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Here are some before and after shots of the car as I tweak it for show and such. The paint was sanded through to the primer on the lower left side of the car and was thin on the right side in places. It looked as if there was a goof in the painting process by the previous owner and I decided to make the car right. The stripes were painted on instead of being the flat black decals. That will soon be remedied as they are on order and will be installed after the car has been painted.
The grille was from some other Charger and was not painted correctly when I received the car. I decided to do a restore on the grilles but need some reference photos to do so. I used several shots of Bees from this website to accomplish the resto. Here is a before and after on the left side grille. I used wheel paint from Duplicolor for the silver and the black is a semi-flat from the same company. It is impervious to most solvents and is "rattle can". It sticks well with a little prep and will not come off at the car wash. The car had steelies on it and before it was shipped after I purchased it, I had already ordered some chrome Magnums from Coker through the group buy at Moparts.com.
While the car is apart and at the body shop, I will respray the vinyl kick panels and other interior vinyl pieces that are either dirty or faded (the ones around the windshield and over the doors and around the sail panels in the rear seat area.
The seat belts are in good order and will only require cleaning and possibly a re-dye job. The carpet is good and the dash instruments have been supplemented with a cluster below, center of dash. The front seats are black buckets with a black/white houndstooth insert and are in need of recovering. The rear seats are good and will only need cleaning to bring them up to standard.
This car will be completed before the local car show on May 15 and will hopefully bring home another trophy for my work. All my other cars I have resto/built have done so and this one should be no different.
I have restored several cars not only for myself, but also for customers and have always received great reviews from the public at the shows.
UPDATE: 03/16/05
It's coming along nicely now. The body shop has started working on the car and as usual, there were a few surprises.
The lower back corner of the door showed a very small amount of rust as well as the area above the wheel opening on the right rear. They were small areas that had ben repaired previously and will be taken care of properly this time.
All in all though, it was rust-free!
My bumpers have just arrived from the platers and they did a nice job taking out the small dings and scratches. The plating looks great and with a total turn around time of only 2 weeks, they did great. (Remember, my deadline is
the car show May 15)
All of the interior panels have been redyed properly by the three guys that work for me (me, myseelf and I)! They are ready to go back in after the paint and striping is done.
Will send more photos as the work progresses.
UPDATE: 03/27/05
The Bee is coming along nicely now. The body shop has the car blocked and primed and will go over it once more to prepare it for paint this next week.
The body stripe kit is in as is the hood pin kit. All of the interior components are prepped for reinstallationas soon as the car returns to my possession.
May 15th deadline is fast approaching and the way it looks now, barring any unforeseen problems, I should make the ar shows with no problem.
UPDATE: 04/01/05
The Bee is now blue - not a real smooth, shiny blue, but blue none the less. The body seems to be straight as a string and the base/clear coat paint really makes a difference. The car will now sit for a couple of days and then will be wet sanded with 1200 until there is no orange peel left. After that, the hard work begins - the buffing process. Then comes the decals, the black stripes and the hood center black out.
I was told by Legendary and another upholstery supplier that the seat insert material (the "salt and pepper" design) would not be available until 10 weeks from this date. (There goes the May 15 deadline!) However, I was able to procure the needed material from SMS in Portland, Oregon and will have it by the middle of next week. A local shop will replace the panels as needed and should be able to have me done before showtime! They have done work for me in the past and do excellent work.
Hope everyone is enjoying the car's progress reports and I'll be taking home a trophy in May!
UPDATE: 04/20/05
The car is almost finished! They put the stripes on today and the driver's bucket will be done by Friday.
The interior cleaned up nicely. The seat belts, buckles and covers for the retractable parts of the belts came out like new. The door panels (upper part) have a slight amount of wear on the edges, but look fair. The rest of the plastic refinished in like new condition, so I don't have to replace them.
One thing the readers of this saga need to realize: I was going to have to wait up to ten weeks for the Legendary seat covers, when, with a few phone calls, I was able to obtain the needed seat insert material from a supplier and have the seat repaired locally. There are times when a whole cover is needed, but others when just a repair will suffice. I'll post pics as soon as soon as I get the seat back.
A tip to those Mopar owners who have tape stripes to install on their cars: pay the small amount the pro wants to install them. I probably could have done mine, but the fellow that did them did an excellent job and knew all the small tricks involved that were needed to get the stripes done right without messing up a 200 dollar stripe kit.
Here are a few shots of the interior after I got that part done. I have treated all the weatherstrips that were in good condition and they look like new. Shampoo, elbow grease and a good vinyl treatment do wonders for what one might think are worn out parts.I can't quite reach the pedals from the back seat, but the seat will be back soon.
The last two photos show the lazer-straight body work that was done. The paint is awesome and the body shop did a good job - for a decent price.
UPDATE: 04/30/05
Well, two months later the car is finaly done. I am really impressed with the workmanship of the others involved in this project - they really came through for me.
A big thanks goes out to Jesse's Body Shop in Dewey, OK and Wilson's Upholstery for their work on the driver's seat and Jim's Trim for their installation of the stripe kit.
The car is beautiful and with the first show slated for this coming weekend, I should be on my way to gathering a trophy for their work.
This has been a fun project and I hope those that see the car on this site will learn from my mistakes and profit from the tips I have passed along.
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