Once the GTX was a rolling chassis again, it was time to  straighten the sheetmetal.  Luckily, there was no rust repair required. The floor pans were rock solid and the body panels only had minor bumps and dings. After ironing out the ripples, the jambs and window openings were painted, and the newly refinished dash assembly was installed. Since several screws secure the dash along the base of the windshield, the dash frame has to be installed before the windshield goes back in.

A new windshield was installed using a new gasket from Year One. The old gasket was so dry and hard that I broke the original windshield attempting to put it back in!. The rear glass was put in using a glass setting kit from 3M.  The rear side glass was reinstalled after cleaning up the window tracks and riser. I replaced the vent window rubbers with some nice used ones I found, then the tracks and risers were installed. Adjusting the glass to fit correctly took awhile, it probably would have gone better if I had read the service manual first!

During my "spare time" I rebuilt and refinished what seemed like a zillion parts. The steering column needed a new lower bushing because ill fitting headers had melted the original one. I dismantled the column and replaced the damaged bushing with a used bushing from an extra column I had laying around. Then the coupler was also rebuilt using a kit from Chrysler parts. While it was apart, I put a new turn signal switch in too.

I found a formula for Textured Argent paint in Musclecar Review magazine. It took a little experimentation to get just the right shade. I matched it to a painted portion of the grille that was covered by the upper trim. The horizontal grille bar section was painted with some PPG non-smudge aluminum and the recessed areas were given a coat of Testors flat red model paint. Freshly polished upper and lower trim made it look as good as new. A reproduction "GTX" grille emblem from Year One added the finishing touch.

Besides the grille, many other items required similar treatment. The wiring harnesses was cleaned and repaired. The seat tracks, heater system, Air Grabber ducting, distributor, pulleys, brackets and miscellaneous interior trim pieces had to be restored or refinished. During this time, I also had the bumpers, outside rear view mirrors and trunk finish panel rechromed. The plater ruined the finish panel. Fortunately, I found a decent used one in the Moparts.com swap meet section. The finish panel and tail light bezels were repainted using a light textured argent paint from Totally Auto. I was very happy with the finished results.

The door handles needed rechroming but I found that it was cheaper to buy new ones (I noticed they looked just like the ones on my '82 Ram pickup...sure enough, they were!).

I also polished all the stainless steel interior trim, window moldings and the roof rail moldings using a metal polishing kit from Eastwood's. A weekends worth of work had everything looking better than it probably did when new.

It was great to have all the parts freshly refinished and ready to install once the body and paint work was wrapped up. It sped up the assembly process considerably...