My charger restoration dream car

[showard]

I took a break for a week and went on a muzzle loading deer hunt. I had a very enjoyable time, got some good exercise, saw some beautiful country and animals, and got some good meat for the freezer.
For my heater A/C box I bought a new evaporator core, heater core, and thermostatic heater control valve (H valve). They were pricey. Everything I do seems to cost me more that double what I thought it would cost.

Evaporator core.


Heater core with my new foam sealers attatched.


H valve mounted to heater core.

 

[showard]

I called up AMD to find out where my fenders were. They informed me that they had a flaw in their tooling and that they were working on fixing it and they expected to be able to ship me my fenders next year. SO SOON? Great, now I have to wait until January. I was kind of let down. I guess I will keep working on some of the other parts. This will not hold me up with the finish date because after I pay for the body work I will be out of money and need to keep saving more. I just would like to have my fenders now.

Meanwhile, my car is coming along.




Door jambs are all smoothed out.


Doors are looking good.

 

[Ron 73]

That sucks, I had to wait for a couple months for a tail panel from them as they were just plain out and didn't expect to make them again until January (last year) im starting to think they wait until they get enough wanting them and then the start of the year make them, probably just me lol, but if i hear this one again (January) lol, ill be wondering AMD is the best, i will say that!!!

 

[showard]

That sucks, I had to wait for a couple months for a tail panel from them as they were just plain out and didn't expect to make them again until January (last year) im starting to think they wait until they get enough wanting them and then the start of the year make them, probably just me lol, but if i hear this one again (January) lol, ill be wondering AMD is the best, i will say that!!!

I think you are right. I think that they wait until they have enough orders to make a production run. That way they don't have to spend a lot for storage.

 

[showard]

I finished the heater A/C box.:hello2: I installed all of the new insulation.


I calked and sealed it up. I hope that I will not need to get in it again.


It took some time and observation of some of my pictures to figure out how to put all of this linkage together but I think that it is working right now.

 

[Ron 73]

Very nice it really looks like your headed along at a good pace!

 

[roadrunnerman]

That heater/ac work looked like it was pretty time consuming but worth it in the end.

 

[showard]

That heater/ac work looked like it was pretty time consuming but worth it in the end.

I have watched some of your time consuming work. Keep up the good work I am learning from your projects. Everything on this car seems to be time consuming but I am enjoying it.
Thank you.

 

[showard]

I have been working on many of the parts for my car over the past couple of years. When I got my car it did not have a dash. I got a dash from a 69 charger and have been rebuilding it. It was rusted out at the corners under the windshield so I cut out the rust and reconstructed the pieces and welded them back in.
For sand blasting I thought that I would try one of the hand held sand blasters from Harbor Freight. It worked but very slow. I took several hours to strip the dash frame.



I sanded, primed and painted the dash frame.

 

[showard]

My A/C controls needed some attention.


I cleaned and polished everything the best that I could and bought a new heater control switch unit to replace the old unit.


I put label stickers on the front of the push buttons. They were originally stenciled on but I think they look good enough.

 

[showard]

As usual, the new sheet metal needed some custom fitting.


For example, my rear lower corners needed extra welding and duraglass.


Bob did a good job at making them look good.

 

[showard]

I took my gauge cluster apart and buffed the lens and cleaned everything. Then I had the gauges rebuilt and tested.

 

[mopar4don]

Who did you send the gauges to be rebuild and tested?

 

[747mopar]

Sure is looking really good! I remember those corner oh to well when doing my Charger but man the attention to all the little details is looking great. Excellent job:hello2:

 

[Ron 73]

You aren't messing around i guess, Keep it up you are on your way to some fun!!!

 

[daytona kid]

Very nice work! Thnx for the pics and info! 68s RULE!:headbang:

 

[showard]

Who did you send the gauges to be rebuild and tested?

I had a guy called lilwendal do them. He has a thread on the dodge charger.com forum that showes how he does them and the process at http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?topic=37999.0. I feel that he did a good job and the price was reasonable.

 

[showard]

My lower dash pads were warped and hardened from the hot dry temperatures here. I contacted Just Dashes and they let me know that they will trim, smooth, and straighten any of the imperfections before recovering them so I sent my lower dash pads off to them to have them recovered. $825.00 later I got them back. They looked nice but after I installed them I found that they were still distorted and my center A/C vents will not move because the pad has shrunk over the vent corners.:sad2: I contacted Just Dashes and sent them pictures and asked if they could fix my pads. I was told that they did there job right and that if I wanted them fixed that I would need to pay for the repair and recovering. I have not had them fixed yet, I am trying to decide if I can live with it or pay to have it fixed.:eusa_wall:

 

[jeepers007]

My lower dash pads were warped and hardened from the hot dry temperatures here. I contacted Just Dashes and they let me know that they will trim, smooth, and straighten any of the imperfections before recovering them so I sent my lower dash pads off to them to have them recovered. $825.00 later I got them back. They looked nice but after I installed them I found that they were still distorted and my center A/C vents will not move because the pad has shrunk over the vent corners.:sad2: I contacted Just Dashes and sent them pictures and asked if they could fix my pads. I was told that they did there job right and that if I wanted them fixed that I would need to pay for the repair and recovering. I have not had them fixed yet, I am trying to decide if I can live with it or pay to have it fixed.:eusa_wall:

View attachment 216878

Wow... that's not saying much for just dashes service. They do the work, and charge you, but then do not guarantee it?

 

[showard]

I have heard a lot of good about Just Dashes. If the pads are straight they will cover nicely.
My suggestion would be to pre-fit the pads on your dash and make any trims and adjustments before you send off the pads to have them recovered. I thought that they would have references to compare.