And So It Begins.... 1970 340 Cuda Restoration

[loco340cuda]

Some more progress today.... removed the doors and hood hinges, both are off to the body shop on Monday.  Probably will be a few weeks before they are back and can drive the car again.  After they come back and on the car, the car will go to the body shop to fix the rust in the quarters and trunk.

[loco340cuda]

I also removed the mylar VIN sticker on the door.  It was pretty trashed as it had been painted over a couple of time and it looks like someone tried to scrap the paint off with a razor blade.  I was able to save it for documentation purposes and will get a new one once the car is painted.  The interesting thing is that after I removed it you can see the words VOID left in the area where it was removed (see picture).  Anyone ever see this before?

[loco340cuda]

Well I spoke with my neighbor today (owner of the body shop who is doing the work) and he said I have good news and bad news on the doors.  I said okay, what is the bad news.... he said the driver side door had been reskinned at one time and for some reason unknown to man kind they ground down the end of the door that makes the gap with the quarter panel and then tried to rebuild it with bondo.  He said after they (the body shop) blasted the door to clean it the bondo on the end fell out and the skin was not connected at the end of the door anymore and on top of that the door was a little shorter.     He said they could probably weld a bead on the end of the door to build it up but he recommended reskinning the door to do it right.  He also said the front part of the door (section were the hinges mate up to) was never straightened out after it was hit at some point.  After talking it over they are going to put a new skin on the door and straighten up the front part. 

So I then asked what was the good news... he said the passenger side door is in excellent condition and needs nothing more then to fill in a few minor dents.   

[usraptr]

That definitely falls under the bad news/good news category . 

[anlauto]

You can replace the door pretty easy

[loco340cuda]

Yeah I guess I could replace the whole door, but finding another decent one here in Arizona will be difficult.  If I buy one out of state I would suspect the shipping will probably be close to what I pay for the door  . 

At this point in order to keep the project moving forward in a timely manner I think the door skin is the best option.  Of course now that I need a door skin, AMD is currently out of stock  but after checking a number of vendors I found one who actually had it in stock. 

[Plum6Pak]

Good luck with the project, sweet car and it'll all be worth it when complete. Keep the updates and pictures coming!

[loco340cuda]

A little update.... the body shop sent over some pictures of the hood before it was primed as well as the passenger door which is now in primer (see below).

The body shop has not been able to do anything on the driver door due to they still need the new door skin.  It turns out the place i order the door skin from who said they had it in stock, finally admitted after a week that they really didn't have stock, idiots.  After searching around I was not able to find anyone who had the door skin in stock.  So I decided to call AMD to find out when they were going to get more in stock and they told me sometime in May  .  So at that point I was starting to panic because I did not want to have the car off the road for almost 2 months.  I continued to call around and finally found Classic Industries had two in stock.  I received the door skin yesterday so it will be going to the body shop on Monday.

I'm hoping the hood hinges will be back next week.  We sent them back to the company that rebuilt them and they admitted that they screwed up and that they would make it right.  I really hope when they show up next week that there are no issues because I am not sending them back a 3rd time.

[loco340cuda]

I talked to the body shop today and they said they put the new door skin on the driver door.  In the process of removing the window they said the window rollers fell apart due to they were completely dry rotted.  Do they sell a replacement kit for this and if so where can I find it.

Also, they need to drill the holes for the drivers mirror.  Can someone tell me the size of the holes to drill as well as where the correct place is to drill the holes?  I need the hole dimensions as well as the dimensions from a reference point on the door to the center of the three holes. 

One more question on these holes... the passenger side mirror holes looks like it has some rubber grommets in the mirror holes, is this the case for the driver side as well?  If so, where can you find these grommets?

[E-Body Products]

The mirror holes are actually aluminum rivets. The rivets have a threaded thru hole.



Daniel
www.ebodyproducts.com

[anlauto]

  and you already have the location on your passenger side door.

[loco340cuda]

Thanks for the info guys! 

Daniel, where can I find those rivets?

I have included a picture of what i think is the plastic pieces for the window that the body shop said needed replacing.  Can anyone confirm these are the plastic window rollers?

[E-Body Products]

They are on ebay


Daniel
www.ebodyproducts.com

[loco340cuda]

Thanks.

Anyone have any thoughts on the window rollers?

[Topcat]

I talked to the body shop today and they said they put the new door skin on the driver door.  In the process of removing the window they said the window rollers fell apart due to they were completely dry rotted.  Do they sell a replacement kit for this and if so where can I find it.

Also, they need to drill the holes for the drivers mirror.  Can someone tell me the size of the holes to drill as well as where the correct place is to drill the holes?  I need the hole dimensions as well as the dimensions from a reference point on the door to the center of the three holes. 

One more question on these holes... the passenger side mirror holes looks like it has some rubber grommets in the mirror holes, is this the case for the driver side as well?  If so, where can you find these grommets?

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=94748.msg933257#msg933257