'73 Challenger Rallye Restoration

[Bill]

Hi everyone.
Mr. novice here. I am going to have a lot of questions for the next year or so but I hope to have a nice 73 Challenger Rallye 4 speed w/ 340 on the road this time next year.
I have my car up on the rotisserie I built. I have taken off all the rubberised undercoating, sandblasted, sprayed some shaker cans of self etching primer on the underside of the car to prevent any surface rust from forming. Patched the frame rails where needed to have some new metal welded in. Built my frame rail conctors and torque boxes that will be welded in after the car is back on it's wheels. The guy I bought the car from last summer already put in new floor pans.

Today's question is what should I use to put on the underbody of the car? I was thinking something called "chassie saver" by magnet paints.
Thanks for your help everyone!!!
Bill (Vermont.... the land of RUST!)
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

 

[moparleo]

There is a product called Lizard skin that is used as a sound deadener and truck bed liner. I believe it also comes with the spray gun applicator , so you just need some compressed air. It is supposed to be practically indestructable when it hardens

http://www.lizardskin.com/

 

[Bill]

Thank you moparleo!
Looks like a nice "system". It seems to be just what I'm looking for. Looks like they make two products. A ceramic insulation that is designed to reduce engine and solar heat transfer and a sound control that is used to dramatically reduce road noise and noise transfer. Which one should I buy? They both can be used on exterior or interior of the car. I'm guessing the sound control would work okay since I should not have a problem with heat transfer??
Thanks again for your help!
Bill

 

[ramenth]

Or you can just go with a rubberized undercoating. Seriously, this stuff gets a bad rap, but back up a minute and ask yourself what did the metal look like under the undercoating you took off?

My '69 Sport Satellite sits on the ground. The rails and the floor pan are fairly clean. And that's thanks to the factory undercoating. Sure, after fourty-three years it's showing some rust. The rockers are gone. So are the quarters, but how many fourty-three year old cars do you know of, after sitting this long, have clean frame rails and a floor pan that are still strong. And this was after being driven in PA and NY winters, too.

Undercoating usually gets a bad rap because of the aftermarket places like Ziebart. Why? Because in order to work correctly it needs to be applied to absolutely clean sheetmetal. Ziebart was usually applied to cars that already had some mileage on 'em. Road film, some rust already starting along the pinch welds, small pockets of dirt already accumulating inside the rails, those are death to getting undercoating to stick.

Use a spray-on truck bedliner if you want. They work, there's no doubt about it. It's proven by all the truck beds out there that have stood up to the abuse. But don't sell undercoating short, either.

 

[moparleo]

If you want corrosion protection, use it externally. It will then protect your sheet metal, insulate against hot exhaust, deaden sound, not affected by petroleum based solvents, fire resistant. Does the same job as undercoating and much,much more. Just depends on your wallet and what you expect from your coating. Anything is an improvement over nothing.

 

[Bill]

Thank you very much for the info. I think I am going to go with either the lizard skin or a bed liner.
How are you making out Rameth? Hope all is well with you.
Bill (Vermont)

 

[Bill]

Anyone ever use Herculiner system??? Local NAPA has it for 1/2 price this week. Willing to pay for the right stuff but if kind of all the same stuff I can buy local and save some $$$ (take wife out to dinner tonight on $ saved. lol).

 

[Bill]

Anyone ever use Herculiner for an undercoading? It's heat rating is 258 F.

 

[btceng]

I wouldn't. I had it in a bed of a truck that I bought and it did not hold up to uv rays. I removed what I could and sprayed over the remainder with SPI bedliner and love it. I use SPI (Southern Polyurethanes Inc.) products and they have the best products and unmatched customer service. The best I have ever seen. Can be rolled on also. It's a 2k product and has the texture of LineX if sprayed using the right technique. Give Barry a call. http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/

 

[71Plym]

Bill,
Ask yourself if you really need to, or really want to, replace the undercoating that you just stripped off. I stripped the undercoating off my Cuda and left it off. The underside is painted body colour. I don't drive the car in conditions that would warrant re-applying undercoating.

 

[Bill]

Thank you very much for the input! Nice Cuda by the way! I was going to put POR-15 on it but that is ment for bare metal and I already put some shaker cans of etching primer on the bare metal to keep it from rusting. Soooooo after I finish my metal work that needs to be done on the car I think I will be spraying epoxy primer then a top coat of either paint or some kind of chassis black. Someone reccomented after the epoxy primer to use Rust-Olium?? I want to make this car a "driver" so I would imagine that I would be running into some bad weather from time to time. Although once the salt goes on the road in November or December, the Challenger will come off the road and in my garage. Damn car spent it's life in New England and I keep running into thin metal that needs to be replaced. That's okay, I am having a lot of fun with the car. 2 years from now it will be cool to take a look back at all the work I did. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It will just take a little more time than expected.
Below is car on my home made rotisserie and my sandblasted front suspension parts that are now coated with silver KBS "Rust Seal" that is kind of like POR-15 but comes in different colors. K-frame is sandblasted and epoxy primed.

 

[moparleo]

Rust-o-leum would be best as the primer not the top coat. Nobody knows but you what conditions you are likely to see with your car. Some people have a museum to put their car in, so it doesn't need any type of undercoat. Some areas are prone to salt and other corrosives so they need more protection. It is always better to do a little better job now than to wish you did it later. I would just stay away from petroleum, tar type coatings. Good luck with your car and keep the pictures coming.

