70 Challenger going Plum Crazy

[70chall440]

Perhaps a helpful tip, instead of using modeling paint and a brush, I have found using a paint pen like in the picture worked exceptionally well. Any welding shop has them (in black, white and silver). The paint is very durable and dries quick. It lays down smoother than a brush and you don't tend to get the brush strokes. With the small letters like on the heater switch, you need a light touch but it seems to work really well.

[Brillo1974]

Perhaps a helpful tip, instead of using modeling paint and a brush, I have found using a paint pen like in the picture worked exceptionally well. Any welding shop has them (in black, white and silver). The paint is very durable and dries quick. It lays down smoother than a brush and you don't tend to get the brush strokes. With the small letters like on the heater switch, you need a light touch but it seems to work really well.

I agree paint pens work about as well as you can get to do raised lettering. Now if you have access to a rubber ink roller it might work well too and all you would hit is the face of the letter. You may have to go over it more than once though since the roller would not leave as much paint each time. Just a thought.

[dakota]

Thanks for the additional tips on lettering.   I'm already done with what I need to do, but these suggestions should be helpful for someone else starting their work.

[dakota]

I have previously purchased a set of subframe connectors and torque boxes from US Cartool.  The installation instructions state that the weight of the car should be carried on the suspension (vs. using the frame) when the connectors are installed.   I have seen videos of these being installed on a car supported by a frame lift (engine is in) and also some posts by other members here where they were installed while the car was on a rotisserie (engine out).  I ended up trading emails with Chris from US Cartool to get some clarity.   The text of his reply:  "The motor is not required to be installed to weld our frame connectors in place, in your situation you need to support to the frame of the car by the suspension mounting places in the front and rear. The idea is to keep any excess weight from hanging off the car."   I sent him the attached pictures to verify my car (engine out) is supported correctly.  He said "yes".

This is a big help because welding these in is good cold weather work while it's too cold for painting.  Otherwise, I'd be waiting until warmer weather to paint the engine bay before putting the engine and tranny back in.

[dfrazz]

I have previously purchased a set of subframe connectors and torque boxes from US Cartool.  The installation instructions state that the weight of the car should be carried on the suspension (vs. using the frame) when the connectors are installed.   I have seen videos of these being installed on a car supported by a frame lift (engine is in) and also some posts by other members here where they were installed while the car was on a rotisserie (engine out).  I ended up trading emails with Scott from US Cartool to get some clarity.   The text of his reply:  "The motor is not required to be installed to weld our frame connectors in place, in your situation you need to support to the frame of the car by the suspension mounting places in the front and rear. The idea is to keep any excess weight from hanging off the car."   I sent him the attached pictures to verify my car (engine out) is supported correctly.  He said "yes".

This is a big help because welding these in is good cold weather work while it's too cold for painting.  Otherwise, I'd be waiting until warmer weather to paint the engine bay before putting the engine and tranny back in.

This is good to know, thanks for posting.  Please post pics of the process and final set up.

[dave73chally]

This is good to know, thanks for posting.  Please post pics of the process and final set up.

Agreed. Just so I'm clear, you're full front suspension assembly is out?

Here's what I've gathered about the uscartool bracing kit install, do i have anything out of wack:
-subframe and torque boxes installed as stated above - on all 4 tires or jacked up and no excess weight hanging down
-lower radiator brace installed with kmember in place to avoid any potential frame movement
-fender braces installed with car on all 4 wheels level on the ground? Or can this be done the same as the subframe and torque boxes?

[73440]

The picture rotation can usually be accomplished by opening the picture in your normal photo program, whether Picasa or windows photo gallery or whichever program you use and doing the rotation and it should be saved there.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[dakota]

Dave - You are correct.  The instructions for the core support installation don't specify either way about the K Member, but I have to believe it's a good idea to keep things lined up when welding. 

