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| OK, a little bit of perspective. Here is a picture of the car as it existed one year ago. It hardly drove, it looked disgusting and it spewed great clouds of toxic smoke. This car could have easily gone the way of the junk yard, gone forever. |
| OK, it's been a little bit since the last update. I've been in this slump of wanting to fix one more thing before I took the pictures. It's been a good couple of months. Big news, I finally got my new hood. In fact, I did a lot to improve the appearance of the car. I always thought of the paint job as just another layer of rust that I would have to get to when I won the lottery. I tried buffing a small portion and it turned out pretty good. I did the whole car with the most aggressive abrasive I could find and it totally blew me away. The local paint shop provided touch up paint and the rest is history. I also bought a slew of emblems. They really set off the cars appearance. I regularly drive the car now and I am anxiously awaiting the explosion of the weak rear-end so I can install my new one. |
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| OK, a little bit of perspective. Here is a picture of the car as it existed one year ago. It hardly drove, it looked disgusting and it spewed great clouds of toxic smoke. This car could have easily gone the way of the junk yard, gone forever. |
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| Ahh, what a little time and all the money I was able to hide from my family can do. There is no substitute for the Challenger R/T hood. I think it has one of the all time great muscle car looks. |
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| I can't believe that there was actually paint underneath that 85 pounds of dirt and oxidation. Buffing out a paint job that is that far gone can be quite a laboring experience. With what I spent in time and beer, I could have easily got a show quality paint job, but that would not have gone along with the low cost theme of my project. |
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| I bought a touch-up bottle of Plum Crazy Purple from the local paint shop. It was only $10. I filled in everything I could. It really blended in well. Here you can see my new emblems. I bought those from Year One. A little bit of an indulgence, but they look so good. I know what your going to say, this car isn't an R/T. Piss off purist, I like em. All three emblems are the pin type. |
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| Here you can see the scoop inlets. I bought em on ebay. I love ebay. I took them in to be bead blasted and the guy charged me extra because there was four different layers of paint. They were in great condition. I painted them to match the hood. I salvaged the front trim strip from my old hood. There's a few dents in it but who cares, most people will only see the back of the car. |
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| The weight of the hood knocked the car into the perfect rake. Everyone likes em a little different. This is what I like. I have met a major milestone with the project. I parked it in the driveway for a whole day and nothing leaked out. |
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| Busy work. If you can't spend a lot of money, at least put in the time. Take everything apart and paint it. Do as I say, not as I do. I missed the radiator. |
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| Here you can see the understructure of the hood. It was manufactured by Goodmark. The quality was awesome. I think their sheet metal is among the best in the industry. This was an expensive item and shipping was high. Sometimes you have to swallow hard and whip out the big card. The car needed it, nuff said. |