Challenger Exterior Sheetmetal Replacement - The Continuing Saga

Once the panel was suspended on the car, we started to work the metal into its final position. Don't ever expect any aftermarket part to simply "fall into place." These cars are 30-plus-years old, and tolerances weren't that great when they were new.

Temporarily sliding the trunk's gutter rails in place was next. Man, are we glad Goodmark is making all these parts new. Again, don't think these parts simply fell into place. A little "tweaking" was required to make sure everything fit nicely. Don't get frustrated if you need to manually adjust some metal, just take your time and you'll be more than happy with the results. You'll also notice the Dutchman panel is still in place. That panel is rigidly mounted to the body and gives a good reference point for measuring, and yes, eye-balling things into position.

We also tacked the lower front sections of the quarter to help hold the position of the parts.

Once we were sure all was good, we removed the Dutchman panel. The panel is pinch welded in several spots: around the window edge, at both ends, and at a middle support that you can see in this photo. You'll need to find and drill all these pinch welds so you can remove the panel.

Once we had the tailpanel and quarters clamped in place and did all our measuring, we tack welded the tailpanel to the rear of the quarters, centered it on the car, and tacked the center of it. Once it's tacked in place, we remeasured everything before we finished welding.

Once we were ready to install the new Dutchman panel in place, we were happy we had previously measured as much as we did because it fit nicely without much tweaking.

After we were confident all our sheetmetal was properly located, we began to fully weld the metal in place.

Another area that needs to be thought of during reinstallation of the quarter is the doorjamb area. As you saw in previous images, we had welded bracing in the door opening to help support the body while repairs were going on. The doors that came off the car were in beyond-repair condition, so we were able to cut just enough of the inner structure to make room to close the doors.

Just as in our last installment, we got a little ahead of ourselves and installed more sheetmetal before it was really time. just placing the fender in position really gives the impression it may become a car again. Stay tuned, because as you are reading this, we're tackling the firewall and cowl replacement.

After sliding and clamping the gutters into their final place, they were welded in.

If you measured everything early in the process, you should see the payoff at this point. After we installed the trunk lid, a couple minutes worth of adjustment showed us nice straight gaps.