Call Dave Wise ;)

Well, let's see. 10 acres to mow and weedeat, another 5 acres of fencing to put in, 10 acres of present fencing to paint, two decks to build, and what's it doing? Seems to want to rain everyday here! :bs:

So with that, I spent today getting Crusty ready for the twirler!:biggthumpup:

Man this lift sure is handy. Last day off tomorrow before I head back to the grind. Hope to have it mounted and in the small shop for the first stage of stripping!:eek2:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

(Steve, Help! Why is that pic loading upside down?)

Up, up, and away!! More to come....:biggthumpup:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Hmmmm....ya know? The 507 does need a motor....:hmmm:

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Alright Kilroy, stop goofing off and get back to work. You still have time to build another car before the end of July. :3gears:

I have to say, I’m so glad you kept this thing so we can watch you get it back on the road!

Similar minds think alike?

(My Mom took this picture...about 35 pounds..errr years ago)

Ya know...You could make it into a Beemer/Monteverdi or maybe a Beemer/Jensen. They used Chrysler drivetrains back in the day.

Nice stash!!

I must have missed a step...... what made you decide to restore it?

Ryan W31

My word Dave, where do you get the energy. I changed the oil on my Scarab over the weekend and felt like I had built the Great Wall of China. You're killing me

A SugarDaddy stepped in!

Got it :-)

Ryan W31

Well, the front suspension on the 507 will be from a 64-65 Mopar, so it’s not too far from the truth, actually. :scholar: But if I were to use this one, Steve may call me to discuss some missing parts!!!

Thanks, for the compliments, guys and Tim, I just can’t sit still with these car projects. Matter of fact, the headlight buckets and turn signals for the 507 are in so I might have to install those too!:eek2:

Ryan, scroll up an out 10-15 posts. I posted an announcement in that post that posted that Steve is now the new owner of Crusty and posted that further posts after painting will be posted by him.:laugh:

A SugarDaddy would imply that I married Steve for his money. And although he’s a nice guy, I’m not into moustachiosos!!!!:frown: You pickin’ up what I’m throwin’ down?goggles.

Interior removal and hopefully onto the twirler today!!!:eek2:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

PS: Thanks for fixing the photo Steve!

LOL. This photo? or do you mean the other Steve?

Ok, serious question. I posted this photo this morning with my desktop and it was right side up. Now when I view it on my iPhone, it is upside down. Whatsupwiththat?

On my PC it is now the correct upright orientation; Dave's original post was upside down.

Exactly, Mark. "Steve" was in reference to Forum Mod Steve, not stand through the Shaker hole Steve! :haha:

Moving forward, just about ready to mount the car on the rotisserie and jam-on-it on over to the small shop for undercoating removal.

Several small "assembly line oddities". Rear marker lights have different fasteners from left and right. They should be the capped nuts but the drivers side were star washer nuts. You can tell they're original by the clean threads from where the nuts were removed. This goes along with the rear seat back lower retaining screw (self taping bolt) used to hold the dash that was installed right next to the machine threaded nut where the correct bolt goes. :scholar:

Rear glass to go, and yes, gills too along with a few small things. Everything is getting boxed up and labeled too! More to come.....

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Wow, you're fast.

As promised and on schedule, it’s on the rotisserie this weekend! Yes, here at DM Restorations, Fabrications, Custom Creations and Coachwerks (:thumbsdown:), we set the bar incredibly low so it appears we meet expectations when in actuality, we trip over it and thus make it appear we’ve passed the bar but it’s just the momentum from the trip that pushed us over it.:hmmm: And by us, I mean me.:eek2:

Now comes undercoating removal with the fabled torch and scraper. Seeing other details that my other Mopars had gives me the clues to start the game plan on paint. The underside of the frame rails on this car, much like my Bee, is a light dusting on paint versus the heavier application on the outer floor pans and wheel wells. You can see the light purple on the front bolt hole for the bumper mount and the rear axle bumper stop. Yet, looking at the floor pan you can really see the heavy overspray. The last three Chargers I did were different since two 68s were from the St. Louis plant and one 69 was from the Hamtramck plant. St. Louis cars had the entire frame rails on the front painted and the Hamtramck plant had one underside painted and the other basically primer. :scholar:

More this week! And yes Freddie, I try and make each day as productive as I can. I mean, Steve ain’t paying me to sit around. Actually, Steve’s not paying me at all:frown::ooo::eek2:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

I just love that pristine, original purple under the undercoating! Let's see more.
Now you're just teasing us!

