MY Challenger MY way!

[DetMatt1]

Sounds like a great plan. I guess these low gas prices aren't good for EVERYBODY.

 

[jbearden]

Nope.By mid year it's predicted that 80% of drilling will stop.This one is looking to be worse than 2009 but who knows til it gets here.It'll come back in a year or two.

 

[moparleo]

Sorry about the oil industry slowdown. Great for us, bad for you. Get your questions ready, we are here to help all members.

 

[Donny]

Hey everyone, and James, James' car is in my hands now, safe and sound. We're doing a deal that's beneficial to the both of us. So far his Doors, Fenders, Deck lid has been Media Blasted and is in Epoxy Primers. His car body has been gone over every inch prepping it for media blasting. His Rotisserie that I'm building for him and this car is almost complete, hanging the body in it Sunday, blasting to start asap after hanging body in rotisserie. His car will need a new Roof, too much mushy metal all over the place, and best to get under the roof webbing and blast those areas too. He's going to need Full qtrs too, but, might be able to get by with patch/skins etc, but, maybe not, it's probably cheaper in the long run to get full qtrs -- might as well order two sets as I got his other B5 Blue Challenger coming my way which I'm sure also will need full qtrs. But, when the car is blasted is when we'll decide how far to go, etc.

 

[Donny]

 

[michael]

Rally dash a plus too!

 

[aussiemark]

It's easy to pay and have someone do it but way more satisfying to do it yourself.

 

[Donny]

Good and Bad news on James Challenger. It's better and worse than he though, and this alone is good and bad news! However, the long-term scenerio is good news! Goats pissed all over the roof, rotting all the roof structure all the way down the A and C Pillars and affecting the Wheelhouses, with severe rot. Good thing is it will be rebuilt, bad thing is much of it will need to be hand made. Good thing is his Floors are salveagle. Rockers are good. Upper Cowel was toast. I removed all the offending and rotted metal. We're going to do a mini-tub kit -- and there's no kit made like there is for the Camaro's, but, we'll be able to gain about 4-5 inches max in width once I do this modification. I ordered the first batch of new AMD metal, which I'll start installing here next week on his car.

We have a nice deal worked out where we both agreed to terms of compensation and both of us find it beneficial to our needs and wants. I don't normally do any deals where we're bartering, but, he's layed off, and has some stuff I really want and like, so a deal we made!

Here's what it looks like right now. Got some new metal, some areas never to see, or will see the light of day, but, I still get them all super clean, then epoxy prime -- better than the Factory ever did!

 

[Transamcuda]

Looks like you got your hands full.

 

[Donny]

Making progress!

 

[DetMatt1]

As if it weren't bad enough to have goats standing on your roof, they had to piss all over it too, filthy animals!
Nice work Donny.

 

[Contraption]

It looks like you did a good job removing all the rust. That must have taken a long time but well worth it with the end results. It's moving along nicely.

 

[Donny]

It never ceases to amaze me on the transformation of the Rusty Hulk to a Clean Non-Rusty Hulk! Matt! Looks like you have a few posts here, lol, I am at like 12 now? LOL! Stand by for me launching My 70 Challenger thread!

 

[Donny]

Its my anal attention to detail that I just can't get past! But, I have no intention of changing! Hahaha! The trunk bracket that the J Hook/Rod goes thru to secure the spare tire had rot on the inside, between this bracket and the floor, causing the rust to break thru on the underside. Removed this bracket, blasted the inside/underside, and cut out that offending floor section and used some old but good floor sections with the same bend as a replacement coupon. The original plan was to just inject some Panel Bond into the hole, but, I couldn't assure James the rust was gone and or inert, so, off it came. Didn't take very long at all to remove, blast and make a replacement coupon. I told James if this wasn't attended to, he'd certainly have issues later on down the road with this area...and many other little areas like this on his car.

 

[Donny]

Had a lot of time to get a lot of things done on James' car. It was a tough call whether or not to pull out and then replace the Trunk Floor. I really think James' sails would have had the wind knocked out of them! So, I cut out the bad areas on the pan, and replaced or repaired them. Moved up the the Cowel/Firewall area. Cut out the rot on the inside of the Cowel, made new coupons to weld in, and welded them in. The passenger side Firewall inner fender area was kind of ate up from Rust, so, those areas came out and new coupons made and installed. The passenger side Strut rod (ties inner fender to cowel) I removed as it was bent up a bit, this is the side that has a questionable Frame rail from a previous impact, this area had a bit of crinkled metal on the Firewall/Inner Fender transition. I'll have some pics in a day or two.

 

[jbearden]

The car has such a unique history. I'm glad so much metal is being saved because the car tells a story of the short but hard life it lived. It'll be nice and still retain most of the original metal it was born with. Thanks again Donny.

 

[Donny]

Glad you came up the other day James to see where we are right now on your car. As I said, I got more AMD metal on order!

 

[moparleo]

Nice progress.

 

[aussiemark]

I didn't think goat's piss could be so destructive, looks like this lucky Challenger is in good hands.

 

[Donny]

My analysis showed a constant briney liquid had to be continuously introduced from the top and it trickled down into the vehicle. I think the seam sealer in the roof went first, the piss then seeped between the roof spot welds and collected in the roof structure beams, made it eventualy down to the drivers side outer rear wheelhouse inner structure, pretty crazy! Here's the roof structure getting mocked up in paper cardboard which I'll make coupons from the mocked up paper. Warning and Danger Will Robinson, if your car has this problem, this is a huge expense! And you'll never know it unless your Roof is questionable. It was border line whether to keep the qtrs and save most of the roof and spot in repair panels here and there, if we went that way, we'd never know the true extent of the massive internal rot of this car! It's now and only concern is safety and structural integrity.