The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Hi , on my 71 the rad support is painted the same colour as the car, can someone post a good picture of how far you should go with the flat black paint behind the grill, and should it be semi gloss or flat? Thanks.

"The front side of the radiator closure panel, below the top support (upper radiator "U" channel) and underneath the hood latch plate was painted Organasol Black except for TX9, EB7 and EF8. Overspray was permitted half way into the inside headlamp area."

Don't forget to do the pinch weld flange along the bottom edge each side of the car too.

"On all colours, except TX9, EB7 and EF8, the flange below the door sill ("down-standing flange") was painted Organasol Black on the outward face of the flange. No overspray was permitted on the bottom side of the sill section."

Thanks Dave, so if i read that correctly that says below that u channel but don't paint that channel, right?

Just realised we are taking about a 1971 car here and not a '70.

I am not sure that you will have the same issues that the 1970 Challengers had due to the different grille design.

Basically everything you could see when looking through the 1970 grille was painted black. It was a matt black but very slightly satin. Over spray extended slightly past the area needed. They were painted my men and not robots so the job varied in thoroughness from person to person.

I am really not sure what happened in 1971 or if it needed to be painted.

If this is a restoration you are trying to get as accurate as possible you had better wait until we can find out if it needs a blackout or not.

If it were my car i would mount the grille and sit in front of it to see what I could see through it. Then paint any areas showing colour through to the front.

Here are the drawings for the 1970 blackout areas.

Maybe Barry can tell us if the 1971 models got this?

Correctly restored 1970 R/T.

http://www.moparaction.com/Article/PoP/PoP.html

1970 was the only year the cowl got blacked out. I know you were asking about the rad support but I thought I'd throw that out there if you already didn't know.

As far as the pinch weld areas. I'm pretty sure all years were supposed to recieve it. I know some black cars have even been found with rad support and pinch weld blackout paint so the workers really didn't care one way or the other.

The pinch weld was just spray bombed. No masking was done. There should be overspray on the floor pans and on the horizontal face of the rockers if you are going factory correct.

Many people have said "If you really try to make it look correct it will turn out wrong. Paint it like you don't care how it looks and it will be right."

dave-r wrote: Maybe Barry can tell us if the 1971 models got this?

Yes they did.

Take a look at the boxes with the notes at the bottom right. See the FG /BJ?

F & G are the series (model year) F is 1970 & G is 1971.

B is Barracuda & J is Challenger.

The pinch welds could be sprayed or brushed if needed, so not all cars will have overspray.

Alaskan_TA wrote:

dave-r wrote: Maybe Barry can tell us if the 1971 models got this?

Yes they did.

Take a look at the boxes with the notes at the bottom right. See the FG /BJ?

F & G are the series (model year) F is 1970 & G is 1971.

B is Barracuda & J is Challenger.

Excellent! Thanks Barry!

Thanks for all the information guys.