1966 Factory V8 Valiant Signet Restoration For My Other Daughter
Morning on the Valiant till it got too hot outside. Working on the tail panel... I have 3 an I can make one good one out of the 3. The bottom half of the original was only mangled from the collision damage so I cut it off on the horizontal lip where the bumper is and massaged the crumpled corner back into shape. Used the original trunk floor as a template. Notice the replacement floor does not have the pre '67 lip so I will be cutting the curl out of the original and spot welding it along the edge to weld to the tail piece. The benefit of using the originals is I can align it _exactly_ where it originally was using the drill outs as guides. This is useful when you have to realign the rear. Notice the rear rails dropped about 3/8" and it is easy to tell because of the alignment of the original parts. I can jack it back up to be aligned. That is why I did _not_ cut both quarters out at the same time. I can use the one original as my guide to get the first and trunk back in alignment. Trunk extensions all welded in and the trunk pan fits perfectly after a bit of reworking in the front corners as the early A's are a bit different there.
Morning on the Valiant till it got too hot outside. Working on the tail panel... I have 3 an I can make one good one out of the 3. The bottom half of the original was only mangled from the collision damage so I cut it off on the horizontal lip where the bumper is and massaged the crumpled corner back into shape. Used the original trunk floor as a template. Notice the replacement floor does not have the pre '67 lip so I will be cutting the curl out of the original and spot welding it along the edge to weld to the tail piece. The benefit of using the originals is I can align it _exactly_ where it originally was using the drill outs as guides. This is useful when you have to realign the rear. Notice the rear rails dropped about 3/8" and it is easy to tell because of the alignment of the original parts. I can jack it back up to be aligned. That is why I did _not_ cut both quarters out at the same time. I can use the one original as my guide to get the first and trunk back in alignment. Trunk extensions all welded in and the trunk pan fits perfectly after a bit of reworking in the front corners as the early A's are a bit different there.
