I would love to find me a 68 Charger, my first car was a 68 Charger R/T, but yeah finding one that isn't rusted, stripped and in need of $50K plus in restoration dollars for under $10K is next to impossible, so I moved onto my next favorite car I owned, a 76 Corvette L82

 

By the time I'm done with my 79 I'll have 35k or more in it but I think I'm going to be happier with it than a 69 charger. I really don't like the interior of 68-70 chargers and I like the interior of my 79 a great deal. Plus I'll have a 5 speed in it, a custom colour that appeals to me, the interior colour I wanted and so on. If I had bought a 69 charger not in need of work I wouldn't have had those things, it probably would have had an interior and exterior colour that weren't my favourites, and an auto or 4 speed transmission.

 

LOL....while I'm house-bound and we're reminiscing.....when I graduated high school my dad wouldn't co-sign for the $4500 Corvette, but he did co-sign for the $2800 Camaro convertible sitting next to it. 45 years later I "got the Vette"!

Priya...it's good that when it is completed, you will have the car that YOU want! (At todays new-car prices you are getting a good deal)

 

.

Thanks doorgunner. I'll like this a lot better than a new car because it'll have great appeal to me on all fronts. After doing my Eagle I know the colour of a car has a great deal to do with how much it appeals to me. I'm absolutely thrilled with what is really a somewhat ordinary car in my 81 Eagle SX/4 and the main reason why is its purple and blue interior and exterior. I can't get what I want in a car with factory offerings.

 

Hubby pulled the heads off of the compressor today and here's what we found. One cylinder got so hot it actually melted the air filter:



The filters were so dirty that one of them actually tore as the compressor was trying to suck air in. It appears the major performance problem was merely a gasket that had failed and let air leak from output side of the head to the intake side:




All the valves looked fine and no scoring of the cylinders or obvious problems with them or the pistons. I suggest replacing the rings but hubby said if we're going to do that we may as well find and repair the source of the knock and if we are going to do that we may as well replace the pump. So, new air filters and new gaskets and that should double or better the recent performance of the pump which was pretty bad. At least the (partial) fix is cheap and it won't be down for long.

 

have you considered media blasting.....

 

Yes, did consider it but felt it was too much work to transport the 69 rear clip, soda blasting would have been near impossilbe to get out of the cracked areas, and have since decided to use a different rear clip.

 

So as some of you may be aware I had some serious second thoughts about doing this chrome bumper conversion when I saw a picture of Dodomikes 78 silver anniversary with pace car spoilers:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...a-70-72-a.html

I figured I could pay a shop to paint my 79 as is for around 10K and it was very tempting to do that and skip the chrome bumper conversion. To help make the decision whether to proceed or not I took my car to a few shops to get a quote on painting it. Most shops said they no longer do complete paint jobs, they only do collision repair. One shop quoted me $12700 but didn't spend much time discussing it with me and didn't seem too interested in the job. I spoke to another shop I got a good feeling from who spent quite a bit of time with me discussing the job and going over the car. He quoted me 10K not including taxes if I took off the hood, doors, bumpers, all the trim etc. and re-installed them myself after the paint job. He however emphasized a couple of times that the cost could go as high as 15-17K depending on if unforseen problems are found. That did not include stripping the old paint either, it was for painting over top of the old surface.

I think if I could have been sure I could have gotten a shop to do the job on the 79 as is for 10K I'd have gone for it. But I just can't take the chance that the costs could go to 15-17k which is basically all the money I have left so I decided that even if I didn't want to do the chrome bumper conversion I'd have to do the paint job myself (not including actually holding the spray gun) and if I was going to do all that work I may as well proceed with the chrome bumper conversion.

So, the project is on again! I haven't been able to work on it since the new 70-73 ACI rear arrived as the old 69 rear clip is still in the garage and there's no room to work on the new rear. The plan is to remove the 69 rear clip this weekend and theoretically I should be back into the job on Monday.

 

I got my new silver cloth seats from Al Knoch interiors today and I'm really pleased with them! But WOW, it sure took a big bite out of the budget!

I decided I didn't want leather or vinyl and I remembered a 77 Thunderbird I had with cloth seats that I liked the look of a great deal. Turns out there's a company that sells NOS fabric and they had the silver cloth fabric for a 77 Thunderbird so I bought 3 yards based on what another Forum member told me Al Knoch used to do his 81 cloth seats as well as a local upholstery shop told me 3 yards would be "more than enough". I received the material and contacted Al Knoch Interiors and they told me they needed 4 yards to do the seats! As I had the 3 yards cut they said they'd need another 2 yards uncut to do the job. So, it cost me $415 Canadian for the first 3 yards and then $300 Canadian for the next two yards. Then another $1300 Canadian for shipping to and from Al knoch plus the seat cushions and labour and then UPS hit me up for an additional $150 for "brokerage fees" after it all arrived here for a total of $2165! And I sold my like new oyster leather covers and cushions for $325 U.S.

