A.G.A.R. FF4 AAR - Day Three hundred & seventy-nine

[anlauto]

  Okay...so this one has me stumped for sure....99.9 times these shields are black in colour assuming they were off the car when the car was painted, assuming they were added after the front end alignment and upper control arms were tightened at the factory...

100% of time when you see them painted body colour it's very safe to assume that some lazy body man left them in the car when painting the engine compartment. I had a friend inspect the car the other day and that was his assumption as well, that at one point someone touched up the engine compartment.

It wasn't until I removed them today....look closely...they're completely painted....there's no way they were in place when painted, yet it looks like factory paint. @SYDWAZ do you have any input on this, any chance you had them off and painted 

[Cuda Cody]

   That's really odd. 

[1 Wild R/T]

On the brake line, I had one just like that...

[Aar1064]

... I found this odd holding down the brake line on the frame rail...I've never come across this before. I've seen it on the apron on the "over rail" brake line, but never like this

This bolt was on mine and another AAR I know of.

[AAR#2]

notice the bolts instead of studs & nuts to fasten the fenders 

One of the first things I noticed....so much for "rules" eh ?

Mine and at least a handful of others I'm aware of came without the "stud/nut" rule that is perpetuated by many experts as gospel. The easy thing would have been for me to give in to conventional wisdom and replace a few bolts with the accepted 'norm', I have no idea what your plan is but hope it's to keep the all bolt setup original to the car. To often originality gets changed based on the accepted norm, losing history.

[anlauto]

... I found this odd holding down the brake line on the frame rail...I've never come across this before. I've seen it on the apron on the "over rail" brake line, but never like this

This bolt was on mine and another AAR I know of.

I just haven't had the privilege of taking apart a car that hasn't been messed with before, that clamp is likely a 70 only thing...but I haven't come across it before.

[skyers4130]

Alan.. I am watching this restoration with great excitement. 
I think I might be more excited about this than most of the members here , how can I be so sure about this???
I have been close to that car my entire life.
I have gone for rides in that car...
I have felt the power of that car.....
I have driven that car (2x)..
I have set stuff on the hood or trunk of that car that I shouldn't have ...
I have scratched that car.
.......

How did I get the opportunity to do all these things???

I am the SON of SYDWAS.

My Father (SYDWAS) has had this car my entire life. I have been in awe of it since day one.

I hope you enjoy working on this car and learning all you can from it. Keep the updates and pictures coming.

I do have a question.. . How much has the "old" paint faded  compared to the New FF4 Challenger you just got back?

PS. the scratches are on the passenger side near the AAR Logo at the back... Horizontal, about 5" long. About BMX handle bar height off the ground. 

[SYDWAZ]

Alan.. I am watching this restoration with great excitement. 
I think I might be more excited about this than most of the members here , how can I be so sure about this???
I have been close to that car my entire life.
I have gone for rides in that car...
I have felt the power of that car.....
I have driven that car (2x)..
I have set stuff on the hood or trunk of that car that I shouldn't have ...
I have scratched that car.
.......

How did I get the opportunity to do all these things???

I am the SON of SYDWAS.

My Father (SYDWAS) has had this car my entire life. I have been in awe of it since day one.

I hope you enjoy working on this car and learning all you can from it. Keep the updates and pictures coming.

I do have a question.. . How much has the "old" paint faded  compared to the New FF4 Challenger you just got back?

PS. the scratches are on the passenger side near the AAR Logo at the back... Horizontal, about 5" long. About BMX handle bar height off the ground. 

Thanks for your input. I know for a fact that the engine department has never been touched up or painted. The only paint that was added was the passenger fender that was painted by a buddy FF8 in the mid 70. Oh well it is just a car. I will get around to fixing that sometime      

[Cuda Cody]

Welcome to the site @skyers4130      

[anlauto]

I feel your father has a big enough garage now that you can keep your BMX bike somewhere else when the car gets home....

.....As I stated earlier....the engine compartment shows no signs of being painted other than these shields not being black ? That's why I find it mind boggling , however the rear valance also has some signs of a repaint...I just wonder if the factory, or the dealership did some kind of touch up work prior to ownership ?

[SYDWAZ]

The rear valance must have been painted before I owned it. As I said before, the rear trunk opening above the gas cap looks like a coat of paint has been added because some paint has flaked off.

[RUNCHARGER]

Most likely. I remember my Dad's 79 Chrysler arriving late to the dealer and when it did get there I noticed overspray on the trunk key molding seal.

[1 Wild R/T]

Things happen...These days dealers are legally obligated to disclose damage over $500... And you can bet that gets fudged.... 

Back in 88 I was working at a Lincoln Mercury/Honda dealer... One of our techs had a No Start 78 Lincoln it had been dropped by the tow truck close to the new car delivery area.....  The tech discovers it won't crank with the key but it will when you jump the solenoid... So he puts the key in the run position & jumps the solenoid...  Car fires right up & sits there running on the fast idle cam.... He slams the hood & gets ready to move the car to his stall..  Just about then the car starts moving... Straight toward a brand new Black Accord Coupe....   He jumps through the open window trying to stop it but there was zero chance... It's on high idle & the car is accelerating pretty quick....  The Lncoln slams into the drivers quarter of the Honda, the rear of the Honda goes up & away from the Lincoln slamming into a large post on the passenger rear of the Honda..... 

Turns out the reason for the no start of the Lincoln was because the transmission wasn't in park even though the shifter was, there was a linkage problem......   The reason the Lincoln started and didn't move at first when Rick might have had a better chance to stop it?  The seals in the old C6 where hard & that caused a delayed engagement issue....

Lincoln sustained no visible damage.... We tried to sell them a trans O/H they scrapped the car instead..

Honda needed two quarter panels....   They fixed it & sold it as new.....   Completely wrong IMO but sales  managers do what sales managers do.....

[anlauto]

So I had a member telling me on the phone yesterday that I've been lacking in updates....

Okay, so with a tad over 30 hours invested I have the car completely dis-assembled with the exception of the body panels and there is a reason for that....

Here's the cleaned off underside...you won't find a single nut or bolt left in place...

[anlauto]

With the car bolted securely to one of my carts, it's very easy to move around.
I've decided that since this car needs virtually no rust repair, I'm going to wait to strip the shell closer to the date that I can get it into the body shop not likely until the Spring 2019...