Help me with where to start on my rebuild

[Fastd]

Hi folks, I want to get started on my 1970 Challenger resto mod this winter and I am looking for some advice about my thought process for the build. 

Currently the car Does Not have the engine nor is the auto transmission installed. It also has fiberglass front fenders and T/A style hood (hopefully current engine 318, auto trans along with fenders and hood will find a new home).

Since i have no body nor welding abilities I will need to farm this process out.

My thought process for the build is as follows:

  1) in current condition go ahead and remove complete interior and all exterior trim
  2) remove hood and fenders
  3) get vehicle mounted on a rotisserie (looking at getting a Whirly Jig) and remove rearend and K-member
  4) send shell to get media blasted and a coat of primer
  5) determine what body work will need to be done (smooth rear valance, subframe connectors
      and torque boxes, cut trans tunnel for manual etc.)
  6) mock up interior
  7) start gathering parts, Front suspension (Alterkation), Rear suspension (Street Lynx), 3 gen hemi for
      mock up (not sure which one I will be using), 6-speed manual trans, Vintage air conditioning system
  disassemble complete blody work
  9) back on rotiiserie and paint
10) reassemble car

This will be my first build, Does this seem like the logical approach?

I welcome any and all comments and questions!

Todd   

[Fastd]

afternoon bump

[the_engineers]

Todd, I highly recommend learning welding/body if you have any budget constraints for this project. Just the fabrication for the 6-speed will be fairly expensive. That said, your approach sounds pretty logical.

[burdar]

What kind of shape is the body in?  That would determine what I did first.  I'd start by taking a lot of pictures and buying a lot of plastic storage bags.  You can't be too organised.  You will save yourself a lot of time by being organised from the beginning. DAMHIK

On my car I knew there would be extensive metal replacement.  Since I didn't know if I would even have a car left after blasting, I chose to have it sand blasted for $200 instead of media blasted for $800-$1000  If you know the car needs quarters, inner fenders exc... why spend the money and have them blasted.  You'll just be cutting off blasted metal.  That's a waste of money IMO.  The guy that sand blasted my car didn't touch the roof, quarters or doors.  He just cleaned the car up so I knew what I had to work with.

Most people will tell you to put the car in primer right away.  The blaster told me that the car could sit for 1 year without being primed as long as it sat inside and wasn't handled very much.  He was right.  The car sat for a little over a year and none of the blasted metal started rusting.  After all the metal replacement was done, the car was media blasted before paint.

Depending on the cars condition, I would have it sand blasted to clean it up so you really know what you have to work with.  Then do your metal replacement and test fit all your suspension parts.  Also test fit all of your trim, tail lights, side markers...EVERYTHING.  Before paint you can have the car media blasted fully. 

The engine compartment, inside the trunk and underside of the car can be painted on the rotisserie.  At that point the car should be put on a body stand.  Aligning panels and doing the filler work shouldn't be done on the rotisserie.   

[Fastd]

Hi guys thanks for the response. I would love to learn both welding and body. I am looking at taking a welding class at my local community college. As far as body work, Not sure where to go to learn that.

As far as the condition of the car. I believe the body is in very good condition. I used a magnet and went over the normal trouble spots with great success. I only found a small hole the the runk about the size of a silver dollar that will need repairing. Also I know the car came out of west Texas (minimal rust). I will take pictures of the floor pans and trunk and drip rails, as I disassemble the car, and post pics here. And you guys can help me decide wether to sand or soda blast. Also since the vehicle will be getting a new hood and fenders there will be less to blast clean! Mayb some cost savings.


 

[Topcat]

If you plan on aftermarket, high performance, High torque; the first thing before you take the car apart is put sub frame connectors on. (provided the floors and frames are still in good shape) Unibodies flex quite a bit if you plan to throw the hammer down. Manual trans car especially.

The reason why to do that first, is the body and frame are loaded with weight from drivetrain and suspension. This is how the car was originally.

Make sure your frame is squared. Anotherwards, get the dimensions checked that it hasn't ever been in an accident with a frame/chassis being bent or tweaked that can't be noticed. Torque boxes would be another thing to do while you're at it.

The car will need to be on 6-8 jack stands all underneath. You want to eliminate any body flex prior to putting them on. Once these are fairly secured in, then you can begin the teardown. If your car needs quarters, this would be a perfect time to do those as well while the car is sitting on stands.

I disagree with Burdar about body fitment on the car when on a rotisserie. If you put the sub frame connectors on first, then you've eliminated the center of the body flex. I put my doors on while it was on the rotisserie after the sub frames were installed. NO problems whatsoever!

Once you begin the teardown phase, you will need to think and act in an organized manner. This is the most important part of a resto. Everything must be bagged and tagged with good notes written where each item is and goes back on. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!! Can't emphasize that enough! Even after messin with E bodies for along time, I run into situations (as well as others here) what goes where.

Don't be afraid to learn Mig welding. This isn't brain surgery. At SEMA they had a Video game, that shows if you were getting too close or too far and if your C patterns were wavy or not. Really cool. Practice on old metal first welding to pieces together. http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/welding-videos-reviewed.html

If you're fairly organized and pre plan your resto, you'll find that you can do way more than you ever first thought. Many here will tell you they didn't know how to do it either including myself. Yet we perservered and made it happen!

Good Luck and good progress ahead to you!

[Fastd]

Thanks for the response Mike.

 Saturday, a good friend and I drove up to Paris Tn. from Memphis to talk in person with the Whirly Jig Company and met Eric Emerson. Spent over 2 hours talking and checking out their operation. I came away with a very confident feeling about their product and the fact that I will be able to perform body and such while on the Whirly Jig. Eric let play spin the car with a 70 Challenger convertible they have on their web page //www.whirlyjig.com/. It will need a lot of body work. I was most impressed with their set up and plan on getting one for Christmas.