Desert resurrection! 1973 Challenger - Updated pics! 4-16-2012!

[coupman35]

That looking geat Dan look like yuor having fun to .keep up the nice work 

[DMZ73]

Repairing the door- Front lower corner had a few holes in it. I cut off the skin, and I found a mess, what a surprise.

I had some spare metal. Time to fab~!


After about 1 hour, it looked like this:


Now to show you where it goes:

Not bad for a hack job. More cut and paste when I return to the job.

Dan

[DMZ73]

More detailed shots of the "messaging" of the Xtension panel to fit the new Quarter.
Here is th flange of the Xtension panel, flipped up as it should be.


Here is a good shot of the Xtension panel by itself, showing the two areas that needed the most work.

Here is a shot that shows what the section look like as it transitions down to the bottom of the extension panel.


Here is the back side, clearly you can see the jog in the flange line, that should not be there. Its gone now.


The car



I did have to refine some of the flanges a little, making sure that they wer 90 degree flanges rather than 80 degrees---hehehehe

And installed.


hope this is helpful to anyone getting into this.

Dan

[mopar12372]

good job dan!

[kmyles]

Looking Good!

[DMZ73]

Well, after adjusting and tweaking the passenger side quarter panel, I noticed how good the fitment was to the surrounding panels - Dutchman, Tailpanel, door, rocker, decklid..Passenger side is a recent AMD stamping.
The Driver's side is an older Goodmark panel, and was one of the earlier versions. I have mentioned my concern for the decklid/Dutchman/trunk gutter /tailpanel fitment- so it was time to take action.

Here is the gap before I messed with it:

A detail of the Dutchman intersection, showing the slight mismatch. Not slight enough.

Here is a detailof the interface at the tailpanel. You can see that there is too much tailpanel flange exposed.


Here is the adjustment; A 36-40" pie cut. (not happy)



Here is the slice by the dutchman.


Since my car was "tagged" in this tailpanel area,  I have some distortion to adjust out of the trunk gutter support trough. I had to drill out the welds and tease it over to help fix the gutter gap. Did I mention that I had to fix the angle of the flange on the Goodmark quarter? The mounting flange was not at the proper angle, and the inside radius was WAY too large. I fixed it with a hammer and flathead srewdriver, all the way along the flange..


The finished results: 




I will end up pulling this quarter off the car, cleaning up tjhe underside of the welds, hammering out the distortion, and finessing/moving  some of the flange that is not playing nice with the dutchman. 

Dan

[Chlngrcrzy]

WOW!   

[DMZ73]

Thanks, but I am not nearly finished hiding the evidence. The gap is decent, its just too bad it had to come to this.
;( Dan

[DMZ73]

well, spent the day re-alligning the panel again, getting the gaps good, bodyline good, then realized that, damn, that gap is not quite right.
Out came the dremmel. cut it again.
Now I have it licked. This time I am fighting blowing thru the metal with the welder, warpage, and filling gaps. D@mn I hate this fix. it just doesnt end well.
Dan

[Challenger III]

Looking good! Keep it up!  

[wagesofsin]

way to kibbitz your frashnizzle!!!

nice job daniel.   

[DMZ73]

Final fitment and allignment of the valence panel and bumper has begun.
The next set of pics will show the allignment of the valence to the quarters.
Drivers side of the valence mounted nearly perfect-I'll cite the fact that the original trunk extension is under there.
The passenger side has the new extension, which needed quite a bit of work. I noticed that the gap from the top of the valence/quarter intersection opened up toward the bottom of the valence. I CAREFULLy applied even pressure on the quarter & extension while clampled together, and moved it to where it needed to be.



The bumper is another story. For some ODD reason, I have a gap difference between the right/left side of 1/2-5/8 ". 


the brackets are symmetrical, and the same dimensions.

I don't get it. My plan is to flush the bumpers to the body, so I won't be using those bumpers for a bench. My solution is to cut the left side down a 1/2" more than the other side.
This is how the left side should look...

Here is how it is

Dan

[geminiviper]

Looking good.   

[Canadian Cuda]

has the car ever been hit? frame rail maybe

[DMZ73]

Yeah, it's been tagged, but not that hard.
Allignment front to rear looks good, no kinks in the FR some deformation on the tailpanel, but limited to 1/4" at the most.
I cut down the drivers side by 5/16" it was slightly more than the other side.
I think I might be able to pull  1/4" out of the other side and be right on the money.
Keep in mind I'm trying to flush the bumpers to the body.
Dan