds are ground. I would call it 'done' accept the front half is still in bare steel & the rot on the firewall + trans tunnel still needs addressed. Last week my brother came over & helped me take off the driver's door & hinges. He ended up rebuilding the hinges for me, which was really cool.

Last night, I wire wheeled the heck out of the driver's rocker front & door jam. After some exploratory cutting in the rusted area I made a plan for the patch before calling it quits for the night.

[Flatdad]

Pitchers...

The Dodge has floors again!



I still need to brush paint 'em black & address the firewall rot though.

[Flatdad]

Last night, I trimmed out a patch piece from my leftover AMD passenger rocker & socked it in on the driver's side. I'd intended just to tack it in first, but got carried away. There's still plenty more to address here, but its a start! Geez, I just realized that I bought this thing 4 years ago April 2016! Its high time this project made it out of the garage!

Hopefully these pic's show up in a decent order...

[Flatdad]

This week I finished the driver's front rocker repair. I made patches from the old quarter panel I'd chopped off the passenger side whilst making jokes about using the whole 'buffalo' to my brother.

Anywhere I could find pinholes, I drilled out larger to expose the thicker metal, then made the tiniest little patch to weld in. It was a tedious process, & I used a lot of wire!

The grinder made short work of my weld globs & now it looks good as used!

[anlauto]

Making great progress for sure, there won't be an area you haven't touched by the time you're done. 

[Dakota]

Nice work.   It takes a lot of patience to do what you're doing.

When I saw your comment about it being 4 years since you bought your car,  I had to chuckle a little as  I'm approaching year 8 on my car and didn't have any significant body work to do like what you're facing.  I guess we all try to make progress where and how we can. 

[WhiskeyRebel]

Love this thread and you are doing great work.  Keep the pics coming. I am in a similar situation with my Roadrunner and I am following your progress closely.   I'm working on the same areas right now, wheelwells and the ends of the rockers.  Luckily my Challenger body work is good and I just have other issues to deal with there.  Show us more, you are inspiring me to keep going.

[Flatdad]

Thanks guys, its motivating to know that folks actually read some of these posts.

I should stress again that this is definitely, definitely not a restoration. I just want to fix the structural integrity enough to drive it safely. If I were to restore it properly, every single panel would need replaced. It was that bad.

WhiskeyRebel, I've got a road runner m'self, a '70. I love the short nose, long deck, bare bones styling!

Dakota, Maybe I can make ya chuckle a little more, I bought my road runner project 12 years ago today and it still isn't finished! Though in my defense I just can't bring myself to tear it down again to paint over the primer. Its too fun to just drive 'em!

[Flatdad]

Update, haven't done much with the car this month, mostly I've spent time with folks & worked on the pickup.

A couple days back, I cleaned out the interior of the car, roughed up the surfaces with a scotchbrite pad, vacuumed it out, & brush painted 'er black. Looks too nice for the car.

[Flatdad]

Pictures tomorrow, forgot my camera today

My brother came for a visit after a looong stretch of being cooped up. We made the most of it:

We played basketball, rode dirtbikes, fished, watched a movie, shot some neat guns with friends, shot clays another day, fixed my pickup truck, went for a long motorcycle ride, got my road runner out of the barn for morning coffee, drove my cousin's new jeep project, and... worked on the Challenger!

We mounted the driver's door on the rebuilt hinges & tore the driver's quarter off the challenger & mocked up all the rear sheetmetal on the car!

It looks pretty cool, hopefully I can show you guys tomorrow!

[anlauto]

My brother came for a visit after a looong stretch of being cooped up. We made the most of it:
We played basketball, rode dirtbikes, fished, watched a movie, shot some neat guns with friends, shot clays another day, fixed my pickup truck, went for a long motorcycle ride, got my road runner out of the barn for morning coffee, drove my cousin's new jeep project, and... worked on the Challenger!

What'd you do after lunch ?

[Flatdad]

Pics of the new old door, quarter hacked off initially, and some mocked up sheetmetal 

[Flatdad]

Has it really been a month!?

Well, since my last post, I did a couple things here and there.

I fiberglass matted the firewall and trans tunnel rust holes to temporarily finish off the floors until the drivetrain gets removed down the road.

The outer wheelhouse was just too rotten to patch so I hacked the old one out & screwed the new Goodmark one in place to test fit, the new quarter actually fits over it pretty nicely! The attaching roof structure definitely needs work.

Lastly, I mounted up the rear bumper and rear valance again, & it looks like the fit between everything is going to be pretty good (thank god).

Over this last month I've spent so much time catching up with friends & family there's scarcely been a day for myself, thus the car project hasn't moved much. It has been good to step away for a little while though.

[Flatdad]

After another hiatus, I attacked the car again.

The new driver's outer wheelhouse got cut, fitted, trimmed, prepped, & finally welded in permanently. The attaching roof structure was so rotten that I just chopped it all away and made new patch pieces that were welded in on Saturday. I didn't bother to grind the welds since the area is hidden... but if I'm honest, I was just lazy.

Sunday I battled the rear cross-member extensions and trimmed/hammered the trunk drop-offs in preparation for final install.

I've officially burned through about 2 rolls of .030" flux core MIG wire on this car! It finally feels like I'm doing more additive repairs rather than just chopping the bad stuff away. The day for doing the full roof replacement looms ever closer...

[Flatdad]

Posting to keep a log of what I did recently, I've had the driver's quarter on and off the car too many times to count trying to get it into perfect position. The new wheelhouse was just holding the quarter too low, and out a little too far. I got out the 'big body hammer' (2lb sledge) and made the wheelhouse lip more 'cooperative', the quarter fits much better now. 

The tail-panel was severely rotten where the trunk gutter attaches and the edge where the quarter attaches. The past two nights, I've fixed up those areas with patch pieces. Lately, I've made my patches from chunks of the old factory quarter we chopped off the car. Maybe its my imagination, but it seems to weld to the other factory sheetmetal better.