'70 Challenger WSS (A91)

[383WSS]

Hello Everyone, My name is Mario, I'm new to this forum but I've been a long time visitor. After about 8 years I've decided to start doing a mild resto of my 1970 WSS Challenger. She came in "top banana" with the utterly terrible vinyl roof which has lead me to start doing rust damage control. Hopefully I can offer up some good pics of my work.

thanks!

[roadman5312]

  Welcome Mario, send lots of    as you progress.

[383WSS]

She wasn't alone those 8 years in the garage. That's my brothers '70 Charger.

[383WSS]

The first plan was to pull it out of the garage and have the engine bay face out so I could work on it. When pulling it out the front right wheel was frozen. The brake fluid had leaked out and froze the front drums. Yeah! front drums. I decided to pickup a cheap master/booster on ebay but get a front set of wilwood brakes up front. the swap was fairly simple. All the engine needed was a carb cleaning and a fresh battery. this allowed me to be able to move it around as I pleased.

[383WSS]

Now for the good stuff... took a razor blade and removed the vinyl top. Starting with the back window. You can see the damage on the roof skin and I was very bummed to see the window channel was also screwed. Guess i'll be needing to also swap out the filler panel and patch some parts of the quarter. http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/Smileys/default/bricks1.gif

[383WSS]

For the front and rear lip I used a drill bit to drill out the spot welds but it's tricky to find the exact spot and if you don't get it it makes it harder. The lips were so rusted that they pretty much came off without the roof. On the drip rails i got a spot weld cutting bit. it works wonders but same problem if you don't find the exact spot it'll make it difficult. Also, I had a little rust and on a couple welds the bit went right through, no big deal but still something to look out for when doing this type of work. I took the makita and removed the bulk of the roof.

[383WSS]

After removing the bulk of the roof skin I started working on cleaning up the edges... the structure underneath is in fine shape. I'll be taking a steel brush wheel and sealing it before the roof is attached.

[Haddixj]

any chance he is interested in selling the charger? looks good so far

[383WSS]

The joint to the quarter panel was tricky. I used a sanding disc on my grinder, got a mask and goggles and went to town on the lead. In retrospect maybe I should have torched it off. I cut the spot welds on the remaining bit of roof and got a good idea of the roof skin fitment now. The first picture gives you an idea of how thick that lead is... also I sort of trimmed the quarter steel too, ouch. but nothing major. All in all I'm sort of happy with the progression

[383WSS]

I got 4 clamps (1 for each corner) and mocked up the fitment. Needs some work. trimming on the front edges leading down the A pillars and more clamps to get a good seal on the drip rails.

[roadman5312]

You sir are doing some awesome work. 

[dfrazz]

She wasn't alone those 8 years in the garage. That's my brothers '70 Charger.

Those look like a couple of bad boys looking for trouble!   

[383WSS]

This weekend was a bit slow working on the challenger because I was helping my brother take apart his rusted together diff for his charger. I did manage to get my die grinder with a wire wheel and clean off all the surface rust on the inner structure and I sealed it with 2 coats of POR 15. Hopefully I'll get this roof skin on soon. Finally.

[383WSS]

Hey guys, just checking in... I've got my roof skin fitment at 98%. I am definitely using panel adhesive on the drip rails but i haven't decided if I'm going to use it on the front and rear edges, i was thinking of spot welding or plug welding. I have some POR15 touching up but I think i'll have it set this weekend.

[usraptr]

Nice progress!     Keep us posted with your progress!