68 Dart GTS restoration

[jefflock]

This started out as removing the vinyl roof to see how much rust there was under it. It wasn't to bad just about 12 inches under one side. So I cut it out and repaired it with a patch. Then moving on to others things is when the problems began. Having problems locating pictures will download later.

 

[jefflock]

Found lots of rust covered over with fiberglass in the trunk. Over around the inner wheel house it was all fiberglass. I have a donor car so I cut it out and welded the patch in. Then across the entire width it was gone also. So I removed that and made a patch to fill that area in. Then came cutting the quarter panel off.

 

[jefflock]

After removing the quarter the outer wheel house and trunk extension were removed. Then the entire outer rocker was full of holes. So it was removed and replaced. I had ordered new window rollers and while it was wide open I replaced them.

 

[jefflock]

I'm having trouble finding time to keep this thread updated. The first few pictures show that I have replaced the outer wheel house, trunk extension and rocker panel. Then we move onto the quarter panel and installing the Dynamic Renovation kit to fix the broken door striker mounting area.

 

[jefflock]

More pictures of fitting the quarter panel.
This is what the car started out looking like. Those guys did a good job of hiding things. The quarters started bubbling. Then the front fenders. Next the hood fell apart where the hinges attach.
Then came the dreaded of all rust. Cowl rust.

Couldn't resist showing off an older picture of two of my grands with tee shirts I got them.

Well bed time now. 11pm cst and I get up at 4:30 to 5 am to be to work by 6 am.

 

[Hemiorangeswinger]

Great progress so far! Have you started on the cowl rust repair?

I have seen quite a few cars like yours was.. Nice and straight with a shiny paint job, but just plugged with filler! It's quite common up here since most cars rotted and then they were hacked together either from people being cheap or trying to make a quick profit. Glad to see you're doing it right.

 

[VDART]

Dang Jeff that is a lot of work to replace the rollers in the windows!! nice progress, Lawrence

 

[jefflock]

I have a parts car that I was able to get what I needed to repair the cowl rust. My firewall had been hacked up also so I decided to try to fix it all at one time.
I carefully disassembled the front clip from the floor seam up. Just to see what I was getting into. After looking everything over and deciding the best way to go about doing this repair I got started. Pulled all the old sheet metal except for the very bottom of the windshield frame. Earlier I had installed a brace across the windshield opening.
First welds were joining the cowl back to the posts. Clamped everything in place and welded from the top down on the firewall. Decided to overlap the front inner fenders and put a few screws in to hold them in place. Then I took a cutoff wheel and cut thru both leaving me a nice seam to tack them back together. The tacking went very well then I was able to do shorts welds spaced apart on the front and back. After welding was complete the grinding started. Oh what a pain the grinding was. Later on I went back thru and filled the pinholes with weld and ground some more.

 

[jefflock]

I saw in someone else's post they took the cowl apart and epoxy painted the inside and reassembled. With all those spot welds holding it together I went with another approach. After numerous wash outs with the hose and blowing it out in between with the end caps off. I then taped all the holes shut and shot the inside with Eastwood Inner Frame rail coating to keep it from rusting.

 

[jefflock]

Well I had to back and repair some rust I found while welding on the inner fender panels. The front frame rail on the drivers side was rusted thru on the top under the shock tower and one of the ears that mount the upper control arm was rusted out completely. In order to give myself easier access I decided to remove the inner fender and unbolt the steering box. Having trouble downloading pictures.