'69 Barracuda T56 swap, floor, cross member

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Cut out rusted area in floor above rear frame rail and butt welded in some new metal

Driver side rear patch 1.jpg


Driver side rear patch 2.jpg
 
Tried to weld smaller patch on passenger's side to pitted metal ended up with swiss cheese sub-standard repair. So ended up cutting entire corner out and fabbing up a patch to fit. A lot of bends and tricky to get it formed up.

I ordered a 2 1/2 Dimple Die and will attempt to duplicate the recessed body plug hole in the patch (will try on spare sheet metal first of course). Also need to put that half circle cut out in the patch too.....

Patch not welded in yet cause waiting on Dimple Die. So this area on hold for a couple of days....

Pass side rear patch 1.jpg


Pass side rear patch 2.jpg


Pass side rear patch 3.jpg
 
Was able to use a 2 1/2 inch Dimple Die to duplicate the body plug indentation in the patch. So now I can move forward with welding patch in.

Dimple Die 1.jpg


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Dimple Die 3.jpg
 
Went back over all the welds on cross member and front frame rails, added some welds, ground down and rewelded, welded-up/finished lower inside corners of T56 center section ect. Vacuumed out frame rails started to get things cleaned up.

Will need to do more wire-wheeling/sanding surface prep. Then clean garage and car, completely remask car, and Epoxy and Weld Through primer all the surfaces.

But....the messy dirty dust storms labor intensive rust repairs are done at this point....now when I look inside the car much better on the eyes....

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340sFastback said:
Thought about a TKX yes and it is a good option - it is a tad smaller, lighter, and a bit cheaper then 6 spd. But I liked the ratios of the 6 spd better and wanted the two over drive gears. T56 Magnum has an outstanding reputation and is known for its shift quality and durability. But I have seen youtube reviews of TKX and people really like how it shifts once they get it installed.

So it boils down to personal preference TKX or T56 Magnum. I would look at gear ratio options between the two, consider size and weight differences, look at price differences, consider which would work best for your car and how you plan to use it ect and decide.
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TKX is made by Tremec; Silver Sport is a vendor.

The previous Tremec 5 speed offerings, the TKO-500 and TKO-600 did not have the multi cone synchro setups like the T56 Magnum / TR-6060. The TKX uses the same style synchros as the T-56 Magnum.

TKO VS TKX - American Powertrain
 
Finally finished all the of the surface prepped to a point where I was happy with it. All surfaces have a thin film of WD40 on them to prevent flash rusting until I can get it all in Epoxy Primer / Weld Through Primer. Removed all the dust dirt saturated masking that was on the car during during rust repair. Gave car a good wash and got the garage floor clean and dry.

Next will be a lot of time remasking the car to get ready for primer.

The super dirty dust flying scraping undercoait off rust repair ect phase is over.

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Cleaned After Rust Repair 5.jpg
 
Note: what is in scope is between the front and rear wheel wells and between the inner rockers. All of those surfaces within that scope I want stripped to bare metal epoxy primed and free of rust and undercoating.
 
Remasked the car. Then I sprayed several cans of Brake Parts Cleaner on all the surfaces to rinse off the WD40 I put on there. Then wiped surfaces down with Surface Prep. Masked some areas where Weld Through Primer will be applied.

Epoxy Prepped 1.jpg


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Sprayed two coats of PPG black epoxy primer on all the surfaces. It was fun crawling on the floor with the paint gun. But hey I got it done and didn't get anything bad in my eyes!!

Epoxy Prepped 4.jpg


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Got my son to help me wiggle the new floor into the car for a test fit. Had to slice a little more off the floor in front of the T56 center section to get it to drop down in. Needed a lot of wiggling around and tweaking to get it to lay down in there. Overall fit is pretty good.

Scribed along front frame rails and cross member and along rear pan to mark where plug weld holes will go. Will have to pull floor out, drill holes, weld through primer, then floor goes back in for welding....