Oh course mid-stream into this I get summoned for a trip, but moving forward with the Undercoating Reduction Act passed in 1992, :hmmm:undercoating removal has started! A propane torch and a couple sturdy wood paint stirrers fo the trick along with various dental style picks to get in the grooves and such. I'll wipe this down with brake/parts cleaner (it melts this stuff! )out of the spray can and I'll be ready to hit the other side.

So interesting thing on these Mopars much like I documented on my Bee: the undercoating was the last thing sprayed on the car and as such, it got some overspray on the fuel lines, brake lines, gas tank, leaf springs, and heck, even wheel lip mouldings and rocker pinch welds if the guy got too happy with the Shutz gun! You can see the shadow of the the front to rear brake line on the driver's side rear frame rail. :shocked:

I think this took off 4lbs of weight from the car which should lower Steve's times by at least .000001th. And due to the Undercoating Recycling Act passed in 1993:biggthumpup: this will all be melted down and sprayed back in the wheel wells when done!:thumbsdown:

More to come.....

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Great work!!!

It looks solid, truck pan, any other metal needed?

Ryan W31

1) New full Goodmark trunk floor was acquired just to use a small, rear portion as donor patch panel material for the two holes where the rear muffler brackets go.
2) New AMD trunk lid since the original is tweeked upward in the middle. Probably from someone trying to pry it open at some point in the past five decades
3) New driver's side trunk dropoff and quarter bottom to repair small sections in the lower quarters and lower edge of driver's fender. Passenger side needs small repairs at bottom of quarter.
4) The cowl that Dave already expertly repaired with the use of the AMD donor panel sections. This kept the VIN stamping on top of the cowl intact and unaltered.
5) Some minor holes in the driver's side floor in need of patching - all that extra trunk floor material should come in handy for that.

I am also amazed at the condition of the underside given that this was an east coast car. I guess blowing up the original engine in 1978 was the best thing that ever happened to it!

I'm also learning how expensive the little hardware pieces are - correct bolt kits for valances, bumper bracket bolts, valance brackets, yada yada. Well at least they actually make this stuff now versus using hardware store bolts like back in the old days.
Next thing to order are the elastomeric bumpers, front and rear.

Brand new AMD trunklid showed up at Dave's place today...here's the photo taken by his better half who promptly told the truck driver: "Heck No!" and refused it.

Let's hope the replacement is better. Though the guy at the AMD distributor said that they had ten calls today about panels arriving damaged. I hope there's not some job action going on at the AMD warehouse or the shipping company they use?

I just got an email update from the supplier of the AMD trunklid. New trunk lid is on its way out.

It seems that the warehouse recently hired several new employees who were not trained in any sort of procedure on how to handle valuable sheetmetal, and that was the cause of the slew of damaged shipments that went out.

I assume they are now former employees.

Yes, being deemed an “Essential Worker”:tongue:, I was summoned to carry 5 other critical infrastructure citizens to Des Moines, Burbank, and Fresno. :biggthumpup: Therefore, shipment arrival duties were delegated to my Ranch Manager and CEO/CFO of DaveCo, LTD...Kelly....and she immediately called Steve and told him, “The trunk lid looks identical to the original: All dented up! Man those AMD guys are good!”:crazy: Yes, she has the same sense of humor as me:laugh:

Good to hear that the new one is headed this way and hopefully the new employees are still employed with proper training now!:shocked: Gray and black DP Epoxy (To get my proper Chrysler Dip Gray primer look), DPS3055 high build primer, continuous 120/180/220/320 400 wet, seam sealer, Rage Gold, all acquired for round one of body work. Second trip will be a gallon and a quart of DBC in FC7, a couple gallons of DCU2021, 1200/1500/2000/3000/4000 wet. The then third trip will repeat everything in trip #2 after I screw up the paint!:hmmm:

Out to the shop for round four of undercoating removal! I need to have the scantly clad girl holding the number above her head walk by every time I move to the next round. Hmmmm....I know who might volunteer for that!!!!!:biggthumpup::hmmm:

Cheers :shocked::beers:

Dave

About 95% of the undercoating is off courtesy of propane and propane accessories, along with scrapers and picks!:biggthumpup:

The next phase is the wire wheel on the grinder followed by a chemical wipe down to dissolve the remainder of the nasty goop. In the crevasses, a spot blast gun with some good ole 60 grit slag to get into the nooks and crannies.

