On today's video, we look at common rust spots on the second generation Dodge Charger. If you're planning to buy one of these cars, these are all areas that you should inspect closely before you hand over $50,000+.
Great coverage on the rust spots! Nothing is perfect and if it is it won't stay that way if it's used and enjoyed! A little rust doesn't bother me anymore, especially on iconic car's like the charger's, you can drive and enjoy and not worry so much!
I wholeheartedly agree. Little patches don’t bug me at all if that’s the extent of it. It’s the ones with no trunk floor and rotting frame rails you’ve got to watch out for…
Droopy eye / hidden headlight door sag solution: There's a "stop" on the inside top corner. a little piece of headlight door plastic, that when it closes it comes down to rest on the "stop" I had taped a little layer of electrical tape to fit / shim - Walla!! I also didn't like seeing the headlight trim / chrome surround above the closed door, so I taped some black electrical tape to the top of the headlights - blends in much better. Hello from Wisconsin - where most cars didn't survive their firs 5 years of existence; rusting from the bottom up. I bought southern cars - they rust from the top down - eventually, eating through to the bottom anyway. Thank you for the wholesome entertainment ..
I'm still gonna have a 68 or 69 charger someday, rust or not. Whenever I get around to restoration of the car I'm going to take as many rust prevention steps as possible. Also, when it comes to the rear windshield rust, if you don't find rust there, it's either already been fixed or was ordered without a vinyl top. 1 in every 4 68 chargers were made without one. Little history I picked up recently, love the car man.
Yes, I learned that recently myself. I know the corner rust is much more of a problem on vinyl top cars, and I know I didn’t say anything about it in the video - but I will add that rust in that area can absolutely happen without a vinyl top too. Dart Swingers do it too… it’s just way worse with the vinyl top. Haha.
@@DeadDodgeGarage like you said, it's a chrysler product from the 60s and 70s, it's just what they do lol. I still want one though, my daily driver is a 1972 AMC javelin SST.
@@ChargerusPrime that's a badass daily driver! The '68 Charger is mine as the weather allows. I love the car and want to drive it as much as I possibly can to make up for lost time. Haha.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I share that sentiment completely. I drive my javelin rain or shine cuz thankfully I live here in Texas, we never get snow and use sand not salt on our roads. I'm glad you think my car is badass, more often than not I get asked what it is or if I like driving an old shitbox. They shut up when I say look up decepticon dropkick and they see my car was in a movie.. well, that the same type of car was.
I've restored maney 68 to 70 chargers in my life so I've seen it all replaced rear rails floors trunk tail light area rear valance corners my favorite mopars ever mad÷we have 3 now 2 rts and a dirty mary crazy larry clone .nice 68 you have looks like my first charger same color rt I paid 900 for it in 1979
Ya the window tray rust and inner sail panel rust. Arggg. They all have it. I have fixed so many and now doing both of mine. Again. Because someone did it wrong. Remember it's easier to do it wrong and cheaper than doing it right. Then you find surprises later as they age. Like me lol
I just replaced the crusty roof skin on my 69. Back window area looked great until I pulled it out. Total disaster. Shrinker/stretcher and brake came to the rescue. Looks great now. Next are my lower rear qtrs and trunk pan. Woohooo
Yaaaayyyy… nice work though. I am going to tool up for metal shaping at some time in the near future. I would love to be able to make pieces in house like that.
@@DeadDodgeGarage harbor freight stretcher/Shrinker and the HF 18”brake paired with a sheet metal vice grip works wonders. My first time ever doing any type of body work. Racked up about a yrs worth of RU-vid research before 😄 leaded my qtr to roof seams too. 👍
You’d probably be horrified if you had the car blasted .. I think that a lot of classic car owners with their restored cars would be if they saw what was under their pretty paint!
Oh… I know. It’s always worse. At Rocket we just put a full quarter panel on a ‘73 Charger that looked absolutely rust free! I don’t have any delusions about what my car is. I told the guy to his face when I bought it… but I still bought it! It’s good enough for me. Haha.
Oh and the droopy eyes thing is probably a couple missing ears that sit on the grille on the outside edge of the doors. Both of mine are broken off and I barely even noticed it. Plastic weld some beefy pieces on and call it good
I’ll get to it eventually. I really need to nut and bolt the whole front end, and I’d like to detail the grille (most importantly, remove the over spray.) I will likely get to this as I am going through the engine compartment.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Yeah definitely a lot of boxes to check. Luckily you’ve got a lot checked already. It’s a very nice car as-is. Especially that white interior!
Man it's a awesome car the people who talk shit probably don't even have a car to compare it toothats what I hate the don't see the beauty in it all they do is nit pick the car apart can't stand them but keep up the work I have a 07 R/T but on my way to get 68-70 got $15
Saw not a Charger but a '69??? Coronet on Marketplace. Just a roller but everything fixed. Not even painted yet. Some pics were of it still on the rotisseri. $15K. After watching this I'd say that's a bargain.
Curious what did you pay for it? I just finished paying almost 40k for rust repair and paint on my ‘69. Vinyl top ruined roof AND both quarters, both of which need replaced anyway. Yours is in great shape. Drive the heck out of it!
