My Busted Rocket

August 2010

2010-09-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

My wife claims that I always say that the part I just fixed was the most broken so far, and suggests that I’m exaggerating. I still claim that each part is in fact more broken than the one before, to that end I submit to you:

Exhibit A.

The Grill

Note the cracked plastic, rusted out rivets, missing hardware, and bolts brazed on.

Exhibit B

The Grill

Plastic cracks: Repaired.

Rusted out rivets: Drilled out and replaced with aluminum.

Missing Hardware: Replaced.

Two-color paint job on plastic: Executed

Emblems: Backordered.

July 2010

2010-09-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Elusive Bendix Dual-Diaphragm Brake Booster

A rare success story in an otherwise complicated restoration.

I found it in a junkyard. It’s original to Disc/Drum 1970 Charger’s. It was cheap. It was rebuilt and has a warranty. I painted it. Done.

February - June 2010

2010-07-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

It’s all a big blur!

So I’m a new dad, since February 24^th when my wife gave birth to our son Greyson. He was a week late and we were at my father’s birthday party just the night before, I guess he did not want to share a birthday or want me to take my midterm (which I was not able to make up.) So we have been learning to live together for a couple of months now, it’s been a learning experience for all of us. . . except the cat who is so far unrelenting in her hatred of the new attention-monger. Having a new baby may have slowed the restoration down a little, but it certainly has not stopped! Here are some parts I have fixed in the past few months.

Restored the original bezel, pedal is new, and I also have new nuts.

Media blasted and metal blackened, I replaced a couple of washers but all other parts are restored originals. Not to mention that the parts suppliers want about forty bucks for the accelerator cable.

I took the brake assembly apart and media blasted each piece, painted it, replaced the pedal and restored the bezel.

The e-brake was about the same story except I also had to restore the handle and blacken the firewall mounting nuts.

I had to replace my reverse lights, which had rusted through the housing. I got really lucky and picked them up for a fraction of what the reproductions are going for. I cleaned them up and tool-grip-dipped them, now all I have to do is replace the pigtails and buff the bezel and they will look/work better than new.

My power steering pump and pulley were a mess. I broke it down one afternoon and cleaned up the reservoir and brackets. I ordered a rebuilt pump but couldn’t get the valve nut off. So I dropped in on my dad unexpectedly to ask for help breaking it loose, luckily for me he was all dressed up yet still willing to lend a hand. We replaced all the o-rings and got it back together.

The auto-shifter linkage was a real challenge. When I was media blasting it originally I found a finishing nail holding it together.

I found a date stamp on the shifter housing so I cleaned it up and cleared it, all other linkage parts were painted.

Old/New. I had to replace the bushings.

The clip on the right is an original Chrysler clip used in the seventies, the trans linkage uses about four of them. I didn’t know you could buy reproduction clips on the day I sat down to make new ones.

I replaced the shifter knob but was able to save the boot and bezel. I also replaced about half of the washers with some stainless steel- thicker than original washers to take some of the slop out of the linkages, worked like a charm.

Finally I switched out the finishing nail for an e-clip.

So this is an original disk/drum master cylinder. My car came with drum brakes front and back, which I’m swapping out for front disk brakes on account of the increased stopping power. By now you are probably as tired of reading as I am of typing. Lets just say it was as problematic as every other forty year old car part so far, it was re-sleeved by a machinist, I rebuilt it and it works better than new. Yes I scratched the lid, which gives me something to look forward to fixing after I bleed the brake system.

January 2010

2010-01-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I finished welding/painting the majority of the front-end. Shea and I hung the sheetmetal to see how it was all fitting at this point.

I told you I would finish this corner, I still have to do the other side but it wasn't nearly as bad.

Marion and I had rebuilt the door hinges some time ago, we changed the pins and added bronze bushing to the lower hinges. It was a pain in the ass but made a world of difference, they open and close like butter.

I found a new/old trunk lid. Mine had rusted through at the pinchwelds. It bolted right up, no surprises.

