SGTPauls 68 Charger RT project

[daytona kid]

:hello2:Very nice wedding! Beautiful bride! Great getaway ride also! I had a custom van for a getaway/honeymoon ride a while back., we made it to the 1st rest stop. "If the van's a rockin don't come a knockin"! lol.. Wishing lots of good fortune and happiness for you two!
Funny, some may not know but that vw is probably worth more than most of all our precious mopars..

 

[Propwash]

Hey Hey.......Congrat's!!! Best wishes for a happy & prosperous life to you both.

Neat van man! Groovy!

 

[SGTPaul]

back to work slacker...

Thanks for the comments guys!

Getting settled into life together and after the Christmas rush I was able to get back to the R/T for a little work. Blasted the hood hinges, door hinges, and deck lid hinges. Took them into the body shop to prime since it’s too cold to paint with the polar vortex hovering over us for me to paint. Will start getting doors and fenders on when I get those parts back. Trying to keep going while waiting for those parts to get back to me I took the three grills I have apart. Looks like I’ll end up with about 1 1/2 grills when I get done. Boy that plastic is sure brittle. Will work on getting the grill frame back into shape to help me with fender alignment. Will be hitting the WPC swap meet north of Detroit at the end of the month!!

Don is starting to catch up to me so I have to get back to work… :toothy9:

 

[smyythe68]

Looks like ya got a hell of a start and alot of pieces. You ain't kidding about plastic, makes me nervous everytime i touch mine. It would be nice for someone to reproduce some pieces, 40+ year old plastic is getting scarce. I'll be at the WPC myself, Hope to see you there.

 

[daytona kid]

I just got thru doing my grill also (the frame anyway,) and put on my fenders. I'm going to wait till needed on messing with the plastic parts, yuk!. I put my fenders on and lined them up without bolting the grill frame on yet, other than setting it in place and checking to see if everything was ok with it and the fenders. The bolt holes for the frame are slotted and the grill frame wasn't a factor/help in the fender alignment (for me). I got the grill frame looking real nice and don't want it to get beat up (the top anyway) while doing the motor and everything else that might get it scratched. I lined up my fenders to the doors and cowl, the hood may come into play also but I didn't try it cause I'm hoping to get a fiberglass one later, so I may have to re-adjust a little then.

 

[747mopar]

Congrats on the marriage, best of wishes to the 2 of you! Yes those grills really stink to work on but at least your back to working on it.

 

[conv67bdere]

Don is starting to catch up to me so I have to get back to work… :toothy9:

Hey SGTPaul . . . I had to pick myself up off the floor after I read this . . . both of you guys are doing outstanding jobs ( and you're both on the leading edge of . . . something ) . . . what . . . I'm not really sure yet . . .

Keep up the great work and congratulations on your life changing event - Many, many, years of happiness to the both of you ! !

P.S. - Love the getaway vehicle to boot ! ! !

 

[Donny]

SGT Paul, nice to see you still at it, and sort of active! I'm going to do some Satellite work this weekend, but, most of my time is spent doing others' cars etc.

 

[Ron 73]

Great to see you haven't gave up with the car, and us.. I wish you and the new wife the best of the best, Congratulations!!!

 

[mopar4don]

Hey SGT, :icon_salut:
I sure am glad to see you back at it!
I was starting to worry that I would have to take the lead and be the guinnea pig.


OH wait! We have hunt for that!

Hey what timing, I'm working on my grill support to. So I'll be keeping an eye on you!:tearyeyed:
LEAD ON.

 

[hunt2elk]

Hey SGT, :icon_salut:
I sure am glad to see you back at it!
I was starting to worry that I would have to take the lead and be the guinnea pig.
View attachment 232936

OH wait! We have hunt for that!

Hey what timing, I'm working on my grill support to. So I'll be keeping an eye on you!:tearyeyed:
LEAD ON.

Hahaha. I sure was glad to get mine on the road, but now almost kind of miss working on the thing. Maybe a little restoration withdrawal?

