Reproduction Sheet Metal for 'A' Bodies
It can be done. I saw some nice pieces made by Alex Borges Br for his dart in brazil. Check out his build thread in the restoration forum. He didnt have a bead roller either, but still made his own beads in his new homemade fabricated floor pans. They dont have the availability of repop parts there, and shipping from the states is expensive for them, the only alternative is make what you need, repair what you got, or junkyard hunt for something better.
Thats how it used to be in the mopar world back in the 80s. I remember year one being the Go To guys. Their mopar catalog was maybe 1/8" thick. Now the internet is full of stuff for those cars. I got excited when they repopped dodge charger interior door panels for the first time in 1990 and bought a set for my 69 R/T.
I needed a spare tire well tire hold down for my barracuda, since nobody made one at the time i needed it, i made my own, among many other parts i have needed. Granted it took me 8 hours to fab up this part, and 2 years later AMD decided to repop it and sell it for $20. But what if they decided they didnt want to repop it?
Outer sheetmetal is tougher to do, but trunk extensions should be fairly easy. Those dart ones dont look to be that tough. Years ago i restored a 1960 el camino. Talk about a ***** to get **** for. I was lucky outer lower quarters were available, as well as floor patch panels. But thats about it. I was lucky that the rear quarter patches went high enough i could hide the seam under the body side trim
I had to rebuild the outer wheel houses on both sides, and fabricate my own trunk extensions, because they were rusted off. I didnt even have a template to go by. Thats when cardboard, or cardstock and a pair of scissors comes to the rescue. Easy to trim n shape to make a template to xfer to your steel.
It can be done. I saw some nice pieces made by Alex Borges Br for his dart in brazil. Check out his build thread in the restoration forum. He didnt have a bead roller either, but still made his own beads in his new homemade fabricated floor pans. They dont have the availability of repop parts there, and shipping from the states is expensive for them, the only alternative is make what you need, repair what you got, or junkyard hunt for something better.
Thats how it used to be in the mopar world back in the 80s. I remember year one being the Go To guys. Their mopar catalog was maybe 1/8" thick. Now the internet is full of stuff for those cars. I got excited when they repopped dodge charger interior door panels for the first time in 1990 and bought a set for my 69 R/T.
I needed a spare tire well tire hold down for my barracuda, since nobody made one at the time i needed it, i made my own, among many other parts i have needed. Granted it took me 8 hours to fab up this part, and 2 years later AMD decided to repop it and sell it for $20. But what if they decided they didnt want to repop it?
Outer sheetmetal is tougher to do, but trunk extensions should be fairly easy. Those dart ones dont look to be that tough. Years ago i restored a 1960 el camino. Talk about a ***** to get **** for. I was lucky outer lower quarters were available, as well as floor patch panels. But thats about it. I was lucky that the rear quarter patches went high enough i could hide the seam under the body side trim
I had to rebuild the outer wheel houses on both sides, and fabricate my own trunk extensions, because they were rusted off. I didnt even have a template to go by. Thats when cardboard, or cardstock and a pair of scissors comes to the rescue. Easy to trim n shape to make a template to xfer to your steel.