71 Challenger Convertible

KenZ

Newbie
I just joined the forum and wanted to share some pics of my project. 71 Challenger convertible, 318, AT, AC, PS, PW, Ptop. I've owned this car for about 25 years. I drove it for about 15 years and then took it off the road about 10 years ago with the intention of restoring it. Life got in the way, but now it's time to get started. Obviously have a long way to go but it's pretty much rust free and only a few dents and dings.

Thanks,
ken
 
How are the floor pans? Usually when the top goes on convertibles the floor pans are rusted.
Definitely a great project. 440 or Hemi upgrade???
 
[QUOTE='68 Coronet R/T;n77750]How are the floor pans? Usually when the top goes on convertibles the floor pans are rusted.
Definitely a great project. 440 or Hemi upgrade???
[/QUOTE]

The floor pans are all in great shape. The only rust on the car is the lower quarter panels in front of the wheel wells. Apparently this is a common area on convertibles.
The car is originally form the California Central Valley where I bought it when we lived there. It's been in dry Arizona since and in storage since I took it off the road.

I'm not sure what engine I'm going to put in it. :)

I'll update this thread as I make progress.

Thanks,
Ken
 
Great. I love Mopars as my user name suggests.
My car after a ton of work. New quarters, trunk floor, and lower window quarters. The rest of the metal was all original and in great shape.
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My old '68 and my '57 Chrysler.

Good luck with the Challenger, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

Here is my current convertible project, a '68 Sport Satellite, numbers matching big block 4spd car. P1010034.JPG
 
Well, I can't believe it's been over 4 years since I first joined the forum. LOL!. Finally got started on the Challenger this past fall by stripping it down to a bare shell. Spent the last couple of months working on the main body. Here's what I've done.

Stripped outside of the body
Sanded the engine bay, truck and floor
Primed inside and out with SPI black epoxy
Fixed several dents and dings, some needed a little filler as well.
Sprayed another couple of coats of black epoxy
Blocked quarter panels and filler between trunk & interior
Ran low on black epoxy so sprayed 1 coat black/gray mix followed by 2 coats gray
Blocked again.

Here are a couple of pics so far. Going to apply a couple more coats of epoxy to seal it and then move on to other panels.

Thank you all for your support and info so far. This is a great forum. :)
 

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Hey Ken , looks like things for your own projects are going for you like it does for a lot of us, but progress is progress & it feels good to get something done. Also like many other longtime owned cars, much of the damage you find was likely done the first few years it was new as well as all the imperfections the bodies were built with. A lot of block sanding ahead but a very worthy project to get done right.
 
Don't feel bad, my 1968 GTX is still sitting in epoxy primer waiting for me to have the time to install all the new AMD sheet metal currently sitting in the shipping packaging. You can see the car buried deep in the garage. Unfortunately I have my house to remodel, a she-shed to finish and two customer vehicles to do before I get to MY project.
AMD Delivery.JPG
 
Put the final 3 coats of epoxy on the quarters. Floors and engine bay are also in black epoxy. Main body is finished and ready for final sanding, at a much later date.
Now on to the other panels.
I really like this SPI stuff. :)
Thanks.
 

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