Second lease on life 73 Challenger.

[dave73]

Cool to read you're not discouraged, a lot would be, keep at it. Also cool to see you putting a 73 back on the road! Keep posting progress, I'd get it up and running as soon as possible and then finish it from there. Mine still isn't finished but the fact that I can get in it and drive it keeps me motivated!

What are you plans for the the engine/trans/suspension setup? Keeping it stock?

[Spikedog08]

Like Cody said . . So an area at a time!  If you have questions,just ask the forum!   

[Rdchallenger]

Cool to read you're not discouraged, a lot would be, keep at it. Also cool to see you putting a 73 back on the road! Keep posting progress, I'd get it up and running as soon as possible and then finish it from there. Mine still isn't finished but the fact that I can get in it and drive it keeps me motivated!

What are you plans for the the engine/trans/suspension setup? Keeping it stock?

Oh I am very discouraged haha, but I'm not one to quit on something and am very stubborn so I have that going for me! Anyway It is originally a 318 car. I wanted something a little more fun so I found a 340 that down the road I will put a six pack on. It is a '73 block but has '69 internals. Put a slightly bigger cam in as well as a different intake and the HiPo manifolds. The rear was an open dif. With I'm assuming 2.76 gears? It's being turned into a Sure Grip with 3.55s. Suspension is pretty much staying stock besides just updates.

[Rdchallenger]

Took a couple of days and rebuilt the steering column. Everything looked great on the inside.

[roguedc72]

Soooo many bodyshop horror stories out there, my 72 went for maybe a 6 month body and paint work, 2 and a half years later, it's sitting in my garage again, nice and straight in the original rally red,looks great but I was grinding teeth at times. Oh yeah, the fender flags,hood scoop inserts and front and rear valances are STILL there, time to start texting and visiting again.

[Rdchallenger]

It's a shame that the '73s aren't desirable with all the stamping s I'm finding. These are from my heater box as I am currently taking it apart to put in new seals.

[RUNCHARGER]

Well, here's the deal. 73's are desirable and in the future if those markings are missing on a 73 it will be noticed. The restorations are getting better all the time so it's nice to keep a high standard when you can.

[Rdchallenger]

Question regarding some metal replacement and the correct order as I am doing a game plan while waiting on my weld cutters so am looking for opinions. The trunk floor, trunk extensions, and outer wheel house (both sides) is being replaced. Should I tackle the wheel house first? Or do the trunk floor and extensions first with the original wheel housing in place?

[dodj]

The guy was all about it thinking it would be an easy resto, but after it got blasted he saw the work that was going to need done and just stopped working but still had me buy panels. Out a couple thousand unfortunately but at least at have got the car back in my possession and it's not sitting outside covered up (yeah that's a whole new story), the crappy part about it is that it wasn't even treated after the blasting was done, I'm still finding sand everywhere.

It's frustrating how many times you hear stories similar to this. A car owner supplies a car to be done, ponies up the $ and can't get the shop to do what they are being paid to do.
A friend of mine has a mustang at a local shop for, I think over 2 years now. He's pissed but he figures if he gets mad at the owner it will only get worse.
It's made me decide to research spray guns. I've bought the bigger 80 gallon 5hp compressor. I'll paint it myself when the time comes with the help of Cody's videos and advice from the knowledgeable members of this site, I figure I should be able to do a presentable job. Might take two or three tries.....

[quapman]

This is why after 25 years of trying to find "the right shop", I decided to teach myself to do just about everything. The worst that can happen is that I screw something up and have to do it again or find someone who can fix it.

[Rdchallenger]

This is why after 25 years of trying to find "the right shop", I decided to teach myself to do just about everything. The worst that can happen is that I screw something up and have to do it again or find someone who can fix it.

Agreed, the most frustrating thing was when trying to talk to him about ways that an Ebody is different as far as lining things up or the way things may have been painted he hadn't a clue. That was one of the biggest red flags as well to know that I needed to get my car back and do it myself for piece of mind.

[usraptor]

I'm not a body man but my best friend is and did the body work on my '70 'Cuda.  I also needed a new trunk floor pan, extensions, both rear quarters and the dutchman panel.  He started with the trunk floor pan and then the extensions before doing the quarters and dutchman panel.  Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[LinceCuda]

The guy was all about it thinking it would be an easy resto, but after it got blasted he saw the work that was going to need done and just stopped working but still had me buy panels. Out a couple thousand unfortunately but at least at have got the car back in my possession and it's not sitting outside covered up (yeah that's a whole new story), the crappy part about it is that it wasn't even treated after the blasting was done, I'm still finding sand everywhere.

It's frustrating how many times you hear stories similar to this. A car owner supplies a car to be done, ponies up the $ and can't get the shop to do what they are being paid to do.
A friend of mine has a mustang at a local shop for, I think over 2 years now. He's pissed but he figures if he gets mad at the owner it will only get worse.
It's made me decide to research spray guns. I've bought the bigger 80 gallon 5hp compressor. I'll paint it myself when the time comes with the help of Cody's videos and advice from the knowledgeable members of this site, I figure I should be able to do a presentable job. Might take two or three tries.....

I had a guy screw up a paint job one time so I brought it home and let is sit for 2 weeks. I then spent 9 hours on it wet sanding then 3 hours buffing and it came back and looked fine. The paint was single stage PPG so you should be just fine doing it yourself.

[Rdchallenger]

So do the trunk first then worry about the outer wheel well?

[A.Gramz]

So do the trunk first then worry about the outer wheel well?

That's how I would do it if I had to do it again.