All of my front suspension is out, and this information was included in my question asked of Chris at US Cartool.  As for the inner fender braces, mine were installed at the body shop where it was painted.  The wheels were on, engine and tranny in.   This is from the US Cartool installation instructions for the inner fender braces:

"At this point you want to correctly support you car for welding. If your car is completely disassembled, you will want to support on jack stands under the frame rails of the car in multiple spots. If the car is on a rotisserie you will need to lower it down and support with jack stands. You do not want to weld these in place with the car supported only by the rotisserie. If your car is completely assembled you can install these with the car sitting on all four wheels as it would be normally. These steps will insure that the body does not flex while installing the inner fender braces."

There was also a comment in the instructions about removing the front shocks before welding, mostly to keep the shocks from being damaged by weld splatter.

Link to the full set of instructions for the inner fender braces:
http://uscartool.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Inner-fender-Brace-instructions.pdf

Link to a list of all of the installation instructions for US Cartool products:
http://uscartool.com/pictures

Up to this point, I didn't have any plans for adding the core support brace.   Now I'm thinking about it.  The subframe connectors and inner fender braces will be there along with the torque boxes, the K member stiffening kit has been installed, plus I'll be adding one of the sector support bearings for the steering.  The concern is leaving a "weak link" in place at the core support with everything else being reinforced.   

I promised myself that I'm not going to go buy more parts (at least any major ones) until I work down the pile that are sitting in my garage and basement, so a final call on the core support brace will have to wait until I'm closer to reuniting the engine and the car.   As has been said many times on this board, our project cars are never "done."

[70chall440]

I went through all of this when I was putting connectors in my Cuda. I had the frame straightened (due to damage), but then welded the connectors in with the car on a twirler upside down. I talked to several resto guys and got a lot of different opinions, however due to the way the cars are built and so long as you do not have missing structural components (like quarter panels, tail panels, roof, etc) the car remains straight. I checked my car before and after and there was no change.

[Cudakiller70]

 

[Topcat]

Damn! I wanted these, but my car was already painted once they came out.

[dakota]

Finished up work on the wiper motor.   The main thing that needed to be addressed was that anything made of rubber or plastic was cracked.  Cleaned and re-lubed everything.  Replaced a number of parts (thank you Kim from passion4mopars) including the braided insulation, papers around the magnets, wires & wiring harness, gasket and ground strap (ground strap not shown).   

Of course, I'm going to work really hard not to let the car get rained on, but just in case....

[340challconvert]

Continuing the story on the wheel wells:  There wasn't much texture to the truck bed liner material (a Rustoleum product I bought at Autozone - 1 gallon can), so it took 3 coats in the rear wells to fill everything in where I had scraped the old stuff off.   On the front wheel wells, I just roughed up what was already there and used mostly a roller to recoat it.   If I were to do this over again, I probably would've tried hard to remove all of the dirt packed in the coating in the rear wells rather than going through the removal work.   From an initial appearance standpoint, the front turned out nicer.

I also spent some time this past week applying Rust Bullet to the underside of the car.   It goes on in 3 steps:  Metal Blast (acid etch), a silver protective coating (2 coats), and then a gloss black top coat (also 2 coats).   Painting it on mostly with a 2" brush while laying on a creeper is not exactly ideal as the material will run down the brush and then drip.  I ended up using duct tape to seal my gloves to my coveralls because the paint kept getting on my arms.  I'm pretty happy with how it looks now but this is a fair bit of work to apply properly.  The drips on the garage floor from the Rust Bullet aren't the only reason, but it looks like painting the garage floor will be something I'll need to do in the future... after the Challenger is "done".

The wheel wells on your car look really good.  I used a dremel tool on mine with a hard scraper on the front inner wheel well to remove the factory undercoat.  Worked very well.  I am following your work- looking really good!

[dakota]

I have to laugh at myself about what makes me smile big these days.   My sister and her hubby-to-be sent me a "care package" of tools that he decided he didn't need any longer.  My offer to pay for the shipping costs was declined too.   Christmas comes early!

[73440]

Nice!

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