The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[njsteve]

Looks like I predicted it pretty accurately. They lost it and tried to cover it up.

Today I get a FedexGround update email saying the grill was delivered at 1:11 PM. So I drive down to my UPS store and go inside. I know all the workers there and they have been participating in this miniseries for the past week, so they knew to be on the lookout for FedexGround. Guess what? They say there has been no FedexGround drivers there yet today. And the tracking result says "Left outside front door." And mind you, this UPS store is in a business district with a slew of surveillance cameras all over the place. No Fedex trucks anywhere to be seen...

Really?

At least now that the Fedex interface alerted Rockauto that the grill was allegedly delivered, the Rockauto order page finally had a button to click for a return/refund for "lost by shipper". I couldn't click it fast enough. So hopefully the Rockauto to Paypal to my Mastercard refund process goes through. I am done with these guys.

Jegs has a price match option so I think I'll go with them now.

[njsteve]

That was fast! I put the claim in with Paypal describing what happened and included the tracking info printout. Paypal indicated that the claim then gets forwarded to rockauto. They said wait 2-3 days for a response from rockauto. Rockauto responded in 10 minutes and immediately authorized the refund to my paypal account/credit card.

I just ordered the same grille from Jegs...but guess who they use to ship. UGH!

Stay tuned for Season 2


UPDATE:
I called Jegs and they are switching the shipping to UPS. :-)

New Updated Update:
Jegs emailed back today and said they can't match the rockauto price despite their "guaranteed price match policy"...

I called SummitRacing and they did agree to match the price and it's shipping out via UPS.

[A12pilot]

Criminey Steve-O! Had I of known you’d have this much problem with the car I never would have sold it to you!!! Oh, wait, I know....it’s “come uppens” for all the voodoo hyjinx you sent my way on engine break-in day! You and that Woj guy, what with his “Good luck Dave. I’m sure it’ll go well.” encouragement text!!

So moving forward, I’m about 90% done with the undercoating removal and the clue hunting continues for replication when painting happens. Just like my Bee and other Mopes, they are dipped in a vat of gray primer which leaves drips and a distinct line on the firewall where there stopped the dip. Also, they’re painted in one piece with two painters on either side of the car. As such, when I do paint, I sort of get into the mindset of what that guy might have been thinking as the car was coming down to get sprayed. Three things come to mind: Hurry up, make it sorta neat, and don’t spray anything you can’t easily reach in the interest of time. And as supporting evidence to that is in underside of the frame rails being only lightly coated, under the battery tray being slightly dusted, and several other overspray patterns being noted. And interesting tidbit on my Super Bee was the fact that since it was a vinyl top car, the roof does not get painted. But again, with two painters on either side of the car, that varied. One side of my Bee had the entire roof rail painted and the other side stopped halfway up the A and C pillars. Another interesting thing is the vinyl top cars got a elastic caulk sealer at the C pillar while painted cars got lead. However, true to Ma Mopar being consistently inconsistent and wanting to ensure that people will debate something this stupid years later, a vinyl top 68 Charger XP car had the C-Pillar joint leaded!

There’s also factory markings on the rear seat support, passenger inner rear wheel house, and Driver’s side door. All will be replicated in authentic script because....I don’t know why.

Recently I flew with a fellow pilot who’s father worked the assembly line at Chrysler In the St. Louis plant in the late 60s to mid 70s. As an entry level position, guess what he did? Painted cars!!!! And you wonder why they were painted so crappy!

More this weekend!

Cheers

[njsteve]

Nice progress Dave,

And now that you mention it. I did forget to pull the needles out of that cuda voodoo doll I had set up. That explains it all now!

[njsteve]

And those crayon markings? That "X" on the door is so the door guts installer knows which door to throw his lunch bag and crumpled Coke can into.

Reminds me of our old 1972 Satellite Suburban 9 passenger wagon (Rallye Red with black interior!) We always wondered why the tailgate rattled so much and how the rear window washing mechanism never worked. My dad finally brought it into the dealer and the dealer pulled out all the assembly-line parts, rubber banded together, and clanking around in the bottom of the tailgate. I never thought to ask if the "X" was there, though.

[markinnaples]

Thanks for the history lesson Dave, car is looking good.

[A12pilot]

Thanks Mark! I was summoned again for transportation duties with stays in Denver, Reno, and Ontario, but before I left I was able to get the undercarriage primed up in epoxy! The rotisserie really makes getting into all the nooks and crannies (mmmmm.... nooks and crannies....) easy! This was the nastiest part of the whole restoration and it's a big step forward. I'll go back over any areas Imay have missed scraping off that nasty undercoating, but for the most part, I'm very happy with it. Up next is metal repair!

Cheers
Dave

[A12pilot]

So how much undercoating actually gets applied to one of these Mopars? This box is one cubic foot (12x12x12) and its about full. So take into consideration the coefficient of air compression between particles in the box, add a factor of sand and road grime circumference, and you're left with a good 6lbs of the stuff!

Also, out cometh the rats nest in the frame rail. Steve instructed me to retain all old parts, sooooo...

Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

Hey, we gotta have that rat's nest up here in Joysey. And find that darn rat, too!

If we have to compete with Pizza Rat in the NY subway and Pizza Groundhog in Philly, at least New Jersey should be able to have their own Cuda Rat!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/us/pi...rnd/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/22/livin...eat/index.html

Nice progress, by the way. :-)

[njsteve]

The second attempt at acquiring an AMD trunk lid worked better than the first. Our valiant correspondent, located deep in the heart of Texas reports that it arrived safely without any "extra post production enhancements' that the last one had.

On the northern war front, the second attempt at procuring a reproduction grill also was successful. It arrived, which is much more than can be said about the first one, (which is most likely currently sitting in the fedex delivery guy's basement). It's a nice, unpainted, assembly and I will probably start the paint process on it this weekend when the weather gets a bit better. I already procured the very expensive, dark argent "sparkley" paint for it.

The front and rear elastomeric bumpers are on their way from the Great White North, though there seems to be a glitch in the address location for Dave's secret evil lair located in a Texas volcano somewhere. For some reason trucking companies have a weird aversion to accepting his complete street address and the most important part always gets deleted. We will see if the shipper can get it straight before it gets rerouted back to Canada in a week...Stay tuned.