Alan, you are fast, you just got that car. Yet you quickly PM me when I need help. Do you sleep? I have a fairly solid looking project and continue to fight you on the media blasting idea as my car will be prepped and painted in 2017....
Obviously like I have seen with some of your other projects and this car, media blasting makes sense and in the end its worth it. I better start saving more as I am not experienced enough to strip the car down all the way.
Good luck with this project and THANKS for always helping this
Here's the thing....I've been restoring Mopars for 32+ years, mostly E Bodies. I've probably done more Cudas and Challengers then any other shop in the world....
They come apart pretty easy....On average it takes about 20-25 hours to take them apart...about another 6-8 to scrape off the undercoating then let a quality blasting place to the rest. This car will be 100% bare metal for about $1500....then another $500 to epoxy prime.....
With this stage done you can be certain to find all the rust (except between panels yadda yadda yadda
)...
...THEN you can fix all the rust.....this is the part that might cost you more money then you wanted to spend, but this is the part of the restoration that insures all the other money spent isn't wasted.
So some extra time and a extra couple of grand and you can sleep at night.......Oh did I mention commitment....One you start...you have to stick it through until the end.