'72 Challenger - Finding New Life

[Nick]

Alright, so here starts the thread, and hopefully it'll keep going until the car is done!

For a little background:

I bought this car from one of my dad's coworkers about 7 years ago (hard to believe it's been that long).  It was originally a '72 340 4-speed Rallye car which came to me pretty much as a shell, although it did come with box after box of parts - some usable and some not - which I've yet to fully go through.  The car was solid in terms of the floor pans and frame rails are great - almost completely rust-free.  With the exception of a few pin holes in the trunk and a couple small patches here and there, no major work is needed. 

When I first bought it, I really didn't have a great place to work on it.  Me and some friends were renting then and the garage was mainly used for storage.  I bought my house about three years ago which has a pretty awesome detached garage, but I was knee deep in college then and had a ton of other projects.  Now that I've gotten settled in the house, knocked out a bunch of other stuff, and I'm almost done with college (graduate in four months), I figured it was time to start back at it.  The Mopar Nats a couple of weeks ago probably persuaded me to get my ass in gear, too lol.

Current Progress,

I've bought a bunch of sheet metal for the car.  Some of what I'm replacing could have been patched or salvaged, but I didn't think was worth the trouble, and some really needed replaced. So far I've bought two new fenders, quarters, deck filler panel, trunk pan, trunk extensions, and r/t hood (the car came with a flat hood).  I think the only other thing I might need is a deck lid and one door skin, but I can probably save mine without a ton of effort.

I have already replaced one full quarter (my dad helped me with that one a couple of years ago), and now I'm working on replacing the other.  I've got  the other one cut off now, as well as the trunk extension and deck filler panel.  I bought the trunk pan with the intention of replacing it as a whole, but now I'm thinking I'm just going to patch mine considering it just has a few small pin holes.  I will make one decent sized patch next to the trunk extension on the passenger side so the new extension has some metal to hold on to.  In all honesty, I worry cutting up the car any more than I have it right now will go beyond my expertise, and I don't think the risk is worth the reward.  Besides, this car is going to be a driver.

Here are some pics of the way I got it.  I'll post some more of the progress so far below this posting:

[Nick]

Here are some pics of the driver quarter cut out.  I didn't occur to me until just now that I didn't take any pics of the finished product lol.  I'll try to take some and post them once I move the driver's side off the wall, which might be a few weeks considering it's all apart right now:

[Nick]

And here are some of the passenger side quarter cut out along with the deck filler panel, trunk pan extension, and trunk pan so far:

[roadman5312]

           Your metal work looking good. Nice prep.     

                                                                                     

[cudamadd]

Nice job , it takes. A lot of guts and skill to pull down a body like that .  Please keep the photos  coming cheers 

[jimynick]

I don't get it? You're able to replace the 1/4's and it appears you're doing a good job, but you don't want to change the floor? Mine looked better than yours, but I had (for once) a bright idea that since I was also changing the 1/4's, to just do it- and am I ever glad that I did. Once I'd removed the floor, I happened to lean it against the garage door on a nice sunny day. Imagine my surprise, when with sun shining behind it, my "not too bad" floor turned into what looked like a map of the cosmos with the pin points of light coming through the dozens of teeny pin holes that didn't show at all with it in the car. Just sayin' - your car, your call. 

[TelisSE440]

Nice work Nick!  I see (judging from the time you upload the photos, maybe you did the job on the Challenger before) that you work really fast!! That's awesome...

[70chall440]

I feel your pain, going through the same deal. I would say however that since you got it apart, now is the time to replace that trunk floor. You will regret it if you don't, but as has been said; your car your call.

[Nick]

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

Working on it earlier this week, I decided - against my better judgement - to go ahead and replace the trunk pan....I'm sure a couple of you guys will approve of the decision haha.

If I get done with some assignments today, I should be able to at least cut out the big parts of the skin tomorrow, then work on getting all the spot welds loose and ground down.

I'll be posting some questions in the body section about this part.  If any of you guys have experience putting in the trunk pan (or the entire rear of the car lol), please check it out.

Here's some pics of the tail pan cut out:

[70chall440]

I have never done a complete floor as one piece but looking at where your car is, it should be fairly easy. The one thing I can tell you is fit everything before you weld anything... ask how I know this...  Lots of clamps, clecos, etc will be your friend and the end result will be vastly better.

[Chlngrcrzy]

I have never done a complete floor as one piece but looking at where your car is, it should be fairly easy. The one thing I can tell you is fit everything before you weld anything... ask how I know this...  Lots of clamps, clecos, etc will be your friend and the end result will be vastly better.

YES. Fit it all back together with clamps, small welds, etc. Make sure gaps are where they need to be.

[70chall440]

slow and steady is the key; lots of fitting, removing, etc. Not really that hard, just have to be methodical and look at everything (fit) before you nail anything down. Point in case, when I did my Challenger, I didn't install the rear valance; I "assumed" that if the quarters were lined up the valance would fit... WRONG...