My '72 Challenger project

Daved_XB

G’day all, so I’ve been away from the interwebs as far as posting updates to threads goes for a few months now.. lots of crap went on in my life & this was simply something that I dropped. I didn’t however stop working on my cars & I did continue to take pics as I went, so now I begin the fun process of getting the 3 project threads (not all 3 are on this Forum) up to date.

 

So my Challenger, this is a very small update as I have really parked this project in the corner of the shed for now as I have a very pressing deadline to get the XB finished so all of my spare time & efforts have been focused on that.

 

What small update I do have here starts with a tale of woe… I was moving some stuff around the shed to try & make space, turns out that 3 dismantled cars & bundles of parts for them takes up a hell of a lot of space, so when reorganizing I discovered that I had torn the covering on the driver’s side seat  

 



 

Not happy at all, but I guess that answers the question on what I’m going to be doing with the interior now, I guess I’ll order a new set of covers for all the seats now.

 

Then even worse was when I went to where the front window was stored….

 



 

On the plus side I guess I can fold it in half now to take up less room…. So now much to Mrs. XB’s dismay I have moved all glass & interiors to one of the spare rooms in the house.. I have also ordered a new box for the Challenger..

 



 

So, what’s in the box eh?… that’s right as you would expect it’s another box..

 



 

Now, what’s inside that second box? It’s a complete set of glass for the Challenger, Front & rear screens & all 4 side windows in the factory green tint. I wasn’t sure when I order this if I would get a full set of glass turn up from the states or if I would get the worlds hardest jigsaw puzzle.. but happily it travelled safely. Upon reflection I’m happy the front screen broke now as it forced me to get the new glass & the old side glass was actually very scratched up so it should be a great finishing touch to the car when I get back around to working on it.

 



 



 

That’s all for the Challenger now & to be honest I think it will be for a few months until I finish the panel work on the XB & then we can focus on the panel work of the Challenger.

Daved_XB

Right, so I had parked this project a few months ago now to focus on the XB Falcon 100%, now I’m kind of over the XB & just how much work that has turned out to be… so I decided two weekends ago to crack back into this car & get some more work done on it.

So the front is pretty much sorted as far as rust repairs & panel replacement & now it’s time to focus on the rear of the car & all the rust repairs that are needed there… Job one was to unstitch the rear light panel off the back of the car



There are a few spotwelds where the lower rear panel joins the ends of the two chassis rails



Once that area was cleared paint you can see the 4 x spotwelds that I need to drill out



The passenger side looks a lot worse than the drivers side does



Once the paint & surface rust is gone, I simple use my spot weld drill bit to drill out the weld



Now the metal here is so thin & brittle from the rust that it’s a good thing that I don’t need to resuse any of it as it’s almost impossible to separate the panels without just ripping the metal





Once the spotwelds are gone then I was able to split the panel from the chassis rails

Daved_XB

Both of the rear chassis rails need to be removed off this car as they have a little too much rust in the ends of them where the suspension & the rear panels mount, so I started measuring up the replacement sections & taking what seemed like hundreds of datum point measurements for where each part of the rail lives relative to the floor & the rest of the car









If you cast your mind back (or just scroll up & read some of the old updates) you’ll know that I had already cut off the drivers side rear Qtr & it’s only just been held on with clamps the last while… so off that came again to give much better access to get even more measurements of the rails pre-cutting… you know what they say, measure 137 times cut once…





This also gave me access to some crappy rust section just at the rear end of the sill panel, so out with the grinder & off that lot went… that’ll be a patch section I’ll have to make as no one sells it as a pre-fabed patch as far as I know



Then I decided to test fit the new wheel tub so I could A insure that fits up & B take yet more datum measurements prior to open rail surgery





Last job before tackling the rail was to cut the rear light panel off, as I’m replacing the passenger side Qtr anyway, I just cut that panel to allow for an easy remove

Daved_XB

There was no more avoiding the big job in the room, so I ground back the paint off the rail so I could clearly make it.. grabbed the grinder & went mental with the cutting disk









Now before anything gets welded back on there is a lot of test fitting & fettling to be done so lucky I own all of the clamps in western Melbourne as believe me you can never have enough clamps when doing a job like this…. First up test fitting the new chassis rail



