Sublime Lime 70 Challenger R/T SE

[Dodgey]

Started the restoration of my new 70 Challenger. Previous owner had all the exterior body work done. I've mostly stripped the interior and started the process of bead blasting and re-painting all the previously painted internal components. Long way to go yet, only finished the steering column, ashtray, instrument panel light tray and glove box lid at this stage.

Unsurprisingly on a 53 year old vehicle (build date Sept '69), I'm coming across some areas that need some rust preventative treatment in the pillars and rear floor pans. Front pans and trunk pan already replaced.

The hardliner came out without too much trouble. Turns out it's an aftermarket one already. It's sitting on 4 large foam blocks in the photo, they are supporting essentially what would be over the heads front and back so it keeps it's shape. The fixing for the console is non standard and following what someone else did on this forum, I'm looking to fibreglass the top side of the hardliner. It's got the slightest sag over the driver and just starting over the passenger. Need to mock up a frame ribcage to push up the two sags so I can glass it. Job for another day ...

 

[Dodgey]

Doesn't feel like much progress, but I've completely gutted the interior now. Finding more rust holes that will need to be treated (bottom of firewall and under the rear seat). Luckily nothing too drastic to require replacement panels.
I made up a "rib cage" of sorts to support it from the inside and also to help force the couple of sags in it back out. I lightly wet the topside in the areas of the sags and left it to dry. Just doing that with it sitting on top of the "rib cage" seemed to help lift the sags out quite a bit.
I've now got the first coat of cloth and resin down and will see how it comes up once it's cured - at least being in the southern hemisphere, I don't have to worry about the cold stopping the resin from going off ...
I also discovered when I took the console off, that the four clips and mounting lugs were all still there. They'd just been installed with the front two facing backwards and the back two facing forwards. Explains why the console wouldn't slide off after I removed the retaining screw.

 

[Chryco Psycho]

looking good , you need to paint black behind the grille where the green shows through when you restore it also .

 

[Dodgey]

looking good , you need to paint black behind the grille where the green shows through when you restore it also .

Thanks - was that a Matt black or a gloss black behind there?

 

[Chryco Psycho]

Flat black the same as the grille , th lower rad supprt was also black below the front valance .

 

[Dodgey]

So my console dome light has been modified to take a non genuine light fitting. It was held in with tape, so not very effective.

Looks like the OEM ones are as rare as rocking horse s%$t. Any chance that someone has an original one they can take some photos of the switch mechanism for me? If I can get some photos of that, I should be able to make something up with the remains of the original dome light fitting to make it look like the original. I know it has had the centre cut out of it, but should be able to fix that, particularly if I use an LED bulb in there where it won't have the heat.

It looks more discoloured in the below photos than it actually is. The lighting was pretty bad, with a little bit of metal polish it will come up a treat.

 

[Dodgey]

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, but progress has been made. Unfortunately I’ve found more rust that’s got me a little side tracked but working through that.
In the mean time, picked up an excellent second hand dome light assembly, finished rebuilding the steering column and totally pulled out the front suspension. Not surprisingly all the bushes, tie-rods and ball joints were worn. So currently sand blasting everything attaching to the k-frame and will hopefully get re-painted this weekend.
My big excitement today though has been the return of my dash pad from the Dashboard Dr. They did a fantastic job a recovering my dash. Very happy with the finished product! Still have to bead blast and repaint the outer speaker covers.

 

[R4Sedan]

Dash Pad looks great. How about some more pictures of the rest of the car.

 

[Dodgey]

I was just going to replace the bushes, tie-rod ends and ball joints. That soon turned into take it all apart, sandblast and re-paint …
Now the fronts out and looking sparkly, I halfway to putting it into the rotisserie to fully check out the underside and strip and redo the diff.

Slight detour

 

[Katfish]

Nice prgress, looking good!

 

[Dodgey]

Also got the dash frame blasted and re-painted now as well.

 

[Dodgey]

So, spent some time the last two days on fabricating the brackets to mount her into the rotisserie. Wrapped up today with it fully completed, she's still resting on axle stands as my next job is to drop the diff and rear suspension. Also will take off the doors and hood to lighten her up while I work on the underside.

At the front it's a 1/4" (6.5mm) plate welded to the square section tube using the bumper bar mount holes. The square tube then slides into the ends of the rotisserie frame. Two bolts on the bottom, and two bolts on the side hold the square tube in place.

At the rear, again the 1/4" (6.5mm) plate welded to the ends of the square section tube and uses the rear bumper bar mount holes. The tube then slides into the ends of the rotisserie frame and has the same 4 bolt setup as the front.

At this stage I haven't balanced on the cg yet - I'll wait till after the doors, diff and hood are off to Balance.

 

[Lunchbox]

Nice looking pad. New or did you have it redone?

 

[Dodgey]

Nice looking pad. New or did you have it redone?

If you mean the dash pad, I had it recovered.

 

[fk5aar]

Very nice!

 

[Buckminster]

Simply beautiful work. Very nice.

 

[Dodgey]

A little more done this weekend. Diff body, carrier housing, brake drums, backing plates, each of the spring leaves and the hangers. Essentially all the removable rear end components blasted and painted. Still have to put the assembly line paint markings on them.

 

[Dodgey]

Been working on the rust in the inner/outer cowl hinge on the passenger side. Ended up totally removing both sides of the cowl, they were rotted through at the base and top section. Once removed, the top of the rail was also rotten, so cut it out. Thankfully was I removed all the built up crud from inside, it was actually in pretty good condition. Minor spot hole weld, bent up a new top rail and good as new.
I've got the two replacement sections for the cowl hinge, test fitted and thankfully the door opening comes out as the same measurements as the untouched drivers side! So a little more spot welding to do next weekend and I've got that job done. Aside from painting it ...

 

[Katfish]

Really impressive!

 

[Dodgey]

I've now got the new inner and outer hinge cowl back in place. While I was working on the cowl, I was getting more and more unhappy with how the replacement front floor pans where put in. Turns out they were cut oversize and tacked down over the top of the hole from the original pans. Once I cut them out there was a lot of rust in the overlap between the old and new. Painful, but glad I took the out. Now just have to cut them to size, and make up some additional bits to replace remaining parts of the original pan that are too far gone, sand blast the insides of the transmission support and frame rails ...

All I was going to do was replace the worn suspension components and I keep finding other things (being distracted ) that I need to fix/repair.