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Also decided to get sub frame connectors test fitted. Had to grind some off where they go over top of rear frame rails and grind out pre-cut notches for couple of ribs. Then took 2x4 and sledge hammer to strategically tweak the shape of the floor in couple of areas to get the gaps closed up. Fit is really good.

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Scribed floor around frame rails, cross member, rear pan, and sub frame connectors then got my son back over to help pull floor back out.

Drilled additional plug weld holes around cross member, front rails, and rear pan. Wire wheeled areas down to metal and sprayed on some weld through primer. Next will be dropping floor in where it will stay to be plug welded down.

Also spent a lot of time wiping both sides of floor down with Surface Prep it was filthy dirty all these months sitting in shop dust dirt flying everywhere, I really should have had it covered up while all that was going on.

Another plus the weight loss has been great just in time to go to the beach for vacation!!

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Amazing work I am totally subscribed!!! YOU really have mad skills
 
340sFastback said:
Also decided to get sub frame connectors test fitted. Had to grind some off where they go over top of rear frame rails and grind out pre-cut notches for couple of ribs. Then took 2x4 and sledge hammer to strategically tweak the shape of the floor in couple of areas to get the gaps closed up. Fit is really good.

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Just a quick observation.

If you havent welded in your frame connectors yet ( US Cartools??), now is a great time to notch them for your handbrake cable and possibly, gas line.
 
Super-Cuda said:
Just a quick observation.

If you havent welded in your frame connectors yet ( US Cartools??), now is a great time to notch them for your handbrake cable and possibly, gas line.
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Excellent advice and yes US Car Tool connectors. Prior to welding in new cross member I drilled holes to move emergency brake cable over to come out other side of frame connector. Hooked cable up verified prior to welding in cross member with frame connector held in place so all set there.

Brake and fuel lines going to be custom run up inner side of frame connectors. I verified mufflers exhaust are far away plenty of room. I have high end steel line flare and other line tools on hand from prior project.
 
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Got my son back over (he a big car enthusiast) and wiggled floor back into car. Sheet metal screwed down in various locations. Fit is really good. Need to work rear trans tunnel fitment a bit yet but otherwise fit is really really good now I am real happy with it.

Plan is to use some spare pieces of sheet metal and practice plug welding 18 gauge to 18 gauge and 18 to 14 gauge. Get those welder settings and technique fine tuned before doing any floor welding. Want to make sure good penetration and superior strength. I don't want anything flexing coming loose when I bang gears with 6 spd and 500 torque stroker engine.

Also decided to move seat belt mount location back a couple inches on trans tunnel to match exact factory location. You can see the X sharpy mark in trans tunnel. Laid rear carpet back in car and also kept original center trans tunnel in tact as references so I will be getting the bolt mounts exact as original. Will butt weld up other holes ect will take that on shortly.

Also note seat belt bolt holes too far back in AMD floor pan so had to drill new holes around 7 1/2 inches or so forward to line up with bolt holes in inner rocker panels.

Floor installed final 1.jpg


Floor installed final 2.jpg
 
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340sFastback said:
Excellent advice and yes US Car Tool connectors. Prior to welding in new cross member I drilled holes to move emergency brake cable over to come out other side of frame connector. Hooked cable up verified prior to welding in cross member with frame connector held in place so all set there.

Brake and fuel lines going to be custom run up inner side of frame connectors. I verified mufflers exhaust are far away plenty of room. I have high end steel line flare and other line tools on hand from prior project.
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Cool!

You are not going to believe the difference the frame connectors make. I also bought the torque boxes and installed them as well as the lower rad support.

Works great!!
 
Tony Barracuda said:
Great work! Wish I lived near by, need the exact same piece for my pass. side.

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If I had to do it again I would have bought that rear pan from AMD and cut the corners out of that pan and butt welded them into my car. Would have been far faster easier then what I did.

I don't have any special tools to form/bend metal other then that Dimple Die and a vice. So you can form the steel patch in a vice using cardboard templates to get the shape. It has a pretty complex shape but I brute forced it kept bending it tweaking the shape till I got it to fit. Then once have fit you want hammer dolly to smooth the metal out.
 
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