I found some new/old hood hinges. Mine had been chromed and were peeling and rusting out behind the joints so they needed to be replaced. I was really happy until I took the springs off and figured out how locked up they were. After half a day and a can of oil I got them working pretty well.

My gaps aren't great at this point, but it's getting there.

December 2009

2010-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

So I know I haven't been good about reporting progress lately. For starters I have been really busy with school, my wife is pregnant and I really haven't completed anything lately. I've been fixing and collecting parts for the last few months but nothing really newsworthy.

So I got a break from school and went to fix my shock tower it's been bothering me since the day the car rolled in. Now the weather in the desert is good and I can get some help, as this is at least a two-person project.

I bought a shock tower months ago; when it arrived the A-Arm brace was rusted out and badly bent. So I got another shock tower with a usable bracket and cut them both apart. At this point Marion decides she didn't like the condition of one of the retainers, so we cut that off as well. After careful measurements we welded the whole thing back together.

So now all that's left to do is: lift the car, get it on safety stands, unbolt the shock and A-Arm, cut the old one out, fit the new one, weld it back together, realize we have to unload the torsion bar to bolt it back together, bolt it together to make sure it all fits, re-load the torsion bar, put the wheel back on, lower the car, and have a cold one. And that's exactly what we did.

Mid-July 2009

2009-07-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

Not for the faint of heart

103 degrees

I cut off my radiator support housing, it was not savable.

Bondo sculpture found in front framerail. Artist: Unknown

85 degrees (air-conditioned garage)

The inner fender had a few extra holes and the battery brace was in the wrong spot, so I filled the holes and reshaped it a little bit.

108 degrees

Test fitting and adjusting new-old inner fender.

115 degrees

New radiator housing, which is an accidental upgrade for me. My original radiator housing was for a 22” radiator and this one is for a 26,” they don’t make new 22” housings and all the old ones I looked at were as bad as the one I was replacing.

118 degrees

Out with the new and in with the old. I know it seems counterproductive to cut out the brand new upper radiator housing and replace it with the old one.

In 1970 Chrysler stamped the cars serial number on the upper radiator housing, and repairing the holes that had been drilled in it gave me an excuse to work in the air-conditioned garage.

115 degrees

This corner was rusted out as well. The good news is that it’s thick enough that the rust had not gone all the way through to the rocker panels, which saves me a lot of time. So I fabricated the bottom part from a piece of my old lower radiator housing, I’ll get the rest of it next time.

July 4th 2009

2009-07-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July was hot here in San Diego. So as my friends and neighbors roasted their weenies, I roasted like a weenie while finishing the rear bench seat upholstery.

Is it still June?

2009-07-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

So I took my steering column apart, and have been collecting the parts to rebuild it for some time now. I have gotten kind of lax about taking photos, sorry about that. So I sandblasted, painted and gathered all the parts to get it all back together. When I was putting it back together I ran into a few challenges, really just normal 40 year old car stuff.

Until . . . it’s together except for the new turn signal switch, and the hazard knob is too wide to slide in and out of the housing. I know its also missing a bolt and a piece of black tape, but honestly I could have taken care of that in the time it took me to type this. It’s starting to look like either a trip to the junkyard, or I have to rebuild the switch. I’ll probably ignore it for 3 months or so as a gesture of frustration.

Later in the month of June

2009-07-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Getting in touch with your inner fender. . . by cutting it off the car lifting it over your head and chucking it across the yard.

Shea asked for a pickle bar and a cocktail, then set out to remove the steering gearbox, knuckles, and sway bar. This is a picture of a man who lives for demo. Nice work man.

My Mom can kick your Mom’s ass!

So I found a useable replacement for the inner fender and I’m in my parent’s garage drilling it out. My Mom walks out as I’m cold chiseling the shock support, it’s getting late and not any quieter. I can’t keep it clamped down I’m swinging too hard, she sees me struggling and runs over to help me out. I look down and she is barefoot standing in a pile of razor sharp metal shavings while holding a jagged rusty edge stuck on the inner fender with her bare hands. I’m swinging a hammer, a drill, people are walking by trying not to get roped in she hung in there until I had it under control. You Rock.

