Today’s online posting in Hot Rod had a how-to on replacing a 1970 Barracuda trunk floor. They emphasize properly bracing the body before removing all the quarter panels, etc. When I looked at the article all I saw was braces on each door. When I did my ‘65 Dart trunk floor, wheel houses and rear half of the driver’s side sub frame I did a lot more. Besides door braces, I made a cross-brace that went between each rear door jam and triangulated to the driveshaft hump (!’d already replaced the floor pans). Then I made braces our of 2” x 2” x 1/8” wall square tubing with adaptor plates that let them bolt into the shackle mounts. After the floor was out, I made a cross-piece out the same square tubing that ran across the top of the frame rails. Since I knew I was going to replace the whole rear trunk surround I made cross braces that tied it together front to back and side to side. Then I made a piece that ran from the rear pan up to the drivers side wheel house, where it wasn’t going to be cut out. Before I did all this I checked every think out with a digital level across the package tray and along the inner rail along the windows and along my welded in cross piece over the sub-frame rails. I took pictures of the readings and compared them when it was all back in, and it was the same. The only thing that was different from the factory dimension diagram was the distance between the spring perch mounts on the passenger side. It was 3/16” short from the factory. Now I’m wondering if all that was necessary. I’m just a home restorer and not a body man, although I did work in a body shop many years ago, but only doing mechanical repairs on rebuilt totals.
