After Shots-prt2

Here are a few after shots after I blasted the cancer areas. Still not spot less, but it is a little better than it was. This will be a fun job!! Or will it?

HOLY RUST!!

Window day- the day of all days that isn't the most exciting work there is to do, but one of the most important things especially on this design of a car. Research shows that if a Charger is found years later it will almost definitely have rust on the back frame of the rear window. Mine is no exception. Any ordinary fellow would have called the time of death on this car years ago just from this back window. I on the other hand look at it as another chance to cruise to proove all of those nay-sayers. I stripped the weatherstripping off, blasted the outer frame, and sprayed the cancer areas with Rust-Mort. These areas will definitely be cut out and made fresh again. It will take time and patience, but what else do I have with this car?

I CAN Get Dirty

Yes I grew up and continue to be the clean one in the family. I didn't like to get my hands messy or come in smelling like a car. I was and still could be called a prep for that reason. My motivation in this project is to show everyone who has doubted me that I can work hard and get my hands dirty. Now I will wash them extremely well afterwards (my wife likes my clean hands). I mean look at those dirt stains on my pants. Okay I did buy them that way, but you can't go wrong with a little dust on the carhartt jacket. All in all I'm getting a little make-over too on the perception that I've created growing up.

Is This Going to Break?

Here is one of the parts of this restoration that we were nervous about; the back window. After purchasing the panels they sat for almost a month. We had some family issues that has kept up from working steadily on Rusty so nothing had gotten done this month. But here we were ready to get that back window out. We were almost positive that it would break on us for some reason. After an hour of pushing, digging, and heating the glue around the window she broke free of the car and did so without a crack. The window revealed that the mouldings around the window will need to be cleaned (sandblasted) before we put the panels on there.

RIP

The cancer in these panels was too much to cut out, so we cut it off. They will rest here in the leaves for now until they will be scraped at the scrap yard where I won't have to look at them anymore. They have done their job for 38 years, and now it is time bid them farewell.

Driver's side panel replacement

Rusty made it out of surgery once again on th driver's side. As you can see a surgery scar is still noticeable. we can't do anything with that until the spring when body filler will be applied in warmer conditions. We also manufactured our own trunk extensions for this side as they are $90.00 a piece and we had stronger sheet metal for it anyway. There was some rust in the area and we stripped it down and cut it out so rusty will no have to worry about that cancer for a long time. She is sturdy and it is a solid piece that noone will ever see once complete.

Collateral Damage…

Two other things that burned me this weekend aside from that bad patch piece was the fact that I destroyed my pullover jacket. You see I got in the welding mode and didn’t care to put on the protective jacket my dad has and that I wore many times while welding just feet away. I was welding in the vinyl top holes on the sail panel leaning on the car when I experienced a nasty burning smell. I stopped and looked around on the floor, then to my dad, and finally down my chest to see a decent flame climbing towards my face. I quickly snuffed it out but not before my jacket paid the price for my stupidity. Later as I was finishing the weld on the trunk lid my dad wanted to take the lid off so I could sandblast it. Well he started to loosen the bolts and I didn’t want the lid to simply slide down and cause a problem so I placed my hand on the corner, which is where I just finished welding. Needless to say I branded myself. After this experience I can’t see how people choose to brand things into their body. I now have a small line to remind me of the day I wasn’t thinking, TWICE!!!!!!!