Hard Luck Challenger

[marc7071]

......the horror continues but the clean up has begun.
I started by the pulling gigantic roof beam off the car. Figured that was like insult to injury. If it would have fallen an inch further back it would have crushed the windshield frame. That would have erased any hope I would have had in even the possibility of a resurrection.
I also had a lot of extra parts for the car so, while I am sifting through the wreckage and cleaning up the garage, I'm loading them all into the convertible so I can keep track of them. That should explain why there's a growing pile of scrap where my interior used to be.
As of the last picture, the Stealth has been sent to the scrapper and I put the original dual scoop hood back on the car. Why you ask? #1 to get it up off the ground. #2 to give the car back at least a shred of dignity by covering up the gaping hole where the T/A hood melted away. lastly #3 because I'm putting all the old/spare parts I have with the car and it wouldn't fit in the interior.
More pics to come as the clean-up progresses.

[marc7071]

almost forgot.... for anyone interested, here's the link to my intro to the forum. This includes a link to the news footage from the local news station about the fire and my car.
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=87484.0
My intro received enough of a response that I decided to start this discussion.

[marc7071]

Just a little break from all the carnage. The is one of my favorite pictures of the car. Ah the memories.....

['Cuda Hunter]

It does look sweet!  What year is that picture?

[wally426ci]

Sad story man. I really hope it works out for rebuild 

[CHL2T]

Cheese and rice man!

That just sucks, hopefully you can piece it back together but apparently you have braced yourself for the worst.......

      

[brads70]

    a nightmare !  Sooo sorry about your car!

[marc7071]

Only got a half day's work done today due to the onset of severe t-storms but made some good progress.
For insurance purposes, I have to sift, sort and document all the contents of my garage since the devastation was so complete. This includes clearing out the debris as I go so I can get the Challenger out of the garage and into dry storage. The Stealth is gone now so I was able to clear a path for the Challenger. It got a new set of shoes today so it'll roll again and I dug out the wheel dollies (seen in the first new pic) it was sitting on. Those are a great help when moving a car around your garage.
One setback I discovered; the steering is locked but the column shroud is melted away so I can access the lock mech but it's not engaged. This has me scratching my head as to what else would be locking the steering. Before anyone says it's heat seized, the wheel does move about a half inch in either direction so I don't think that's the reason. Figuring this out would be helpful but not critical. Just means the tow truck driver is going to have to back in TOTALLY square to the storage garage. lol
Lastly, when I got home I saw that a two of the resto shops had called but I missed both of them. Now I'm on pins and needles to know if it was good news or bad. I'll have to wait until tomorrow (with fingers crossed) to find out. Wish me luck! I'll post the news as soon as I find out.
Not sure if naming resto shops names is allowed so I'll refrain until someone says it's ok. I'll just say that I'm super excited about the shop that contacted me. 

[marc7071]

It does look sweet!  What year is that picture?

Can't remember exactly but I'll say it was taken about 20 years ago. Early '90s-ish.

[TorOrange]

Yes it's fine to post the details 

Also sent you a PM.

[marc7071]

Not sure if naming resto shops names is allowed so I'll refrain until someone says it's ok.

Yes it's fine to post the details

OK Well, the shop I'm mainly concentrating on is Totally Auto in PA. Some may remember hearing about this shop from the series they did about restoring a Plumb Crazy '71 Challenger convertible years ago in one of the Mopar magazines. I followed that series of articles religiously and decided, then, that they would be my resto shop of choice. Now that I have the opportunity, I'm really hoping to be able to have them bring my Challenger back.
I'm now waiting to hear back from them as to whether or not it can be done.
Not much of an update but......
I've essentially recovered the vert and she's finally resting out of the weather in temporary storage until I find out what can be done with her.
Here are the latest pictures I've taken right after I got her all prepped for transport to storage.
In case they are savable, I put the 440 back in the engine compartment and threw the 4spd in the trunk. I also tried to restore what little dignity the car had left by cleaning out what was left of the T/A hood and put the original hood back on. Just for grins, I dug the debris out from around the top frame and pulled it up. To my pleasant surprise, it still went up smoothly. A good sign, I hope.
Top up and hood down, I strapped her up and hauled her to a temporary garage to await the news of her resurrection.
Until then, my story is at a standstill. In the meantime, if anyone has some feedback on my shop of choice, or suggestions for an alternative, I'm open to any and all comments.
Here's the link to Totally Auto for those that don't know them. http://www.totallyautoinc.com/

[marc7071]

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I bring what little news I have up to date.
First off, I hope everyone had a great holiday season.
I finally met with Dave, the owner of Totally Auto, in November.  After reviewing the pictures I supplied him he responded with, "well, we've rescued worse." How a car could be in "worse" shape is beyond me but I've seen the work that they do so I'll take his word for it. His main concern (as is mine) is the structural integrity of the main body and rails. Obviously all the external sheet metal is trashed but once that's out of the way, the body can integrity can truly be assessed.
One solution Dave proposed is adding frame connectors. This sounds reasonable to me although I'm a bit of a purist and don't really want to look under the car and see boxy aftermarket frame connectors. I proposed, if they did put frame connectors on, if it would be possible to hide them inside the factory rockers.
Anyone ever try this?
Either way, I finally got the good news I was hoping for. The car can be saved! Now I'm back to waiting for an opening at his shop. Not a big deal since I'm still not back in my house anyway. I'm just excited to finally know. One way or the other.
No new pics since the car is still in storage but when I get it back to my house and start cleaning it up I'll get some more pictures posted.

[JayBee]

Thanks for the update. I was just recently wondering what was going on with this, glad to hear it was good news.

[Super Blue 72]

Man, makes me sad everytime I see those pics, can imagine how you feel. Hope alll works out for you.   

Don't know if the subframe connectors in the rockers will work as they will still need to tie into the front and rear subframes somehow and will be exposed at those points and since if they are  in the rockers I don't think they will be as stiff as the straight front to rear subframe connectors just due to the physics or how they will be connected if located in the rockers. 

[Tonefiend]

Any news on this one?