The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Well, just when I thought we were nearing the finish line, we found that we needed to rebuild the motor- which I thought was a stock 318.
After discovering that the fine folks that did some of the body work left the car outside with no hood- exposing the intake and carb- we found that there had been standing water in the cylinders for months.
(I have since trashed the idea of using the 318 again- and am in the process of rebuilding a 383 which makes much more sense.

I also discovered while opting to strip and re-do the engine bay that the previous owner was "bondo happy" and left me many little surprises on the firewall, cowl and under the battery tray. Needless to say, this is all being replaced- and although my time table for rolling into the nearest car show has been pushed back, this needs to be done- and done right.
Anyway, here are some pics.

wow it looks like they used the engine for an anchor

and yes some rusty,crusty parts of sheet metal, how are the frame rails?

The frame rails look good. A few small holes which we plan on welding/ patching but overall ok.
We seem to find something around every corner, but that's to be expected with these cars!

Little did I know just how bad a job the previous owner- owner had done with this car. People sometimes have no clue when it comes to doing something the right way!
We have the cowl section and plan on totally rebuilding the top and firewall areas where you can see the damage. Overall, we have enough metal to build one, so we should have a fairly uncomplicated time with this next step. I have all the insulation, new dash pad and air box parts ready to go in as well.
Either way, She'll be better off when we're done!

Hey CVchal70, I bet you feel like choking the bloke who did the bondo job in the engine bay there. Do you know who did it? Maybe you could bondo up his mail box or something simular one night

At least it will be done right this time.

ouch shes pretty rusty thatll take some fixing

If I was in the USA, I might want to try the Rustbusters ( http://www.rustbusters.com/ ).

Repairing sheetmetal by spraying molten metal onto it seems like a good idea. (They don't even need that much metal left to start with, if you believe the pics).

Might be worth a quote...

Actually since this photo was taken, we've already added some sheet metal (thankfully we had enough remaining to build off of) and have sanded/ prepped the area for the new replacement cowl (see below), so it looks like we'll be fine.
Still a pain in the ass but it needed to be done. Half-ass is ridiculous and unacceptable.

nice....

That's really ugly. The car may have sat under a shade tree. Those leaves get stuck in there, deteriorate, and eat away the metal over time. A good thing to keep an eye on guys along with the pockets in the back of the hood.

I believe it must have, given all the leaves and crud we pulled out of every crevice.
We're making sure everything is clean, prepped and rebuilt the right way so this won't happen again.
-and I don't plan on parking under any trees either!