Attacking the Rear Floor

With the trunk nearly complete, the next stop was the rear floors. This area had the most rust damage and some of the most complex shapes to duplicate. The area in the corner where a set of body mounts is located offered a few challenges when it came to removing the old sheet metal. There was little room for even a small rotary cutter, and a spot weld cutter wouldn't work at all, so it was time to break out the air chisel. It flies through the sheet metal but has little effect on spot welds. it took a long afternoon just to remove the old material. Now I have to grind what's left of the spot welds and then treat the remaining areas for rust before installing the new metal.

Once again there will be much partial salvaging and hand forming to make functional equivalents of the original parts.

Speaking of that, last Friday I attended the Pate swap meet at Texas Motor Speedway with a long list of parts and pieces I wanted for my project. As usual, there were almost no Chrysler parts and only '68 and newer muscle Mopars had a few things available.

There was one vendor who offered nearly every sheet metal reproduction part for several years of Chevelles. I saw complete floor pans for less than $500, that appeared to be stamped with factory tooling. The four pathetic little pieces I found for my floors cost about the same and are nothing like the originals and will require hours of modifications. It's indeed a challenge to restore rare Chrysler cars, but at least my Plymouth won't be just another me-too car if and when it ever gets on the road.

Just a little more cleanup and I'll have one side ready for new metal. I still have some planning and testing to figure out how to make the inner rocker panel.

Dash Paint

The weather wasn't conducive to keeping the garage doors open to work on the back of the car, so as a fill in job I cleaned and prepped the top of the dashboard. I picked up a can of semi-flat black from Lowes, but as you can see, it's too shiny. I'll have to order another brand that's said to be very close to OEM by someone who has restored a '56 Plymouth, but in the meantime the surface is protected from rust and the part will go into storage and out of the way until needed.

I didn't paint the shifter pushbutton housing as I'm still trying to locate parts for the modified TorquFlite setup that I want to adapt. If anyone knows where I can obtain a foot or two of 1/2" square, stainless steel thinwall tubing, please let me know. The places I've contacted won't even respond to my request. I imagine they are only interested in big orders.

Trunk Progress

Trunk floor replacement is far enough along for me to move on to another major sheet metal challenge. I think it will be the back seat floor, but I'll have to evaluate it some more...that means procrastinate. I've never tried a major repair project like this one, so I want to be sure I work things in the logical sequence.

I found another source for patch panels, so I'm holding off some repairs waiting for a response to learn if they have any formed parts that will make my job easier. In the meantime, I ordered some 20 gauge sheet metal for the exterior patches I know I will have to fabricate. I would have liked to order a full 4' X 8' sheet for the reasonable $59 they quoted, but the freight bill would be over $150, so I ordered two smaller pieces that can ship via UPS.

The tail panel and most of the trunk floor are tacked in place and ready to finish welding. I'll do some of that when I have easy access while replacing the lower portion of the quarter panels.

 

It was fun doing this corner! After removing the fuel filler sheet metal, I had to form several pieces and scab on a body mount cup salvaged from the Big M trunk floor. By the time I get to sealing the bottom of the car, I know I'll be using a lot of seam sealer in this area.

Repaired Wiper Bezels

The wiper bezels I repaired with Muggyweld are ready to send off to be replated.

 

You can still see tooling scratches, but the parts will receive a final finish and then be flash-plated with copper before they are chromed. That should make them look quite nice.

I would estimate I have at least 6-7 hours of work on each one to get them to this point, so I now understand why many shops won't attempt to repair pot metal, and if they do, they charge a pretty penny. That said, it was fun doing the repair, but would have been more fun if I had the proper equipment to achieve the final finish. If I had many more parts to repair, I'd look for more appropriate tools.

Overall, I'll give Muggyweld a C+ rating for use by a novice. The instructions and their YouTube videos lack information, so the learning process becomes expensive when a mistake is made and you have to grind away excessive material. A few feet of alloy rod and a small bottle of flux are all you receive in the kit, so the markup has to be at least $50. On the plus side, the applied material is easy to work, and errors are easily corrected if you do screw up.

If the strong winds ever stop, the next step is attaching the tailpanel. Yes, I could weld inside, but I much prefer working outside when possible, especially when grinding down the welds, so I'll wait for better weather.

New Springs 'n Things

I ordered and received a set of coil springs from Springs 'n Things in Pennsylvania. They have a good reputation, and once again they didn't fail me. The springs are American made, were half the price of those offered by other suppliers, and arrived three days after I ordered them.

Kanter sent the frontend rebuild kit, and sad to say that all the parts were made in China or Taiwan.  The only missing part was the center link. After sending in the order they called and informed me that I'd have to send in the old part first. Another company is priced exactly the same, and will send the new one if I pay a core charge first, so I might buy from them only because the unstated Kanter policy was annoying.

Now that most of the steering and suspension parts are here, I'll have to decide which front disc brake conversion kit to use so I can get the front end back under the frame.