Tazet's 69 Dodge Charger.

[flc]

That looks like a nice find.
Glad its starting to come together for you.

[tazet]

Yes a very lucky find indeed. Hopefully things can start to happen now.

[Manky Monkey]

Literally chopping the whole front off a car you've only just bought is a daunting prospect, but it ain't gonna get fixed if we don't get in there & start cutting out the rot. As PD pointed out, it's no worse than cutting up my Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Hiya Texon. 
The model's here

Taz's new Charger. 18th scale

[tazet]

Does anyone on here know where we can hire a jig from?

[tbone]

think i`d bite the bullet n replace it complete. excuse my ignorence but whats the bit i circled? is it part of the inner sill?

[Manky Monkey]

No, that's part of the bulkhead -which is the main reason for replacing it. The whole weight of the door hangs on that corner of the body -& they're bloomin' long, heavy doors, so lots of leverage on that pillar.
GoForest came to take a look at it last week & reckons the car's had a shunt from the side, somewhere near the front wheel & that maybe the entire front suspension's been replaced. He says once the body's been damaged it'll corrode much quicker, hence the damage to that corner. It's the only panel on the car that's not available as a repair section, so the only other option would be to rebuild it bit by bit from sheet steel. The bulkhead piece was a lucky find by Taz on a Flemish , (Belgium), Mopar site & will hopefully solve that particular problem & put some much needed rigidity back into the front of the car.
Taz belongs to the Mopar Muscle Association forum & they're recommending we put the car on a jig to cut the bulkhead away & replace it. We're kinda hoping we can just brace everything up as we did with my Pop but obviously with stronger tubing.

[tbone]

Its hopefully just the angle of the pic otherwise i`m being a complete prat, but, i cant see that bit on your `new` panel

[Manky Monkey]

Yup, you're being a prat.  Just the angle the photo's taken at. The rusty bit on the car at the moment's sort of fallen out of it's original position -it should follow the curve you can see on the "new" panel. I'll get Taz to take some better pics.

[tbone]

ah yeah now i got it. Who was it said "a picture speaks a thousand words" 

[Manky Monkey]

Me, trying to avoid having to add a write up to our photo galleries.

[tbone]

i was my understanding that jig`s are used in the chassis construction, you wont be messing with the chassis to cut the bulkhead away will you? I can still see the need to brace, presumably some kind of temp roll cage around the front compartment?

[Manky Monkey]

Chargers have a monocoque construction -the main bodyshell has an integral chassis, rather than just sitting on top of it like my Pop does. So the body helps to give it it's rigidity. In the engine bay are 2 chassis legs which are welded to a cross member under the bulkhead. As far as we can see, the damage is limited to these front legs -so at the very worst, we could cut them off & replace them -they're available as repair pieces.

[VALLEYSBOY]

id say its gorra be done on a jig as its one hell of a structural piece of the car body

[Manky Monkey]

True VB. Taz is phoning round the local crash repair garages this week, trying to find someone who could take it on. Found one locally, but they're only really interested in modern commercial vehicles -stuff they can get in & out of the shop quickly for maximum profit. The Charger will be a one-off, requiring a bit more time & effort, so not an attractive proposition for them. An inch difference in the wheelbase measurements from one side of the car to the other sounds a lot, but it can be lost with a bit of tweaking here & a bit there, so maybe won't require a major rebuild. The entire front steering/suspension assembly hangs on 4 bolts, with half an inch of movement in each, so some adjustment there too if needed. If we end up doing the job ourselves, we'll be following the advice of Mr GoForest, who works in the trade, so hopefully won't be going into it completely blind.