Brad's 1970 Challenger, living the dream! The evolution continues!

[YellowThumper]

Quote: I don't know about your neck of the woods but around here mold makers are just not in demand and any remaining jobs pay very little."

Yea, not much here in SoCal anymore. Mostly small job shops left that can run real low overhead. Read in low pay...
Fortunate to be at an oem of medical devices. Everything is designed, engineered, produced, and sold in house. Unheard-of in today's world but is working for them.

Now back to your regularly scheduled build.

[dodj]

nice brad,ya metal beaver.           

Lol.
New forum name for Brad.  MetalBeaver's70. Lol
 

[brads70]

I took out my grill and cleaned it up and repainted it, along with new headlight buckets. I used dark textured argent  spray bombs from Roseville and for the honeycomb grill part I used duplicolour engine enamel "aluminum"  I spent a few hours trying to clean each little square but it took forever and with less than satisfying results so I cleaned each square with a tooth brush best I could taped it off and sprayed it. DO NOT USE OVER CLEANER on any part of the grill. I tried it first on the backside and it etched it and turned it dull. I found the best thing that worked well for me was worn out 600 grit sandpaper soaked in acetone. That really worked well and quickly. It brought up the bright anodized parts like new ! I was really impressed how well it worked. Don't stay in one spot long just enough to remove the 45 years worth of road crud. Wipe it off before the acetone evaporates.  Now the new repoped headlight buckets come painted black and I wanted argent so I was quite surprised how fast the black paint came off with acetone . If I was wanting black I would recommend removing the black paint anyhow as I don't imagine it would last long. Take the time to lightly sand the areas that will get paint so it will stick better. After looking at the original argent it had black specks on paint in it that the spray bomb didn't have so I simply stood back and " fogged" it with black trim paint till I got it looking like the original. I used my original headlight buckets for reference. I did remove enough rivits to take the center grill out. I used simple 1/8" pop rivits to assemble, not " correct" but you can't see them anyway?Taping it up takes some time but Its cheap to do, takes some elbow grease and about $30 in materials but I'm happy with the results! The entire job, removing the bumper and grill , painting and installing took me about 5 hours. Its a fun Saturday morning job!  I was waiting for the repop grills to come back instock but after seeing them in person at Carlisle I decided to use my original. It was in great shape just REALLY dirty after 45 years of service. The repop grills are not correct as the suround around the honeycomb part is simply painted silver on the repops not bright anodized like the originals. I figured if they are going to charge as much as they do it should at least be the same as the originals... Hope this helps someone out down the road...

[Mopar Mitch]

Nice job Brad!   I'm planning on redoing my grille, as well, since it off the car now (empty engine bay, etc).   T/Anks for the posting!

[IMNCARN82]

DanG BraD!!     Look at that chromE !!    WoW   That's one of the nicest challenger front ends I've ever seen.  It pops.    Straight,Clean.

[brads70]

DanG BraD!!     Look at that chromE !!    WoW   That's one of the nicest challenger front ends I've ever seen.  It pops.    Straight,Clean.

Thanks, looks better in picture though. Needs a paint job....

[EB3-GranCoupe]

 

[Chryco Psycho]

Awesome job just like everything you do

[marc70challenger]

Awesome job just like everything you do

 

[Archialfa]

Finally got them installed. The oil pressure gauge didn't work so I had to send it back to Speedhut ($40 shipping next day delivery.) I was in a hurry as the dash was disassembled. They send it back next day as well so all in all pretty good service. I figure "stuff" happens and it's how they stand behind it that matters!
My son keeps egging me on to test out the 0-60 and 1/4 mile time features on the LCD screen!
I still have the autometer gauges hooked up ( hanging below the ash tray) and the temp gauge reads 5 degrees hotter than the speedhut gauge?

Brad, what did you do with the bezel? Did you remove it and then attached the gauges or you attached altogether to the backside of the dash? How did it fit?

[brads70]

Brad, what did you do with the bezel? Did you remove it and then attached the gauges or you attached altogether to the backside of the dash? How did it fit?

Check out this post it has more detail.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=102488.0

[Archialfa]

Check out this post it has more detail.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=102488.0