1972 Duster, 340/4, black on black (the endgame)
So with most of the little stuff out of the way, it was time to tackle the shell. I didn't want to tear it up and put it on the rotisserie yet as there wasn't any room inside to keep it but there was still some stuff I could get taken care of. Like the quarters.
See it?
When I put the quarters on, I just clamped them down on the inner well and welded it down. Shouldn't have done that... The area around the wheel well looks like it's caved in as it was too close. I should've released the clamps before I welded it down. And every time I saw the car, I saw that and it annoyed the hell out of me. And yes, both sides were like that.
So I brought it in on a Saturday morning to fix it. I started by blasting the wheel well openings:
While it was up there I checked out the fit of the wheels I picked up. I had a feeling there might be an issue with 10" wheels. They'll fit inside the wheel well but they're offset to the outside and they stick out too far:
I did the math and measuring and it looks like our fabrication guy will take 1 1/2" off each end of the axle (he loves this kind of stuff-he even has a jig for it). So I'll be relocating leaf springs too. Which won't be a real problem, as we'll see later.
Blasted. There's still a few holes to fix, but I also uncovered another issue that I suspected would come up. Oshkosh Wisconsin had some pretty serious flooding in '07 IIRC and my storage unit flooded. The water line on the car was about halfway up the rocker and sure enough-water got trapped in the sheet metal and rusted a chunk of it out:
Not real happy about it but it could be worse-especially if I had carpet in it.
Anyway, I drilled out the welds around the well, got a porta-power in there to push the quarter skin back out and rewelded it . It worked. The body line is back, relatively straight, and the lip is more pronounced:
Nice to have that taken care of.
So. Cookies are done and it's time to start the Roast Beast and get my Christmas Eve underway. I put the car up on the rotisserie this morning so I'll have some pics of that to share next time. Hope you and yours are having a warm & cozy Christmas 8)
Ken
So with most of the little stuff out of the way, it was time to tackle the shell. I didn't want to tear it up and put it on the rotisserie yet as there wasn't any room inside to keep it but there was still some stuff I could get taken care of. Like the quarters.
See it?
When I put the quarters on, I just clamped them down on the inner well and welded it down. Shouldn't have done that... The area around the wheel well looks like it's caved in as it was too close. I should've released the clamps before I welded it down. And every time I saw the car, I saw that and it annoyed the hell out of me. And yes, both sides were like that.
So I brought it in on a Saturday morning to fix it. I started by blasting the wheel well openings:
While it was up there I checked out the fit of the wheels I picked up. I had a feeling there might be an issue with 10" wheels. They'll fit inside the wheel well but they're offset to the outside and they stick out too far:
I did the math and measuring and it looks like our fabrication guy will take 1 1/2" off each end of the axle (he loves this kind of stuff-he even has a jig for it). So I'll be relocating leaf springs too. Which won't be a real problem, as we'll see later.
Blasted. There's still a few holes to fix, but I also uncovered another issue that I suspected would come up. Oshkosh Wisconsin had some pretty serious flooding in '07 IIRC and my storage unit flooded. The water line on the car was about halfway up the rocker and sure enough-water got trapped in the sheet metal and rusted a chunk of it out:
Not real happy about it but it could be worse-especially if I had carpet in it.
Anyway, I drilled out the welds around the well, got a porta-power in there to push the quarter skin back out and rewelded it . It worked. The body line is back, relatively straight, and the lip is more pronounced:
Nice to have that taken care of.
So. Cookies are done and it's time to start the Roast Beast and get my Christmas Eve underway. I put the car up on the rotisserie this morning so I'll have some pics of that to share next time. Hope you and yours are having a warm & cozy Christmas 8)
Ken
