70 Challenger T/A Replica Update

[jrwoodjoe]

Well, it's been a while since my last update and a while since I have been able to work on the car. My youngest has had 2 operations since the last update but is on doing a little better now. I finally pulled the steering wheel column and have the torsion bars just about ready to be pulled. Yesterday was nice and my neighbor came over to lend a hand so that I could reassemble the restored grille pieces. Here are some photos of before and after. Have a great week everyone.

[69bronzeT5]

WOW, what an improvement!!! What paint did you use?

[jrwoodjoe]

I used the paints in the photo. Black textured for those areas. For the mesh, I used some silver truck spray that I had already. Others have used the silver reflective. Basically, I cleaned the mesh and fogged it with that.

Also, this restored ebrake assembly came today courtesy of Jules D'Addio (Jules the Wiperman). He called it "Driver Quality" but it certainly looks much better to me than that. This will really save me some time since that has been limited lately. If I had the money, I'd let you him restore everything. Thanks Jules!!

[4THECHALLENGE]

looking great!!!! 

[jrwoodjoe]

A few update pics. Since I posted last, I had some parts media blasted and then I refinished them.

Here's a close-up of the front bumper bracket. A shot of the driveshaft. And a shot of some other parts. I understand the front sway bar brackets should be steel and not black so I may need to redo those.

[brads70]

Nice work!!

[barracuda7199]

them is purity!

[4THECHALLENGE]

great progresss........i caant wait to do this to mine..

[jrwoodjoe]

Thanks everyone. Had a little time at lunch today and tackled the shifter. One is a photo of before and one after. I was able to clean the shifter chrome since it wasn't pitted. just a few light scratches that weren't bad. I added new grips from Mike at BE&A and new upper and lower bezel with shift pattern from Gunslingers.

I'm real happy with the way it turned out.

[4THECHALLENGE]

great progress..

[quapman]

Those grips are nice....better than "the other guy's". How much did they set you back?

[jrwoodjoe]

The grips from BE&A were 36.02 shipped to my door. They look really nice. 

Progress-wise, the driver door is now completely stripped of all window glass and mechanisms and will go the media blaster next week. It is the last removable panel that is left on the car. All other panels have been blasted and primed already. I'll post pics of what I find when it is done. I'm sure there will be some rust in the ft lower area.

[jrwoodjoe]

Doing a little work between the daily rain storms.  I sent my original T/A hood trim and headlamp bezels to Matt at MCB to polish and re-anodize for me. I got them last week and they look FANTASTIC. I asked him to not paint the black areas so that I could paint them to match the grille I restored.

Here is a photo of how it looked when he sent it back and a photo of one that I have repainted.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

I was always afraid of trying to repaint a headlight bezel due to I had no clue how to mask the little circle around the lights, and make it look good.  I prefer too see some of the aluminum around them like you have. I have seen re-pros that paint the whole front black, with no circle. Great job!!   

[jrwoodjoe]

Thanks Mike! I tried to figure out the best way of doing it and kept coming up empty.  I ended up using the blue painters tape (like you use when painting a room in a house) and taped it freehand. If you look closely you will find that it is not perfect but the original paint wasn't either so I figure I am no worse off than the original.

I did drop off the driver door to be blasted this morning. The shop will also etch prime it, cut out any rust and repair it by welding in a patch. Hope to have it back next week. Also removed the accelerator pedal. May try to freshen it up this week too.

BTW Mike, I think I have told you before but I'll tell you again.....JUST LOVE YOUR PAINT AND CAR! 

Joe