Took another trip out to JC Restoration today. No more progress on the Charger cos they're waiting for us to deliver the floorpan -& we're still waiting for the American suppliers to get back to us with a price for it. We took them the front bumper so they can check the fit of the grille, front wings etc. Only just managed to squeeze it into the back of my little Fiesta hatchback.
We've been paying for the job bit by bit & are very nearly paid up to date. John & the team have managed to do the work so far much quicker than they'd expected, so we're almost a thousand quid
under budget -how often does
that happen? So we had a chat to them today about the rear quarters.
We've got friends in the Mopar Muscle Association who've offered to come to the barn where we keep the car & help us replace the rear wings, ("quarters"). It's not that we doubt their abilities, just that -well, JCs have done such a fabulous job of it so far, it'd be a real shame if the back end wasn't finished to the same standard as the front. It'd also be sensible to do it all while the car's still on the jig. As Taz said, we'd feel we were letting the resto guys down if we messed it up. This absolutely
isn't going to be a show winning car -that's not what we're aiming for, but to get this far & settle for less for the sake of a few quid would be criminal.
John, the head honcho at JCs, is a pretty, erm, straight talking guy. Watching him going around the car today, punching holes in the back end with a screw driver was pretty depressing -"this is shot, that's rotten, that needs replacing". He's just a perfectionist though. Chargers are his passion & if he had his way, every one would be restored to better than original condition. We've made it very clear that money is a big issue with us -like, we haven't got any. The guys doing the work have told us we've actually had a lot done for cost price or free & we believe them. They also pointed out that if we were to sell it, even in it's current condition, we've already doubled it's value, which is more than it's cost us.
So we're going to trawl the parts suppliers in various countries & see what we can come up with. Ideally we'd replace the rear quarters, outer rear wheel wells & boot floor, which comes in 3 sections. I said from the start I could imagine us starting to replace stuff at the front end & ending up in the boot & it looks like I wasn't far wrong. The amount we budgeted for but haven't yet used will almost cover the rear end work.
Maybe.
