1969 Dodge Charger Convertable

[Joe Handley]

15 hours ago, ewetwo said:

This is so cool. 

 

14 hours ago, High octane said:

Interesting build so far.

Thanks guys, this is just off the wall enough that it will make for an interesting finished product!

[Snake45]

I was just rereading some old car mags and there was a story in one about a factory-custom '68 or '69 Charger roadster they built for some exec. It was white, and other than the missing top, seemed to be pretty much stock. 

ETA: Found a pic of it online. 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Snake45

[jjsipes]

Here's a color picture of the Topless Charger

[Joe Handley]

I believe that car has been restored to that original iteration too! I think at one time the car ended up with a Daytona nose cone and '70 taillights and panel!

[Bucky]

That's a cool Charger, I just don't like the cut down windscreen. Just my opinion, tho! LOL

[Joe Handley]

9 minutes ago, Bucky said:

That's a cool Charger, I just don't like the cut down windscreen. Just my opinion, tho! LOL

I have to think an evolution of one that is shortened to E-Body dimensions, topless (but more windshield), and with the Daytona nose (but no wing) and '68 taillights and panel, then lowered to about the same altitude as a modern Hellcat sedan would be pretty neat looking.

[CapSat 6]

16 hours ago, Joe Handley said:

I have to think an evolution of one that is shortened to E-Body dimensions, topless (but more windshield), and with the Daytona nose (but no wing) and '68 taillights and panel, then lowered to about the same altitude as a modern Hellcat sedan would be pretty neat looking.

Look for pictures of the Dodge Challenger Diamante. That was another factory show car that Dodge built. It started out as a modified Challenger with a still-stock-ish front end, called "the Yellow Jacket", and later, was revised the next year with a Daytona-like nose, repainted, and then called the Diamante. It still survives to this day.  

As you know, the E Body was built around the B Body engine box, with a shortened chassis pan and overhangs, so a Challenger-based show car in this vein is (body wise) close to what you describe!  

[Bucky]

Challenger Diamante:

 

http://moparwiki.com/index.php/1970_Dodge_Diamante_Show_Car

[Joe Handley]

I've seen that before too, although a Charger cut down to that size, but with the aeroheadrests could be interesting too

[ChrisBcritter]

On 7/15/2019 at 12:39 PM, Snake45 said:

I was just rereading some old car mags and there was a story in one about a factory-custom '68 or '69 Charger roadster they built for some exec.

(Don Pardo voice) Not just any exec, Snake! That's Elwood P. Engel, the Ford stylist Chrysler hired to de-Exnerize their '63-'64 car lines (which explains the slab-sided, knife-edged Imperials and why the Turbine resembles the '61-'63 T-bird in side view).

[Joe Handley]

Finally got around to sanding those triangle shaped filler panels to better match the quarters, decklid, and daisey panel, it's about to the point I can put some primer on it and see how much spot filler it might need!

I'm also going crazy on this and the Shelby Z trying to improve the appearance of the panel gaps since they are so weak on both kits.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Joe Handley

[Carmak]

Very cool build! I like that you noticed the windshield is not the same. It is not because they use sedan glass. Since the convertibles and wagons sold in low volumes they "carried over" the green house from the 66-67 B-bodies. Since the other 68 B-bodies got a mild top cop the wagons and convertibles look tall by comparison.

For the rear interior panels you should google what they look like as none of the kits do it correctly. The panels are one piece plastic and the upper portion blends from the back of the front door into the pocket area for the top frame. Under the upper portion is a small oddly shaped  arm rest pocket. It looks nothing like how Ford and GM did it in the 60's.

I have a 68 Coronet 500 convertible with the 68 only green top. I think 69 also had a special top color - possibly dark blue??

Carmak

Iowa

[Joe Handley]

2 hours ago, Carmak said:

Very cool build! I like that you noticed the windshield is not the same. It is not because they use sedan glass. Since the convertibles and wagons sold in low volumes they "carried over" the green house from the 66-67 B-bodies. Since the other 68 B-bodies got a mild top cop the wagons and convertibles look tall by comparison.

For the rear interior panels you should google what they look like as none of the kits do it correctly. The panels are one piece plastic and the upper portion blends from the back of the front door into the pocket area for the top frame. Under the upper portion is a small oddly shaped  arm rest pocket. It looks nothing like how Ford and GM did it in the 60's.

I have a 68 Coronet 500 convertible with the 68 only green top. I think 69 also had a special top color - possibly dark blue??

Carmak

Iowa

Thanks!

 

I've tried to Google the portion of the interiors that held the mechanicals and nobody has any good pics that I can find, that's why I finally bought the '69 GTX kit. Sadly, I one of the best views I've found was a quick clip from a recent Mecum auction on TV of what I think was a Coronet R/T or Super Bee convertible, and even that wasn't great. I'm building this as a "what if" styling prototype including the Recall wheels and using the shorter, stock windshield for if they were looking to see how it would look with the normal Charger sized windshield in it. I need to look at the Revell '68 Charger kit interior pieces to see of there is anything missing that should be in this tub, since it looks a wee bit bare to me.

