74 Challenger Canadian Restoration

[daaboots]

Hi everyone. I'm the lucky new owner of a 74 Challenger! It was a gift to my wife and I from my her father. He bought it planning on doing a restoration but lost interest in it. I plan on doing the restoration work myself, learning as I go. I'm on a small budget so it wont be perfect in the end, just good enough to go out for a nice cruise on the weekend with the family.

Here is a video I put together on our trip to pick up the car.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Cbhk5ihgQ

Here are some pictures of the car:

[daaboots]

More pictures:

[Jesus H Chrysler]

Very nice!  I see another one in the background.

[dfrazz]

Great to keep it in the family.  Best of luck with the resto.

[anlauto]

Typically the words "budget" and "restoration" don't go together well in the same sentence...

Looks like you have a good starting point, so good luck !

[jimynick]

Well, as the owner of a 74, let me first congratulate you and then advise you to look it over very carefully. I note your budget intent and hope that you're a competent welder, since it appears you'll be patching/replacing 1/4's. The firewalls are a common problem area as are the floors. Make sure the subframes are in decent nick before you commit yourself too deeply. I hope you and your family enjoy your recent gift! 

[Tropicalcats]

Restoration is a long and interesting road filled with new knowledge, new skills and empty pockets.
Enjoy 

[usraptr]

Looks like a good platform to stat with.     Welcome to the forum from Utah.   
Keep us updated with your progress.

[daaboots]

Thanks everyone!

When I say "budget", I just mean that I'll be doing the work myself. I realize that this will take many thousands of $ to get it back into shape. I can't afford to take this to a shop and pay big money to have a full restoration done.

I plan on removing the two rear quarter panels and replacing them with new ones. I've never done body work like this before, but I have a good mig welder and I've done a lot of welding in the past. The driver side front fender needs to be replaced, but I'm hoping the passenger side is good enough. The floor pans need a bit of work, but the uni-body rails and sils look to be in good shape. The firewall and font inner fenders need a bit of work.

The shocks are completely done, and I imagine the ball joints and brakes need to be replaced as well. The wiper motor is not working, but that might be a blown fuse because he said it was working at one point. All the other lights and buttons seem to be working well. It's missing the radio so I'm trying to find a stock unit.

I'm not sure what to do with the engine yet. It has oil leaks just about everywhere and runs real rough right now. A lot of the vacuum hoses are not connected at this point... some are blocked of with bolts. My father-in-law has a 340 with a 4 spd trans that I'm trying to get off him (he's still hanging on for some reason) as well as a 440 with 727 trans. Both engines need to be rebuilt. He also has a different rear end with a posi in it that he's going to give me.

Hopefully in the next little while I'll be able to start taking parts off to get a better look at the work required. Stay tuned!

[blown motor]

Good luck with your project. Vintage Auto Radio makes radios for classic cars. Original look with new technology but they're not cheap.

[Dr. Feelgood]

Any idea of what colour the car was originally?

['Cuda Hunter]

Cool car!

Looks to have a few extra options.

Any chance of seeing the fender tag please?

That 340 would be sweet.  What was this car's engine originally?

[daaboots]

I always thought that red color was the original 

I'll get a picture of the fender tag tonight. I'm still working on that 340... I'll wear him down yet!

[ChallengerHK]

  That's the color of my first parts car, a 73. Don't know the name or the paint code.

[daaboots]

Here is what it looked like before I started doing work today.












I started removing the body-filler the previous owner had put on, and found a few surprises!






The front of the roof wasn't too bad, but the back is a complete mess. A patch was added and then they hammered it all down and filled it, about 1/4" thick!










The bottom of the driver side door also had a big pile of filler. When I removed it I found a long dent. I should be able to pull this out.






I was hoping to save the passenger side fender, but I found some ugly patches under the filler.




The driver side fender is a complete mess... and on top of that they ruined the lip of the grill.






I removed the lead from the rear quarters with a propane torch. There are some patches in this area that will need to be cut out.














Finally, I went at the front fender knowing that I need to replace it. Didn't find any big surprises. It's hard to say how the firewall is because there is so much undercoating. There is a bunch of tar near the top and I'm expecting to find a bunch of holes under it.











That's it for now