When I sandblasted the inner fender I found some rust that had to be cut out. It’s almost welded back together now.

June 2009

2009-07-01T16:59:00.001-07:00

Fresh Air

This is the driver’s side fresh air vent. I had to cut what little was left holding on of the gasket onto the flap door due to the rust. After cleaning it all up and repainting I reattached the gasket with the weatherstrip adhesive also used for the gasket on the top of the air vent and heater box to cowl seal. Works like new.

I had to fix the vent cables for the air vent and the heater box, they mount on the dash and are looking a little rough. Now I wouldn’t blame you for not trusting me when I say painting is easy. That being said fixing the vent cables was particularly easy, honestly.

Here’s the trick. Mask off the metal and repaint the black handle. I’m using SEM paints for the plastics, but really any plastic paint will do. Get yourself a jar of Testors (Oil Based) Enamel, tape the handles to any table and glob the paint over the lettering, you don’t have to be neat about this. The paint will naturally fill in the indentation, wipe the face of the knob squarely with a clean rag with some paint thinner on it.

To get my letters perfect it took three passes, let the paint dry in between and that’s all there is to it. I clearcoated my handles when they were dry, sprayed some silicone on the moving parts and they work and look like new.

Early June 2009

2009-07-01T16:49:00.001-07:00

Temperature Issues

So this summer seemed like it would be a good time to work on my heater box. Initially it didn’t look that bad, a little dirty but pretty much in tact, it was this thinking that lead me to dive on in.

So I began to take it apart and as soon as the back came off I got a little scared. I started thinking there was some rodent living in there waiting to pop out at me. As a matter of fact this heater box is pretty big, there could be a whole mutated rodent family for all I know about rodents.

No rodents just cracks. After taking it apart, washing it out and wet sanding it I found at least 7 cracks, most of which were over bolt holes at the tension points, additionally there was one healthy chunk missing with a crack running around the corner.

No problem, I patched it up with fiberglass cloth and resin, painted the tabs and clearcoated the box. After I had sandblasted and painted all of the individual parts it was time to address the broken heater door in the center. Yeah the heater door handle snapped off, the only thing I found holding it together was dirt. So when I washed the box it fell right off. Marion and I fabricated the handle from steel roundstock, she tack welded it in place.

Then I replaced all the gaskets including the air duct to cowl, the heater core, and hardware. I tested the motor, it worked great so all I had to do was take it apart, clean it out, oil, and repaint it.

Finally I had a rubber stamp made for the box, stamped it and I’m calling it done for now. Believe it or not I still need a drain tube and a blower motor resistor to get this thing going. It’s like the Sistine Chapel in 1970 Dodge Chargers.

May 2009

2009-05-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Second Time’s a Charm

So I wanted a woodgrain steering wheel for the car. The problem is in the 60’s-70’s the woodgrain wheels are plastic, cheap plastic, and finding one without cracks is almost unheard of. So I found a 1970 only steering wheel with all of the usual damage.

After a lot of research I decided I would use resin to fill the cracks because resin doesn’t shrink like plastic does. Then I tried and imitate the “steering wheel guy’s” technique and wrap the wheel with carbon fiber cloth. Long story short after sanding it down, painting, and drawing the woodgrain on by hand I broke the carbon fiber shell off the wheel and have not talked about or looked at it for six months.

Here is a remnant of the broken shell. It was bigger but when Dawn came over she decided to test her hand strength out on it.

Second Attempt:

So I sanded it back down and made all of the repairs with resin, color matched, and again proceeded to draw the woodgrain. At this point Greg and Dawn came by and I was able to “Tom Sawyer” Greg into working on it for a little bit, trust me you would do the same thing if there was another artist standing around.

So as hard as it is to say; the steering wheel came out much better on the second attempt, the color, texture and sheen are dead on.

