New guy, question about a 68 Charger

[RickCrunelle]

Yes, I'm a newbie, 1st post.
My neighbor has been sitting on a bone stock 1968 charger for a number of years.  It's parked outside, and is slowly rotting away.  I'm in Southern California, so fortunately it looks like the rust isn't too bad on it.  I recently finished my last project car, and I'm looking for another, so I'm thinking of seeing if I can get him to sell.  I haven't looked at the car yet, only from 20 feet away.  So I don't know anything about it.
 
What I'd like to know are the problem spots to look for on this car.  Areas prone to rust, non-reproduced parts, etc, etc...  I did a couple of searches, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I'm hoping you guys can help.  Also, let me know what might be a particularly rare car (color, engine/trans combo, trans, a/c,...)  I love to customize, but I hate cutting up rare cars, so that will help me decide which path to take.  The project I just finished is a 63 Lincoln Convertible.  You know, the kind JFK was shot in.  They only made 3000 of those per year, so I restored it to (almost) 100% original.  However, before that I had a 1965 Nova SS that had almost nothing original, and was scary fast.

Thanks for any help!
Rick

[Mike DC (formerly miked)]

If you're experienced with rusting musclecars as a whole, there aren't too many surprises for Chargers different from normal.  The back window corners, the trunkfloor & rear quarters & rear valance panels, the front fenders right behind the front wheelwell openings, etc. 

The taillight panel sometimes gets pretty eaten up on the '69/70 cars but the '68s aren't nearly as bad about that for some reason. 

THe next thing to go is usually the passenger floors and the transmission/torsion bar crossmember.  Look at the outer edges of the crossmember where it joins up with the rocker boxes. 



If you'd asked this question 5 years ago I would have said "you're screwed" in regards to reproduction sheetmetal.  But now there is a ton of stuff just hitting the market.  Basically everything but the subframe rails & the doors & the trunklid is reproduced now.  (Well, at least the skin panels for all that stuff is, anyway.)

The plastic front grilles are still an unholy bitch to deal with.  There's one small operation that has made some nice repros, but they're pretty unreliable about getting stuff done so far. 

[Finn]

Around the bottom of front windshield (usually hidden by trim and window sealer) and in the rain gutters that run along the side windows, usually on the angled part in the back...if you can check the inside under the headliner in the same area.

Pictures if you please! 

[mally69]

Also check the bottom of the rear valance and around the rear leaf spring box then  take your hand and feel the rear inner wheel houseing to see if it rotted away from the quarter panel.

[craigandlynda]

"bone stock" could be important...if its an original four speed, big block, you've got a real gem...check for replaced major parts, like older motor, wrong buckets, missing console, or unwanted "modifications," such as after market sunroof, chopped up dash for tape player or cb radio..or anything else that would cause difficulty to return to stock...most common combo for those was 318 automatics...nice options would improve value...stick shift 440's should have dana rear...sounds like a fun find!