1971 Dodge Demon

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Thanos

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Location
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I've been here lurking around a few years now only asking as a last resort when I cant find a thread with the issue I'm looking for but now its time to do a serious post.


When I bought this car 5 years ago it was just suppose be be fun an something to tinker on. An I have had a lot of fun with it, even though it leaked gas and backfired while refusing to go into 3rd the 30some miles home. I rebuilt the suspension, brakes w/ disk upgrades, steering, transmission. Tracked down rally wheels and other missing parts. I even tore apart the HVAC box and repaired the heater. Not to mention all the leaves and tree nuts throughout all the vents. Welded up the holes in the not so well fit headers and learned all about the supposed rebuilt Magnum 318 that was badly mounted in the slant 6 K member.

The first pic shows the car after a high pressure cleaning and new shocks. You can see poorly repaired quarters, runners and door skin.

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But it wasn't right because I knew the car needed work that couldn't be seen under that now cleaned up paint job.
So this week I decided I was tired of the leaks and rust popping up and took it to a reputable shop and we worked out a plan for my budget. Here are pics of what we found from week one,

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So it starts here with new floor pans and trunk pan. He thinks the quarter isn't bad but won't be sure till more paint is removed. I'm fine with replacement.

I'm going to visit him once a week and will update pics as this project goes on.
 
Thanks for sharing the plunge with us and keep the updates coming.
 
Your front floors are bad and one of the rears had a previous patch. You might consider doing a one piece floor on that one.
Also, if you go with full oem style quarters that will address some of the trunk gutter rot problem you have.
 
OMG. It hurts to look at those pics. Thank God My Duster was a rust free car to begin with. I wish you all the best on this rebuild, will be a beautiful rust free platform to start with when it's done. Are you going with the same colour?
 
It doesn't look too bad. It's gonna take a lot of time and money... that's why it called the "Body Shop Prison", and more times than one you gonna ask why in the hell did I start this! But it will be worth it in the long run. Hang in there. Plus it's a 1971 Demon! Cool **** right there alone :thumbsup:
 
Hellrats - I suggest you keep a close eye on all repairs and work out a pay-as-you-go plan.
My '69 Dart went into a reputable shop (recommended by a fellow car club buddy) about 4 years ago. My Dart was in his shop for over a year with some work progressing, then he suddenly stopped working on it and refused to give me a completion date. Needless to say, out of the shop it came. He closed up shop just a couple of weeks later.
Then it went into another shop that was recommended to me by a fabricator that had done some prior work for me. Again, in the shop for just over a year while he professed to be correcting work from the first shop. Then this shop tells me his general collision work is too profitable to set aside to work on my Dart so he's not going to do any more work on it. Out of this shop.
My Dart has now been in shop #3 for just over a year while he's been doing fantastic work making every body line arrow-straight and fixing the screw-ups from the first two shops. My Dart is scheduled to be delivered home on 08/23. Then the fun of assembly begins as it will be a painted rolling shell.
Oh yeah, shop #3 was recommended by a member here on FABO. I should have come here for a recommendation rather than from people I actually knew! LOL.
I'm anxious to see the progress of your build.
 
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EZ fix. just get a gallon of por15 and a bunch of brushes and paint over the floor and trunk pans. Get new carpet and you're done.

Edit: Just saved you hundreds
 
OMG. It hurts to look at those pics. Thank God My Duster was a rust free car to begin with. I wish you all the best on this rebuild, will be a beautiful rust free platform to start with when it's done. Are you going with the same colour?

You know what, I didn't like the color at first. Then I found out the car was originally Butterscotch and it kind of grew on me. So yeah it will be the same but the side graphics will be matte black along with the hood stripes that will be added.
 
It doesn't look too bad. It's gonna take a lot of time and money... that's why it called the "Body Shop Prison", and more times than one you gonna ask why in the hell did I start this! But it will be worth it in the long run. Hang in there. Plus it's a 1971 Demon! Cool **** right there alone :thumbsup:

Oh it was months before he could even start on it but that gave me time to set the money aside and it is a pay every week situation with me and him meeting every Friday to appraise and go over the next steps. An of course pay.
 
You know what, I didn't like the color at first. Then I found out the car was originally Butterscotch and it kind of grew on me. So yeah it will be the same but the side graphics will be matte black along with the hood stripes that will be added.
I like that colour, looks great with the factory wheels.
 
Nothing wrong with that. I like our neighbors to the north. They have good beer.. "A" :lol:
 
OK so we are at week 2!

Car is almost apart and there wasn't any other significant damage. Front fenders are good, only drivers door needs a little work, the rest of the body is good, frame rails are good.

Engine and trans will be coming out today. Shop owner said that they have somebody coming to media blast another car this week with some kind of temporary booth the whole car fits into. Said it'll costs more but this guy has done work for them before and the car will be ready for paint a whole lot quicker if I do my car at the same time. Probably it will really save him time and money but hey I cant do it all myself.

Parts are in too, this is what was included with this weeks payment: Trunk floor, L + R trunk floor extensions, whole driver/passenger floor pan, a few patch panels and "Thickened Epoxy".

The shop owner was laughing at the job somebody did on the driver quarter, if you look at the pic you can see somebody spent way too much time welding it together. Maybe who ever did it only had that part of the panel? It was a good job tho you couldn't even see the weld on the inside.

Anyway the engine guy recommended a rebuild (the engine was rebuilt about 7 years ago, I have had it for 5). I said no just pull it clean it up and repaint. Put in some Doug's Headers and a dress up kit an call it a day. I don't want to put a lot of money into that 1998 Magnum 318 I'd rather buy a 360 or 340 if there was a reasonable one to be found. But an engine isn't in the budget so...

I hope there are better things to report next week!

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By the way, my neighbor is selling his 1975 (I think) Dodge Charger. He says it all works, even the A/C, and is all original though I'm not big on the "Cordoba style" Chargers. He's asking $5,500 OBO. I'll get a really good pic of it, he has info written on the windshield including phone #.
 
Week three. Not a lot of excitement here. The media blast guy cant make it till next week so my car got sidelined though they were removing the last of the interior and getting ready to remove the wire harness today. The 318 checked out OK so its getting prepped to be painted. I thought the hood might need to be replaced but it is usable with a little work. I hope next week will show more progress than this.

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Almost forgot to tell you guys about the driver motor mount. The car was born with a slanty and still had the original K member. There was about and inch and a half of washers stacked up on it. Trans-dapt kit is ordered.
 
At least on the floor pans they didn't use wire mesh and body filler to cover the rust like on mine. Where in Florida is the shop doing the work
 
At least on the floor pans they didn't use wire mesh and body filler to cover the rust like on mine. Where in Florida is the shop doing the work
Paint Pro's in Jacksonville, FL. They have a really good rep and a long wait list. I got on that list about a year ago an finally about a month ago the owner called an said he could take it in.
 
I had a similar story with a 1960 Dodge Polara that I restored. I should say almost restored. One shop started on it and then went out of business. I had it with another gentleman who worked on it for years but I finally gave up and sold it after it was painted and engine not put back in but interior was completed etc. The money was enormous that I spent. Will never do that again. I love your Demon and looking forward to your posts.
 
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