03DSGGT's '68 Charger build (Update 2/28)

03DSGGT

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Hey guys, I thought Id show some progress on my '68 Charger. Today we moved the Charger from my parents house over to my house. I started restoring it a few years ago and once I moved out, progress kinda slowed down. I ended up replacing the rear frame rails, trunk floor, full quarter panels, rear valance and a bunch of other little stuff. I still have to replace the floor pans and front frame rails. My parents just built a new house and my mom doesn't want welding and grinding going on in her new garage, so the Mustang will be staying there and Ill have the Charger at my house. Thought Id share a few pics of the move:

Pulling it out of the single garage onto the trailer:









On the way:



At home in my garage:







 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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Thanks! Its going to be a pretty standard resto. Nothing too crazy. Its an R/T with the original 440 big block, 727 trans and 8 3/4 rear end. Its kind of an oddball color combo that was special ordered, so we want to go back to that. Its a black car with dark green interior, dark green vinyl top and white bumble bee stripe around the rear. Its funky but cool IMO. We will be doing a set of aluminum heads but painted engine color and a larger cam as well as aluminum intake and Holley carb, headers, 3" exhaust etc. It will have all of the stock looking engine parts like air cleaner and valve covers, but it'll run better. We don't want to go too far from stock, but we also want to have a little fun with it. My next project that Id like to do is a 70-71 Duster and make a nasty street/strip cruiser. That one will get mini tubbed and a small block stroker with a 5 speed...
 

96blak54

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Cool project! Does this mean your pretty mustang has to sit out in the cold now?
 

g36 monkey

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O man, I know your taste, so I know this thing is going to look killer!
 

PinkieT

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Chargers are just about my favorite classic muscle car, style wise. Going with Stealth heads so they look stock but flow better, or Edelbrocks? I like the stock looking motor theme - buddy of mine had a 360 in a Dart that looked just like the stock 273.
 

1998cobrasvt

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Sick Charger. Metal is looking good :thumbsup:

My next project that Id like to do is a 70-71 Duster and make a nasty street/strip cruiser. That one will get mini tubbed and a small block stroker with a 5 speed...

YESSSSS, you barely see these cars. I have a soft spot for the 340 Duster. Back in the day, my father had one when i was growing up but had to sell it, once i recoup my car funds eventually i plan on restoring one for him and gifting it to him.

Also a fan of the dodge demons but they are slightly harder to find here.
 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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Worked on the Charger for a couple hours toady. It was in the 50's and from what I hear the crap is supposed to hit the fan tonight...near zero temps and snow :eek2:, so I figured Id get some stuff done. I ended up pulling the torsion bars, lower control arms, strut rods and the K member out so I can start replacing the rails. This is the first time that this stuff has ever been out of the car, so the torches and PB Blaster came in handy:









Here's why Im replacing the front rails. The drivers side has some holes in it. The inside had about the same size hole on the inside part of the rail directly across from the hole on the outside, and it was previously repaired by welding a plate directly over the hole...nice. Plus both rails are pretty bad in the upper control arm mounting pocket. So rather then try to repair it, Im just going to replace the rails with some nice western rails that we bought a couple of years ago:



 

Burninriverdiver

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You've got a lot of new metal! I can't wait to see this beast come together, most of my direct family are die-hard Mopar so I've got a huge appreciation for cars like this. Today was perfect garage weather, hopefully it bounces back to the 50s after the next week or so.
 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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You've got a lot of new metal! I can't wait to see this beast come together, most of my direct family are die-hard Mopar so I've got a huge appreciation for cars like this. Today was perfect garage weather, hopefully it bounces back to the 50s after the next week or so.

Thanks man, yea this week is going to suck pretty bad weather wise. Im probably going to wait it out for a few days. Even if I fire up the torpedo heater after work the car and all of my tools will be ice cold, so Ill just wait until it gets back into the high 30s-low 40s...
 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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Well, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather this weekend and do some work on the Charger. I was out of welding gas, so I got that issue resolved and got some stuff done. I started to make a fixture for the front of the car so I can pull the front rails out. I got it braced enough that I can pull the inner fenders and core support off. I am going to add a few more braces before I take the rails out just to be safe. I need to buy a couple more lengths of tubing to finish the fixture:

Making the fixture:







Grinding the edges to find my spot welds. I suspected some rusty/bonded areas because some spots were smoothed over which were covering the spot welds:





And the passenger side inner fender out. I have a few spots that I need to fix, then I will have the inner fenders and core support blasted so I can have clean sheet metal to reassemble:











Im hoping to get the other side off and the core support out tomorrow, then get some tubing this coming week and the rest of the way braced up. Its supposed to be very cold by next weekend, so if I can get the rest of the front braced up and the rails ready to start drilling out before the cold hits Ill be happy...
 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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Well, its time for an update. Ive been plugging away on the Charger over the last few weeks and wanted to post my progress. I had to do a little more work than I anticipated, but it wasn't too bad. I didn't plan on replacing the torsion bar cross member, but after peeling the floor away to expose the rear of the front frame rails for removal, I didn't like what I saw with the cross member. Also the inner rockers in the cross member and seat brace areas were pretty funky, so I repaired those as well. On to the pics!

Peeling the floor away:


Nasty cross member:





More of the floor out:





I added more bracing to the front fixture and I made a removable jig that bolts to the shock towers so I can locate the angle when the new rails go in:







With the front all braced up, I added a piece of angle iron across the rear of the frame rails just to keep them located when the torsion bar cross member is removed. Then out came the cross member:







I cut more of the floor away to expose the inner rockers. They weren't terrible, but pretty pitted and thin, so I removed the seat braces and cut out the sections of the inner rocker that were the worst. I cut out and welded in one side at a time to keep the center of the car as strong as possible:





Seat braces removed:





Cleaned and blasted the seat braces. I will need to do some patch work to them, but overall they aren't too bad:





I started on the passenger side inner rocker. I removed the section that I wanted to replace, then took it to work and fabbed up a new piece out of 18ga steel. Then I brought it home and tacked it in place. Finally it was welded and ground:















With the passenger side done, I marked and cut out the same area on the drivers side and cut it out. I cleaned up the flange and straightened it out and Ill be taking the piece to work tomorrow to make the new piece sometime this week. Im going to run up to Summit this week and place my order for the torsion bar cross member:



 

lwarrior1016

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Lots of great work going on in here! You've done so much to this thing already. I'm seriously enjoying watching this thing come together. Keep up the work, and make sure to keep us updated.
 

neverenuff

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Looking great, you definitely have your metal work cut out for ya. It's nice to see it done right and not patched together

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
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03DSGGT

03DSGGT

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Looking great, you definitely have your metal work cut out for ya. It's nice to see it done right and not patched together

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Thank you, its a lot of work but I'd rather spend the extra time and effort and do it correctly...
 

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