3175375
Senior Member
Some sort of support from above may be the ticket.
New Member, New Polara
- Thread starter Stev
- Start date
Stev
Active Member
Hung the car from the lift using ratchet straps. The load is very light, it's just to keep everything square.
Not sure this is what the engineers had in mind when designing the roof rack but i appreciate it regardless.
Cutting out the last of the floor now, the seam it welds too looks pretty healthy which was a big worry. Biggest problem is just getting a grinder and drill in there now.
67_300_Convertible
Member
Saw this thread for the first time yesterday and read/watched it through. Very impressed. Keep up the good work.
Stev
Active Member
Fighting the last of the floor weld by weld.
Sill looks healthy although someone filled some pinholes from the top with bondo. Strange.
Probably going to weld the floor in first and then cut the top of the sill and patch it later from above. I don't know how tight it is to the bottom of the tailgate now.
Also found a bunch of cherry pits in the frame in a sealed up box section, not even room enough for a mouse to get in. 60 year old cherry pits from some worker in Windsor? Who knows!
3175375
Senior Member
Sempre Adelante! Good work!
Stev
Active Member
Further dispatches from mopar hell.
I'm not sure if i should cut all this out and replace it with the proper drip panel from the donor. At this point the angle iron is the primary structural elementof the tail and it doubtless requires taking the tailgate off which I can't do until everything else is done. I guess either way I'd be doing it from the top later. Guess I can kick that can down the road for a while...
Grandpa had better fuckin appreciate all this.
3175375
Senior Member
Think about it. My money is on you doing the next right thing.
Stev
Active Member
Yeah I just can't pull it apart until the floor is in as that angle iron is all that's holding it together. I also can't risk cutting through it into the tailgate above. What exactly i'll be welding the floor to, i'm not sure. Depends on if i can save the donor's drip rail stamping i guess, it's pretty rough as it is.
Stev
Active Member
Informative day here.
Test fit the tub. It'll take some fighting later, but it fit roughly into place very well. Gotta get the last of the quarter grafted on with it in place and then i'll prep it for final install.
Secondly, took the trim off the left side. It appears the 1966 body shop couldn't be bothered to remove the trim to spray the car. At least on the left side, the right side was sprayed correctly. That trim was probably never ever off until now.
So at that point I knew the left side had to get resprayed anyway. Time to find what's underneath this big bubble...
Good news: The metal actually isn't horrible!
Bad news: Whatever bodyshop made the new wheel arch really didn't give a **** and barely welded the new panel on.
They welded the ever loving hell out of the right panel of course. But left side, eh a tack every 6 inches is fine...
Going to take the paint off the entire quarter to decide what to do about it. There's some bubbling where the quarter meets the rocker, which was pretty ugly on the right side. I'll probably be making that panel again, how much worse it'll get remains to be seen.
Cool.
Test fit the tub. It'll take some fighting later, but it fit roughly into place very well. Gotta get the last of the quarter grafted on with it in place and then i'll prep it for final install.
Secondly, took the trim off the left side. It appears the 1966 body shop couldn't be bothered to remove the trim to spray the car. At least on the left side, the right side was sprayed correctly. That trim was probably never ever off until now.
So at that point I knew the left side had to get resprayed anyway. Time to find what's underneath this big bubble...
Good news: The metal actually isn't horrible!
Bad news: Whatever bodyshop made the new wheel arch really didn't give a **** and barely welded the new panel on.
They welded the ever loving hell out of the right panel of course. But left side, eh a tack every 6 inches is fine...
Going to take the paint off the entire quarter to decide what to do about it. There's some bubbling where the quarter meets the rocker, which was pretty ugly on the right side. I'll probably be making that panel again, how much worse it'll get remains to be seen.
Cool.
Stev
Active Member
Got the tub fitting really well. I have to grind down some bits on the new rocker/quarter area but other than that we're on track there.
The new lower quarter will need some serious trimming though. Remarkable how much the fury and polara stampings differ.
Gonna patch this too. Needs some more reshaping but no problem.
Weirdly both pockets were torn in the same way in the same place. I'm not sure if it was a stress tear from overstressing the stamping at the factory, or if the bumper just hits there on all these cars. It's torn on the left side too.
Next step is dropping the tub and prepping it and the inside of the quarter for install.
I'm humming and hawing over what to do about the bottom of the tailgate sill. I'm wondering if I should graft in some sheet metal to restore the bottom of the inner sill face panel. Or just leave it, put the floor in, take it apart from the top later and weld the drip panel to the top of the floor later. I'm not sure which is more correct to the factory.
After going thru all this, that first drive is going to be SWEET
Stev
Active Member
After going thru all this, that first drive is going to be SWEET
It'd better be.
I have a plan to ensure it. Still saving my pennies for it though. Already threw the firmfeel catologue at it, which should be all arriving this week. Had to spring for that junk early since i'll have the suspension apart anyway.
Have you ever used Stealth heads before?
Stev
Active Member
No but I've heard nothing but good things about them, and i like that they look like the stock 906 heads. price is good too.
Stev
Active Member
More test fitting. Got all the quarter pieces playing nice with each other. (Glad i double checked, you could see my initial cut with the tape there.)
Not sure if i should weld this in before or after final fit of the tub.
If I do it after the tub is in, it'll be more accurate and fit the tub better. But I won't be able to paint the inside of the quarter or hit it with bedliner, leaving the welds exposed and liable to rust.
But If I do it before fitting the tub, it'll be less accurate, the D pillar access cutout will have to be left off and fit after, and it'll be more difficult to fit the tub afterwards.
I'm leaning towards before, wondering if anyone had any thoughts.
Just Carbs
Well-Known Member
I like the after option. Because, what if the before don't fit?
Stev
Active Member
That's certainly why you'd do it after. But if it does fit well before, doing it after is just introducing a terrible weakness for further rusting in the future.
Just Carbs
Well-Known Member
Well, if you know it's going to fit.
Hit it with weld thru primer and do it up before.Make note of where all the voids are that aren't accessible and mist in Fluid Film to stop rust.
www.fluid-film.com
FLUID FILM | Powerful Corrosion Protection & Lubrication
FLUID FILM® is Eureka’s own unique lanolin-based brand of corrosion preventive and lubricant, used worldwide in a multitude of industries and applications.
www.fluid-film.com
^^This^^
Do it right, and then just like it's done for adding rust treatments, drill some small holes from behind/underneath and spray in FF or Crown stuff.
Do it right, and then just like it's done for adding rust treatments, drill some small holes from behind/underneath and spray in FF or Crown stuff.
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