Should be 'rollin phat in epoxy shortly! Couple small areas I will have to break out the hammers on. A pushed in floor corner and the driver's front frame rail shows some pretty good jack damage. :shocked: But fear not! It'll be fixed poste haste!

More to come....

Cheers:beers:
Dave

I am really curious to see you pull that dent out of the frame rail. I've tried some ideas from other websites on this type of repair and cant wait to see how you do it. Thanks, Brent

Looks like Fedex has lost my new 1970 Cuda Grill. I ordered it on 4/10/20 from Rockauto and it arrived at my local Fedex depot on 4/12/20. It has been loaded "on Fedex vehicle for delivery" for over six days now with no sign of movement. I have filed claims with Fedex, Rockauto, and my credit card company. We're talking $450 here.

And yes, of course I realize there are issues with the CootieVirus out there delaying shipments but this is a bit more involved I think. The last time something like this happened to me several years ago was when the package was so badly damaged, (forklift tire treads all over the box) they wouldn't even attempt delivering the remnants of it.

Rockauto says I have to wait two weeks from the time of the scheduled delivery before they will allow me to attempt to file for a refund. They won't issue a return on the missing grill while it is still missing. They have no humans in customer service you can speak with - only by email.

Fedex has actual humans and says they have issued a "trace" for the package at the local depot where it was last logged in. I have called them every day since 4/14/20 to talk to a new human (most of whom appear to be located in another country and don't have access to any internal tracking databases). They indicate that they cannot unilaterally issue a recall for the package and that the shipper (Rockauto) has to do it once the package is located. So, if I understand this, the missing package has to be un-missing before they can do anything about it???? The have no estimated delivery date now, though I have gotten a "delivery update" text every evening during the week, telling me my package will not be delivered tomorrow, and how I "can prepare for (non) delivery." I assume they mean, drinking heavily to deaden the pain of being without my precious grill.

Bank of America, when I initiated the dispute process, IMMEDIATELY issued me a full refund credit to my account! They will now contact Rockauto and hopefully this will get their robotic attention.

Here's a snippit of the latest tracking result. Keep in mind that today is 4/19/20 and the Fedex website has stopped updating the package since Thursday 4/16/20. Looks like they have given up on even trying to fake the location now.

Looks like I predicted it pretty accurately. They lost it and tried to cover it up.

Today I get a FedexGround update email saying the grill was delivered at 1:11 PM. So I drive down to my UPS store and go inside. I know all the workers there and they have been participating in this miniseries for the past week, so they knew to be on the lookout for FedexGround. Guess what? They say there has been no FedexGround drivers there yet today. And the tracking result says "Left outside front door." And mind you, this UPS store is in a business district with a slew of surveillance cameras all over the place. No Fedex trucks anywhere to be seen...

Really?

At least now that the Fedex interface alerted Rockauto that the grill was allegedly delivered, the Rockauto order page finally had a button to click for a return/refund for "lost by shipper". I couldn't click it fast enough. So hopefully the Rockauto to Paypal to my Mastercard refund process goes through. I am done with these guys.

Jegs has a price match option so I think I'll go with them now.

That was fast! I put the claim in with Paypal describing what happened and included the tracking info printout. Paypal indicated that the claim then gets forwarded to rockauto. They said wait 2-3 days for a response from rockauto. Rockauto responded in 10 minutes and immediately authorized the refund to my paypal account/credit card.

I just ordered the same grille from Jegs...but guess who they use to ship. UGH!

Stay tuned for Season 2


UPDATE:
I called Jegs and they are switching the shipping to UPS. :-)

New Updated Update:
Jegs emailed back today and said they can't match the rockauto price despite their "guaranteed price match policy"...

I called SummitRacing and they did agree to match the price and it's shipping out via UPS.