Then test fitting how the boot floor section fits to that & how it sits correctly against the rear floor of the car



Then how the Chassis rail & the boot floor sit with the new wheel tub



This is the view from inside the car looking back at the wheel tub & how it sits against the original sections I’m not removing

Daved_XB

Then it was time to offer back up the rear Qtr



Now what happens next is literally HOURS of driving yourself insane… you check the chassis rails position against all the location measurements you took, then you do the floor & the wheel tub & the Qtr & every time you tap or move a panel or piece more that 1mm you go back to the start again, so many hours where spent gently reshaping panels where need & constantly measuring the chassis rails location in 3 dimensional space… of & door gaps don’t forget the shut lines need to be right & the crease lines down the side of the car… let’s just say that by the end of the day I wanted to kill someone… but happily I know that I can get the whole lot to line up exactly where it needs to live, so happy days I guess













Not content with destroying the drivers side of the car I went around to see what havoc I could cause on the passenger side, when I started to remove the lead join between the Qtr & the roof I found some bad rust in the roof…. Not what I wanted to find clearly

Daved_XB

With that new discovery being a bit of a downer I tried to cheer myself up by cutting another panel off the car, so off the passenger rear Qtr came



Then it was the turn of the rear panel that sits under the rear window that always looked bad









Turns out it had a LOT of fiberglass rust repairs done to that panel in the past, no wonder the rear window leaked



Test fitted the new replacement panel there for fit, this one will be very easy

Daved_XB

Luckily that roof rust doesn’t extend up too far, so making a new patch to fit to fill that won’t be a major job





Unfortunately there is some bad rust behind the passenger side Qtr too right at the bottom where the supports for the rear side window structure is



This will need some new sections made up by hand & welded in too.. but I’m almost getting the hang of this stuff now, so I think we’ll be right

Chuck_Norris

It's only when something comes back into your life that's been gone for a while, that you realise how much you missed it! Thanks for the update man. As always, quality work.

mikehn

Welcome back, you are an inspiration.

Daved_XB

I’m posting this update from an airport lounge Sunday morning, which of course means that I’m not in the shed working on the car sadly… but I get in a few hours yesterday, here’s what I got done

I ground off all the loose rust on the under structure where I’d cut the rust out of the roof & then treated it with rust converter… then I made a patch out of 3mm steel that’s way thicker than the original metal, but this is structural & not just an outer skin



Then I cut some good metal out of the old drivers side rear Qtr & shaped that to be the patch repair for the roof skin





I forgot to take a picture of the repair welded in beneath this patch, but trust me I welded that on…. Then I tacked this panel in place, it fits well..





That’s all I got done sadly & now I won’t be back in the country till the end of the week, but every little bit helps I guess.

Daved_XB

This Saturday just gone saw some metal growing from the back of the Dodge, with the passenger side chassis rail removed it was time to start putting metal back on the old girl…

The two new Chassis rails are just tacked in place for now, but they are both with 1mm of where the originals where (mind you that’s probably a mile out from where they should be)









The boot floor & the boot floor ends are in place, as the boot floor is in two sections I’ll have to trim the center line a little as they are designed to overlap







The passenger side wheel tub fits in nicely & now I can the extent of the rust repair patch I need to make up where the tub joins with the inner section behind the door

Daved_XB

Ok so operation make the arse-end fit continues to make good progress, I cannot even begin to explain how frustrating this part has been.. every time you get one panel perfect it shifts the next, I’ve now taken to using tiny tac-welds as well as clamps to hold panels in place…. The good news is that I think I’ve managed to fluke this in…. I can now get every panel on in the right place with all measurements lining up & all reference angles spot on too… it’s a proud moment in the Skunk works I can tell you









I also thought I’d share a chunk of work that normally goes undocumented, but is vital in any restoration… someone pointed out to me the other day they only see pics of my cars in shiny bare metal or with some surface rust & they asked am O putting it back together in bare unprotected metal… simple answer NO, no I’m not… everything gets brought back to bare metal & then a rust treatment is applied & then the panel is covered in primer, so below is that process on the boot floor (you can see just how much surface rust the raw metal panel got sitting in the shed over the winter)



