Page 1 of 13

Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 6:19 am
by Chargingatchya
Testing to see if I can post pics

Image

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 6:23 am
by Chargingatchya
Okay so I’m trying to start a thread but struggling to post pics! Can someone explain how to do this please?

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 7:38 am
by Derek
Write your message, scroll down and click attachments, then click add files, find where your pics are then click on the ones you want to add, then just click submit.

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 7:49 pm
by morgan
But do it quick and often. I've been waiting for this one ! :)

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 8:38 pm
by Chargingatchya
Ha ha! Okay, here goes!

Having been looking for a cheap charger (yeah right!) for a while, I posted on FB if anyone has a charger project for sale, July 2020, cash ready, a little skeptical as the pandemic just kicking in and unsure what to expect in the coming months financially I decided to drive up to take a look at a charger that a chap on FB had told me about.

The seller gave me all the time in the world to inspect the car, and I convince the Mrs to come with me. Not the best idea, as when I told her I wanted to buy the car, for a moment, I thought I was about to be single again....

Anyhow, I made an offer, chap accepted. Car arrives the next day around 8am, I don’t have time to play with it at this point as I need to leave for work.

Getting home later that day. I finally get time alone with my baby.

Oh man, it was like a shower of ice cold water. Overwhelmed with anxiety and regret. Looking on top, looking underneath, in the trunk, honestly I couldn’t find a panel to work with. The front was pretty solid but that’s about it.

What had I just purchased? What I was feeling was more than buyers regret. Iv been playing around with American cars for most of my adult life. Restored a few firebirds and done a few engine swaps, panel beating and LIGHT mig welding with friends, but what I have here I am in the deep end.

And to top it off, this hunk of junk doesn’t even have a V5....


What had I done?! Yes that’s the frame poking out the floor...

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 9:21 pm
by Chargingatchya
Okay.... breath... think... it’s not all bad...

Step in this fantastic forum who puts me touch with Matt Hollingsworth who helps me out with V5. Manage to find someone at the DVLA who wants to help. I really needed that luck! This gives me confidence to keep pushing. Maybe, this cars worth saving....

Let’s look at the positives..

It’s a numbers matching big block charger, 383 2BB car. F6 Green originally.

Engines all there and I heard her running. Oil leaking, but otherwise she sounds great. I believe someone at some point had upgraded the cam. It also has headers and a 4BB carb. I don’t know at this point what il be doing with this set up in future.

Glass, trim, roof structure, brakes, interior (less door cards) seats are rough but would need to be up holstered anyway, fenders, deck lid, bonnet, grill (needs restoring) loads more il get to as I progress though this thread...

Maybe it’s not all bad.

Here’s the thing, any project would need panels, this one just needs quite a few more! :)

Shopping list looks like this: both full quarters, both full frame rails, both rockers (sills) roof (I was tempted to repair as only the back was rotten but may as well do it right) rear light panel, rear crossmember, trunk floor, front full floor, floor quarters and obviously loads of other bits I’m forgetting to list.

Around 10k to AMD for sheet metal. To be fair I kind of expected that. And always anticipated spending that on a project. And I wanted good quality panels as I will try real hard to do this car justice.

Fast forward 3-4 months and everything arrives.

Here’s the thing. I wanted to buy as much as I could in one hit, one because it’s cheaper on shipping, and two, because have Iv all the panels at hand makes building the thing easier as I have the ability to test fit, mock up and see how things come together.

From this point I’m going to fast forward to the build. Il skip tear down and try to catch up to the point I’m at as the build has progressed at this point and I’m late to start this thread. But one last word. I’m infatuated with this car and I’m obsessed with this project. I’m enjoying every second and if I had the chance to buy this car again I honestly would. It’s coming together great and better than I could have imagined and I have learned so much. The car is a keeper and il do my best to do it justice.


The biggest issue was measuring. I wanted a straight car that meets the factory spec. I put out a post asking if any local charger owners would mind me measuring there cars. I do have the factory spec and that’s what I’m working too, but felt I need to see where other chargers are at.

Let me tell you these cars are all over the place and some measured way outside their factory tolerance. One car was almost a whole inch out! In total I measured 6 68~70 chargers.

So, level ground, level car and incredible hi tech mechanical G5 measuring device designed by NASA just to make my charger straight.

Looks like two pieces of electrical conduit, a tape measure and 4 plum bobs. But like I said, it’s much more than that!

Getting the frame in was actually not that hard. Once I had a plan, it was quite straight forward. The thing is, it bolts on to the rear crossmember, so as long as the factory specs under the rear floor are met, they should just fall into place. Welding was mainly done from the trunk floor and rear floor, one part that was incredibly difficult was sandwiching the frame between the leaf spring perches as they did from factory. It was a fight to get it in, but it did listen and settle in to place in the end. Uk take some pics of this and post tomorrow.

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 9:29 pm
by Chargingatchya
More pics of frame rails in weld primer and perches, Whatever I have on this iPad....

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 9:30 pm
by Chargingatchya
Loads to add... il continue tomorrow :)

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 10:05 pm
by Pete
A great read, thanks for posting.

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 21 10:40 pm
by mygasser
at least you'll know there'll be no rust at the end of it all. sounds like you're just the owner the car needed too :thumbright:
neil.

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 21 10:06 am
by MattH
This is absolutely great to see how bad it was and how you have dug into it. Many would have given up and sold on.

I suspect this car will be the one everyone will want to see when its done, and throughout its build.
Keep the pics and updates coming!

:thumbright:

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 21 1:18 pm
by RobTwin
Chargingatchya wrote: Mon Jun 07, 21 9:21 pm
Around 10k to AMD for sheet metal. To be fair I kind of expected that. And always anticipated spending that on a project. And I wanted good quality panels as I will try real hard to do this car justice.
I was watching a Harrys Garage video yesterday of his XJC resto and that didn't look too bad when he started but they've already spent 350 hours on the metalwork and only just started spraying the primer... so at a conservative £50/hr that's already £17,500 :shock:
So if you can do all the repairs and fit the new panels you'll be quids in :D

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 21 2:47 pm
by ScottyDave
Great thread, nice to know I'm not the only looney
:lol: :lol: :lol:

keep those pics coming :thumbright:

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 21 4:53 pm
by MrNorm
Well done for taking this on, best news is that you are enjoying it!! Definitely a big job, AMD was the right choice so really look forward to updates

Re: Restoration thread 1969 St Albans charger

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 21 9:02 pm
by Chargingatchya
Thank you for your wonderful comments. They do inspire me to keep going!

On the same note, please feel free to apply constructive criticism. I am always ready and looking to learn and very far from a professional at restoring cars! So if you see me doing something wrong, or feel I need a “heads up” please don’t hesitate.


Going to play with time a little in this thread. It won’t be in correct order, but il try to keep it organised.

Whilst waiting for my parts to arrive from the States, I decided to crack on with the grill. It was cracked and parts were missing. The seller gave me an old grill to use the pieces from to restore mine, and I also sourced a “shark fin” centre piece from eBay USA. I done this on the dining room table as I had plenty of time to get this done. The intricate and monotonous nature of the work on this meant I could not do more that an hour a night, slowly it began to look much better, not perfect, but useable and better! Took me about a month! Really! I struggled to match colours but got as close as I could. I am happy with it. I found this particular part difficult to photograph, so sorry for the rubbish pictures.


One day, I may buy a re pop grill. But for now this will do....