Go Mango Boys Project Car

[chris NOS]

That's cool to be able to do that with your son !!! 

[jringo8769]

Excellent work
Thank you for sharing it with us
Thank you for doing it the right way too
You are a inspiration to us all
God Bless,John

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[YellowThumper]

Very cool. He appears to be into it properly. Will make the car that much more appreciated.

[GoMangoBoys]

Got the rear axle re-installed in the car.  Thanks to @Dakota for giving me the opportunity to look at his car.  As a result, I learned that there was a rear sway bar option.  I bought a sway bar, but in the end, my son fabricated new brackets to attach to the sub-frame.  We bought new Energy Suspension (made in the USA) bushings and links.  The links are about 1/4" longer than the original ones. We skewed the bushings by twisting them in the vice then trimming the urethane with the angle grinder.  I tried to show this in one of the pictures.  I also had to buy new shackles from Summit as our car did not come with any.
We still need to install the axle shafts and the brakes.

[JS29]

It's good to see a kid getting there hands dirty, some grease under there fingernails. 

[usraptor]

This is my 18 year old son welding a patch on the trunk.  The second 2 pictures are for a compare/contrast of the same boy at 11 years old welding on the frame of my 32 Plymouth.  The Iron Man helmet was a gift from Lincoln Electric for some work I did helping them with the Welding Merit Badge.  So far, I have taught more than 50 kids to weld by teaching the Welding Merit Badge.  My son actually works at a local welding shop running the CNC plasma table.

Also, note all the clean metal on the underside of the Challenger.  My boy has countless hours with the angle grinder and the wire wheel cleaning all the rust, dirt and undercoating off to prepare it for painting.

What a great project and leader you are to these young men.  I wish somebody would have taught me to weld back in the day and wish my father would have had a father son project like this.  Welding is still the one thing I'd really like to learn.   That's a skill set your son and others will value long into their lives. 

[Dakota]

I couldn't agree more about this being a great project.   I had a chance to meet @GoMangoBoys and his wife a few months ago when they were passing through the Buffalo area.   Great guy (and wife!) doing something special with their son.   I really don't think this hobby gets any better than that.

I'm actually up to 3 (1/2 of a slant six?) e-bodies.org members that I've met live as @blown motor was here just recently and @Brads70 (and wife!) before that.   We are truly blessed with wonderful people around here.

[GoMangoBoys]

Got some floor patching done over the last week or so.  Replaced the LH front section of the floor.  A previous owner had done a real hack job of adding a 4 speed hump.  We cut it out and added a new AMD hump.  After that, we found a bad spot on the RH front floor, so we fabricated a piece and replaced a section.  It is far from perfect, but it is sound and will be covered with the carpet.  The boy is cleaning up all the light rust on the inside and we will be ready for rust converter and primer very soon.

[GoMangoBoys]

Got the fenders pulled off.  Both are in good shape.  The inner fenders need some work.  The LH inner fender has 4 patches that need to be made.  The RH has 3.  On both, there is rust around the frontmost hood hinge nut, rust with a really crappy weld patch where the brace attaches and a hole in the front end under the outer fender.  So far, we have patched one of the hood hinge nuts.  The LH inner fender has a really bad patch under the battery tray.  We will cut this out and do it over.  Work in this area is not finished.
The welds on the underside of the hood hinge nut patch don't look all that great.  I was trying not to overheat the panel and I was welding from both sides.  The welds are ground flush on the visible side.  I also welded all the way around each piece of steel that I put in so that moisture does not get in as easily.

[jringo8769]

Looking great
Thank you for sharing it with us
L9ce seeing great work being done and time with family is priceless
Stay safe out there
God Bless,John

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[GoMangoBoys]

Patchwork is pretty much completed on the front inner fenders.  We have also patched a couple of spots on the outer sections of the firewall.  We have also started patching spots on the sides of the cowl and front end of the LH rocker panel.
The first group of pictures is on the top of the inner fender where it was originally spot welded to the support brackets.  A previous owner had tried to fix the rust by just piling up a bunch of weld.  I had to grind all that out and first patch the bracket, then patch the top surface of the inner fender.  The next group of pictures is my son making a patch for where the front end of the inner fender meets the core support.
It turned out that we patched 5 spots on the LH inner fender and 4 spots on the RH.

[anlauto]

Coming right along

[70 Challenger Lover]

Awesome work. Very professional looking results!

[GoMangoBoys]

These pictures are the LH side of the cowl.  Also cut off the front A-pillar and the corner of the roof.

[usraptor]

Wow! You guys are really moving along.  The area on both my inner fenders where the hood hinges bolted were also in bad shape.  However, we cheated and bought patch panels and then just welded those in.  Keep up the good work.  I'm very envious of you getting to do this project with your son.    By the time I did my Cuda all my sons had moved out and gotten married.