Restoration of an origonal owner 73 Challenger Rallye

[GranCuda1970]

Yeah!!!  That looks really good well worth the effort!! 

[Grec]

More than one person said there car didn't have the heavy wrinkled texture but more of a sandy texture.

That's pretty much how mine looks so I guess I'll just try to duplicate how she looked originally and go for less texture.

Your restoration thread is turning out to be very helpful to me! Not as many people seem to get into detail-oriented / documented restorations on later Challengers...

Looking awesome, man.

[burdar]

Thanks a lot!

Just so you know, the finish on the heater and radio bezels looks a lot rougher in the pics then it accually is in person.  The finish is pretty fine.  The flash just makes it look rougher.

[Grec]

Ahh. That would explain it.

What paint did you use? I might just give that a try...

[burdar]

I used VHT Wrinkle paint.  It says it's for metal but it worked just fine on the plastic.  I got it at O'Reilies for about $8.  I think I saw it at Autozone too.   Wade "Bullitt" said he used (I think) Rustoleum sand finish paint on his.  I need to pick up some of that paint too.  I think it's the correct finish for the front seat belt retractor covers as well as the plastic bucket seat hinge covers.

[Grec]

Cool. I'll have a look at that paint.

By the way... my 73 is very original and clean as far as the interior goes... there is no paint on my retractor covers. They're definitely textured, but it's moulded into the plastic. I plan on just hitting it with SEM black dye with flattener sprayed over to dull the finish.

This is my plan for the seat hinge covers as well as the window molding trim too. They look much flatter sheen than, say, the door panels. Trying to even out and darken the finish rather than make them shinier.

Unless of course, all these parts have simply dulled over the years. But I don't think that's the case...

[burdar]

For the interior metal trim I just used the SEM Trim Black.  It seemed to match the original paint pretty well...just a little more gloss then what I saw on the original parts.  Chrysler used very cheap paint.  Even the interior paints would have dulled a little.  I think the trim black paint is close to how then looked when new.    It's a little flatter then the plastic trim.

I'll have to take a closer look at the seat belt retractors.  I thought they were a stiff rubber with a sand texture paint on them.  At least the rears looked that way when I installed them.  Even if the finish is moulded into the part, the sand paint could be used to cover up any scratches on the original finish.   

[Grec]

I took a closer look at my seatbelt covers and seat hinge covers and they are definitely not painted.

Seatbelt covers are moulded what looks like ABS plastic. Seat hinge covers are again unpainted but a harder plastic. Thing on those is that it's relatively shiny but dulled by the textured finish. But there's that circle area where there's no texture and that's actually pretty shiny. The SEM dye would prob give the correct finish on those... but I think would be too shiny for the seatbelt covers unless flattened a bit.

Hope that helps. :-)

[burdar]

I looked at the retractor covers last night and you're right...they're not painted.  They should clean up OK with some Simple Green.  I assume those small retainers will come out so I can remove the cover from the retactor.

There are a lot of different SEM colors.  There is a flatter one then the Trim Black available.  Maybe that's the one to use?

[Grec]

Possibly. They also sell a "flattener" spray made to lower the gloss.

But... I'm starting to wonder if simply cleaning the s*** out of it wouldn't give the more correct appearance. Maybe clean it and hit it with Mother's Back-To-Black. Done.

That's assuming your's are in as good a shape as mine. :-)

[Challenger6pak]

The original 1973 black that was used on the glove box etc. is still available.  It is Ditzler code 9388. 

[Topcat]

Car is really coming along nice Burdar.

[burdar]

The car came down off of the body stand today.   A guy from work came over with the "donkey" and lifted the car off the stand.  I've been waiting for about 3 weeks for them to have a delivery close to my house in order to get this done.  This was the safest way I could think of to do it.  The car was front heavy but we made it work.  Now I can get the brake/fuel lines and fuel tank installed before winter







Challenger6pak...thanks for that paint code.  I have extremely limited bodywork skills and even less money to finish this project.  I got estimates to spray the dash frame but needed to do it myself to save money.  The SEM trim black matches the original finish that I found.  If I'm able to do another car some day I'll look into the correct paint.

Topcat...thanks...it seems like I'm making progress but then I think about all that's left to do.  I'll just keep plugging away and it will get done...eventually.     

[Challenger6pak]

You're welcome.  Your car is looking good.  I have always liked that color.

[challengermaniac]

My buddy bought the exact same 1973 Rallye Challenger new in 1973!  That Gunmetal Gray (I think that's what it was called) is absolutely beautiful.  You are doing a great job.  Keep moving along, one process step at a time.