Bill, is that the Rambler Marlin that was up by Topsail Pond Rd. for a long time? Good to see that somebody is going to do something with it. The crossmember looks in good shape,they must be getting hard to get by now. Where is Jon's shop? Don't think I ever seen it.
I'm really not sure if it was up that way. For the last several years it was beside a garage on Old Bay Bulls Rd. The whole clip was great shape! I'm keeping the rails and skirts just in case anything happens to mine or someone else needs one for accident repair or whatever. Know of any 63-5 Mopars kicking around out your way? I still need some body parts/odds and ends...and I can make some ****py parts work if I need to! LoL Jon's shop is out around the Conception Harbour area. I'm not sure of the exact location as far as the actual street name...but I know how to get there now! As beautiful as that drive is in summer I think its even nicer in snow!
Sorry Bill, not much around here in anything. There used to be a few places around here years ago but everything was crushed or buried or eaten by the sal****er spray.
I'm surprised how hard it is to find these old girls around anymore! Looks like I'll need to get to central once the snow melts... Got the crossmember installed tonight. Just have to add some reinforcement to the torsion bar tubes to satisfy my own mind. I'll tie them in to the subframe connectors with some additional 1/8" plate and forget about them.
Looking good Bill...that's a project I wouldn't want to tackle tho...I'm glad we don't have that much of a problem around here...if it were, I wouldn't build cars, I'd buy them already done... R-
Yeah Roger, she's pretty rough as it turns out. Worse than I thought, but once I get the structural stuff worked out I think I can speed up the rebuild. A rust free southern car around here goes for big bucks. People think that everything is a huge dollar item if they can tag it with "southern car"...even the common or undesirable stuff! Thanks Barrett-Jackson!!! I'd never be able to live with a car I just need to polish after buying anyway. I love building stuff! (Good thing, huh? Hahaha)
Wow...weather sure has been a pain around here lately! Seems every second night is a snowblower party! Got a few more things done. Repaired the lip on the right rear frame rail, fitted and welded the rear rails around the connectors, reinforced the inside of the T bar crossmember to the T bar sockets and made up two reinforcement plates to tie the sockets directly to the connectors. Don't have to worry about those slant 6 induced wheelies now!
Now bill that is a cool idea. I can see how that can add to the strength of it.won`t be long now and you be installing floors.
Actually laid the floors in last night to check how they fit. Being from a Plymouth (shorter wheelbase) they pull the seat mounting holes back a full 3 inches! I was crowded in the original location even with the seat all the way back so its perfect! Gonna take some work to get the edges repaired but the main floor sections are great. Tomorrow night I'll weld in those gusset plates for the T bars and start on the seat belt mounting plates...so I guess I'll be at the floors this weekend! Figure I'll do the front sections and under the rear seat areas first because its easy to get inside the car with the main floor out. Gonna be around the shop this weekend? I feel like buying Coffee and donuts...oh...and maybe using your bead roller!
Didn't get near as much done as I figured this weekend with the snow and the Daytona race on TV, but I did make some headway. Got the gussetts welded for the T bars of course...also got the seat belt mounting areas made and installed...twice. Screwed up the first attempt by flipping the sides without realizing it! LoL Glad I caught it before I had it actually welded right in instead of just tacked. Had to retrim the cutouts and add some additional gussetts inside to seal up the trimmed areas I never should have trimmed. Oh well...nobodys perfect!!! Man... those rocker welds sure look ****py in pictures though! Good, hot welds...but I guess I should have run them downhand as up put a lot of filler on the surface. Oh well...grind, grind, grind. BIG thing was I did get to start on the sheetmetal repairs. I managed to make and install the left repair panel for the front of the wheelwell. Once the other side is done I'll start on the floors themselves. Oh...also made up a little jig to form the floor beads with my air hammer. Seems to work fine and will save me a lot of running back and forth to fitzees shop to use his bead roller for these little 7-8" runs. It's a little primitive, but so am I! Hahaha No pics of that yet though... I'll take a couple tomorrow night.
If Chrysler had built it a s strong as you are it would never have rusted as bad as it did hey those" replacement" front floor pans look like aluminum siding ,dont ya love the **** you find from old "repairs" How bad is the outside of the body Bill? Do you have lots to do to make it roadworthy??
Yeah...I do tend to overbuild a little sometimes...rather that than underbuild though! I just like to be "sure", ya know!?!? LoL Those pieces are actually stainless steel! Didn't solve much with the way they were installed unfortunately. You should see some of the little overlapped patches in other spots...all rivets and tar! The outside is straight but almost all panels have basic rust holes. Simple repairs though as there isn't much of a body line anywhere theres rust AND all the inner door bottoms are sound. Sure could use a p***enger side fender though...thats REALLY ROUGH. Everything else is just basic stuff.
