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My 66 Charger restoration story.

Aerogoth

Member
Local time
12:56 AM
Joined
Sep 16, 2019
Messages
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Location
Novi, Michigan
So I acquired a 1966 Charger late last winter right before the icy winds of Michigan started which likes to keep everything on hold. This spring the restoration has started.

First I would like to say thank you to the members of this community an to the few of you I have met, helped me get some parts, sold me parts, or steered me in the right direction for the parts, a very sincere thank you! (Oh an btw I will be pestering all of you more along the way for more parts as I find what I need )

The story for this car, well it has been my dream car since I was 3 years old, my Godfather had one an he was always telling me when I graduated high school that car was going to be my graduation present. Sadly he had a house fire when I was 15 an the car was lost to the flames.

So I finally find one and the deal actually happens!!! I was super excited after the deal went south on 12 previous others. We do the norm exchange photos make arrangements make the deposit, say forget all that here’s all the money I’m not going to lose another one.

The journey begins, so the car is rough but it’s all there, not a easy restore but one definitely worth doing. First shipping delays, my normal guy I’ve used his truck breaks down on the way to pick her up. One week delay not bad, he gets the car an starts the cross country journey. When the car arrives finally the front glass is blown out and the interior is gone, not pieced but gone, I contact seller, he says I sold you the car not the interior so I let my brother have the interior to use to restore his , I said well what about the windshield, the reply oh that broke when he tossed his tool bag on it...
Moving forward easier to forget than deal with stupid lol.

On to the fun stuff so I finish cleaning the guys mess he left and stripped what was left of her down to the skin to begin fresh. I started the inventory process of what do I know I need to start collecting especially stuff I knew would need some love to resto to like new.

So far I’ve blasted the car an now it’s at my body shop having a nice rest on the rotisserie. Thankfully the only body problem was 1 blown lead joint and 1 dent caused by the the morons tool bag.

After the stripping I pulled the fenders, the hood, the deck lid (which was the most rust covered part). Now that it’s all stripped down, after the lead joint repair I’ve coated the car in etch primer to preserve, prevent, an seal away any FE O2 that may still be there. After the etch prime I’ll be doing a triple layer primer with blocking an sanding after each coat to offer a better protection and to give me a beautiful base for the future paint job.

I’ll post more pictures along the way.

oh side note, Those damn Quarter windows suck!

D3B28095-C97A-4D13-B79A-7A9AC6538108.jpeg 87BD8314-B905-44BA-A8F8-8BB50FC45AA0.jpeg 4D12322A-6827-4C25-90D8-645873F986E9.jpeg 6BD31CDE-B841-4E50-801E-EA444A5E5291.jpeg 3568CA35-44CF-4001-8FE5-FF267A002C61.jpeg 5D94A9D4-08B4-4CAB-97DA-376B0BEF433A.jpeg 5144388F-1063-4D35-BA7E-DA765055981A.jpeg C3F12335-B7CC-4795-8753-8C712DFE1D24.jpeg A2CBD986-2EA3-499D-B984-02E0A386F71C.jpeg 487C06E5-E9FE-4EC3-A381-23B547532AE0.jpeg
 
Congrats! If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? I've had a complete project 66 for sale. Looks lovely me it maybe gone this week tho. It has a complete interior. Did you see pics with a interior???
 
Awesome car! Looks great so far.....:thumbsup:
 
Nice car, the quarters look really solid.
 
You’re doing great work on that
 
It warms my heart to see someone building a car with passion. One step at a time and it will get done so long as you keep the passion for it. If I didn't have passion for building cars I would not be doing it, I still get excited to get new parts, make new things, etc. Its all about the creative side of the brain.
 
Are you a body guy? That’s a huge advantage. I recommend (INSIST!!!) that you properly burn out the lead seams and weld those in. They were supposed to on my car and didn’t. Guess where my three cracks are . If you don’t, you’ll have cracks, then bubbles, then unhappiness. I can’t count the number of c-pillar bubbles I’ve seen on 1st Gen cars. Do it right once. And once you’ve mastered it, you can come and take my car apart, grind out the lead, weld it, and repaint my metallic blue without anyone noticing, replace the interior, glass etc.

Right. Sounds awful, doesn’t it?
Attached isn’t mine, but it’s the way it should be done (better than new!).

