Re: 2017 Dodge Challenger SXT - Mostmint #45
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:53 pm
Quite a few updates this week
Car history:
I have discovered the location of the crash. I had attempted this before but this time it worked.
I revised my search to look for “accident report search”. I found this: https://ohtrafficdata.dps.ohio.gov/CrashRetrieval which required date of incident (on the Carfax) and last name (on the old title) for the search.
The report provided some interesting information, the most relevant for this find is the location of the incident, which happened on I-75 south at the 2.6 mile marker. I took that information to Google maps, presumed mile markers start counting up from the south end and found a spot close. Then I zoomed in a bunch and went to street view. Had to look around a bit but was eventually able to locate the mile marker. A quick look to the left showed the median and it has scratches from vehicle contact, but the kicker is there are small orange objects on the ground where the accident happened (presumably chunks of the plastic core support).
This place is far away but I feel like I may have to visit there with the car if I can successfully complete this rebuild.
The report also provided additional information:
• Accident happened at 6:30 AM on Saturday 9/24/22
• She was the only person in the car
• No other vehicles involved
• It was raining
• She was traveling 80 in a 65. I have no idea how they estimated that
• Driver was distracted by “other/unknown”
Frame machine
I bought some steel casters and installed them on the unit. The ball bearings for the swivel of the current casters were all long gone.
Hood
Separated the skin (outside layer) from the structure – this was definitely needed to make straightening the hood possible. First up was peeling up the edge that is bent over the structure to hold the skin in place. I experimented with a couple methods but the best method was using the air chisel at relatively low speed to pry it up then finish with pliers or the wide vice grip to bend it up the rest of the way.
The pieces are also glued together to avoid rattling all the way around the perimeter and at various touch points. I tried making a tool to manually pry but all that did was damage stuff. After regrouping, I put some heat to it. Most of it I was able to heat from the back, and while doing these I learned I could do this without damaging the paint. With a little heat the stuff let go quite easily. There were several of them where I could not get heat to them except through the exterior surface. It was a bit disconcerting putting the propane heat to the paint but it seems like there was no real damage. I just kept the flame 4-5” from the paint.
Once the parts were separated the work started. The skin sheet metal was buckled multiple ways on the driver side and the front corner of the hood was a solid 6” higher than it should be. There was one long bend that ran alongside the side scoop – once I straightened that I was able to take on the rest of the bends one by one. There was a fair amount of hammer and dolly, sometimes hammer and wood block, sometimes taping up the orange paint to avoid damage from the metal work.
The right front corner was easier and was taken care of using similar techniques.
Once I had it pretty well roughed in I went to work on the structure part. The only unique challenge was the LF corner where the underside of the hood had hit the barrier. A test fit with the skin uncovered a few more adjustments to get them aligned. I’ll need to make some minor adjustments to ensure alignment with the fenders – I’ll do that once I have the chassis fixed and the fenders on the car.
LF fender:
Did a little more work on straightening it – still a ways to go.
Driver door:
The door has a bend in the middle top to bottom, as the bottom of the A pillar was moved in the door was attached and really had no choice but to bend. There’s a solid inch clearance between the window and window seal at the top of the door. The inside of the door has a buckle in it as well. In order to fix this its going to need the same treatment as the hood – removing the exterior skin layer.
First I removed the interior trim panel, the window, mirror and other various things. Then I repeated the process of peeling up the edges of the door skin. The air chisel trick didn’t work so I had to pry it all up manually.
More to come.
Car history:
I have discovered the location of the crash. I had attempted this before but this time it worked.
I revised my search to look for “accident report search”. I found this: https://ohtrafficdata.dps.ohio.gov/CrashRetrieval which required date of incident (on the Carfax) and last name (on the old title) for the search.
The report provided some interesting information, the most relevant for this find is the location of the incident, which happened on I-75 south at the 2.6 mile marker. I took that information to Google maps, presumed mile markers start counting up from the south end and found a spot close. Then I zoomed in a bunch and went to street view. Had to look around a bit but was eventually able to locate the mile marker. A quick look to the left showed the median and it has scratches from vehicle contact, but the kicker is there are small orange objects on the ground where the accident happened (presumably chunks of the plastic core support).
This place is far away but I feel like I may have to visit there with the car if I can successfully complete this rebuild.
The report also provided additional information:
• Accident happened at 6:30 AM on Saturday 9/24/22
• She was the only person in the car
• No other vehicles involved
• It was raining
• She was traveling 80 in a 65. I have no idea how they estimated that
• Driver was distracted by “other/unknown”
Frame machine
I bought some steel casters and installed them on the unit. The ball bearings for the swivel of the current casters were all long gone.
Hood
Separated the skin (outside layer) from the structure – this was definitely needed to make straightening the hood possible. First up was peeling up the edge that is bent over the structure to hold the skin in place. I experimented with a couple methods but the best method was using the air chisel at relatively low speed to pry it up then finish with pliers or the wide vice grip to bend it up the rest of the way.
The pieces are also glued together to avoid rattling all the way around the perimeter and at various touch points. I tried making a tool to manually pry but all that did was damage stuff. After regrouping, I put some heat to it. Most of it I was able to heat from the back, and while doing these I learned I could do this without damaging the paint. With a little heat the stuff let go quite easily. There were several of them where I could not get heat to them except through the exterior surface. It was a bit disconcerting putting the propane heat to the paint but it seems like there was no real damage. I just kept the flame 4-5” from the paint.
Once the parts were separated the work started. The skin sheet metal was buckled multiple ways on the driver side and the front corner of the hood was a solid 6” higher than it should be. There was one long bend that ran alongside the side scoop – once I straightened that I was able to take on the rest of the bends one by one. There was a fair amount of hammer and dolly, sometimes hammer and wood block, sometimes taping up the orange paint to avoid damage from the metal work.
The right front corner was easier and was taken care of using similar techniques.
Once I had it pretty well roughed in I went to work on the structure part. The only unique challenge was the LF corner where the underside of the hood had hit the barrier. A test fit with the skin uncovered a few more adjustments to get them aligned. I’ll need to make some minor adjustments to ensure alignment with the fenders – I’ll do that once I have the chassis fixed and the fenders on the car.
LF fender:
Did a little more work on straightening it – still a ways to go.
Driver door:
The door has a bend in the middle top to bottom, as the bottom of the A pillar was moved in the door was attached and really had no choice but to bend. There’s a solid inch clearance between the window and window seal at the top of the door. The inside of the door has a buckle in it as well. In order to fix this its going to need the same treatment as the hood – removing the exterior skin layer.
First I removed the interior trim panel, the window, mirror and other various things. Then I repeated the process of peeling up the edges of the door skin. The air chisel trick didn’t work so I had to pry it all up manually.
More to come.