66 Dart GT Convertible restoration

Jcurry28 · Apr 7, 2017

What's going on Everybody I have a question on body Work and floor replacement I am currently in the process of doing a ground-up restoration on my 66 Dart gt convertible had it for almost a year now and have finished Disassembly after taking it all apart and seeing the overall damage it is in need for major Panel replacement and patchwork I hope it's not too far gone but this is my first project and I am teaching myself how to do everything so it really doesn't matter how long it takes or how bad it is because I want to fix it anyway but that being said I am definitely going to have to cut out the entire floor the trunk and at least Cap the driver side torsion box the body itself looks pretty straight but I might have to replace the passenger side quarter panel. so my question is since I've never done this type of work before and do not want to send it to a body shop I want to learn where do I have to make a brace to support the car before I cut out all the panels or what should the brace look like and what kind of Steel should I get to weld my support. thanks everyone have a great day

Johnny Dart · Apr 7, 2017

Welcome to the site.
Giving you a bump, to hopefully get an answer for you.

Jcurry28 · Apr 7, 2017

Johnny Dart said:
Welcome to the site.
Giving you a bump, to hope to get an answer for you.

thank you very much I appreciate it I hear there is a ton of info here this is my first restoration so I do not know that much

66Dvert · Apr 7, 2017

Jcurry28 said:
View attachment 1715036204 What's going on Everybody I have a question on body Work and floor replacement I am currently in the process of doing a ground-up restoration on my 66 Dart gt convertible had it for almost a year now and have finished Disassembly after taking it all apart and seeing the overall damage it is in need for major Panel replacement and patchwork I hope it's not too far gone but this is my first project and I am teaching myself how to do everything so it really doesn't matter how long it takes or how bad it is because I want to fix it anyway but that being said I am definitely going to have to cut out the entire floor the trunk and at least Cap the driver side torsion box the body itself looks pretty straight but I might have to replace the passenger side quarter panel. so my question is since I've never done this type of work before and do not want to send it to a body shop I want to learn where do I have to make a brace to support the car before I cut out all the panels or what should the brace look like and what kind of Steel should I get to weld my support. thanks everyone have a great day

I used 1" square tubing welded to plates to mount it to the door striker and the hinges
My floor was removed from the firewall to the rear bumper support panels in the rear of the car. Yes it was flipped over (oops I wasn't strong enough to stop from over rotating. NOT on porpose) with the braces welded in.

first test to hold the doors opening in position

second fix for better stability using 1" angle iron to go to the A pillar (front post that holds the windshield)

yup floor coming out

angle welded to A pillar . on the next convertible (wife's car) I'll do an X from left door rear striker area to the right door hinge area and visa-versa for the X pattern to help stabilize the floor and pans when I remove it's torsion mount

yeah it went all the way over when I wasn't careful enough to lock the pins in place.
it didn't hurt it since the torque boxes were in place at the time

Jcurry28 · Apr 7, 2017

thank you very much for your reply that is very very informative and I will use your pictures as reference that is exactly what I was going for and what I was looking to know I kind of had an idea of that after talking with a buddy of mine but I wanted to make sure I did it right I did not want to mess up the structural integrity of the car the only thing is I don't have a rotisserie to turn the car which sucks but with you advice and pictures I should have no problem thank you very much

66Dvert · Apr 7, 2017

double post!

Jcurry28 · Apr 7, 2017

66Dvert said:
double post!

you wouldn't happen to know how rare or desirable these are would you my car is all original supposably with only 43 and a half thousand miles on the Slant six but after taking everything apart it's looking like a Frankenstein job so I was thinking about switching things up a little bit but if they are really rare or desirable then I will restore it back to original thanks

66Dvert · Apr 7, 2017

Jcurry28 said:
you wouldn't happen to know how rare or desirable these are would you my car is all original supposably with only 43 and a half thousand miles on the Slant six but after taking everything apart it's looking like a Frankenstein job so I was thinking about switching things up a little bit but if they are really rare or desirable then I will restore it back to original thanks

/6 cars are not as rare as the commando273 hipo cars (convertible also included.) I would see exactly how much work is involved in repairing the vehicle and go from there. Most likely it will be to modify it to your liking

if your doing floors and a quarterpanel then I'd go for what you like. mine didn't need a full quarter panel but did need trunk extensions and lower rear patch panels. so I went for it. added Custom(home made) LED tail lights,power windows, 97 sebring interior (front and rear seats) power trunk and refurbished the power top mechanism. updated the kickpanels ,the dash panel to white gauges instead of black with white lines and a few other goodies. Pretty much at the same or less cost than putting it back original.

sebring rear seat will have the top side(s) from the top to about 7 inches down or too the stainless trim on the side panels. shaved 1/2 off of the foam and re-wrapped to let the power top raise and lower without hitting.

cleaned the trunk up a bit and you can see my custom led tail lights (yeah all 4 work at turn/stop and parking lights now) the very center of the light are the turn and brake lights