 

[Bill]

Merry Christmas.
This is all of my wormen that I live with. My wife, two daughters and my mother. The dog is a female too. This is why I go to my garage to work on my Challenger (LOL). Oh, thats me with the dirty pants​

 

[Bill]

"Pound to fit, paint to match"!!. Sure hope this all starts to look better when I get some primer on it. Looks pretty colorfull right now but there is metal where metal needs to be and for the most part all the rust is gone. Had a question about all the little holes for mounting this and that in the inner fenders. I was thinking of filling them all in and starting over when I start to build. Any thoughts? I was also thinking about going with the ISIS control system and a Vintage Air heating and cooling set up. Happy holidays everyone! It's finally snowing here in Vermont!

 

[moparleo]

Vintage Air is tops in the industry, good choice. If you are going to fill the holes, it is a good idea to photograph the compartment before you do. It will be much easier to figure out where they were. When doing any type of repair or restoration of any part of your car, it just makes sense not to have to rely only on memory how everything went on and where. Looking good. Keep it coming.

You might also consider powder coating your component parts. Contact Dave at Totally Auto. He offers component restoring, Cad,zinc, plateing for screws and other parts that came plated from the factory. Reasonable pricing also. www.totallyautoinc.com
Mopars are his only business.

 

[Bill]

Again... Thanks so much for the info. Unfortunately both the 1973 Rallye that I am restoring now and the 1974 that I purchased a few months ago were both totally disasembled when I purchased them so I have no idea (well very little idea) what is supose to go to what hole in the inner fender wells. I have been taking pictures of anything that was left on the car. I met up with my local machine shop guy that has my 340. He has it all machined and he is going to bore and strok it out to something like a 370??? He is going to charge about $2,500 for parts and labor to build it back up. All the machine work was paid for by the last owner. Having fun!!!
Merry Christmas
Bill (Vermont)

 

[Bill]

Current budget for my 1973 Rallye project. Do you think it will be worth $18,500 when I'm finished? A friend of mine who use to work at an autobody shop painting cars is going to paint it at my house. I'm going to build a paint booth in my garage. It will be a solid car. I am making sure that there is metal where there is supose to be metal and doing anything I can think of to stiffin up the car. Hopefully I'm going to have Hotchkis rear springs, ploygraphite suspension upgrade, Vintage air, rebuilt 340 motor and a Vintage Air A/C and heat system. Not sure what color yet. I know it's my car but whats the hot color now? Build sheet says JA5.
Thanks for all your help and Merry Christmas.

Budget Spent

Car $6,200.00 $6,200.00
Brake lines $350.00
Fuel lines $200.00
A/C $1,350.00
Motor mounts $150.00
Motor overhautl $2,600.00
Paint $1,500.00
Undercoating $200.00
rear springs $500.00
seats $- $500
suspension freshing up $500.00
stereo $1,000.00
Exhaust + Exhaust cutouts $750.00
Misc. $-
ISIS Power system $1,552.50
Battery $100.00
Napa $17.30 $17.30
Napa $7.62 $7.62
Napa $24.26 $24.26
Napa $14.30 $14.30
Napa $19.07 $19.07
Napa $49.10 $49.10
Napa $84.22 $84.22
Napa $71.42 $71.42
Napa $62.83 $62.83
Napa $22.48 $22.48
Kibby equipment sandblasting$12.41 $12.41
Kibby equipment sandblasting $105.95 $105.95
Kibby equipment sandblasting $19.03 $19.03
Welding Gas $44.73 $44.73
Eastwood paints $282.88 $282.88
Metal for rotisserie $350.00 $350
Castors for rotisserie $65.00 $65.00
Paint for rotisserie $20.00 $20.00
Metal for connecting fram rails $44.00 $44.00
Map gas $9.53 $9.53
Hole saw 1" for frame rails $12.38 $12.38
Poly tarps $21.98 $21.98
Metal barker steel for frame rails $19.13 $19.13
Welder gas $41.70 $41.70
Welding helmet $80.60 $80.60
Repair book $73.70 $73.70


Totals budget $18,528.12
Total spent $7,775.62

 

[Avalanche]

Not sure if a 73 will bring in 18,500 when its done or not, but you should be close. As far as color, if the car is not original, then go with you like! If the car is #'s matching then keeping the original color always brings in more $.
Good luck with the resto.

 

[moparleo]

Cars are a labor of love. If you are truly concerned about return on the dollar spent, you might want to reconsider your hobbies. Do what rings your bell and don't worry about how much it is worth. Its your car, do it the way you want. Finally, the better the quality of parts and workmanship, the bigger your market will be if you have to sell.

 

[Bill]

Thanks again for the input. I agree 100% Leo. An old Challenger with a postol grip is "my car". Everyone has "their car" and this one is mine. I'm not worried about it, I was just wondering. When my car is finished I will know every nut and bolt on this car when I am finished. I will have the satisfaction of knowing that it all was done right to the best of my (and my e-body friends) ability. I have seen finished Clallengers for sale for 15 to 20k and I don't think they are as solid as mine will be unless they spent their life in the desert and from what I have been seeing is if they spent their life in the desert they are bringing more money. I am having a blast with this car doing all the things I wanted to do when I was a teenager. I'm building it to drive it and have fun with it. One way to look at it is if you purchased a 2009 vintage car for 18k it would be worth about 8k or less five years form now. One of the reasons my wife is on board is because she sees how much enjoyment I am getting out of this project. She was not on board af first but when she tells her friends and co-workers that I'm restoring an old car and they ask what kind of car and she tells them its a 73 Challenger everyones reaction is "WOW thats cool". So she is starting to see the light.
Back to the garage.
Merry Christmas!
Bill (Vermont)