Donny's 1970 Challenger

[Donny]

Hi! I figure I will start a thread on my newly acquired Challenger! I can pretty much see all it will need; a lot! However, I am flat out of room for the parts as I take them off, so, this one will not get pulled apart -- yet! My 69 Satellite will have to get its act together before I dive into this car. However, I have been hoarding all the new metal for my Satellite over the many many many months as my FBBO thread will attest! I got a pretty good helper kid now, so far so good, has good intuitive sense around the shop, with tools, but, when he's using this or that tool, I have to keep one eye on him as kids (he just turned 18) don't have the experience to keep themselves safe. But, he's a good helper and asset which I will develop. I sometimes feel like a Shop Teacher, lol! Good thing is I had a great Metal Shop teacher in my H.S.! Just doing a little bit to 'Pay It Foward'! Here's the Challenger...

The Split Bench seat is sort of rare...or so says the Upholstery shop, and many local Mopar guys have said as much too. As I said earlier I'm flat out of room, well, this forced me to disassemble this front seat; pull the backs off, and the covers and foam. All to 'store' them on some under-utilized shelving units. So, I got me some B5 Blue 'stuff' adorning the walls, and as you see after organizing and cleaning the car out, I found a lot of stuff, and a lot of extras too, and found the lost missing Fender tag -- clearly a bare bones model that was sold, so, this means someone ordered this car this way with basically no options except a Radio and Chrome trim!

 

[DetMatt1]

You still haven't finished your Satellite??!!

 

[72chally440]

What are your plans for this one? Those seats are awesome.

 

[74 challenger]

I do like that front seat. whats your plan?

 

[Donny]

Heck no! I never get a chance to do my own stuff! I'm doing everyone else's cars! BUT, I'm getting SO much experience on their piles, mine should snap together like a Lego! That is a cool seat! Today, I media blasted the lower seat frame to this front seat, yes, already at it! Why? Well, needed the storage space, and had to take the seat apart, and the lower seat was still too bulky, and the cover and old foam I removed, and it was a rusty hulk, don't like 'storing' rusty crap, so, I put the seat frame on the Mustang floor I was blasting today, blasted the frame, and got most of the floor clean too! LOVE doing my stuff this way, a piece here, a piece there, soon, everything will be done! My Satellite I did that way.

 

[MOPARMITCH]

Welcome Donny. I see all the hard work you do over on the other sites. I bet all that blasting can become monotonous at times. It looks like your car is B7 with B5 int, instead of B5/B5. I'm doing a 70 Cuda 383 4spd that is B7/B5 . Can't wait to get to it. But like you, I have one in the way first. A 68 Dart GTS 383 about 50% done.

 

[Donny]

It was a B5 originally, someone painted it the darker blue. Actually, when I'm buttoned up in my suit, ear plugs, helmet and blasting, it's almost like being in outer space or under the ocean, it's just me, and my thoughts, it's actually rather calming at times!

 

[Donny]

Need is a heckuva motivator! Front Seat; too big and bulky to store, so I pulled it apart and the bottom seat frame I media blasted and epoxy primed and put on the shelf. All the Trim pieces layed out on the trunk I also blasted all these and all small metal parts, put them all in White Epoxy...the color to differentiate the cars' parts, etc. My Satellite; it is slowly moving, got a 5.7 complete system for it, got most all the sheetmetal for it, and figuring out this time scheme to get some of my own time in on these personal cars; how? Hire someone to do the paying tasks!

 

[340challconvert]

The owner had the sense to bag and tag some of the parts.
A lot of work but a neat car.
Always liked the rarity of a bench seat C hallenger.
Good luck with the build!

 

[Donny]

A lot of people are telling me the Split Bench front seat is rather rare.

 

[Donny]

Moderate attention has netted the Seat frames blasted and epoxy primed. Doors removed, gutted and bagged and tagged, Doors blasted, doors pulled apart, inner rot repaired, doors re-assembled and tomorrow or Saturday re-epoxied. Same on Decklid which sits in Epoxy. Fenders and Hood are junk, not even going to attempt blasting and repairs. Nothing totally dedicated just slide in these pieces into the normal flow and work tasks of paying jobs. And all the Trim pieces too done blasted and epoxy primed.

 

[Donny]

Here's the Doors...Blasted, Epoxy primed, lower skin removed, re-blasted that lower inside area, re-epoxied inside areas, rust holes fixed, lower skin fixed, reskinned back on. Need to DA the areas again, and then re-epoxy where needed. This is the most complete way, love doing stuff this way!

 

[moparlee]

Awesome job Donny. They look better than when they were new. Nice job! I have seen some of your work on FBBO.

 

[340challconvert]

Doors look great!

 

[Donny]

Thanks. There is sadly no fast and easy way to work on these cars! Media Blasting and the subsequent metal repairs is the income, and, sadly I find it very challenging to source people to work who know anything about this sort of work! The thing I really hate the worst -- and I may be too hard on people with this statement -- is the 'self taught' welder who then thinks they know it all! I went to Welding school in the US Army, and, suffice it to say it was an all-inclusive school where we had to be proficient in every discipline, joint, metal types, glass repair, radiator repair and painting. I appreciate the can-do attitude, but over and over again I find these 'workers' who come around and say "I can do that", well, when I entrust them to do critical cuts, welds, fabrication, shaping, forming, etc., well, they just booger it up, so, I have to fix it as I can't let anything escape that is not meeting my standards. Oh well, rant over! lol.

I hope to get some work on my B5 car soon, the Porsche 928S4 fell in my lap early last year which has taken precedent as I want to get it on the road again before anything else as it's the newest, and rather coolest car I have that is best suited for an every day driver.

 

[Donny]

Little here, little there...hard to do! Got a new Trunk pan and floor drop offs today, and Upper Deck Filler Panel too. Going to keep buying here and there, then put it on my Chassis Table after the customers 69 Camaro gets done and off it.

 

[Donny]

Knocking a little out here and there. New trunk pan, Upper Body Panel, trunk drop offs are all new, blasted the EDP off and put in Epoxy and stashed away. Going to get Qtrs, outer wheelhouses, and Floor as needed. Do the same to them as above. The interior Door panels and interior trim was severely decayed and almost falling to pieces, but, the Upholstery shop next door showed me a trick they do; take a razor blade and scrape all the old damaged plastic till what remains is the new-appearing and now more flexible B5 blue colored panels ready for having new Vinyl applied as the embossing patterns are now gone b/c of the scraping process.

I still have not pulled the car apart yet - won't do that till my Satellite is put together and a roller. I know, this is a LONG process...but, I've been growing and when a business grows there are all sorts of issues that come with that growth -- my biggest concern has been labor, finding it, finding quality people who KNOW how do to the work they profess to do. The Car TV shows are great for driving business, but, they sure bring out the fools who think they know what the heck they are doing! I have very high standards, and nothing is getting out that does not meet them. One's name is hard to assign meaningful words to; having high-quality and he's an ass hole to work for are the labels I have, and both are exactly what I want. I sure don't need some former worker idiot saying "he's a good guy", and my work is sub-par. lol!!

 

[Donny]

I've been jamming on James' car and certainly establishing my own E body methods and procedures for when i get to mine. I won't be repairing many panels especially if new ones are available!

 

[fk5aar]

Looking good Donny, what's the best media to blast the metal interior trim pieces with the grain. I don't want to destroy the texture so figured soda might be best

 

[Donny]

As long as you have enough air volume you can bring down the psi and then add a soft media and you'll keep the texture.