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Started on the Arizona 71 Charger R/T

chargervert

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Yesterday we moved my friends 69 Dart GTS 383 4 speed car out of my work bay and back to his garage. I brought my black 71 Charger R/T home, and moved the Arizona desert Charger R/T into the work bay to start the bodywork and prep the car for paint.
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This 71 Charger R/T is a 440 Magnum, automatic car that was originally Hemi orange with a black interior and vynal top. These pictures are in as found condition. The grey pictures are after the car was stripped down and prepped for paint.
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So tonight I went out in the garage and got started on the orange Charger R/T. The car is a power window car so a previous owner smashed a hole in the windshield right above the steering wheel to steer the car because they couldn't roll the side window down! So as soon as I got the car home I removed the dangerous broken windshield before someone slit their wrists on it.! So with the windshield removed I noticed that someone put clear silicone around the whole windshield! Usually up here in New England, when we find silicone around the windows, it's usually a death sentence for the window jambs! Usually when you pull out the silicone, the rotted window jamb comes out with the silicone! Not this time though! I painstakingly removed all the silicone to find ZERO rust! I couldn't believe it ! Not a single spot of rust under the silicone! That is the difference between a rusty New England car,and one from the dry Arizona desert! If you are buying a project Mopar to restore, take my advice and buy southern or western cars,you are so far ahead of the game by doing this!
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Dodged one helluva bullet with that silicone!! KEEP US POSTED!! Nice Black Charger there Rhode Island!!!
 
This is the original rear bumper for the car. It is in amazing condition, it is 50 years old
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and doesn't even need to be rechromed!
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The Dart currently looks like the pictures in this thread. It's just out of paint and ready to assemble. My friend Jeff painted the car for my friend Al,hopefully the car will be assembled by spring because his his daughter wants him to bring her to her graduation in the car. Here are some before and during paint pictures. It's a cool car,I found it for sale in the local auto trader magazine back in 1985 for $900.00! We went and bought the car after work that day. It's a matching numbers 383 4 speed GTS.
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Dodged one helluva bullet with that silicone!! KEEP US POSTED!! Nice Black Charger there Rhode Island!!!



I was sweating it when I saw all the silicone, and fortunately all is good! The black Charger is a driver, it's a twenty footer, but it's solid.
 
Well unfortunately for me, Shorty blew that damn train whistle and the block party has begun!
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Tonight I worked on the Black 71 Charger R/T. I put one of those dash caps on it. Overall it fits pretty good, but the wood grain insert over the glove box didn't fit well on the passenger's side outer corner. I heated it up with a blow dryer and it helped some, but not as much as I would have liked. I had to go buy the blow dryer because the last time I used the one in the house, both my wife and daughter put out a bounty on my head! I thought about using my heat gun but I thought it might be too much heat for the dash cap. It looks passable for a car that's a driver. This dash cap was made by Tamraz.
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I also started putting the dash together for my other 71 Charger R/T too. This one has a mint original dash pad. I was very careful handling the 50 year old original dash pad.
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I removed the rear window yesterday and it was also loaded up with sealer,but not silicone like the windshield was. It took me about an hour to get the window cut out and remove all the goop. The car was a full vynal top car so I did find one spot in the lower part of the window channel that I am going to have to weld.its just a couple pinholes in the Dutch panel where it meets the window molding. So far it is the only spot of rust that I have found on the car. I am at the point where I have to decide whether I want to put a full vynal top back on the car or weld up the molding holes and cut the pins off for the molding clips.
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According to the fender tag the car is EV2 Hemi orange with a full white vynal top and black side stripes.
 
No way ....I vote for vinyl top ....I like vinyl top
 
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