1963 Dart 170 2 Door Post Resto
So got some time in the shop again this week. Making some decent progress on the rear roof area. When car was brought up from Nevada by the previous owner they lost control of the car during off load and it rolled under the front of a transport trailer damaging the roof and breaking the back glass.
The owner was a body man and straightened out the roof a bit but it was still really wavy and had lots of oil canning going on. Not to mention the inner upper roof brace/rear glass structure was badly damaged and subsequently thrown out. The sail panel inner structure was also not too good but was sort of repaired and reinstalled.
From what I gather they couldn't find a proper donor for the brace or back glass so the car sat until he gave up on it entirely, which is where I came in.
I bought myself a shrinking disc and went to work on the rear roof. I found a 65 dart and cut the rear rook section out. Luckily the upper brace is the same as 63. The sail inner is different however, but had what I needed to make it work. I got the roof pretty close with no more oil canning and pretty smooth. Still have a bit of a high spot near the front of the primed section that I have to work on where the metal was pushed up when the roof was pushed forward. Should be able to get away with next to no filler when I am done.
I cut out the inner brace of the sail panel again and reworked it into much better shape matching the original and have begun grafting pieces of the window opening from the 65 part I cut into it. Had to reshape the curve due to the different size back glass but that wasn't too bad at all.
At this point I have the upper brace all cleaned up and spot welds removed to remove old roof material from the 65 and ready to install in the 63. Have one small piece of the grafting complete. Just have to cut off excess material from the remainder and graft it in as well.
Once this is all done and the back glass is confirmed for fitment I can finally get the car back on its wheels and focus on body/interior/paint. Sorry for the long winded post.
So got some time in the shop again this week. Making some decent progress on the rear roof area. When car was brought up from Nevada by the previous owner they lost control of the car during off load and it rolled under the front of a transport trailer damaging the roof and breaking the back glass.
The owner was a body man and straightened out the roof a bit but it was still really wavy and had lots of oil canning going on. Not to mention the inner upper roof brace/rear glass structure was badly damaged and subsequently thrown out. The sail panel inner structure was also not too good but was sort of repaired and reinstalled.
From what I gather they couldn't find a proper donor for the brace or back glass so the car sat until he gave up on it entirely, which is where I came in.
I bought myself a shrinking disc and went to work on the rear roof. I found a 65 dart and cut the rear rook section out. Luckily the upper brace is the same as 63. The sail inner is different however, but had what I needed to make it work. I got the roof pretty close with no more oil canning and pretty smooth. Still have a bit of a high spot near the front of the primed section that I have to work on where the metal was pushed up when the roof was pushed forward. Should be able to get away with next to no filler when I am done.
I cut out the inner brace of the sail panel again and reworked it into much better shape matching the original and have begun grafting pieces of the window opening from the 65 part I cut into it. Had to reshape the curve due to the different size back glass but that wasn't too bad at all.
At this point I have the upper brace all cleaned up and spot welds removed to remove old roof material from the 65 and ready to install in the 63. Have one small piece of the grafting complete. Just have to cut off excess material from the remainder and graft it in as well.
Once this is all done and the back glass is confirmed for fitment I can finally get the car back on its wheels and focus on body/interior/paint. Sorry for the long winded post.
