67/68/69 cuda dilemma

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Decided when i got the car that the rear quarters are getting replaced for a multitude of reasons, so i wont be bodyworking the sides. However i scuffed the LH rear one down to metal to put a thin coat of 2K on it just to make it look halfway decent for now until i can cut it off and weld a new one on. This cowl panel is really requiring more work. Gonna make a good push tonight to have the cowl, windshield frame, and top of LR quarter ready for primer for tomorrow. My little buddy was on spiderweb patrol today.

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Almost ready. Its 1am i'm tired. Wife is still out of town tending to her mom in the ICU about an hour away from here. She will be back tomorrow. Only have a few things to get ready tomorrow before i can tape and primer. Still a little more to go on stripping the paint from the cowl vent fins, some more fill and sand to do on one spot on the cowl. Also a little more cleanup on the windshield frame. Otherwise we are there. Thinking i have maybe an hour or 2 worth of work before i can spray some primer. I guess later today lol. I cant wait to get some more primer on it. This car looks terrible, but is getting better.
 
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moparmat2000 said:
Almost ready. Its 1am i'm tired. Wife is still out of town tending to her mom in the ICU about an hour away from here. She will be back tomorrow. Only have a few things to get ready tomorrow before i can tape and primer. Still a little more to go on stripping the paint from the cowl vent fins, some more fill and sand to do on one spot on the cowl, and a little more cleanup on the windshield frame. Otherwise we are there. Thinking i have maybe an hour or 2 worth of work before i can spray some primer. I guess later today lol. I cant wait to get some more primer on it. This car looks terrible, but is getting better.
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In the short amount of time you (and Patrick) have been working on it, I think y'all have made amazing progress and it's looking pretty damn good.
 
May 11th. So its been about 5 weeks. Yep pretty quick concidering what a mess it is. Funny thing is i have seen people cut up and part out stuff in waaay better shape than this thing. All i gotta say is shame on them. If you dont have the skills it takes to restore it, pass it on to someone who will. This thing is rough. I mean really rough. It was understandable that it was partially parted out given its condition. However i have seen running driving decent ones cut up.

Just recently a member here on fabo chopped up a clean and running 68 notchback just for the front clip from the crossmember forward just to save a fastback. Now correct me if i am wrong but wouldent a 67-72 dart or valiant 4 door have the same clip under it to harvest. I even offered to check with my local rust free boneyard out here as there is a nice 70 scamp more door and they would have sold him the front half of it for $300 cut at the windshield posts and behind the trans crossmember. I guess he didnt want to road trip it. However seeing dumb stuff like that done to a viable car, and a barracuda at that, when a more mundane more door car front frame stub shoild have been used for that. Well **** like that just chaps my ***

It will be years before this one runs under its own power.
 
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moparmat2000 said:
May 11th. So its been about 5 weeks. Yep pretty quick concidering what a mess it is. Funny thing is i have seen people cut up and part out stuff in waaay better shape than this thing. All i gotta say is shame on them. If you dont have the skills it takes to restore it, pass it on to someone who will. This thing is rough. I mean really rough. It was understandable that it was partially parted out given its condition. However i have seen running driving decent ones cut up.

Just recently a member here on fabo chopped up a clean and running 68 notchback just for the front clip from the crossmember forward just to save a fastback. Now correct me if i am wrong but wouldent a 67-72 dart or valiant 4 door have the same clip under it to harvest. I even offered to check with my local rust free boneyard out here as there is a nice 70 scamp more door and they would have sold him the front half of it for $300 cut at the windshield posts and behind the trans crossmember. I guess he didnt want to road trip it. However seeing dumb stuff like that done to a viable car, and a barracuda at that, when a more mundane more door car front frame stub shoild have been used for that. Well **** like that just chaps my ***

It will be years before this one runs under its own power.
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Wow, 5 weeks already? Time flies.
I know what ya mean on parting out cars. hated to part that other 72 Fury to put in mine, but like almost every other Mopar, hard to find certain parts for.
 
Had my little buddy dry paper towel wipe down the side of the car. He really digs the flip fuel caps on these. I showed him the one that goes on his car. He also wanted to show off his "Mopar wear". Somehow i dont think I'm gonna get my hat back. Told my wife we need to pick up a new Mopar hat for him. Got him sanding the top of the RH fender while i finish up the cowl and windshield frame. We are going to sand the top of the RH fender down to bare metal, and primer the tops of both of them today as well as primer the rest thats prepped, weather permitting. No bondo or dents in the tops of the fender, just straight sand n primer. Wish the rest could be that easy.