 

Nice looking Coronet too! Dad and his next younger brother both had '62 Furys (Dad's was white with red interior, not sure what thenother was painted) then his brother had a '68 or '69 Coronet R/T Dad bought off him that he and Mom drove for a while and built up credit with until they traded on a '70 Charger R/T 440 Six Pack 4 Speed and Super Track Pack car.  Not sure what color the Coronet was, but Mom HATED the stripe around the rear as it tended to attract the unwanted attention of both cops and boy racers.........needless to say, the Charger was a simple F8 Green w/white vinyl top and interior,  plain steelies with dog dish caps and and no R/T stripe!  Dad even had them de-trim it to look more like a 500 car too. At one time, his parent (my grandparents) had a R/T-SE Challenger in a carmel likenshade of brown with I think a tan top (it's been 40 years since I saw that last). All of them were bought in Iowa as Dad's side of the family was living around Ames at the time and Dad had been friends with the late drag racer Gary Ostrich back then before I was around too.

[Carmak]

On 7/22/2019 at 9:37 PM, Carmak said:

Very cool build! I like that you noticed the windshield is not the same. It is not because they use sedan glass. Since the convertibles and wagons sold in low volumes they "carried over" the green house from the 66-67 B-bodies. Since the other 68 B-bodies got a mild top cop the wagons and convertibles look tall by comparison.

For the rear interior panels you should google what they look like as none of the kits do it correctly. The panels are one piece plastic and the upper portion blends from the back of the front door into the pocket area for the top frame. Under the upper portion is a small oddly shaped  arm rest pocket. It looks nothing like how Ford and GM did it in the 60's.

I have a 68 Coronet 500 convertible with the 68 only green top. I think 69 also had a special top color - possibly dark blue??

Carmak

Iowa

I need to recant my statement about the 69 GTX convertible interior. I spent a few minutes and dug out one of my kits and it actually has very accurate rear interior panels - it is the boot that is nasty. Therefore the 69 GTX would make a great source for rear interior panels.

All of the 68-70 B-body convertibles used the same rear interior panel pieces except for a small section of upholstery that matched the front door panels of the particular model. You could trim down the rear section of the Revel Charger interior panels and fit them into the GTX pieces to duplicate this look. I will try to get you some pics of my interior for reference.

I enjoyed your story about your families muscle Mopars. My father drove a 62 Dodge Dart /6 all the way into the late 70's - the opposite of Mopar muscle  

I look forward to seeing the progress on your Charger !

Carmak

 

[Joe Handley]

Thanks again, any interior pictures would be appreciated too!

Other than a few GM products (the G-series van being the only ones I would buy for a project) and our XJ Cherokees (even my '98 still has a good bit of AMC to it), we've stayed pretty loyal to Chrysler over the years, even as FCA.

I did get some 2 part glazing filler for this Charger and the '88 Shelby Z I'm also building from a local auto body jobber called RestoPaint. Told the owner Miguel what I was looking to do and the stuff he recommended mixed and went down nicely, I did leave it to cure until tomorrow before I start working on sanding the filler.

[Joe Handley]

Dug this project out to finish it……..only 4 years after it should have been completed too. Interior is done as are the wheels (sorry, no pics of those right now)  

just needs color coat, chrome, door handles,  and chassis detailing.

 

Now I can’t remember if I said so on here, since this is intended to be a design studio what if vs a phantom production car, which is some of why I decided to include the Kelsey-Hayes Recall Wheels in this build. My intention was to paint it B5 Blue with the bumpers painted to match, kinda like seeing if the Elastomeric bumpers would work on this car as well as being a convertible, doing this allowed me to fill in the push bar holes in the bumper, smooth them, and only need to worry about re-chroming the bumperettes and the trim around the forward edge of the grill on those parts, then the chrome on the windshield and door vent windows.

 

I’m really liking this silhouette of the car too, should look really sharp once done and like something that they should have done, including the standard properly sized windshield vs what they used on the other B-Body convertibles.

[deuces wild]

Looks great so far.. 🙂👍

[slusher]

Looks very nice Bill, looking forward too seeing more!

[Can-Con]

Cool work, Joe. 

For years I've been thinking of doing the same thing with one of the "spectacular" MPC/AMT '69 Charger Daytonas I ended up with.

[Joe Handley]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

Cool work, Joe. 

For years I've been thinking of doing the same thing with one of the "spectacular" MPC/AMT '69 Charger Daytonas I ended up with.

Figured this would be a good kit for this, being a snap kit, but I will tell you, those C Pillars on this kit are THICK and I ended up using a Dremel with cut off wheel to cut them smooth those out before using the roof to fill in the quarters.

I bought a couple of these, been thinking about taking another and building a what it 4dr Hardtop with the stock roofline from that too, think that would have would be an interesting design exercise.

[Joe Handley]

Picked up a can of Testors Star Spangled Blue since I can’t find the can of B5 Blue my friend at the auto body paint and body supply shop mixed for me 4 years ago to shoot the car.

Quick preview if the floor and body color overspray.

 

Going to detail paint the belly after dinner.

[Joe Handley]

Well, here’s the body, bumpers/grill and front valance, very happy with how the body turned out where I had to fill in the tops of the quarters where the buttresses were, May need a slight wet sanding on the body, but will definitely need it in the small pieces as well as a respray as I have some bubbling on those.

[Bills72sj]

Testors Wet Look Clear goes well over the Start Spangled Blue.

[Joe Handley]

Wet sanded the smaller pieces, did a little touch up on the body while respraying then went up and painted the bottom of the floor plate, will have to go back and touch that up after our family HyVee run tomorrow.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Joe Handley

[Joe Handley]

59 minutes ago, Bills72sj said:

Testors Wet Look Clear goes well over the Start Spangled Blue.

That does look good, though this is going to not have a clear, wanted to keep it more era correct, now other projects, I will, I really like that blue on the 2nd Gen Chargers, even without the roof!