My 1969 1/2 440 ‘cuda

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Ouch! Had to do a little Frankenstein surgery on quarter panel. Also had to cut the rear valance out to straighten it up. Turned out really good.

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Inner fender wells and radiator core support are in place. Frame rail was repaired where the previous owner had hit a telephone pole and ripped the frame. I didn’t notice until years later that the passenger side inner fender well was a 1/4 inch farther forward. Fortunately everything was able to be lined up later.

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Gettin a few touch ups done on the inner fender wells. A few weeks before I took this picture this fella told me he had re-tapped a couple of nuts for me. I was busy talking to the owner about some things I wanted done and just nodded and thanked him. After they painted the inner fender wells I noticed to my horror that the nuts he was talking about were the ones used to hold the braces for the fenders on the 67’s. I totally forgot to tell them to cut them out and fill them in. STUPID.

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Steering wheel cleaned up nicely with some fine steel wool. Had to fix one crack in it with epoxy. Wire wheeled the whole dash then had to try and figure out where to hang it so I could paint it.

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After re-finishing the steering wheel spokes, did you treat them or coat them with something to preserve their finish?
 
Finished the hood up. Only got two runs in it. One was barely noticeable. Spotted the other one rather quickly but it wasn’t very noticeable from some angles of view.

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Got a bunch of chips in the paint trying to put the gauge assembly in. Had to do a lot of masking to touch it up.

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Decided to paint the cowl area and door jambs as well as the trunk drainage area so when I get it painted all that will need painted is the outside areas. In the end it didn’t work out that way.

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Got the wheels painted. Before painting the wheels I recall reading an article that said when trying to decide how the factory did something, think of two things, cost and assembly line. I was thinking at the time that it would be cheaper and more cost effective to paint one side of the wheel as opposed to doing both sides. I painted both sides black, assuming that Chrysler painted all there wheels black, don’t know where I got that from, and then painted the outside body color if that was what the customer wanted.

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Ran an ad in MCG magazine looking for an A-body 440 block. Didn’t expect I would get a response. Three months later I got a call from a fella in Iowa. He bought a 1965 Dodge Coronet in 1978 with an A-body 440 engine in it and drag raced it for 10 years before developing a bad piston. He pulled the motor and stuck it in his warehouse where it sat for 19 years before I purchased it. It took four months of talking back and forth and him wanting to check and make sure the block was ok for me to finally get it.

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Got the K frame attached and motor mounts in place. Got the engine back after 5 months at the rebuilders. Had to get a picture of me hugging the engine. I was so happy to finally have it back. Made sure to put the plugs in before putting the engine down in the engine bay.

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Got the spindles, backing plates and control arms hooked up. Engine is hooked up and almost ready to go. Finished up front brakes and got the rear axle and leaf springs in with some help from my brother and nephew.

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