MOPAR JOHNS B5 DAYTONA RESTORATION!!

[Mopar John]

                                            WIRE HARNESS TAG PART 3!
I knew Geno wouldn't be happy without that part number so I went and did it! I took some laquer thinner to the overspray on the wire harness tag from the R4 Daytona! It did just what I thought and was taking everything off#$%^&*! So I got out a sharp blade and slowly started scraping the R4 paint away! The attached picture are the results. I still can't see any evidence of a part number! Sorry! I will do more checking on the B5 tag in the future!

[Mopar John]

                                        NOSE CONE IS ON THE DAYTONA BODY!
  With all the metal repair work done the next thing to do was to mount the nose cone on the Daytona body! The first picture in this batch is of the nose getting the "Z" brackets bolted on. The second picture shows the nose bolted on to the body! The third and fourth pictures are left and right side views showing how everything is lining up. For the first time on everything looks very close! The next step will be to get the front valance repaired and then reassemble everything!

[Mopar John]

                                                          FRONT VALANCE!
With the body in primer and the nose hung it was time for the front valance! This batch of pictures show some of the before shots. The first is of the right inside and the second is of the left inside. Both show the backside of the front reflector brackets also. The third picture is of something unusual on the left inside? The fourth picture is of the siren mounted to the valance that was part of an old alarm system. They were afraid of someone stealing these cars back when they were new!!

[Mopar John]

                                          FRONT VALANCE CONTINUED!
  This batch of pictures will start out with another shot of that unusual area on the left side? The second picture is of the left side rear. The third picture is of a crease that had to be repaired on the bottom and the last picture is of that area on the left side from the outside? What ever it was it was covered over with bondo?

[Mopar John]

                                               FRONT VALANCE CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures is all about that unusual spot on the left side. The first picture is an outside view with some of the bondo removed. The last three pictures shows the repair work to that same area!

[Mopar John]

                                                FRONT VALANCE CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures show the final repairs to the front valance before it's mounted to the fenders! The first picture is of the final repairs to the spot on the left side. The second and third pictures are of repairs to the bottomand the last shows the front valance mounted to the fender. When I return the pictures will show the valance and nose on the Daytona body and finish work going on!

[Mopar John]

                                                NOSE CONE FINISH WORK!
  Today's pictures will be the last from the JULY 2009 time frame. Talladega was 3 month's away and the body was close to paint and many of the sub assemblies were ready! This first batch of pictures show Troy using his new found leading process on the nose seams. The first two pictures are of the seams on the right side of the nose. The third picture is of the left side seams. The fourth picture is of the right side of the nose in yellow etching primer over the lead repairs!

[Mopar John]

                                           NOSE CONE FINISH WORK CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures shows more etching primer and then gray primer on the nose! The first picture is of the center down low in the etching primer. The next three pictures are of the nose in the first coat of gray primer!

[Mopar John]

                                   NOSE CONE FINISH WORK CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures will show more of the gray primer on the nose and then some more finish work!
The first two pictures are of the gray primer on the nose from a left side and right side views. The third picture is of the nose with a skim coat of filler on the top side. The last picture is of the right side of the body getting those body lines block sanded razor sharp!

[Mopar John]

                                         LAST BATCH OF NOSE FINISH WORK!
This is the last batch of pictures for today! The first picture shows the right side of the Daytona getting the body lines block sanded near the front of the body. The second picture shows the top of the nose block sanded after the skim coat of filler. The third picture is of the nose block sanded from the right side. The last picture is of the nose getting a second coat of filler on the left side. This is where that junkyard payloader flattened it @#$%^&*!
ENJOY!

[Mopar John]

                                                                 RACING!
Due to a national event and a divisional event at ROUTE 66 our bracket program is off for about a month! I have been messing with the timing and trying to find the sweet spot? So I decided a week ago to go to OSCEOLA DRAGWAY with the drag car. The weather was cloudy and very humid! The car ran strong and as fast as a 9.61 at 138MPH! I found out that the track has a professional photographer there almost every week and takes some great action photos! I met him and he told me he took quite a few shots of my car since he hadn't seen it before! These pictures are copyrighted so I couldn't print any here. If you go to www.osceoladragway.com and click on the photos for 6-6-10 in the PRO section you will see a nice assortment from burnout to launch! They not only looked great but told me a lot about the setup on the car. I went back again last Sunday 6-13-10 to do more test and tuning and ended up in the race program for the day. I was able to run very good reaction times and consistant times. The result was a runner up finish! I was not able to contest the final due to the car being real hot! It was hot and humid and they ran one round right after another and I couldn't get it cooled down in time @#$%^&*)! There is another batch of pictures for Sunday also!