885C66C1-6950-4A37-BD31-A6CE2D8FA8DB.jpeg DAE8791D-347D-4200-B34D-6A99F91791C7.jpeg
 
Congrats! If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? I've had a complete project 66 for sale. Looks lovely me it maybe gone this week tho. It has a complete interior. Did you see pics with a interior???
I got it for a song honestly it was 2,500 after shipping I was about 3,400. Yes unfortunately when I bought it all the pictures provided had the interior inside, needed completely redone but the frames for everything an the entire center console was there lol.

On the bright side though one of the forums members had the extremely elusive front seats It was definitely worth the drive up to Canada to get them. On top of getting the seats met a way cool car guy an got to see both of his rocking 66s he had.

I have got lucky so far for the hardlines if the interior. For the console, the rear seats the hideaway divider, door panels and rear interior quarters I met one of the people from Michigan’s mopar club through our forums an he hooked me up. He has 4 beautiful 66s in his garage an 5 other amazing cars lol.
 
You need seat medallions? I have one for 66/67
 
Are you a body guy? That’s a huge advantage. I recommend (INSIST!!!) that you properly burn out the lead seams and weld those in. They were supposed to on my car and didn’t. Guess where my three cracks are . If you don’t, you’ll have cracks, then bubbles, then unhappiness. I can’t count the number of c-pillar bubbles I’ve seen on 1st Gen cars. Do it right once. And once you’ve mastered it, you can come and take my car apart, grind out the lead, weld it, and repaint my metallic blue without anyone noticing, replace the interior, glass etc. /QUOTE]

Well I’m not a true body guy, the advantage I have been blessed with is my Godfather has been a body an fabrication guy for 37 years and his best friend/ former boss/ the guy I helped keep his shop has been doing body work for 45 years. Tons of experience between them both, but they are old school guys they do “ Hey we will tell you an teach you but she’s your baby so you do the work an buy us the beer!”
Lol so far it has been good. They may not physically be working to much but they stop me before I make a mistake. However I can lay paint, on to most anything, but to me painting is relaxing an methodical. So that part of painting an blocking and sanding I’ve been doing since I was about 11. I started learning mechanical repair when I was 14 so that part I’m good with as well.

Yes the fenders on the car front to back, the roof, the deck lid, the quarters were all in really good shape. The good had one dent from the bag an one slightly off the exact middle of the hood in the valley. So for that I’m very thankful for.


Thank you to everyone for the responses an please watch the thread when I get to re wiring her HELP!!! Lol I want to switch to a painless system because of a lot of missing stuff but want to use original dash gauges an switches...
 
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Seat medallions were only 67 in first gen I believe, so you saved a couple hundred bucks and a couple years of searching!

B950D961-E054-47A2-8485-786776A49D49.jpeg
 
Here’s a pic . Center comes out and can be painted to match

26764835-4975-4454-B811-553963FD8F3D.jpeg
 
Looks like good metal, and power brakes!!

Did he ever hint the word interior is not included....I'd never do that to someone
 
So small update an need a little help. Car is etch primed now and completely DA sanded down. I was getting ready to apply the first coat of primer when I saw something.

I believe it is a bumper ridge that is supposed to be there but one of the guys that’s teaching me the body stuff says nope it’s not. So before I prime I wanted to ask you guys an see if anyone knows.

I circled a spot in the photo, there is a ridge like this on both fenders, which makes me thinks it should be there, the guy that says it should not be there is because it’s slightly off alignment.

Does anyone know if their front fenders has a bumper ridge by the top of where the bumper rides?

249BC6E7-E3E3-4E99-9E52-76118C991E6C.jpeg
 
Looks like good metal, and power brakes!!

Did he ever hint the word interior is not included....I'd never do that to someone
No unfortunately his wording was oh you get the car as you see it in the photos. Pardon the term sure it was a dick move, but after so many other deals fell through I was just happy to have my Charger lol.
 
I believe it is a bumper ridge that is supposed to be there but one of the guys that’s teaching me the body stuff says nope it’s not.

Does anyone know if their front fenders has a bumper ridge by the top of where the bumper rides?

View attachment 961481
I’ll go with no ridge. Probably an after market add-on (by collision).

33AA8A0A-E2AE-4FCF-BE12-C7881A860C55.jpeg 13242657-F699-4006-829F-E3FB784325A6.jpeg
 
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