I'm okay with it though, it was worth it to me:

 

The seats look great!

Congrats on continuing the rear bumper conversion (I know how frustrating it can be at times)

 

ouch...but rather stunning result....

 

Will be watching to see what you do next. Doing this work yourself... even if it calls for you to hold the paint gun yourself is quite do-able...IF YOU WANT TO.

So if that is what is comes down to...you will have all the support you need to get your idea a reality.

DUB

 

I will tell you a fun perhaps to some pointless story, just for the fun of it,

Close to 20 years ago, damnnit time flies I would spend my weekends with some good old boys into trucks, airboats rods choppers you get the idea,
So my buddy Wayne picks up some insane bright caution yellow paint on discount and decided it would be perfect for his stretched mini truck, and sets up a 1/2 *** plastic tarp paint booth in his back yard,
it's getting later in the day but the truck is prepped and taped off and I was really badgering Wayne to get a person with more time on a spray gun to shoot it,
But "Wayne wanted the honor of saying he did it, and man oh man, there was thrash ranging from bugs to dirt in the finish when he was done runs all over, then a couple days later he has had the "crue" wet sanding it and then buffing it,
I was simply floored how well it turned out to have looked so badly,
A few weeks later Wayne took best paint in a truck show and their was some really expensive "shop" jobs there.

You likely know oldgto right here on the forum, he lived near me in orlando and I have seen his c3 many times, he painted it, wet sanded and buffed it, the finish is mile deep and if it has any flaws it's that jim is being too critical of himself on it, the thing is stunning,
If a shop did it I bet it would have been one of these 10 k plus jobs,
How much do you have in it jim?

So yeah, it might take extra work but there are some really epic paint jobs people have done right at home with little real experence.

 

I have actually held the spray gun a couple of times myself. The first time was a disaster, runs all over, uneven coverage and so on. I started that one in the entirely wrong frame of mind, I was feeling rushed and anxious and tried to put it all on at the same time.

The second time came out much better, no runs and mostly even coverage but there wasn't quite enough paint on the sides of the car and you could see the primer in some lights. That was due to the fact that I had insufficient light in the garage and I couldn't see there wasn't enough paint on the side of the car until I got it outside. I had some flies in it who were attracted like crazy to the super sweet smell of the paint. The garage was so full of mist, the flies would circle the car until they built up enough paint on their wings they couldn't stay in the air and then they dropped like bombs onto the surface of the car. I managed to get them out relatively little disturbance in the paint though so if I had put enough paint on the side of the car it would have been a satisfactory paint job to me.

A cousin of mine was a painter and just before that second job I spent an hour or so on the phone with him discussing the proper spray pattern and movement around the car which was very helpful. I've forgotten most of what he told me now.

I'd be tempted to spray this car myself this time too, but there's a two post hoist in the garage that makes it impossible to walk freely around the car and apply paint.

 

Awesome thread. Subscribed. I'm finishing up the bodywork on my flared 72. I used the razor method to strip. Real pain. Used chemical in the tight areas where the razor could not go. I ended up painting the car myself. Learning experience but well worth it. Have less than 1k in the paint job. I say if you are doin all the body work yourself, go ahead and paint it yourself. I can't wait to finish it up and am already looking for a 78-79 to flare. That long slopping back glass is pure sexy. Can't wait to see yours finished.

 

oops forgot you were another cat who did a show car paint job at home...

 

And I will be keeping up with this thread so I can learn

 

Car is for sale now.

Seats look good!

 

Glad to hear this! Remember.... anybody can "restore" a car... but it takes REAL stones to cut one up!

Extra work is right! We started with a single stage paint. A buddy of mine layed 3 heavy coats. We got orange peel. We wet sanded, layed 3 more thick, heavy coats, and it peeled up again. Wet sanded again, went to the paint shop. Got good advice, and some clear "just in case".... went and put 3 more thick coats of paint, then 3 coats of clear over that. Wet sanded & buffed. Wife said she was sick of wet sanding! But it looks great out in the sun (not so much in the garage under the lights though...at least to me)

make-shift paint booth




Gotta love a gal who wet sands with a smile!

Good enough for a driver!


Now if I can do it, so can you Priya! Just keep thoes pictures coming so we can follow along with your progress!

 

Looks supernice oldgto, love that colour!