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moparmat2000 said:
Had my little buddy dry paper towel wipe down the side of the car. He really digs the flip fuel caps on these. I showed him the one that goes on his car. He also wanted to show off his "Mopar wear". Somehow i dont think I'm gonna get my hat back. Told my wife we need to pick up a new Mopar hat for him. Got him sanding the top of the RH fender while i finish up the cowl and windshield frame. We are going to sand the top of the RH fender down to bare metal, and primer the tops of both of them today as well as primer the rest thats prepped, weather permitting. No bondo or dents in the tops of the fender, just straight sand n primer. Wish the rest could be that easy.

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"The hat is gone" (sing it like B.B. King, lol).
 
Shot on more epoxy primer. I love this stuff. Sprays and sticks great, sands easy with 220. Also it has a slight sheen to it, so areas that still have defects stick out like a sore thumb. My main concern was sealing the bare spots to prevent flash rust. As stated the quarter panels will be cut off and replaced at some point in time, but i wanted to shoot a thin coat of primer on it to see how it was gonna look. The cowl turned out pretty good all things concidered. Theres some spots on it i have to fix, but i expected that.

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Not too much work on the car. It's been hot. Yesterday it peaked at 105° outside. Did get these though. Thank you so much Jim Fillmore at DMT. All carbon fiber appliques for dash and console. Going to black out the messed up chrome, and accent it with carbon fiber. Plus fender shields, and the wire clip for the column coupler. Everything looks top notch.

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moparmat2000 said:
Not too much work on the car. It's been hot. Yesterday it peaked at 105° outside. Did get these though. Thank you so much Jim Fillmore at DMT. All carbon fiber appliques for dash and console. Going to black out the messed up chrome, and accent it with carbon fiber. Plus fender shields, and the wire clip for the column coupler. Everything looks top notch.

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I haven't had a chance to order from DMT yet, but will soon. They were highly recommended by another FABO member and now seeing their products in pictures looks really good.
 
IMFURYS said:
I haven't had a chance to order from DMT yet, but will soon. They were highly recommended by another FABO member and now seeing their products in pictures looks really good.
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Wait till I get everything together with the black painted dash plastic and carbon fiber accent pieces.
 
Scavenger hunt pieces from 2 other 69 MoPars. I got these from Fabo members parting out some more doors. Thanks Fabo!!! Sandblasted em clean today. Gotta remove a little pitting on the back side of em, then shoot a little primer on em. They cleaned up good for 50 year old parts. I got nice used reflectors I polished up, and new gaskets from DMT too.

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Amazing! I'm totally jealous of the shop, ample amount of space, and bodywork knowledge. The car is looking great, and working on it with your son is the true work of art. Enjoy these moments.
 
Thanks for the kudos. My house hunting revolved specifically around having enough back yard space for the building. It is 31' wide by 27' deep. 10' walls 12' peak. Door is 18' wide. It has 100 amp sub panel service. I have 3 cars in there right now. The 2 barracudas and a Daytona Shelby Z. Center roof support is strong enough to lift an engine on the chain hoist.

If you decide to do a shop. Figure out what room you need, then double that number. You can never have enough shop space. Car has a long way to go, but is moving right along. Now we are in the hot season with 100° plus weather. Things slow down.

Been having trouble w pulling the pitman arm from the manual box. Done the whole heat with mapp gas. Quench w WD 40 over and over, then put the puller on it to get it off. Nothing works. We are swapping to a power steering chuck, and I need the manual one off. I dont want to install our new pitman arm on the new steering box yet, but may have to.

Car will be getting a major reskin job. Floors, transition pan, rear wheel houses, valance, quarter skins, dutchman, LH inner wheel house etc. Just want to tackle it with him when he is older and can help with more of it. For now sanding off the old paint, removing the surface rust and scale, fixing some minor body issue, and primer sealing it is keeping him happy. I call it scraping the barnacles since it is a "fish car"
 
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Yea that's cool. I will definitely have a house with a shop and the wife is 100% on board with it, just have to finish with school first. It's going to be fun following this and seeing the progress.
 
One of the things I have been doing is organizing the body bolt collection. I need to have enough good hardware for 2 cars. Awhile back RatrodAl sold me a bunch of body hardware super cheap. I needed it since this 69 didnt come with any.

Anyways, I have been soaking bolt lots in evaporust for 2 weeks at a clip. I put em in a container with an air tight screw on lid. Every time I go out to the shop, I shake em up. After 2 weeks I pour the evaporust in a different container for reuse, rinse the hardware thoroughly with clean water, and dump em out on my patio for a good hot bake to dry them out. Once dry, I sort them into plastic containers in order of thread size/pitch, as well as sort out the ones that aren't useable. I figure once I get this all done, then when assembly time comes I wont be dealing with cleaning rusty crap. Sandblasting does work, but cannot get all the corrosion pitting out, and surface rust will start back where theres still pitting if not cleaned all the way out. Plus I have time. Let em soak till clean. End up with a nice paintable black oxide coating on them.

