71 Convertible Ground-Up Restoration - The journey begins !

[hemiken]

Hey Farouk,

You may have to start a new post asking the question if they do at all excist or not ?

But let me know if you come across any Barracuda bits at all and if you find another convertible switch in your travels aswell please.

Kenny.

[wally426ci]

Sounds good Farouk,
my PM was frustrating b/c everytime i hit send it would give me a "page not found" error, so i assumed nothing went through. what i meant about the Qtr chrome was that all of the repros i find have a small body line that follows the contour of the edges. basically, if you look at the chrome straight on as if it were mounted, you would notice that the outer most edge is raised about an 1/8" above the rest. the ones my car came with had no lines, almost like Cuda chrome but still rounded.

hard to describe. 

[Challenger_7]

On progress report, 3 minor parts attended to last night. The first 2 were the mirror and the moulding which fits on top of it. It has the same pattern as the plastic pillar post mouldings but is made of steel. See close up photo after painting it.
The old one was dressed up in red vinyl, with some rust on the inside. I stripped it completely out of its old paint and repainted it with the correct off white color (imported in Mopar paint spray cans). Then cleaned the mirror parts and painted them but not the mirror (rubber) case nor its plastic soft rubber base. A thorough wash and clean up then sprayed them with a rejuvinating spray that works fantastically well on even faded plastics, except mine were not faded.
The last item was a label for the switches, but I will need to make a separate post researching this one for the colors as I have seen a few variations.
See photo of the first attempt.
Will report again tomorrow after a quick visit to the body shop.
Kenny, Yes, I will need to make a separate post on the speedo and will include the colors of the wordings that go on the switches panel.
Farouk

[Challenger_7]

Wally, understood...I think. Will take photos and post tomorrow.
Whilst on the subject, there is a craftsman in the neighbouring country, Syria, that does much stuff like copying from Aluminum into Stainless steel.
I am wondering if it is a good idea to replace these chromes as well as the front ones by SS stuff ??
I know theyt would be at a huge saving, but the best part is that if they get scratched, just remove and buff and they are new again. If you guys encourage me, I will ask him for a trial on one of those pieces and a price. What do you think, or should I stick to original (or original looking) stuff ?
Just thinking aloud.

[wally426ci]

sounds like a cool idea!!

 

[JS27N0B]

Don't forget that that NOS speedo you show there is for a 1972-74 rallye cluster. The trip reset is in the speedo face rather than in the cluster beside it.

[Goehner]

I am late to the game, but sorry about your car. As you can see, I dig Plum and white. Perfect combo...  Can't wait to see the finished product.

[JS27N0B]

I am late to the game, but sorry about your car. As you can see, I dig Plum and white. Perfect combo...  Can't wait to see the finished product.

Out of curiosity what is the Scheduled production date of your car? Just wondering how far apart our cars were built.

[Goehner]

Not completely sure, I haven't had much time to dig into it. Door tag says 10-1969

[JS27N0B]

Not completely sure, I haven't had much time to dig into it. Door tag says 10-1969

Mine too. SPD of Oct 15th.

[Challenger_7]

Hi friends. Sorry about the disappearing act, the DeSoto has been taking some of my time, but now reporting again.
But first, welcome to the field apederso2 and thanks for your support. Lovely car there too buddy. I am thrilled at seeing both your car and that of JS27NOB next to each other. Just makes me even more excited at the sight. One thing though, my interior would be more creamy than your whites.
OK, body work still doing more stripping, no major hurdles. Only the rear fenders' lip or whatever you call the round part above the wheels, has been seriously repaired. Tomorrow I am visiting someone who has a car he is stripping. If all works, I will pick both rear fenders and the inner skins too.
I started on restoring the A/C - heater unit and need some advice here before I go too far. Is there someone selling a set of internal joints/gaskets etc for the unit. Mine has some cracks on one of the sides, and if I cannot find a good one here, it is easy to rpair with fiber glass.
If you see the last pic of my open unit, there seems to be a rubber sheet covering the whole of the area before getting to the heater core. And when I removed the heater core, there was a soft rubber gasket on one side only of its ends. Should there be one on both sides? Anyone with experience here and some photos will be of help.
On the issue of NOS I will still visit the supplier and I told him to bring everything Mopar related out for me to see and photograph, and will tell you about it in case anyone is interested.
Cheers

[troutstreamnm]

Hi Challenger_7,
My heater box was the same way.  I did not find any replacement gaskets for the heater/ac box.  The heater core only had a gasket on the one side.  I just decided to reuse the old gaskets and run permatex gasket maker over the old gaskets to get a seal.  It's not the best approach, but with no replacements, I had no choice.  It should work fine.  He's a pic of my heater core exposed.

[farmboy70]

Here is a web-site for the heater box gaskets. They also make the very best gaskets for just about everything on Mopars.http://www.detroitmuscletechnologies.com/
Dave

[Topcat]

After any crack repairs, you can get this

http://www.restorationfullcircle.com/product.html

Its about the closest I've seen to the heater box color.
But I wouldn't get it unless the repar is visible once its mounted.

[troutstreamnm]

Oh great...NOW you tell me!  LOL....guess I learned a lesson and should have asked here first.  I've got the site bookmarked for next time.