Day 4 - Rear Quarter Part 2

Today I cleaned up the rest of the bondo and primer and got the quarter panel down to the metal for the most part.

I then just wiped the dust off and applied some automotive spray primer from a spray can.

Day 3 - Rocker Panel

Today I just continued to grind the rocker panel all the way to the lower section of the fender. There is one bad spot just passed the driver side door on the rocker panel.

Day 2 - Quarter Panel Part 1

The next thing we will be doing is getting quotes for how much it would be to do the body work on this charger. To get accurate bids, I will be removing the paint and bondo layers to reveal any troubled spots. This will mostly consist of sanding down the rear section of the vehicle and exposing the rusted areas. My good friend Paul came over to help with the sanding. We will be concentrating on the driver side quarter panel. The car seemed to have a few layers on top of the metal, you had the metal then a red primer (possibly from the factory) then a pale yellow then a gray primer then a vibrant yellow, bondo, then the silver paint you see on the car

Upon closer inspection you can see where they used fiberglass once again, this time to create a look of the lower quarter panel. This piece will have to be replaced.

The Rear Valance also has some bad spots as you can see.

Day 1 The Project Begins, Trunk Floor Rust

So I have started an endeavor to restore this charger and Make is a General Lee replica.

When I got the car, I knew it was leaking gas from the tank. I happen to have another tank for a charger so I began to remove the original tank from the 69. After disconnecting the sending unit, fuel line and tank straps, I found that the tank that should have fallen down, just sat there. I then noticed that some type of nesting material was poking through the bottom of the trunk floor. I then opened the trunk to find the trunk solid but with some type of coating kind of like a rhino lining or something. I took a hammer and crowbar and chiseled a piece of the coating off to find that the whole trunk was coated with fiberglass. That was the nesting material that was peeking through the bottom of the trunk floor. Someone had fiberglassed the entire trunk floor. Now, I should explain that these cars are known for rust in the trunk floors and what you typically do is replace the trunk pans. Which are parts that you can get from Year One©. Now what these guys did was fiber glass over the old trunk without treating ANY of the rust, so that trunk continued to rust even under the fiber glass. After removing the fiberglass I found the trunk pretty rusted out, here is a pic of a similar trunk

We went ahead and cut out half of the trunk floor as to not weaken the body too much while we are replacing the trunk pans. Here is the half of the trunk we removed.

We will probably have to build up part of the wheel well that connects to the trunk pan. As you can see there are some holes there as well.