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moparmat2000 said:
One of the things I have been doing is organizing the body bolt collection. I need to have enough good hardware for 2 cars. Awhile back RatrodAl sold me a bunch of body hardware super cheap. I needed it since this 69 didnt come with any.

Anyways, I have been soaking bolt lots in evaporust for 2 weeks at a clip. I put em in a container with an air tight screw on lid. Every time I go out to the shop, I shake em up. After 2 weeks I pour the evaporust in a different container for reuse, rinse the hardware thoroughly with clean water, and dump em out on my patio for a good hot bake to dry them out. Once dry, I sort them into plastic containers in order of thread size/pitch, as well as sort out the ones that aren't useable. I figure once I get this all done, then when assembly time comes I wont be dealing with cleaning rusty crap. Sandblasting does work, but cannot get all the corrosion pitting out, and surface rust will start back where theres still pitting if not cleaned all the way out. Plus I have time. Let em soak till clean. End up with a nice paintable black oxide coating on them.

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Well you know me, I'm doing this backwards too. I've been saving containers to sort nuts, bolts, etc. Now I just have to get nuts, bolts, etc., to put in the containers, lol
 
So I have these custom autosound kick panels Dan hooked me up with for Patrick's car. I also have a second set I got from another fabo member for my car as well. So all thru the internet, and I cant seem to find any good looking grille covers for them. Everything looks outer spacey ultra nuevo looking. I just want something that can somewhat pass like its period correct. I guess with a lot of things I do, I will be making my own. I have to make 4 covers now anyways.

I plan on making the grille covers out of either .100" or .125" aluminum sheet depending on what ends up in the scrap bin at work, and bonding some fairly heavy gage stainless steel screen (not window screen). This I have leftover from another project, and will bond to the back side of the grille cover frames. Plan on painting the frames semigloss black leaving the screen stainless color. Going to use countersunk screws to hold it all together.

So far I have the template made to the shape I want to make the frames. Now if I get time to tinker with em further I will, and keep y'all posted

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moparmat2000 said:
So I have these custom autosound kick panels Dan hooked me up with for Patrick's car. I also have a second set I got from another fabo member for my car as well. So all thru the internet, and I cant seem to find any good grille covers for them. I guess with a lot of things, I will be making my own. I have to make 4 covers now anyways.

I plan on making the grille covers out of either .100" or .125" aluminum sheet depending on what ends up in the scrap bin at work, and bonding some fairly heavy gage stainless steel screen (not window screen). This I have leftover from another project, and will bond to the back side of the grille cover frames. Plan on painting the frames semigloss black leaving the screen stainless color. Going to use countersunk screws to hold it all together.

So far I have the template made to the shape I want to make the frames. Now if I get time to tinker with em further I will, and keep y'all posted

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I knew it wouldn't be long before you we're figuring out how to make your own grilles.

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Really been itchin to do some real drill, grind, and weld sheetmetal work on this car since I picked it up. I know, some of you must think I am a masochist. LH inner fenderwell was rotten by the batt box. Somebody beat it flat and pop riveted a piece of aluminum over the hole. That's just not gonna fly, plus the battery is staying under the hood.

A couple years ago knowing I was going to have to redo this part of the car, I bought a nice preemo used LH inner fenderwell from sedanman off a 67 moredoor valiant he was parting out. Think he wanted $50 plus shipping. Sure it's not all new AMD in black EPDM primer, but then again it doesnt have the AMD price tag either. Plus as a bonus it comes pre drilled where Chuck had to pop the spot welds to get it apart LoL. It arrived in a flat screen TV box. Kids were stoked until I pulled it out of the box lol. Total BuzzKill for them.

Anyhow, for starters we are going to scrape off the undercoat. Then drill the spotwelds to remove the extra structure that's still attached to it. Lastly strip it to clean steel, and primer it with some epoxy primer to make it into a full prepped "new" replacement panel

First thing is undercoat removal. I soaked the old undercoat down with WD40 to loosen it up so my son and I can scrape it off. I will soak it every day for about a week, then we will scrape it off onto the paper under it, wipe off the leftovers with lacquer thinner and a paper towel. Roll up the paper, and in the trash it goes. Will keep y'all posted as I go. Its 100° out there, so I dont spend much time out there lately.

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Thats one of those moment that you want to record thier expressions when they see its not what they thought.
Does the WD40 break the chemical bond or it just works through loose areas?
 
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