Early April 2009

2009-04-27T15:59:00.001-07:00

This time my wife and I officially came to town to help out with my Sister-in-Law’s wedding.

The day after the wedding Shea came over to our Father-in Law’s house with his new bride, he has a little lunch, opens some presents. . . and just like that he’s out sanding the car with me. Now anyone who has stripped a 40-year-old car will tell you that this is not a glamorous job, with his help we made some real progress.

Because Shea was so helpful I accept the responsibility for the stains on his shirt, and will let him tell you that he did a better job stripping the hood than I did without correction.

The fourth Buildsheet found in the car.

This is the bad news fender. I stopped sanding as soon I found the rust almost all the way through above the character line.

March 2009

2009-04-10T23:03:00.001-07:00

So I came into town to pull the engine, but I woke up early so I figured I would put some penetrating oil on some bolts that weren’t turning and lay some stripper on the fenders.

There are two sides to every story.

It was suggested that while being towed out of the dirt I tried to pull out in front and beat the other car, as if I was racing. I still claim the brakes were shot and it took me awhile longer to stop, so I turned to avoid a collision while trying to beat the other car.

Again I woke up early the next morning and decided to see what I could do about getting the dash out. At about the same time my wife and Father-in-Law took off to go get doughnuts and coffee. When they came back they pulled up to my work area in a golfcart, they both sat snacking in the golfcart and watched me work like I was the Discovery Channel. Note the shiny chrome golfcart bumper in the bottom of the photos.

You can’t get the dash out of the Charger without first taking out the windshield, which took half the morning. The second half of the morning was spent labeling the wiring harness. My Father-in-Law got out of the golfcart every once in awhile to pose for photos.

February 2009

2009-04-10T19:22:00.001-07:00

I’d just like to point out that my car is in a better place now. Sort of like a spa for cars; lovely weather, a great view, lots of space, two sometimes three let’s call them “physical therapists” with impact wrenches ready to work out those kinks. We posed for a quick photo for posterity, then we took the car apart.

January 2009

2009-04-10T17:59:00.001-07:00

So my car was in my parking space longer than I had expected, I spent X-Mas with the inlaws and set up a time for my Father-in-Law to come down and pick her up with a trailer. When I bought the car the guy who sold her to me said he would put her on a trailer with some “Maypop Tires” when I asked him what a Maypop tire was he said, “They may pop.” Although they made the initial journey two of the tires have since gone flat. So I bought the trunk Jack, it arrived with the second worst coat of paint I have ever seen. I sandblasted it, got the jack working, and headed to the Junkyard for some tires. Found four, they are ugly but they are all the same size. Before I painted this jack I wanted to make sure it really worked, it lifted the car on all four corners.

I put a spare tire down for a seat, borrowed the car battery from my truck, loaded my gas can and fired it up. This car has no muffler, it’s totally rusted out and supported by bailing wire, so as soon as it starts every car alarm in the neighborhood goes off, and babies start crying. I’m backing it up and I see my Father-in-Law smiling from ear to ear, he had to advance the timing to get enough power to get her on the trailer. Got it on the trailer and had one of those Dukes of Hazzard moments getting out of the car.

December 2008

2009-04-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

I don’t know how to explain this any other way than list format

1. Broke the console down
2. Fixed the cracks and repainted it black
3. Repainted the trim and removed the decals
4. Spent a few hours in the hardware store finding replacement screws
5. Replaced shift filler
6. Replaced console lenses and lightbulbs
7. Replaced the shift indicator by tapping the base plate at two points after drilling out the replacement lens
8. Registering the door hinge was a little bit tricky. The posts for the speed nuts were pretty cut up so, I broke out the die set and cut the threads replacing the factory speed nuts with acorns
9. Threw the wrench across the yard 15 times (that I’m willing to admit too)
10. Finally I found a replacement lock set with matching keys for the glovebox, console, and trunk.

November 2008

2009-04-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Why I didn’t get any work done in November.