[Mopar John]

                                                  NOSE AND TRUNKLID!
I downloaded another disc of photos and the first two pictures are of the final touches on the outside of the nose cone. The last two pictures are of the trunklid now in primer after the metal work is complete!

[Mopar John]

                                                    INSIDE NOSE FILLER WORK!
  This batch of pictures shows the filler work on the inside of the nose. The first is overall, the second is the left side, the third is of the right side and last is the lower area.

[Mopar John]

                                    INSIDE NOSE FILLER WORK AND PRIMER!
The first two pictures in this batch show more of the filler work being sanded on the right lower area and center lower area. The last two pictures are of the inside of the nose in primer. The first is from the left and the second is overall!

[Mopar John]

                                                NOSE CONE IN PRIMER!
The first two pictures of this batch show a couple more shots of the inside of the nose in primer. The last picture is of the outside in primer!

[Mopar John]

                                                  INSIDE THE NOSE IS PAINTED!
This batch of pictures is the last for today and shows more on the inside of the nose. The first two pictures show the gray primer sanded and the last picture shows the inside painted black! Next up is more block sanding of the body lines on the Daytona body!

[Charger-Bodie]

Nice work going on there John! Awesome car! 

[Mopar John]

Nice work going on there John! Awesome car! 

Brian,
Thanks for the positive comment! It means a lot coming from someone who has done similar work on the same type of car.
Mopar John

[Mopar John]

                                                     GLASS! GLASS! GLASS!
  Yesterday Linda and I traveled up into Michigan to pick up the glass we had polished for the B5 Daytona! Originally we were taking up the glass for both doors. The glass in the car just wasn't nice enough and I bought several pieces that I felt were better. One came from Jeff 69rtse4spd who is a fellow forum member from near Fort Wayne, Indiana about 2 hours away. So as I'm discussing the  door glass with Rob on the phone I told him how the original back glass for the B5 Daytona had about a 2 1/2 inch long scratch! I also told him how we took our R4 Daytona down to the restoration shop and switched the rear windows @#$%^&*()! When I told him that the other rear window was still loose he talked me into bringing it along? When I got up to his place he informed me that the two pieces of door glass that I had picked out were some of the nicest used glass he had seen in a while! He informed me that those would be no problem to polish to perfection! Then he took a look at the rear glass and the 2 1/2 inch long scratch that was on the inside surface? I informed Rob that over the years I had stored a lot of parts for the restoration in the Daytona on the back shelf. It was scratched when I was probably moving something around back there? He told me to leave the glass and he would see if he could get it out? He wanted the B5 Daytona to have real nice glass all the way around. I had told him that the rear glass out of the R4 Daytona was better but had a couple of small scratches near the edge. These were not visable like the big scratch right in the middle  of the other rear glass. So about a week ago Rob informed me that the glass was done including the original rear glass out of the B5 Daytona! He said it took a lot of work and he had to polish out around 15 inches to make it look even @#$%^&*()! WOW! When we arrived Rob had all the glass laid out and I was able to put it up to the light and check his work. WOW!! It all turned out great and I can't wait for Troy to switch it next month! I have attached a picture of the freshly polished back glass and another of the door glass. The reason I am so excited about this is that there are a lot of points for the glass in OE judging. There is one set of points for having the correct glass with proper logos and date codes and then another set of points for the condition of the glass! So thanks to Rob we should do very well in this area!

[Mopar John]

                                               MORE BLOCK SANDING!!
This batch of pictures show more block sanding of the Daytona body! The first two are of the body on the drivers side and the last two are of the passengers side. At this point the body was real close to the final primer!

[Mopar John]

                                                        NOSE Z BRACKETS!
The next two batches of pictures show the prep work that was done to the nose Z brackets. This first batch shows both the left and right after they were stripped and had the filler work done.

[Mopar John]

                                            NOSE Z BRACKETS CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures shows the final prep picture and the last three show the Z brackets painted black ready for assembly!

[Mopar John]

                                              FRAME RAIL SUPPORTS!
This batch of pictures show the prep work for the frame rail supports. The first picture shows one of the supports after it had been blasted. The next three pictures shows the prep work and filler.

[Mopar John]

                                                   HEADLIGHT BRACKETS!
This batch of pictures shows the headlight brackets both front and back before any restoration work took place. There was blue overspray on the front and surface rust on the back!

[Mopar John]

                                         HEADLIGHT BRACKETS CONTINUED!
This batch of pictures shows a headlight bracket after it had been blasted. The next two pictures show the headlight brackets and the frame rail supports painted and ready for assembly! The last picture is of the painted headlight brackets.