Installed the other wheelwell patch earlier in the week and started on the rear seat floor repair sections. The bead jig worked Ok...but still needs to have some fine tuning that I don't have time to do. OK will have to be good enough! Basicly, I cut off an old chisel bit, fitted it into an acorn lug nut and added a thick washer to act as a flattener and depth stop. The acorn has a nice round top and fits into a steel channel i made with slightly rounded edges to prevent cut thru. Needs some way to be guided a little better...as right now you need to use it almost like a router and guide it around the channel to get it to form correctly. It's not bad...just could be better... Both floor sections are made and I installed the left one tonight. Worked out pretty good! I could have finessed the fit a bit more I guess, but thats not what this car is about. It needs to be reliable and strong...not perfectly restored. Looks good from below and you can't see thru carpet anyway! LoL Tomorrow I'll install the right side and then start the main floor replacement. Heres a few pics from the last couple of nights.
Now Bill that is neat! The beads look sharp. I like how the edges end and there is a sharp bend to the flat panel. My roller can`t do that. I think if you set the air hammer in a fixed unit and used it like a planishing hammer with a table.Make it work off a foot peddle.That way the air hammer don`t move around.Going to have to build me one of this I think.
Yup...it has promise alright! Pete and I were talking about how to improve it and the planishing hammer idea came to us as well. A guide fence would be a huge improvement even with the metal clamped down. No time...floors to make! LoL I'll just "keep on keepin' on" with it as is for now. It's a bit of a PITA...but it does the job.
Some more progress... Got the other under seat panel finished and installed. Repaired the rusted areas on the under seat center panel to get it ready for the rear floor panel replacement. Took apart the donor floor pan sections, cleaned up the rears, made up the necessary small patches and welded them in. Aligned it to the car by using a long piece of angle iron up to the torsion bar crossmember (gotta keep it straight to have the floor level) and s***ched it in.
The pieces from the subframe connectors to the rockers were rotten so I didn't use them. Started to make the new patch panels tonight. At work we toss many door skins and other damaged panels so I keep the better/thicker ones as patch material. Gotta love freebies! The pics show how the panel was made from cutting a section from the old door skin, right to having the beads formed and the hole for the rubber plug being cut. Still have to trim it for exact fit but thats no big deal. I'll make the other patch tomorrow evening and weld them in friday night. Then I'll move on to the front floor repairs. I'll do the center floors last as I have more room to work with them left out.
Mirrors? Naaaaaaa...I doubt you get any trophies for best undercoat! Took the night off last night and welded in the rear floor sections today. Decided to repair the front frame support before cutting out the front floor. Good thing I did as it turns out... Things got a bit messy as the heavy tar got chipped off. Thankfully the drivers side looks to be in great shape. The side of the cowl, the door post and the side of the firewall are toast. Inside the right lower cowl plenum is a mess too. Hoping the plenum damage is confined to the lower area as I'm not wanting to pull the top off the cowl right now!!! Man, what a mess. Looks much better with the **** patches pulled out and the area cleaned up. One of the side patches was actually a piece of vinyl siding tarred on both sides! It's the yellow stuff in the picture. None of the added metal was welded...just a few 1/8 rivets and tar. Made a new frame support and fixed the inner rocker panel area. Replaced the top of the rocker so the door post can be tied back in. I'll get that stuff done before tackling the front floors. Structure before sheet metal. WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. LoL
Now that is something you don`t want to see.The car reminds me of my Studebaker wagon. Bill is the hing mounts good??Is the driver side like it!!? Funny thing about this car is the 4 doors are in very good shape. You would think the doors would go before this.
I recieved a trophie for "top primer" on my ol A model RPU at Wintersun over here in '06? Keep up the progress!
The drivers side appears to be in great shape. I can see all the lap weld areas and there isn't even any swelling between the panels. The fender bolt hole right at the bottom even looks good. I've noticed that many cars, at least around here, seem to have more rust on one side than the other and all the major problems with this car were on the right side. This should be it for the major structural stuff. I hope....
Holy smokes, if you pull this thing off (and I really think you will) you will have truly brought this beast back from the dead!
We're all nuts aren't we? Seriously...NUTS. At least you and fitzee are CHANGING your cars into customs with all the work. All I did so far is move in the springs and change the direction of the floor beads!
Yeah...the Rust Reaper had his claws into it deep all right. LoL She'll be fine once the metal is replaced though. The front rails and other major stuff is fine. LOVE your avatar man.... ALMOST bought one of those 20 years ago but unfortunately ended up sticking to my Drag race roots and got something small and light. Looking back, I really think I dropped the ball and should have bought it. They always stop me in my tracks...
The Jalopy Journal
