34 year quest finally begins.

[Ohiowoodchuck]

Congrats on getting your old man's car back! That's gotta feel awesome. Good luck with the project. Looking forward to the updates. Assuming you'll go back to the original color and stripe scheme??? That was a good looking car back in the day.

Here is a little sample. Since all the old timers have either retired or past on there is no one who can just look up and mix a paint formula anymore around here. They have to use a camera. Luckily I have a part from my first car that is the correct fe5 red. We copied that again and ordered a gallon. Here is a test run to verify. It will give you guys a hint on where the car is going.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Kid power is something else. Even stronger with memories of hearing it going up the street.
Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild

 

[Challenger RTA]

This might be of help if you don't have it. Click here and you shall see. Service manual

 

[Cuda Hunter]

That's quite the stack there!

 

[Cuda Hunter]

Is this year the restoration of the car then? Starting in October?

Great story! Glad it all worked out.
Right down the road from ya all that time.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

Is this year the restoration of the car then? Starting in October?

Great story! Glad it all worked out.
Right down the road from ya all that time.

Yes sir actually he wasn’t able to get it in till December. He got behind on another couple of small jobs so it was delayed. He went full bore on it though once it rolled in the bay. Also yes, the car was within 30 minutes of my house the whole time. Except when it went to down south and brought back up here.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

That's quite the stack there!

Also that wasn’t all of it. They forgot to put the tail panel in there plus once we got farther in to it, we realized the rear frame rails were better off replaced than patched. So I had another order about half this size come in.

 

[heminut]

Great story! I'm looking forward to following this restoration. Please try and post pics as it goes on. Are you considering building a small block engine similar to what your dad built to go in the car?

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

Great story! I'm looking forward to following this restoration. Please try and post pics as it goes on. Are you considering building a small block engine similar to what your dad built to go in the car?

Believe it our not, I already have a 340 at the machine shop with brand new w2 heads and intake. Went in for a brand new build. Going roller cam and everything this time. The 340 had the standard j heads on when I picked it up though. It should be a pretty healthy motor.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

So around December 20th time frame a bay opens up and the work immediately began disassembling the car to start the sheetmetal install. In about a weeks time the car was gutted. No engine etc.

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[Challenger RTA]

I already have a 340

You got to like this guy. Probably just like his dad!

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

You got to like this guy. Probably just like his dad!

Even got a nos Mopar direct connect Gold ignition box for the ol girl.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

I thought I would post this picture just for laughs. This is joint is where the cowl meets the floor pan and the inner hinge panel on the passenger side. Notice the amount of seam sealer that was applied from the factory. The sealer had to be at least 1&1/4 wide for a good length up the seam. It just intrigues me on how crudely built this cars were, but it just goes to show how many different hands were involved on the assembly line back in the day.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

Back to the car. So the first order of business was replacing the firewall and upper cowl. The original firewall had a few poor attempts at some patch work. We really really wanted to save the upper cowl because of the body number stamping in and we tried every way possible but the metal was just too badly pitted to try to save. Even with today’s technology, I was still worried about some bleed thru or a hole just showing up and then deciding to go back in and replace it. We really didn’t want to do the same job twice. As full disclaimer to my build. It’s not a Barrett Jackson build or as nice as some of the other builds I’ve seen on here but I am extremely happy on how it’s turning out and the fact that I get to save my dads car is the real satisfaction in this for me.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Save the cowl number. Tack weld on or epoxy. Or drill a hole and screw it on.

 

[Ohiowoodchuck]

Save the cowl number. Tack weld on or epoxy. Or drill a hole and screw it on.

We did save the number. Cut out a large section of the cowl with the number on it. I just didn’t think it would be right to cut up a new cowl and weld it in there. Didn’t want people to get the idea I doing something sneaky even though my plans are to never let it leave my sight until death.

 

[Challenger RTA]

I think to attach it to the car somewhere somehow is the right thing to do. It show you took care to preserve what was left.