Look what followed me home today...

[burdar]

On Saturday my father-in-law and I built a K-member dolly.  I used a small wooden cart to install the Challenger engine but it wasn't very stable. The engine wanted to tip side to side. I wanted something that would be solid that I could store an engine/suspension on long term. We started with a crude stand my dad and I had built years ago for the Challenger.  The original stand didn't have any wheels on it and used the sway bar mount to attach the K.  It did the job but I wanted something nicer this time around.

I used the outer frame mounting holes to attach the K to the dolly so it would be stable.  The four arms that support the K are attached to the bottom of the main "T" so they can be unbolted and removed during installation. I didn't want to guess when making the trans support so I'll add that once the engine/trans are on the dolly.

There are better designs out there but this one didn't cost me anything and should do the job.

[burdar]

Last Thursday I went and had a look at the car.  So far everything is going good.  There aren't any real surprises.  How do you like the 4x4 look?


The patch panels go a lot higher then I thought they would.




You can see the pin holes in the trunk drop offs.  If the car hadn't sat around with the top down for 10+ years, I'm sure these wouldn't need replacing.  Last I knew, they were just going to section in the lower part since everything else is real solid.




Here you can see the previous damage from possibly rubbing a guard rail.  The old repair involved drilling a bunch of holes in the quarter panel, pulling out the dent and applying filler.  You can see the filler oozing out of all the holes.(just above the initial cut line)  The repair patch will cover a lot of this.


That's it for now.  Hopefully they will get started on the floor patches this week.

[anlauto]

They're going to remove all that old 1/4 panel and butt weld the patches right ? Not overlapping them

[burdar]

Correct...No lapping.

[burdar]

I picked up a lot of parts at the Nats this past weekend.  The big items purchased were trunk extensions, fenders and a hood.  I'm always nervous about hauling things.  We got everything back to the hotel just fine.  We spend an hour on Sunday morning in the parking lot coming up with a more compact setup.  Driving 10 hours back home would have been nerve racking with things this high.
 

We took the fenders out of the boxes and set the hood on 2x4's.  The hood box was flush with the top of the bed.  We actually got 1 to 1.5 MPG better with the truck loaded this way.  We dropped off the parts at the body shop on the way back home.  They are really working fast.  It won't be long and the car will be back home.


Sanding quarter panels









Fitting trunk extensions.  They didn't use the entire replacement piece.  The upper piece visible in the trunk was perfect.  They just replaced the lower section that was full of pin holes.

[burdar]

Quarter to rocker area repaired.







Fixing the front of the PS rocker where the nut for the splash shield pulled out.







Sanding down the doors.  Man...this car had a rough life.




Fitting PS quarter panel patch.

[dutch]

 

[HP_Cuda]

Great job!  This one is coming along nicely.

 

[brads70]

Looking great!    Man I hate body work! 

[burdar]

You may hate it, but at least you have some skills with a welder.  Your fenders turned out nice.

Just received some more pics from today.  The front end is being test fit while the DS quarter work is being done.  The fitment looks good from the pictures.  I haven't talked to them yet to see if there are any issues.

[brads70]

That's going to be sweet when your done!  I was a little surprised that the AMD fenders were not exactly like stock once you really get looking/working with them. That stuff sure is not cheap!

[burdar]

I guess there is a problem with the DS fender. Some spot welds will have to be drilled and things moved around. Hopefully it's not a huge deal.

[larry4406]

Burdar - nice k-France dolly. What is the adjuster thread and dropped brace on the rear most uprights?  Do these let you tune the dolly to the incline of the receiving vehicle?

[burdar]

My thought was that I could tilt the engine assembly up or down with the back legs being adjustable.  Most of the weight will be on those back legs anyway.  When I build the trans support, it will be adjustable too.  Once the engine is done I'll see how well it works.  I'll test fit everything before the car gets painted.  The only problem I see right now is that the cherry picker legs and the engine stand are going to take up the same piece of real estate.  Either I'll have to have the cherry picker at and angle or I'll have to make lift extensions to bolt onto the bumper mounts.(to hold the cherry picker farther away from the car) 

[HP_Cuda]

I don't want to point out design flaws because your stand is pretty nice but you have anchored the Kmember to the stand via the Kmember bolt holes which need to be free when you slide that baby under the car. Once under the car, put the bolts through the holes and then lift the car slightly to get the engine stand out of the way.

If the front bumper is still off the car you can lift the car further back and hopefully that will help so you can just lift the car and then slide the motor/trans in sideways from the front wheel well area. This gives me an idea. If you build a Kmember dolly that takes the cherry picker V shape into mind while still being structurally sound you might be able to sell quite a bit of these.