I recently aquired a 67 Charger, my first Mopar, and I'm wondering where the best place to buy parts is, as far as service, quality and of course price. Also, I'm cleaning it up and sanding everything down to paint, and I was wondering where these cars tend to rust. I'm just trying to get it to driver quality, but I figure while I'm doing the floors I might as well fix the rest of the rust, if any.

 

unfortunately first gen charger are a pain to find parts for, but Year one is a great source. as far as body panels are concerned, taking them off a parts car is the best choice, but being a first gen, parts cars aren't easy to find.

good idea taking care of the rust asap. if you dont mind tearing it apart some, it would be a good idea to take the bumpers off in order to check behind there. around the wheel wells is one of the most common places to find rust. check around inside the wheel well. back in the 80s many of these cars got halfass restorations on them and people welded new metal right over the rust.

If you take the bumpers off, the front fenders bolt off and you just have to remove the spotwelds to remove them. its not a bad idea to check under there.

The last place to check, and I didn't know this until i had my interior torn out and was cleaning up minor surface rust and found out that it was completely rusted through where the floor wraps down under the car behind the drivers door. you cant see it from the outside, even from the bottom, but i found it when the windows were out and was sanding in where the window regulator was. If i can find pictures of it ill post them showing roughly how to get to it.

 

i figured year one, but i know how expensive they can be on some things.

the bumpers are coming off for paint so i will make sure to check back there. i was told the car was in storage for about 10 years and i believe it based on how solid the body is. it's strange though because the trunk is almost perfect with the exception of a few pinholes as is the body, but the floors are rusted out really bad in the front drivers side and rear passenger side.

i don't know exactly where you're talking about on the last one, if you can find pics of that it would be great. although i need to take the panels off back there anyways because the rear windows don't want to go down all the way. they stop about 2 inches from going all the way in.

 

when you take the window out reach down inside the body panel. as far as you can go and make sure it is solid there. The easiest way to check for the rust there is to remove the outer rear quarter, which if you are spending the money its the right wya to do it, but if you dont have the money, you can reach MOST places by hand to check for rust, but that will just give you an idea. you cant actually KNOW without getting the body dipped or without taking off the fender.