My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head
And more borrowing from burnt's thread because I forgot to take some pictures....
So basically, after a lot of spot weld drilling, you get here. Or almost. I left the tail latch brace in place, just removing the spot welds where it attached to the tail panel, leaving it attached to the floor. I did this to help locate the new tail panel, so I wouldn't have to mess with the trunk latch as much. But I forgot to take the picture, so you get his one from the other thread.
This is also the part where you realize that if you have a shock mount bumper car, you have some additional differences...
The shock mount trunk floor has these indents in it that the earlier cars don't have. But, here's the thing. If you look at my earlier "spot weld" picture, you see the the later panel is just dented in to match these indents in the floor. The later 74+ panels started out flat, they just clamped or bent them in when they spot welded them to the floor. So, you can do the same. Or, if you want the tail panel to be flat like the earlier cars, you can beat the floor out even with the panel. I had another problem, which was the only rust I have in my car...
So on this side, I just made a small patch panel that came out flush with the new AMD tail panel. On the other side, I got out the BFH and beat the floor out to meet the new tail panel, so the tail panel from the outside is flat. I also welded in the new tail light brackets, after carefully lining them up using my new demon tail lights and buckets. Yeah, I forgot to take a few pictures...
Patched side with brackets installed
Non patched, bent to fit side with ugly weld at the seam...
And now from the outside. Lots of spot welds. Because I had a new panel, I drilled holes in the new panel to facilitate spot welding to the old panels. I also ground down the little left over circles from the spot weld cutter, so the old panels didn't have those bits of extra metal. And yeah, once again, I skipped some pictures when I was aligning the panel with the quarters and the trunk...
And we end up here, after the bumper, trunk latch, and tail lights are installed.
Because I'm still doing bodywork, I just sprayed some rattle can primer where I attached the tail panel. I still need to do the leadwork to cover the transition from quarter to tail panel. And I am going to actually do this in lead, just like the factory. I'm not a leadworking expert, but I have done it before so this will get the correct finish when I get to bodywork on the tail section of the car. But for now, that's the update!
And more borrowing from burnt's thread because I forgot to take some pictures....
So basically, after a lot of spot weld drilling, you get here. Or almost. I left the tail latch brace in place, just removing the spot welds where it attached to the tail panel, leaving it attached to the floor. I did this to help locate the new tail panel, so I wouldn't have to mess with the trunk latch as much. But I forgot to take the picture, so you get his one from the other thread.
This is also the part where you realize that if you have a shock mount bumper car, you have some additional differences...
The shock mount trunk floor has these indents in it that the earlier cars don't have. But, here's the thing. If you look at my earlier "spot weld" picture, you see the the later panel is just dented in to match these indents in the floor. The later 74+ panels started out flat, they just clamped or bent them in when they spot welded them to the floor. So, you can do the same. Or, if you want the tail panel to be flat like the earlier cars, you can beat the floor out even with the panel. I had another problem, which was the only rust I have in my car...
So on this side, I just made a small patch panel that came out flush with the new AMD tail panel. On the other side, I got out the BFH and beat the floor out to meet the new tail panel, so the tail panel from the outside is flat. I also welded in the new tail light brackets, after carefully lining them up using my new demon tail lights and buckets. Yeah, I forgot to take a few pictures...
Patched side with brackets installed
Non patched, bent to fit side with ugly weld at the seam...
And now from the outside. Lots of spot welds. Because I had a new panel, I drilled holes in the new panel to facilitate spot welding to the old panels. I also ground down the little left over circles from the spot weld cutter, so the old panels didn't have those bits of extra metal. And yeah, once again, I skipped some pictures when I was aligning the panel with the quarters and the trunk...
And we end up here, after the bumper, trunk latch, and tail lights are installed.
Because I'm still doing bodywork, I just sprayed some rattle can primer where I attached the tail panel. I still need to do the leadwork to cover the transition from quarter to tail panel. And I am going to actually do this in lead, just like the factory. I'm not a leadworking expert, but I have done it before so this will get the correct finish when I get to bodywork on the tail section of the car. But for now, that's the update!
