72 to 71 transformation/ Tropical fish

[06Daytona]

Spent 7 hours with the body guy today, 2 going over the Cuda and the other 5 going through photo albums of his other work. He also showed me the 69 Barracuda he's working on right now and the 72 Challenger that he drives. His quote was 6000 which included mounting the panels, lining everything up and hitting it with a coat of epoxy primer when he's done. There would be another 500-1000 on top of that to pay for material and do a few patches etc.

[hpe600rt]

i think it looks better now very nice car

[Cuda Cody]

Putting it in epoxy when he's done is a great idea, but aware that when he's done it will still need at least as much as you paid him to get it prepped and painted.  I stand by my number of 10K to 20K to do body work and paint.

[06Daytona]

I'll be doing the prep and paint myself. I'll be turning my garage into an exhaust ventilated spray booth to do the job. My neighbors son in law is a body guy and he said he'd give me advice if I need it along the way. The guy doing the sheet metal said he'll have the car ready for surfacer when I get it back and he even offered to put the color on for me but I'd rather do it myself.

[Cuda Cody]

Since you're doing the paint yourself, here's a link to a decent 'how to' that will help you.  I do it a little different then what they do, but they give you a good starting point that will give you a nice finish.

http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/perfect%20paint.htm

I think Mike just finished doing his paint prep himself, he would be a good one to get an idea of how much time and money it took....
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=26438.435

Keep in mind, if painting a car took 60 seconds the actual spraying of the paint would be about 1 second of that minute.  The rest is sanding and prep.

Good luck and keep posting photos!

[Topcat]

Putting it in epoxy when he's done is a great idea, but aware that when he's done it will still need at least as much as you paid him to get it prepped and painted.  I stand by my number of 10K to 20K to do body work and paint.

 

To get a car razor sharp is very time consuming. In order to get it perfect or near perfect, you or whoever does the body will need to go over every panel 2-3 times to ensure its right.

Then there's the bodylines, the highs, the lows, the spot putty dots, more primer, then block, then wax and grease to see if you got it right. Once you know how to do the skin coat drift right, you can make progess go much faster from my experience.

The thing I don't like about giving a car to a bodyshop is that they often have 2 people doing your car at the same time to speed up shop time while it's there. That leaves me to think that you have 2 different ideas from 2 different backrounds; standards of what is to their liking.

That they can make you a prisoner keeping your car as long as they need while they do insurance work where the real money is. If you do take to a shop serious fact finding and referrals is of the upmost importance.

So far I estimate that it has taken me 15 hrs x 35 weeks = 500-600 hrs I have into it so far. That doesn't even count metal work done prior to the bodywork. Keep in mind I'm doing every inch of the car inside and out.

[06Daytona]

Thanks for the links. I'll be checking them regularly while I'm working. I have no problem spending a week or 2 on each panel to get it perfect. I'm already collecting tape to get a straight body line and I have a huge selection of different length sanding blocks at different stiffness's for different areas. I'm not working here at the moment, other than around the house and on the Charger so I have my days free to sit on my stool and sand to perfection.

[TreeFrog]

Lucky you ... I envy your new project

Lots of pics!

[06Daytona]

Just heard from the shipping company in Jacksonville and my fenders etc from E body Products are on their way. My Shaker should be here this week and whatever I ordered from Year One will be here whenever it gets here. When I ordered my Pistol Grip I was told I'd get an email with a tracking number and it never happened, my step daughter called one day that I had something waiting at the condo.

I think I'm going to stick with Ebody Products and Roseville from now on, their customer service has been absolutely awesome whereas Year One has been ok, but not up to the standards of the other 2 companies.

[06Daytona]

Picked up my Shaker today and started dry fitting to make sure everything fits. So far so good, except that I ended up with a 4 bbl baseplate instead of a 6 pack, but it's being taken care of. The fit is pretty good although it looks like it might need a little trimming inside for the cold air door to sit properly. I haven't been able to find a really good pic of how it goes together so I've been using the trial and error method.

[06Daytona]

Got good news today. My sheet metal is sitting in San Juan waiting to be picked up, my 6 pack base for the shaker is on its way, and of course I ended up ordering a few more parts while I was on the phone to Roseville, and my marker lights, headlight buckets are in San Juan to get delivered on monday. Everything is coming together now. In the next couple of weeks the car will be going in to get re-skinned so I can paint it and drop the 340 in.

I also got the shaker seal on thanks to a thread on here about it and got the bubble painted satin black. I really wish I had a 4 bbl on the car right now so I could try the Shaker out before I pull everything apart for the sheet metal work.
Shipping to Puerto Rico is a hassle, but it was only 200 bucks for the batch of parts.

[06Daytona]

I have all my sheet metal now, as far as I know. My headlight buckets and fender lights are at my daughters condo in San Juan and my wife is picking them up today. I still have a few bits from Roseville on the way down, and I'm sure I'll be ordering more.
I'm going to get pics of the car today as I change the front sheet metal over to the new fenders, header and valance. I might change the rear valance over as well if it doesn't get too hot for me outside. I might even pull the AC and put the shaker on if I'm motivated enough.
I just have to figure out if I can use a 2-4bbl adapter without raising the bubble too high.
I'm looking at a 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 45x4 down here as a parts runner since I'm getting pretty tired of having to rent a van/truck every time I get more parts.
Here are a few pics as the car sits now.



My garage is a little too cluttered to get the Cuda in there right now.

A shot of what's sitting right inside my front door.

Dining room, complete with on duty guard 'dogs'

Pretty vigilant guard 'dogs'

[06Daytona]

Here's a few shots while I was taking the front sheet metal off.

Bumper and grille off

Front valance off. It was on there pretty Mickey Mouse-like, so it took a little creative destruction to get it off

The bolts from the header panel to the fender were unremovable and I couldn't fit a hacksaw in to cut them so I decided to take the fenders and header off in one piece.

[dutch]

great start 

[06Daytona]

Here's a shot with the new sheet metal on the front, minus the Shaker.

All the new sheet metal fits just as poorly as the original, so I think I have some issues with the front end of the car.
I guess I'll find out when we start lining things up. The metal is on loose right now, just in case I need to take the car to cruise night on Saturday before I pull the engine and trans.
I think once my body guy gives the car some tender loving mallet it's going to look pretty sweet.