April and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in the great American tradition of uncomfortable airport travel. We both had a break from school; I’m doing my graduate work and she is teaching elementary school. We got off the plane in Jamaica and bussed up to the cliffs of Negril. We made it to one of my favorite bars in the world, Rick’s. Just imagine a view like that, ice-cold Red Stripe in hand, perfect view of the sunset, and a cliff to jump off, man you never had it so good.

Adding to my distraction:

My neighbor Jen drives a Bentley and told me I would get to drive it one day. Now I’m a guy. . . so naturally there is a list of cars I want to drive before I die. I got home and she showed up at my door dangling the keys. I’ll pull wrenches next month.

October 2008

2009-04-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

Parts Procurement & Repair

September 2008

2009-04-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Smell of the Seventies

While the car is still in my driveway I decided to take the seats out. The thinking here is that now that the smell of gasoline is wearing off, the smell of 1970 is starting to come on strong. When I pulled the passenger seat out I found two buildsheets, one under the carpet and another under the seat. The foam and burlap were trashed, the seat track bolt broke on the driver’s side, and the seat back was cracked. This car has about 88,000 miles on it, which judging by the super coil, and performance oil pan it got there ¼ mile at a time. So I’m not surprised to find a cracked seat back on the driver’s side, Marion and I welded it back together. After sandblasting, painting, replacing the insulation, foam, burlap, muslin, and upholstery the car still smells . . . must be the carpet.

Still August

2009-04-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

After getting all of the paint and rust off the air filter I painted it with Krylon Wrinkle Finish. My original Pie Pan was orange, so I replaced it and bought some new hoses, the sticker was a gift from my wife. I thought putting the air filter back on the carburetor would feel like a triumph, unfortunately it just pointed out how much work is left to do so I boxed it up put it away.

August 2008

2009-04-10T11:47:00.001-07:00

It’s a nice day for a dip in our driveway-kiddie-pool.

I resist temptation and remove the seatbelts instead. This car has most of it’s parts the seatbelts are no exception, at the end of the day I’m only missing the passengers side shoulder belt, which I found on EBAY a week later. It came off a 71 Charger and was even Green.

I used Rit fabric dye to turn the green seatbelts black. On the Rit website they suggest using complementary colors in addition to black in order to dye the fabric from a dark color to a black. One bottle of scarlet prevented the green from showing through and gave the seatbelts a nice warm tone. After the seatbelts were dry I repainted the buckles, and the vinyl. To complete this part of the restoration my wife and I made some seatbelt tags, this turned out to be easier than we expected. By fastening the nylon on a sheet of plain paper it ran through the printer as smoothly as card stock. Now all that's left is to buy my wife coffee as she sews the tags on.

These two were in the worst condition, pictured above.

July 2008

2009-04-09T18:47:00.001-07:00

The abridged history i.e. A story of a man imposing his journey onto unsuspecting others

So my wife says to me one day why don’t you buy a new car. The only problem is that I haven’t seen a new car I like, what I really needed was a new old car, and seeing as the 1970 Dodge Charger is my all time favorite car. . . It seemed like a good idea. The only real problems were that Charger’s are hard to find locally, and I couldn't afford one that didn’t need work. So the goal became to find the best broken one possible. After about six months of searching and a second chance offer on EBAY she was a mere 2000 miles away. The trailer pulled up July 28th 2008.

You're looking at the temporary trailer gas tank. The other one has a hole in it on the top where the trunk floor rusted through.

You know how sometimes just cleaning can make a thing not seem so bad. This was not the case, but I tried anyway.

My Father-in-Law came by to see what I had gotten myself into. At the time I'm not sure I had mentioned that I would be moving the car to his place and out of my driveway in order to take her apart. This car needs a full-restoration and I intend to accomplish this major task in two years. I know this sounds like a tight time frame, however put yourself in his slippers and realize that I just asked him if I could dump 4000 pounds of rust, bondo, if we are lucky some metal in the driveway of his brand-new just built dream home. Enter the cocktails.