Then protected & painted



Also the fuel tank straps for good measure

Daved_XB

Next up it was time to work on the rear tail light panel, sadly this is badly rusted too & they do not make a replacement panel new for this at all, so I was going to have to do this one the old fashioned way… first step was to blast all the paint & filler off



Now the section that joins the bottom of this panel to the top of the panel behind the rear bumper is rotten… very rotten so that had to come off



Also some rust repairs to the actual tail light panel itself needed to be made



Then I installed the panel & it fits nicely so looks like the rear panels are definitely within factory spec… now you can see the big gap where that joining panel needed to go



It’s a complex shape, it curves across all three axis’s so I had to cut slots into the steel I was using to make the panel so I can get it to fold & bend as I need…



I’m happy with the fit here, it lines up nicely.. it’ll need a little fettling when I get around to welding it in but it’ll work nicely I think

Wibbs

Inspirational work Sir.

Daved_XB

Sorry, links didn't work... lets try that again

Brief_Lives

I haven´t been able to thank you for uploading your work in real time, as I just saw this thread yesterday, but.. wow... what a read... what a journey.. Thank you for sharing...

Daved_XB

A little more progress made here, you may remember the inner section of the rear here needed some rust cut out where the inner wheel tub joins



Well a patch was made for that



Also the end of the outer sill here is badly pitted with rust from dirt & crap sitting between it & the outer Qtr..



So I decided to cut it off & see how bad it looked on the inside & if the sill needed to be replaced too



Turns out it’s fine on the inside & the inner sill is perfect too, I’d have bet money that that sill was rotten inside but for once the car gods smiled & it’s only surface pitting



Still not putting the crappy old bit back on so shiny new metal it is, along with the patch for the inner Qtr section too





Now I can start welding in the inner wheel tub

the_syco

I love this thread, and I love that you keep coming back with updates

Daved_XB

Next up was the drivers side sill panel, this one was worse on the outside.. the rust had eaten its way well & truly into the panel

 



 



 

Having said that the back of the sill wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be, so another simple patch went in & now both sills are good to go

 



 



 

The section of floor that joins the sill panel to the inner wheel tub was badly rotten too, so a new section needed to be made up & welded in place here..

 



 



 

Now I’ve yet to strip the paint back off the doors or the boot lid…. But believe it or not that patch above is the LAST of the rust removal/repairs for the body of this car!!… now all that’s left is to piece together the all new metal rear end panel work

Daved_XB

This is a very slow process to get right as you really need to assemble & clamp in place all the panels that interact with each other & ensure that all the gaps line up & that all the measurements are spot on… the frustrating thing is that moving any one panel by a few mm normally means starting over…. As you saw from the update above the passenger side inner wheel tub is already tacked in place, so now the task is to get the drivers side one all lined up.. I ran out of time on Sunday to so any welding but the inner wheel tub, the 2 sections of boot floor & the rear Qtr all fit up perfectly, so the next few days I get will be spent tack welding all this jigsaw back together..  

 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

 

Daved_XB

A bit more progress has been made… so this is the passenger side sill panel & these plug welds you see where needed because the factory spot weld process missed joining the inner & outer sill completely, the whole section for half the length of the car was unconnected… no wonder she would flex under hard acceleration



Next task was to clean off the rear cross member, with the old tar removed you can see some surface rust & pitting but not nearly enough to warrant cutting this section out & replacing





With the panel ground back to bare metal next step was to chemically treat the surface rust to be sure it goes no further in my lifetime.. the treatment really dulls the metal





Next a couple of coats of primer to protect it





When I was removing the floor I had no choice but to make this cut into the crossmember & it’s being annoying me ever since, so I decided to fix it



So I cleaned off the fresh primer

Daved_XB

Fired up the A-Team music & broke out the welder… the rust treatment of the metal makes the welds look a bit crappy it has to be said



But it doesn’t prevent good penetration, it’s not always the case that you can easily check the back of your welds to be sure you’re not the worst welder in the world… I reckon I’m bottom 5 but not worst



Then just clean up the weld & recoat in primer… it’s almost like it was never there





Then it was time to do a real job, you know something that makes a real step forward in the project… so I already knew all the rear panels line up, so now it was time to reconnect the rear suspension to the new chassis rails that are still only tacked in place for now to be 100% sure that they are in correct before finally welding them fully in place & making the chassis of this car complete again…

