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.