St. Louis Blues Cuda

[DeathProofCuda]

BTW, do we call you "Filthy" or "Filbert"??

haha.   Most folks call me Tom.   The "Filthy Filbert" moniker came from the Dakota RT guys.   We were at the national Dakota show, chilling in the parking lot at the hotel drinking beers and bench racing, talking about mods we've done, want to do, etc.    One of the other guys looked at the brakes on my Dakota and said "Damn Filbert, those brakes are Filthy"   another dude said "Filbert's Filthy Brakes"  which evolved into "Filthy Filbert"   

Now I have an LLC that I've set up to sell the brake kits under.   So far only offer  97-04 Dakota kits; but may try to come up with something for older Mopars.  I'll definitely make a kit for myself, but between wilwood and Dr. Diff, the market is pretty well covered in terms of 'big brake kits'



Over on Moparts I went by "70Cuda383" and almost used it here for recognition from any overlapping members, but decided to go with something that's more in alignment with my actual name.

@Filthy Filbert There used to be a guy on Moparts from Ohio that had a red 383 Cuda similar to yours that went by "Red383".  Different guy?

[DeathProofCuda]

BTW, do we call you "Filthy" or "Filbert"??

haha.   Most folks call me Tom.   The "Filthy Filbert" moniker came from the Dakota RT guys.   We were at the national Dakota show, chilling in the parking lot at the hotel drinking beers and bench racing, talking about mods we've done, want to do, etc.    One of the other guys looked at the brakes on my Dakota and said "Damn Filbert, those brakes are Filthy"   another dude said "Filbert's Filthy Brakes"  which evolved into "Filthy Filbert"   

Now I have an LLC that I've set up to sell the brake kits under.   So far only offer  97-04 Dakota kits; but may try to come up with something for older Mopars.  I'll definitely make a kit for myself, but between wilwood and Dr. Diff, the market is pretty well covered in terms of 'big brake kits'



Over on Moparts I went by "70Cuda383" and almost used it here for recognition from any overlapping members, but decided to go with something that's more in alignment with my actual name.

@Filthy Filbert There used to be a guy on Moparts from Ohio that had a red 383 Cuda similar to yours that went by "Red383".  Different guy?

I think I just answered my own question.  The cars look very similar, but his had a passenger side mirror, hood pins, driving lights, and a four speed.  Both cars red 70 Cuda hard tops with 383, dual scoop hood, and black hockey sticks.

[Filthy Filbert]

Yup.  Different guy.

I've always been "70Cuda383" on Moparts.   Was a moderator for awhile but then fell away from the site and got removed.

[Filthy Filbert]

Not much to update.  The disassembly continues. 

I did get a quote back from AMD on doing all the panel replacement.  I really want to lean towards a pro shop doing the work, but I'm also not after a concours restoration attempt, so I shy away when I get concours restoration prices. 

[Filthy Filbert]

I've got the pics of what appears to be parts that were originally blue or white and have been repainted.

1) Passenger side of dash frame, was blue, been painted black
2) under side of dash frame
3) looking inside the glove box
4) looking inside dash speaker hole
5) passenger side A-pillar  blue paint visible under the orange
6) package tray showing white
7) driver side A-pillar showing the mask line between blue/white
8.) engine bay showing orange under the black, and white under the orange.   
9) wetsanding down to bare metal.   couldn't really see any orange under the red, but there's nothing under the white

[Filthy Filbert]

DOH.   the curse of the flipping photos bites again.   some do it, others don't

I'm not going to go back and edit them, because then the order of descriptions gets messed up as I delete and re-attach the pics.   

[anlauto]

Whoever painted it orange really took the car apart, having the drip rail weather-strip channels off etc... that's rare to see on an older repaint job like that.

[Filthy Filbert]

Whoever painted it orange really took the car apart, having the drip rail weather-strip channels off etc... that's rare to see on an older repaint job like that.

Yea, that's why for the longest time I thought it was originally an orange car. 

[Filthy Filbert]

Pretty much fully disassembled now, well, except for the suspension, which I plan to pull off once I get some steel tubing and casters to make legs for it so I can continue to move the car around as needed.


Pulled the "patch panels" that were screwed in place over the holes in the front floor pan.   They started by cutting out the rust, but then water got in between the patches and what was left of the original floor, rusting it out even further.     Not a big deal, I plan to replace the whole floor anyway.  At least the frame rails are solid despite the surface rust and dirt on them.

[Filthy Filbert]

Not much in the way of progress.   But a large order of AMD stuff came in thanks to Roseville Moparts. 

Drove 6 hour round trip Saturday to go pick it up.  $70 in diesel fuel vs $250 freight bill. 

Full trunk floor
Full front floor pan
Tail light panel
Inner fender pair
Radiator core support
A few inner fender to firewall brackets


Previously acquired metal includes firewall and upper cowl, a-pillars, roof skin, passenger side quarter, outer wheel house, trunk gutter and trunk extension, rear foot wells, trunk floor braces, etc. 

Still need to order: passenger b pillar and sail panel brace extension, remaining firewall/inner fender brackets, spare tire and jack hold downs... that's about it as far as I can tell. But the AMD install center had a ton more on their 'parts needed list' before they would schedule it for work, so not sure where we're at with them.   Need to call him back again. 


Also arrived last week, headliner and console from SE Headliners. 

[headejm]

Let's go Blues!

[MoparCarGuy]

Are you sure you do not want to dip this car before doing all of the panel replacements?
There are a lot of hidden areas and some that you have exposed that are very rusty.
I hate to see you put on the new AMD sheetmetal only to have future rust issues.

[Filthy Filbert]

Are you sure you do not want to dip this car before doing all of the panel replacements?
There are a lot of hidden areas and some that you have exposed that are very rusty.
I hate to see you put on the new AMD sheetmetal only to have future rust issues.

Nope, not going to dip the car...

But, I am on the schedule finally with the AMD installation center.  The car will go to them, get media blasted and have them install all the panels using proper spot welding equipment and jigs and racks so that everything will be as good or better than it left the factory. 

Now I just gotta wait.   and wait.  and wait.   September 2022 is soooo far away!!    --but, I can pull the suspension, rebuild it, fabricate my brakes, I can tear the dash apart and rebuild it, etc. while I wait for my spot at the body shop

[cuda hunter]

I have to ask, especially since you mentioned earlier that it was "expensive".  How much?  How many panels?
I've considered this path but have little pricing to find anywhere on the net. 

[Filthy Filbert]

I don't really know how much.   

They built a quote that included replacing everything "from the waist down"  front and rear frame rails, torsion bar cross member, rocker panels, all floor and under-seat pans, shock mount cross member, etc.    So their quote was $24k for all metal and labor to install.

Mike Ross told me to expect $20k minimum to do the car

With the metal that I already purchased, assuming that nothing else major comes up during disassembly (My frame rails are solid, I think I've posted some pictures previously of them--so in my opinion, there's a lot of metal on their quote that does not need replaced), I believe I'm looking at around another $10k for the remaining metal I need and all the labor to install.   

Honestly, their labor isn't that expensive.   But, that's because they aren't doing any major fabrication work.   Drill out factory spot welds, re-spot weld the new panel into it's place.   They did say that to save on labor, they will sacrifice braces and stuff that are perfectly ok, because it's faster and easier than trying to save the small brackets (like the inner fender to cowl brackets and stuff)