 

[mopar4don]

I think you need to do another!

 

[SGTPaul]

back to work.... slacker!!

Hey Gang! Was a tough winter with an un-insinuated garage so I didn’t make any attempt to do anything. Did get out and hit the swap meets in Detroit, Indy, and Dalton OH and picked up a few items. Glad to report that I have been making some slow progress.

Starting working on the end of the R/T and move toward the front. Started by re checking the fit of the deck lid and quarter end caps. Noticed somehow I welded in the deck lid filler panel a little too high and somehow the gaps between the deck lid and the quarters were much wider than the rest of the ones for the deck lid. I tried several things but ended up removing the filler panel and replacing it since after cutting out all the mig welds it was destroyed. Guess I did too good of a job… Found out my lock pillar was also not in the correct location. Was able to salvage this piece and re-weld in with the correct location. Now it’s all good to go.

Stripped down the deck lid and only found one bad area to patch. I also started with body filler once the weather finally warmed up enough. Details out the inside of the trunk where visible and started on the tail panel and at the end of the quarters to true up everything together. Car is on roller skates to it is much easier to scoot around.

A few pics of my progress.

 

[conv67bdere]

YEAH SGTPaul is back . . . and buying up all the clamps in town again ? ? ? LMAO . . .

Nice to have you back and see some progress on your car . . . keep us posted on your progress ! ! !

 

[GetX'd]

I just bumped in to your resto thread. I really respect the work guys like you, Donny, 747Mopar ect are doing. Starting out with a nice shell and bringing her back to life doing most of the work yourselves. I love Charger R/Ts. Wish you the best on your project, finding parts and getting it all together.

 

[mopar4don]

I've got dibs on the clamps, and body sanders! :wtg:
Sanding inside the trunk.... that does not look like fun!

Great to see your back at it Sarge

 

[SGTPaul]

I've got dibs on the clamps, and body sanders! :wtg:
Sanding inside the trunk.... that does not look like fun!

Great to see your back at it Sarge

Thanks Don! From all my helicopter work in the army there was some pretty tight spaces and working blind some of those times, working in the trunk was quite spacious.

 

[a68postcar]

hey SGTPaul, I know a guy who flew Chinooks. I like the pic in your avatar. I just wanted to mentiona little tidbit for you. If you can find the Dodge factory SERVICE manual, all the frame measurements you will ever need should be in there. nice car. I like these cars a lot. the 68 model year that is. build away. BTW, Matt did good to mention the baseline measurements. you are gonna need em'

 

[SGTPaul]

Hey Gang! Thanks for all the comments!! Been a busy summer but not one spent on the R/T. We finally sold my wife’s house and got all her things move into my house and our overflow into storage units (1 big one for house stuff and 1 small one for car stuff). Never thought I’d be like one of the people in the George Carlen skit of having too much stuff… Oh well life has been very good!! We have started looking for a larger house with yes a good garage. My wife understands the need for a good garage or the need to build one before we sell my house. The Charger needs a home too.

Before all the moving business started I was able to get what I had been working on into xpoxy and fill primers. Unfortunately I was rushing and had some dust issues so I had to resand it all again. The last 3 – 4 weeks have been pretty good for progress. In addition to resanding the trunk area again, I took care of the joints from ¼ to roof, ¼ to rocker, and cowl to A post. The first two I used lead on the edges to form a nice hard edge, and metal to metal to fill in between. At the A post I used all lead and a little filler to smooth it out. Also sanded down and leveled out spots on the right side of the car from the fire wall to the end of the car including the right side of the roof.

Now working on the left side. Got the ¼ to roof and ¼ to rocker joints addressed yesterday. All this has been mostly manual block sanding with a little pneumatic block sanding to get the initial shape. After all this body sanding I think I’m going to have arms like Popeye.

A few progress pics below. 1st is from July and the rest are from the last couple of weeks.

 

[440ronnie67]

put it on sand it off, put it on sand it off x10000000000 times. looking great bud!!!!