My 72 Rallye Resto

[Pat O']

I had to wait a while before my car would be taken in to my selected shop, so I took some time and fitted some sub framed connectors. I had my nephew weld them in for me.

[Pat O']

I have bunches of pictures of the restoration, and such but I'll pass on posting those.

The car was epoxy primed inside and out and underneath. My first Challenger was a B7 Blue and Vinyl top.  I had a spray out done on the B7 but wasn't quite happy. Basically it was the lighter B5 blue with black added to it.  Eventually I settled on a more modern dark blue with a bit of pearl in it. Has a very slight purple tint to it and a nice flip in the sun.

I'll just post the pics of the painted car fresh from the shop. I had the vinyl roof put on and new glass and door seals installed and fitted before they brought it back. I did all the stainless trim myself using tips and instructions on this website, Thanks Cody - gave me the confidence to do it my self.   

A little hard to get really good pics, the sun is really low on the horizon this time of year and I had a hard time getting a good angle, anyhow . . .

[Pat O']

A few more:

[Pat O']

Now it is time to figure out how to keep my garage warm here in Colorado, lift the car back up and start in on the underside.

Last couple of pics:

[anlauto]

 Glad to see you followed it through to the end  After all that, are you sorry you dug into it in the first place ?

It looks real nice now !

[70chall440]

Looks awesome!

[jimynick]

Good looking paint on a good looking car! Looks like the lads who clipped it did a half decent job. I've seen and done a couple where the fact that you were being paid 37 hours for the job, affected how and where you cut the car, but that was back in the day and the usual lifespan of these things made it a moot point anyways. I've got a 74 that was much worse, so please take some small consolation out of that. LOL  You'll like the US Cartool subframe connectors and I'd recommend their front apron reinforcements and torque boxes, too. Look at the bright side- it's was a learning experience and it looks fabulous now. Good luck with the undercarriage and take a selfie of the big S.E smile on your face when you get in it and drive it down the road the first time! 

[Pat O']

Alan,  when I decided to do this project I had a good idea what I was in for. I knew I would have to find a car, sandblast and repaint to the chosen color. I knew we would probably find something and that my original budget would slide.  I didn't know that I would be taken advantage of by a family member who I have gone out of my way to help in years past. Lesson Learned.

I'm a bit angry and regret the wasted year of my time and about $10K down the tubes.  Other wise I'm happy with what I have at this point and am ready to start work on getting the car back together and driving it next year sometime. My wife is on board with me and supports this project, she loves cars of this era.

thanx for the complements and hopfully I have more frequent updates from here on out!

[Chlngrcrzy]

Car looks great! Will love to see your updates.

[Cudaragtop]

Beautiful!    Way to hang in there. Color looks great!

[rhamson]

I feel your pain as I have a loooooooong term '72 Challenger I am fighting with. I have a bent frame and a bunch of frame shops who lie their asses off with time frames and knowledge. I am searching again to find someone I have confidence and trust to do the work.

[marc70challenger]

Looks awesome !! 

I understand the cold garage deal.       I have two sets of "car work" clothes. The winter set maxes out at 5 layers.  Summer set  - not so many.

Can't wait to see it done!

[brads70]

Beautiful paintwork! I like the colour, looks great! 

[Pat O']

OK, back again after several months. Seems like that the older I get the harder I work. I finally hired some more help and got my weekends back.

After getting the car back I lifted it and supported it on some heavy duty jackstands and proceeded to drop the front and rear suspensions so I had good access to the entire underside of the car. I cleaned everything up thoroughly including a few lurking areas with surface rust.

[Pat O']

After I was happy with that, I proceeded to spray the entire underside with 2 coats of Eastwood's extreme chassis black. I also spent time fussing with the side glass seating properly. That's definitely not not for the feint of heart.

In the next couple of pictures I show the new axel being prepped and installed. The axle had 4:10 gears in the rear and sounded rough to I had a shop get into it and ended up with virtually all new parts and a set of 3.55's. Shown is the refreshed axle and new leaf springs with various bits of cleaned up old parts and some new, along with being installed into the car. I did the install work myself, slowly and carefully.