I paid $52,500. For the amount of work that it *doesn’t* need… I think I did pretty well! It obviously does have rust issues, and I am sure I will be dealing with them eventually. By which I mean, I’m sure my brother will be dealing with them eventually. 😅
@@DeadDodgeGarage Not too bad these days. Especially for a complete one. I’ve been enjoying your videos and we seem to have a very similar style with our stuff
@@LongIslandMopars If I had to guess I’d say those wheels look like they have a deep offset. Likely the right rear axle housing looking at where the bolts are compared to where the dish and fenders sit. I looked at way to many wheels when shopping for mine ;)
@@rikubot It looks good. Wish I had 15x8 Super Coupe wheels on the back of my Charger to widen the rear track. As it is I have 15x7s all the way around.
well i was online looking at unrestored chargers and some restored ones it looks like i wont be buying a charger even unrestored and not running they cost way more than im willing spend
They are absolutely insane, and ir sucks. Luckily it looks like the market is crashing, so they may get at least a bit less insane in the coming months.
Dog legs on chargers rot there do to water down the window and it's trapped. My roadrunner has rust issues but the dum part is it was only used as a winter car for 4yrs. After that it spent winters with out snow tires. Ya snowys.
@@DeadDodgeGarage it happens for those curious because that is a negative pressure area for one thing and it pockets air and water to just sit there. The general design flaw of having the window tray lower than the rear tray as well so water puddles there. Then there is the vinyl tops that hold moisture too. The chrome trim let's water in the trunk too so that sucks too. On the 69 charger 500 it did away with that negative pressure area. All things aside chargers are cool. Rust sucks!
I love all of ‘em. The ‘68 is my absolute favorite. I would love a bulgey-hooded ‘71, ideally a Super Bee, which is of course rare and expensive. And I do hope to have an opera windows 73-74 to build into a blown Roger Dodger one of these years.
The red car? I showed several in this video but that’s the only one I can think of with a vibration. I changed the gears and u joints and it got much better. Need to replace the tires next.
@@DeadDodgeGarage my 1986 Monte Carlo SS had a terrible vibration when you go over 65mph, I replaced tires, wheels, entire suspension, drive shaft, transmission, road force balanced 3 times and checked gears…yeah, the vibration is still there, I have a strange feeling my cheap tire rack tires(235/45/17) are bad. I should probably trade it in for a General Lee. Speaking of General Lee chargers, a guy who lives down the street from my Mom has a 1968 general Lee, he tells my Mom that John Schneider called him up to borrow his car for a Dukes project, I said Mom, the General Lee doesn’t have circle tail lights etc, guy is full of chili beans! Bo Duke in real life has his own 69 charger.
@@charlieb308 man... probably a lot. It would be pretty similar to the job we had done on a '73 for Rocket earlier this year that cost around $20,000 - and that was *cheap* as this sort of stuff goes. That was a handful of metal patches, bodywork, and paint. Thing is, I would either do the metal myself, or contract a friend or three to help. I am at least vaguely capable of doing bodywork, too, and as much as I hate doing it, if any car is worth it it's my dream car, right?
@@DeadDodgeGarage when I bought my 1986 Monte Carlo SS I made sure it had zero rust and didn’t need to be painted. So many guys buy my car type and then figure out that metal and painting is double what I paid for the car. With a Charger though it’s worth it because they value always goes up, someday soon they will be worth 1 million dollars, probably after next blade movie with vampire Hunter driving one lol
I would never buy a charger without having you look at it first! That’s my problem, I don’t have $100,000 or your permission to borrow your experience…if a guy bought a $250,000 69 charger that was professionally restored would the rust come back over and over again?
Fair point, but I can’t say I’ve seen that as frequently as the other areas. At least on the side of the country I’m on we don’t have salt. Usually if those are going… that’s an advanced case. Heck I’ve seen whole roof skins rusting off too. There are definitely more places that can rust.
I’m from Illinois and my 68 has holes in the top of finders as my 67 is just a little behind front and rear tires on driver side. And yes vinyl top cars I’ve seen the roofs just about gone. You have a really nice car
Chargers rust for the same reason that Ziebart has been a successful corporation since 1959: All American cars developed body cancer until Detroit finally got better at metal preservation and getting more rust-resistant materials to bear the brunt of wheel-spray.
I just bought a 2015 Subaru. It was sold new in New York, and looks terrible underneath. All hardware and steel pieces are very crusty. It was very cheap because a brake line rusted out… but the body is great! Haha. We’ve come a long way apparently.
$52,500. I sold a Cobra replica and like six other cars to pay for it. At the time, it seemed like a lot. As the market has continued to climb, I think I might have done OK. Either way, I’m happy.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I knew it was a lot, but it’s also an investment. I’m completely restoring a 69 Dart, and I’m probably 15k into parts, AMD panels, and drive train. When it’s done it will be worth it.
It's too bad these cars have gotten so expensive that average Joe can never be able afford one.. it's ridiculous how much even a total turd example of one of these goes for these days.
I know. I’ve done a couple videos about it. I got lucky and sold enough other cars to buy mine. I almost paid $10k for a rusty turd to fix panel by panel.
@@DeadDodgeGarage my 68 from oaklahoma has factory paint showing through in same spot and only hole in the floor is passenger side just in front of seat by rocker 😂