So using my trans jack I lifted the diff & springs up & connect the spring hangers into the rear of the rails







I’m very happy to say that it all lines up perfectly… the suspension measurements are all where they should be & the panels don’t need to shift.. so it was finally time to weld this puppies in.. I did this in two steps, first I welded the joins of where the new rails insert into the existing chassis

Daved_XB

Then I bent up a thick steel plate as a C channel sleeve & slid it over where the two rails joining & welded that in as a support to be sure it’s stronger now that it was before





Then to be sure that nothing has shifted or moved from the heat of the welding… the rear hanging panels go back on again to be sure it all fits & lines up right







SO I’m very happy & excited about the fact that the structural chassis work is now done & all that’s left now are the hanging panels that all line up so in theory it should only be a few days welding before it’s a complete car again… the big question is of course when will I get the time to get back into the shed… stay tuned &’ll find out I guess

Daved_XB

Time to join the two halves of the boot floor in the Challenger.. you can see here on the edge where it meets the inner wheel tub where I need to take 2mm out of each side to make it fit properly… I’m doing all the welding here on the underside so it shouldn’t like it’s two halves from inside the boot when it’s done





Now for the middle join







Next job was to strip the paint off the boot lid, first I needed to remove the chrome trip off the lip





Then I just needed to remove the stuck on badges.. happily they came off clean with no damage so I can stick them on the wall of the shed or on my tool box..

Daved_XB

Man the paint on this is thick… Mrs XB has her work cut out to get this back to bare metal… but I have faith in her work…





Now if you go way way back in this thread & look for a pic of the car before I ruined it by hacking it to pieces… you notice that it never had any side marker lights on the rear Qrs or on the front guards…. Now this is not stock or normal, there should be side marker lights front & rear… but I just love how my old Challenger looked & I think that not having the side markers was a much cleaner look… so I’m deleting the side marker lights from my new panels

Daved_XB

Sorry… just looking at the posts as they went up… I point out how I had to remove 2mm of the boot floor to make it fit to the inner wheel tub & then the first pic is of the welded article… I’m halfarseing the actual work on the car, but I don’t want people thinking I’m halfarseing the thread updates too….. here is the sliced panel in question

Wibbs

This is serious quality work. Kudos.

Daved_XB

One thing I’ve discovered is that you have to get very creative with the art of clamping when you’re doing work like this… I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again, octopuses would make great panel beaters of course the cars would be under sea water so it’s not all a plus… this rear panel is the one that connects the two ends of the chassis rails & it’s what the bumper bolts up too… so it’s the last of the structural panels left for me to weld

 



 

But weld it I have… so now the car is structurally sound… finally..

 



 



 

The boot lid was bolted on to make sure that the boot lid shaped hole I’m creating with all these new panels is actually boot lid shaped

 



 



 



 



 

The boot floor is now in place for the last time & will never be coming out again, just tacked in place for now whist the tubs & Qtr’s get sorted

 



 



 

Daved_XB

Sorting out the gaps for the boot lid where a bit of a nightmare as the Qtr panels are so long they bow & flap about as they are not welded to anything…. Again more outside of the box thinking was required to get the exact shapes & curves needed

 



 



 

The front lower section of the drivers side Qtr panel is now welded in place

 



 

Also where that Qtr meets the roof turret is now fixed

 



 

It would seem that all the frustrating hours over many weekends that where spent bolting & clamping panels on & off & checking & rechecking measurements & angles was all worth it… as it’s actually coming together really fast now, big chunks of real progress are being made each night in the shed now… it’ll be a complete shell soon…

 

 

Daved_XB

Ok… sit-rep as of Friday night.. all of the rear panels are now tack welded & tec-screwed into place in their final positions..










It’s pretty much a done deal now… everything lines up & everything fits… the final step was to test fit both the boot lid & the rear window for final gap checking… & I gotta tell ya she looks bloody good, I’m having a beer right now in celebration of what has been a long road to get to here..







Saturday & Sunday now will be a weekend long welding festival as I permanently fix these panels together… I can’t wait, it’s almost a car again!!!!