Project 68: Replacing the rotted junk in the trunk

Project 68 is a restoration project on my 1968 Dodge Charger. In this series of articles, I’ll document the growth of the machine from rotting afterthought to race track winner!

B-Body Mopars may be the king of rot and rust, my theory is they are so coveted so folks who do own them, never wish to get rid of them. Long to sit outside in the rain and winters leads to rust and rot. Once the vehicle gets to a certain point, they move on and it’s our job as diehards to restore them back to working form!

Picking up this Charger it had rust in the typical spots. Lower wheel-well and in the quarter panels and in the trunk where water had pooled and over time, ate away at the floor. This calls for a complete removal of the trunk.

Who knew 50-year old spot welds were that strong! After a hefty amount of prying, grinding, cutting and more. I began to make progress on what would finally look like a bare frame to place our new floor in.

What I felt was important on this project was to vision the finished project from the beginning. I planned to ditch the original fuel tank in favor of a cell in the back. I also planned to relocate the 12v battery to the back to free up space in the engine bay. While I did make every attempt to use the original spout on the Charger’s signature fuel cap on the top of the rear-quarter panel, it’s simply too easy for water or debris to run into the tank from the spout and utilizing a cell, there was no logical way to hook it up. The cap stayed, however, the cell goes in after I replaced the old floor with a new AMD floor.

Buying the one-piece steel floor put me in a bit of a…unfortunate situation as the only way to get it back into the car as a full one-piece is either to cut into the frame to angle in, remove major body panels like the rear-glass, rear-quarter and wheel well to slide it through or simply cut the floor in half. So after swallowing this mental hurdle of cutting new metal we just bought…a quick cut with the plasma cutter has us in business.

Tacked in at several places as well as sealant to keep the moisture out from the outside, the floor is finished with carpeting before placing a Speedmaster fuel tank and relocating the battery to the trunk.

Originally I had placed the MagnaFuel Quick Star fuel pump in the trunk but later decided on several reasons that it’s probably a better relocation underneath the car. After fabricating a railing hold down system to lock-in our new Optima battery, a few relays, wiring, and steel braided lines later wrap up our rear-trunk clean-up on Project 68!

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Project 68 is a life-long dream of Mopar fanatic and second-generation drag racer Ronnie Kohrt to build from the ground up a 1968 Dodge Charger to drag race across the country. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the grind of restoring a car without the glitz and glam of big money, a large shop or a race team. Just a middle-class guy with a passion for horsepower and vehicles.