My '72 Challenger project

Next up was fuel tank removal… nice & easy really, just supported it with my transmission jack, undid the straps & lowered it down out of the way…





Now with the tank out of the way you can see where someone has had a go at putting in a new boot floor here before, now instead of removing the whole floor looks like they decided to only replace the back half of the floor, as you would expect a halfarsed job was done on this…





Next up was to pull the bumper off, that would then show the extend of the rot behind… yeah it’s pretty bad… guess who’s buying more repair panels from the US…





There was also a little bubble on top corner of the boot channel, nothing too big



Also bought a new tool… a door jack to make the removal & refit of the doors a one man job (in theory)



Now for the fun bit… I get to play with the plasma cutter again, out with the old floor(s)

It seems that someone had installed… well that’s a strong word to use, someone had inserted an additional set of inner boot sides between the rear Qtr & the existing boot floor sides… looks like they literally belted them in place with a hammer & then wedged them in place with old cut up spanners… I can only assume that the mechanical genius here went on to work in F1 or for NASA, if not I’m sure you’ll agree that they are a wasted talent…







I opted to just cut the Qtr panel to get the stupid old floor out in the end as that particular Qtr panel has a few bad spots & I can see a full replacement panel in its future to be honest…..



I needed to drop the rear springs down to give me more room & to take the strain off the rear chassis rails as I start playing around back here, so first up I cut the exhaust off as it wasn’t designed to be bolted off the car in pieces



Then I was able to use my trusty transmission jack to take the weight of the diff to allow me to unbolt the end shackles & disconnect the rear springs

My new Bonnet turned up & it looks pretty bloody good.. there are some slight imperfections towards the front where the crease line for the central bulge runs down, I suspect that this is a stamping crease line & that they all have them… it’s nothing major & a tiny skim of filler (or a 2nd coat of high fill) will cover it up.. my panel beater wants to massage it out a bit more before we get to the filler stage, but it’s such a small imperfection I not fussed





A new set of door hinges too….



The new guards also turned up & they look great,







The only thing I would have liked to see on them is the holes for the side gills pre-drilled… so now I’ll have to go google the exact measurements needed for their placement…





Also these guards have the cutouts for the side marker lights to be installed in, now my car never had them when I got it.. both the front & the rear side marker holes where covered up & I think that I’ve really grown to like the smooth lines that that gave to the side profile of the car so I think that I’ll cover them up on the new guards too

Wow, it s been a while since I ve updated this thread.. I ended up spending a little over two months out of the country there in April & May & then when I got back there was a lot to catch up on long story short I m a long way off where I had expected to be by now but for those of you following along at home this is where I m at now.



Ok, so this update starts with more new boxes . I m on first name terms with the shipping & customs guys by now.. so I headed out to the airport the other week to collect my goodies..







So what s in the box Dave I hear you ask well there a few bits as you probably tell by the number & size of the boxes I have the under boot floor brace sections with the new fuel tank mounting brackets, the rear beaver panel that sits behind the bumpers & two rear chassis rail sections I m wasn t 100% if I would need the chassis rail sections, but they were relativity cheap & I figured I d order them & be happy if I didn t need them rather than discover later that I did need them & then have to wait weeks for them to turn up







I also order two complete inner wheel houses







& of course two full rear Qtrs











Once I started to remove the paint & what turned out to be a lot of bog on the top of the rear Qtr where it joins the roof I started to suspect that this was not the cars original Qtr on this side, I m pretty sure that the lead & bog work are not factory..











Where the Qtr joins the door jam doesn t look too bad







The lower section on the sill is buggered, but as you may remember I have two complete sills already so I can replace that easily enough

Once I had all the easy to hack off bits hacked off then it was time to break out my trusty spot weld drill bit & drill out all the welds that held the inner wheel well to the support structure & the weld that held the guard to the inner door etc















Then whilst cleaning bits up I discovered that the rear panel beneath the rear window is also badly rusted & has had a halfarsed fiberglass & bog repair carried out on it, so that s another section to be repaired added to the list now







I also started to have a look at what would be required to swap out the rear chassis rail sections should I decide to do that











Then to cheer myself up I decided to test fit the new Qtr so I can see just how much fettling is going to be needed to get all the bodylines to match up.. the first test fitment went well, looks like it won t be too much drama (fingers crossed of course)

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

 

 

Since I knew that the boot lid fit, next step for that was to give it a rust treatment & then paint it in primer to protect it between now the day the car finally goes for paint





Then I started the process of stitch welding & plug welding the panels together… now I took a lot of pics as I went, but there is little to no point posting them all as often the only changes are ab extra few inches of weld somewhere… but here are a collection of pics where the welding has been progressing well & you can see the number of clamps needed to keep the car in shape starts to diminish













Also test fit some of the trim so I can remember how the gaps need to be & how large or small my stitch welds can be

Now that you have way too much lead spread across the panel it’s time to get the speed file out & start to shave off the access till you get the shape of the panel you want





Then lastly you can use a fine sanding disk to get it perfectly smooth







Now I’m making little tweaks to this car as I’m doing the body, you already saw earlier that I’m filling in the side marker lights front & rear to give the side profile a much sleeker & cleaner look… tonight I had another thought, the panel that runs under the rear window has a join line where it butts up against the rear Qtr… see here



I’ve now lead wiped that area too to make the rear of the car from the roof down across the back of the car flow better (well at least better in my mind, feel free to critic my work in the manor of an obnoxious reality TV show judge)



I could undo this by just running the angle grinder blade along it & reinstalling the line… but I think it actually looks much nicer & cleaner without it

I realise that this is just a single picture update to the thread, but I’ve been focusing on finishing up the welding & to be honest I didn’t see much point in taking close up pictures of lots of spot & stitch welds on the car…. But have no fear the project is progressing forward…. This pic is significant (well to me anyway), as it’s the boot channel welding on the drivers side of the car & what this represents is the last of the welding that needs to be done on that side of the car…. Happy days as they say, there is still a little more on the passenger side to go, but I think that the body work will be finished this month & then it’s time to prep for paint