I just joined a few days ago and I've made a few post but decided today to show off my restoration, discuss some of my stumbling blocks and modifications. My decision to jump into the Mopar world was completely inherited. When my father was a young man he owned a 1971 Dodge Demon. I don't remember how long he has had it but I can tell you he has spent 40 years talking about the car he wishes he could get back!!! So me and his wife devised a plan to get him one hell of a 60th birthday present. I found a 1971 Dodge Demon on Ebay and it just happened to be about 20 miles from me. I went and saw the car and spoke to the owner several times but he would not come down from the 4k $ asking price. After some more research and a lot of thinking, I decided even know it was way more work then I was looking for, the fact that it was so close to my house offset any money I would have spent traveling through the country and trailering home another car. Here is a picture of my fathers original car
My 71 Demon
- Thread starter JCBrindle
- Start date
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Here is the car when I got her home. Now what really irritated me with the PO is the way he took the car apart. I think he put it best when he described what he did. "I waited until I lost my job, lost my house, and had no money to decide to restore my car" and thats exactly what he did. He disassembled the entire car and stuffed it all inside the interior. Sanded down the paint and left the bare metal. Guess what the first thing he removed from the car was? All the chrome trip around the windows and doors. Guess what he put into the trunk first..... Yes under the engine block, heads, fan, pistons, crank, hubcaps, etc. is the delicate trim pieces.:angryfir:
Now because I bit off way more than I was ready for $$$$$. It was now time to spoil the surprise. I was not going to be able to fund this by myself and my fathers wife couldn't hide that kind of spending. lol. So here is me and my dad. I live in Orlando FL. and he lives in Delaware. This was the first time he saw the car.
It looks like a good project and hope most everything is still there. To bad the PO disassembled everything and threw it everywhere. Anyways your dad looks pretty happy and sure the HOA is as well.
Here is the finished result. It includes all new foam, new vinyl, solid black on the borders with a perforated vinyl where you sit so that it breaths. I know a lot of people Google and search what it cost to do this so I will tell you it cost us $980 to do the seats. It also included re-dyeing the plastic and fixing one of the locking mechanisms. The finished result was astounding.
ColoMopar
Well-Known Member
Dang, and I just sat down with my crackers and peanut butter for a nice long read. Kinda feels like a cliff hanger... I'll be back.
Oh and welcome!!!
Oh and welcome!!!
My neighbors don't mind what I'm doing because I'm the one who is always fixing their cars, homes, kids bikes, etc. lol. My HOA has a management company who hates me, and I love to make them hate me, ha ha. The demon sleeps in a garage so its out of sight. I work weekends and I'm off during the week so all my Demon work is done during the hours while everyone is out working.
684mulas
Well-Known Member
Cars never look their best after being taken apart, stripped and left sitting. It's too bad is wasn't packed up more carefully but If you look past all of that, it seems to be a pretty solid car. It appears to be a real 340, 4 speed car as well. If so, that's an awesome project. Is that the original engine and trans?
Great story. Your dad must have been pretty happy! If you are going to spend a lot of time and money on a car, then you picked a good one. Good luck with it.
Great story. Your dad must have been pretty happy! If you are going to spend a lot of time and money on a car, then you picked a good one. Good luck with it.
Now the parts ordering begins. This was good and bad. Good because my house became a mini Mopar warehouse of parts. Bad because as I learned later on in the build. There are time frames to return parts and when plans change you can get stuck with expensive parts that the company will not take back. Very important lesson. Fortunately I have a very good wife who didn't mind the mounds of Summit Racing and AMD boxes in the dinning room. The hood that was on the car was a plain Dart hood. Not sure why but it was what it was. I had to order a new hood scoop. As a joke I sent this picture to my dad and told him I was stealing it for my jeep which I just got done repainting. I'm still thinking about ordering another one. I kinda like it
During disassembly I fought and fought to get the dash out. It was loose but would not come out. Now you need to keep in mind I'm a 30 year old aircraft mechanic and consequently I'm having to learn a whole different way of doing things, working on a car older than me. I grew up working on cars made of plastic and fuel injected engines. Any newbies out there that wonder how to remove the dash.... You have to remove the windshield, which is where this little sons of bi#$@es live.
mopar79sean
Well-Known Member
I'm looking forward to reading about your build and viewing the pictures. Keep up the good work on the car and your build thread! It looks like you found a sweet ride for sure!
During the cleaning/de-rusting process I found out what lead was. Now of course I know what lead is but I totally forgot that they used it on older cars instead of Bondo. I was wire wheeling some rust and found out the windshield cowl seam is leaded. Notice the chuck of lead removed. :banghead: It was at this point that I decided I was going to be rebuilding this car the way it was supposed to be built. We quickly ordered a lead kit with instructional CD from Eastwood.
Here is a pretty funny tidbit. While I was working in the wheel well one day I noticed this sticker on the shocks :sign7:. I know the picture is blurry but it says life time warranty. Soooooo of course we sent these pictures to Monroe and told them what we were doing and that these shocks where shot. After a little bit of hassle they agreed if we sent in this set, they would replace them for free !!!! I haven't sent them back yet but we have the emails. I will let you know how that turns out when I get around to sending them out.
Once I got my lead kit in the mail I was kind of excited to give it a whirl. I watched countless videos on Youtube and watched the DVD that came with the kit. I decided to tackle something that wasn't so visible. I'm converting to a hydraulic clutch so I no longer needed the Z bar attachment fitting. Out it came. I welded the holes closed and then applied the lead. I was pretty happy with the result at the time however now that I have done a lot more of it. I will be re-addressing this area prior to undercoating. One of the biggest things I learned with lead is temperature and cleanliness is everything. I also experimented with leadless and real lead. I much perfer the real 70/30 lead. The leadless does not stick to vertical surfaces very well. This repair was with leadless.
In the passenger side wheel well I found the PO had welded what looked like a piece of erector set to fix a cracked upper control arm mount. I forgot to take a picture of his repair but here are some pictures of my repair. I cut out his welds, found the crack he was fixing. Cut out the bad metal, welded the bracket and then placed a doubler over the old bracket to strengthen it. I'm not sure if doubler is the correct term in automotive but in aviation that's what it is called when you build up layers of metal to strengthen up a repair.
Dartnut
Don't hate me because i'm beautiful
Great progress here.
Cudos to you for doing this for your dad.
I will be watching this one closely!
Cudos to you for doing this for your dad.
I will be watching this one closely!
Wylde1
"No Value Added" Member
Subscribed. :happy1:
Oh, welcome and..........
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
:headbang: :drinkers: :blob: :drinkers: :drinkers: :drinkers: :thumbup:
ccasion: ccasion: ccasion: :wav: :drinkers: :drinkers: :drinkers:
Wylde1.
Oh, welcome and..........
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
:headbang: :drinkers: :blob: :drinkers: :drinkers: :drinkers: :thumbup:
ccasion: ccasion: ccasion: :wav: :drinkers: :drinkers: :drinkers:Wylde1.
John Morrow
Mopars and Harleys
I also have been caught up in this Restoration ....:blob:...will be looking for up dates,,,,,,,,,, Happy New Year !!!!
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