Budget 68 Charger build

[Kern Dog]

Absolutely.
I'm in a deal to get a complete XH '70 Charger for $5000. I already have a 440 here, a 727, an 8 3/4" axle, several sets of gears, new mufflers, enough alternators and starters to service a fleet, radiators, wire harnesses and gauge clusters....It will need some new parts but getting it up and running can be done for under $10,000 including the price of the car. This car needs a tug on a frame rack or a new frame rail due to a front end collision. I have a complete front stub so I either pay a shop to straighten the frame or replace stuff myself.

[chargervert]

Sounds like a nice project, and being in California certainly helps with finding a Charger with minimal rust issues.  Out here a Charger in the five grand price range would need 10k worth of AMD sheet metal, plus the cost of installing it, or the labor cost of doing it yourself, so a running project Charger in the 10k range isn't doable.  Even with your amazing 5k buy in,if you add the sum of the parts that you already have, and your labor, plus the new parts, you will have over 20k in it. If you decide to do body,paint,interior and chrome, you can add 15k more on top of that number.   You can tell yourself that it's 10k,just because you are not pulling more than that out of your pocket right now, but you are only fooling yourself.

[John Milner]

I think you can get that car going for $10,000.  Especially if you have the parts and do every bit of the work yourself.  I have slightly under $10,000 in my '68.  It isn't perfect.  I did my own bodywork and painted the car inside my shop.  The only thing that I have hired out so far is machine work on my 440 block, crank and rods.  Once you start hiring people to do bodywork, metal work, build an engine or your interior, things get expensive very quick. I don't have and can't afford a perfect 68-70 Charger but I do have one that I'm going to be able to drive and enjoy.  I'd say go for it with the $10,000 budget.

[70B5Cuda]

Right before my shoulder surgery in late January, I made sure I got the cabin floor pans cut out. The floor pans had lots of rust/holes but the frame rails and rockers are in good shape...

[70B5Cuda]

Had 1.5 hours available, so I fired up the air compressor and got to work knocking all the undercoating off of the passenger side inner fender. If you haven't used a needle scaler, you need to try it. A needle scaler gun is super cheap on ebay (like $30-40 shipped) and does a nice job in a reasonable amount of time. The passenger side inner fender took one hour and 15 minutes. I will never use a torch and scraper again...

[1974dodgecharger]

using POR15 will make the rotted metal stronger bonding all the rust as making the car one big rust bucket covered in protection 

[chargervert]

Just the cost of the full floor pan,and the two rear foot well pieces,plus the materials to install the floor pans is easily a grand, so the ten grand budget is already shrinking fast.

[nchrome]

l've replaced front floor pans, trunk pan, rear frame rails, rear cross brace, shock crossmember, torsion bar crossmember, both rear quarters, and one outer wheel well and broke my 5,000.00 budget.  But now except for time l'm on the down hill side l hope. Then l will overhaul the engine and trans, and then do the interior and on the road she may go lol

[70B5Cuda]

I bought a battery powered Milwaukee Fuel DA sander a while back so I went after the rust on the roof. What a nasty job! THE roof skin has plenty of dings but it's cleaning up pretty nicely! Passenger side....

[orange383]

Looking good.

[70B5Cuda]

I got the rest of the roof stripped...didn't realize the roof had as many dents as it does!




And I started stripping the cowl...

[Kern Dog]

How is the battery life on that D/A sander? It seems that cordless tools and battery tech has really improved lately.

[70B5Cuda]

I've been really impressed with the Milwaukee Fuel M18 line of tools. I can use their impact all day long on one battery and I can't use up the battery. The DA is a different story since it is in constant use. It will run for almost an hour straight (depending on speed), but they recharge really fast so I just swap between the batteries. The worn out battery will charge before I need to swap batteries again. I prefer the battery to using air since its quieter, I don't have to worry about moisture in lines, and I don't have to drag hoses/cords.

[ACUDANUT]

 How do you have time for all this ? Family, house, kids, wife and a job. 

[70B5Cuda]

It seems like I'm making a lot of progress, but I only work in the garage about 2 hours per week. I just try to make as much progress as I can and I take lots of pictures. Some of the first pictures are from before my surgery. I used to get so much more done then I do now....

[70B5Cuda]

A previous owner hacked up the k member with a torch so its not useable. I removed what was left of the front suspension. Then I fired up the compressor and knocked all the undercoating off the driver's side inner fender, which took about 1.5 hours.

[wingcarenvy]

Man, its looking good. I love 68 Chargers and better yet I love a good budget build. I also like how you are not cutting corners like some budget builds. I bet this thing is going to turn out real nice.

[70B5Cuda]

This update won't wound like much but it was a lot of work....I dug out all the sealer in the rain gutters and the forward pillar channels. Getting back under the lip was a major pain but every bit of sealer has been removed. I also removed all the windshield clips and retaining screws from the front windshield channel. I couldn't believe that they all came out! The rear window trim clips and screws were not as cooperative. It helped that the windshield had been out of the car for 20+ years.

[70B5Cuda]

I spent another couple hours with the needle scaler. This time, I did the inner rockers, torsion bar crossmember, cabin floor pan supports, and I started on the rear frame rails and floor pans under the rear seat. I am always amazed how much better they look...

[70B5Cuda]

Before I cut out the trunk floor, both rear frame rail needed patched near the top of the arch. Before aftermarket parts were available for these cars, someone had stripped this car. Apparently they really needed the shock absorber mount/crossmember, but instead of grinding welds to remove it, they used a torch. In the process they cut out sections of the frame rail. I didn't want to replace the whole frame rails so some sections were traced/cut and butt welded in.

Before...


After

[70B5Cuda]

I've been trying to find/buy a used rotisserie for the last 3 months and I can't get to one before its sold. I've emailed the seller within 2 hours of listing and it's always already sold. I told a friend and he said "why don't you just use mine?". I didn't even know he had one! So I picked it up and got the Charger mounted. Now I can cut out the trunk floor pan and remove the last of the undercoating from the rear frame rails.

[TexasStroker]

Coming along nicely!  Does the needle scaler leave any marks?  Do you hit it straight on, or from the side at an angle?  I was always going to try one, but stuck with the chisels and scrapers.

[70B5Cuda]

I use about a 30-45 degree angle (from the sheetmetal) with the scaler. It really doesn't peen the metal at all if you stay with shallow angles

[ACUDANUT]

 Nice work shop. 

[70B5Cuda]

Nice work shop.  

Thanks! It's dirtier then it looks. I am glad I painted the floors though. Cleanup is so much easier with the painted floors.

Now that the rear frame rails are patched, the next task is trunk floor pan removal. A previous owner used an acetylene torch to cut out pieces of both passenger side wheel houses in order to scavenge patches for another charger. Again, this car was parted out before aftermarket sheetmetal was available...but it's still a bummer considering how solid the driver's side wheel houses are.





I fired up the compressor and got out the sheetmetal trimmer. I use it to trim around both sides of every frame rail edge. This leaves just a thin piece of sheetmetal along the lip of each frame lip. It took me about 3 hours to get the big pieces out and get to this point...



And the pieces/debris that came out...