Criminey Steve-O! Had I of known you’d have this much problem with the car I never would have sold it to you!!! Oh, wait, I know....it’s “come uppens” for all the voodoo hyjinx you sent my way on engine break-in day!:grin: You and that Woj guy, what with his “Good luck Dave. I’m sure it’ll go well.” encouragement text!! :burnout::naughty:

So moving forward, I’m about 90% done with the undercoating removal and the clue hunting continues for replication when painting happens. Just like my Bee and other Mopes, they are dipped in a vat of gray primer which leaves drips and a distinct line on the firewall where there stopped the dip. Also, they’re painted in one piece with two painters on either side of the car. As such, when I do paint, I sort of get into the mindset of what that guy might have been thinking as the car was coming down to get sprayed. Three things come to mind: Hurry up, make it sorta neat, and don’t spray anything you can’t easily reach in the interest of time. And as supporting evidence to that is in underside of the frame rails being only lightly coated, under the battery tray being slightly dusted, and several other overspray patterns being noted. And interesting tidbit on my Super Bee was the fact that since it was a vinyl top car, the roof does not get painted. But again, with two painters on either side of the car, that varied. One side of my Bee had the entire roof rail painted and the other side stopped halfway up the A and C pillars. Another interesting thing is the vinyl top cars got a elastic caulk sealer at the C pillar while painted cars got lead. However, true to Ma Mopar being consistently inconsistent and wanting to ensure that people will debate something this stupid years later, a vinyl top 68 Charger XP car had the C-Pillar joint leaded!:dunno:

There’s also factory markings on the rear seat support, passenger inner rear wheel house, and Driver’s side door. All will be replicated in authentic script because....I don’t know why.

Recently I flew with a fellow pilot who’s father worked the assembly line at Chrysler In the St. Louis plant in the late 60s to mid 70s. As an entry level position, guess what he did? Painted cars!!!!:ooo: And you wonder why they were painted so crappy!:thumbsdown:

More this weekend!gogglesgoggles

Cheers:beers:

Nice progress Dave,

And now that you mention it. I did forget to pull the needles out of that cuda voodoo doll I had set up. That explains it all now!

And those crayon markings? That "X" on the door is so the door guts installer knows which door to throw his lunch bag and crumpled Coke can into.

Reminds me of our old 1972 Satellite Suburban 9 passenger wagon (Rallye Red with black interior!) We always wondered why the tailgate rattled so much and how the rear window washing mechanism never worked. My dad finally brought it into the dealer and the dealer pulled out all the assembly-line parts, rubber banded together, and clanking around in the bottom of the tailgate. I never thought to ask if the "X" was there, though.

Thanks for the history lesson Dave, car is looking good.

Thanks Mark! I was summoned again for transportation duties with stays in Denver, Reno, and Ontario, but before I left I was able to get the undercarriage primed up in epoxy!:cool: The rotisserie really makes getting into all the nooks and crannies (mmmmm.... nooks and crannies....:drool:) easy! This was the nastiest part of the whole restoration and it's a big step forward. I'll go back over any areas Imay have missed scraping off that nasty undercoating, but for the most part, I'm very happy with it. Up next is metal repair!:smile:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

So how much undercoating actually gets applied to one of these Mopars? This box is one cubic foot (12x12x12) and its about full. So take into consideration the coefficient of air compression between particles in the box, add a factor of sand and road grime circumference, and you're left with a good 6lbs of the stuff!

Also, out cometh the rats nest in the frame rail. Steve instructed me to retain all old parts, sooooo...:hmmm:

Cheers:beers:
Dave

Hey, we gotta have that rat's nest up here in Joysey. And find that darn rat, too!

If we have to compete with Pizza Rat in the NY subway and Pizza Groundhog in Philly, at least New Jersey should be able to have their own Cuda Rat!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/us/pi...rnd/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/22/livin...eat/index.html

Nice progress, by the way. :-)

The second attempt at acquiring an AMD trunk lid worked better than the first. Our valiant correspondent, located deep in the heart of Texas reports that it arrived safely without any "extra post production enhancements' that the last one had.

On the northern war front, the second attempt at procuring a reproduction grill also was successful. It arrived, which is much more than can be said about the first one, (which is most likely currently sitting in the fedex delivery guy's basement). It's a nice, unpainted, assembly and I will probably start the paint process on it this weekend when the weather gets a bit better. I already procured the very expensive, dark argent "sparkley" paint for it.

The front and rear elastomeric bumpers are on their way from the Great White North, though there seems to be a glitch in the address location for Dave's secret evil lair located in a Texas volcano somewhere. For some reason trucking companies have a weird aversion to accepting his complete street address and the most important part always gets deleted. We will see if the shipper can get it straight before it gets rerouted back to Canada in a week...Stay tuned.