67/68/69 cuda dilemma
The latest on this Filet O Fish. When ricky racer cut the bottoms off of the trunk hinge supports, they were never reattached to anything. The quarters where they meet the dutchman panel as a consequence dropped down leaving a large gap at the forward corners of the trunklid where the trunklid stuck up. The trunklid screws looked like they never had been adjusted since the car was built. I figure that gap was probably not there when the car was new and only happened when the bottoms of the trunk supports were cut off
When I bought the 69 barracuda back end to strip out the metal I needed to fix this car, I made measurements from the edge of the dutchman to the trunk floor where the framerails are. The measurements on that car were 17" on the dot. Pretty accurate IMHO. Im thinking the probably went 17 inches because it was an easy number to check quickly on the assembly line with a check block or a tape measure. I checked my car and the same spots were much lower. I cut some scrap tubing and used tongue depressors to shim the tubing to act as temporary jacking supports to raise the dutchman to 17" on the dot as measured from where the framerails meet the trunk floor. The result is the trunk closes without that drop down gap.
The next step is to remove the trunklid, the torsion bars, and drill off the old cut trunk hinge supports. Then locate, and weld in the good uncut trunk hinge supports i pulled from the 69 I drilled apart that will attach back into the inner wheel houses. This will now hold the quarter skins and dutchman at the height they are supposed to be at.
NOTE: pix 5 and 6.
#5 shows the trunklid sitting higher than the quarter skin before popping and shimming.
#6 shows everything level and even once I propped up and shimmed the quarter panel and dutchman to 17"
A lot of words, but I will post up some removal and install progress pix. For now here is how I set the dutchman and quarter height where it needed to be. Last 2 pix are measurements off Cudaver I cut apart. Thank God I thought to take that measurement before I removed those supports
The latest on this Filet O Fish. When ricky racer cut the bottoms off of the trunk hinge supports, they were never reattached to anything. The quarters where they meet the dutchman panel as a consequence dropped down leaving a large gap at the forward corners of the trunklid where the trunklid stuck up. The trunklid screws looked like they never had been adjusted since the car was built. I figure that gap was probably not there when the car was new and only happened when the bottoms of the trunk supports were cut off
When I bought the 69 barracuda back end to strip out the metal I needed to fix this car, I made measurements from the edge of the dutchman to the trunk floor where the framerails are. The measurements on that car were 17" on the dot. Pretty accurate IMHO. Im thinking the probably went 17 inches because it was an easy number to check quickly on the assembly line with a check block or a tape measure. I checked my car and the same spots were much lower. I cut some scrap tubing and used tongue depressors to shim the tubing to act as temporary jacking supports to raise the dutchman to 17" on the dot as measured from where the framerails meet the trunk floor. The result is the trunk closes without that drop down gap.
The next step is to remove the trunklid, the torsion bars, and drill off the old cut trunk hinge supports. Then locate, and weld in the good uncut trunk hinge supports i pulled from the 69 I drilled apart that will attach back into the inner wheel houses. This will now hold the quarter skins and dutchman at the height they are supposed to be at.
NOTE: pix 5 and 6.
#5 shows the trunklid sitting higher than the quarter skin before popping and shimming.
#6 shows everything level and even once I propped up and shimmed the quarter panel and dutchman to 17"
A lot of words, but I will post up some removal and install progress pix. For now here is how I set the dutchman and quarter height where it needed to be. Last 2 pix are measurements off Cudaver I cut apart. Thank God I thought to take that measurement before I removed those supports
