66 Dart lower quarter and trunk drop repair

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toolmanmike

toolmanmike

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I have done quite a bit of mechanical but I have never done body work. I thought it would be a good time to get some lower quarter rust repair done on my 66 Dart. A local body shop on my tool route was chosen and I dropped the car off. Well, the procedure hasn't gone perfectly smooth but I am hopeful the end result will be good. I am not painting the car at this time. I will leave it in primer until then. Please pardon me if some of the photos are out of sync. I have some on my laptop and all on my phone.
 
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I purposely don't have pictures of the rusted areas but it's there. Just behind the wheel wells on the back, both sides, and the lower trunk floor extensions were rusted also.

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I dropped the car off and they started cutting. I thought they took off too much metal but they are the experts. You do have to cut enough off the outer skin so you can get inside to work on the trunk drops.
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We found a couple other areas that needed attention. The Drivers rear corner had been tapped and hammered out in a previous life. There was rust bubbles under the wheel opening molding as well.
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A little POR15 on the outside of the inside. lol
 
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Well I had bought Quarter patches years ago from Laysons. They are Sherman pieces I believe and are a bit crudely made but fit pretty well. I thought I was good to go until they tried to fit the trunk floor extensions. I bought a pair of trunk drops from a member here. I didn't pay attention that they were for a Valiant. Too short and different shape on both ends. I wish they hadn't epoxy primed them before test fitting. What the heck, I have a nice pair ready to go.

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The body shop blasted and epoxy primed the drops and then test fitted. Damn, wrong! Too short and different shape on both ends.

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Well, I have heard that 67-69 drops are close so I ordered a pair. I also needed a wheel arch piece too. Well don't believe what you hear. The 67-69 pieces fit worse than Valiant drops on a Dart. They are wrong on both ends and too wide on the top and too short on the drop.
 
I needed help. The trunk drops were the issue. The lower 1/4 patches fit pretty well as did the wheel arch. I contacted Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona. I talked to Ty. Nice guy and great people to deal with. He sent me photos of the car the parts would come off of before and after cutting them off. Boxed them up and sent them to me. They were nice pieces with just a few little pinholes after blasting. I spent a little extra and got the drops and the outer skins. Along with that I ended up with the little piece I needsd for the LR corner I mentioned before that was damaged from a previous accident. Ty assured me they would cut the pieces long so there was all the material I needed.

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I got them, washed them off and they looked pretty good. Off to the body shop.
 
Now that we have all the correct parts the progress begins. Here's a few test fit photos. A trunk full of parts. There's Brian.

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Remember that boogered corner? I'll post this repaired pic again.

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After the test fitting, i took the drops to a buddies blast cabinet and cleaned them up. This is what they look like after priming.
 
I stopped in today and Brian had final fitted the pieces. The fit looks good. He will tack a couple places and panel bond the rest. Bonding seals both metal edges unlike plug welding which leaves exposed raw metal between the welds. They will seam seal also. I asked what they were going to do with the pin holes in the drops. Panel bond again. Tough stuff and ypu have a time window after mating the surfaces to get them lined up just right b/4 it sets up.

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So far so good. A few bumps in the road but nothing surprising when you work on old cars.
 
The craftsmen that have the skill for that and do it correctly earn my awe.

This is exactly why I farmed that out and concentrated on the mechanical, electrical and the rest. You have to know your limitations sometimes and determine if it is worth making a mess of your garage or shop.
 
1969383S said:
The craftsmen that have the skill for that and do it correctly earn my awe.

This is exactly why I farmed that out and concentrated on the mechanical and electrical. You have to know your limitations sometimes and determine if it is. worth making a mess of your garage or shop.
Click to expand...

Everybody has their niche/specialty...

Find yours and use them to your best ability... :D
 
Looking good Mike glad you found nice pieces to patch in, look like a solid repair. Lon
 
I got a call from Brian at the body shop this morning. They started working on my 66 again. Looking good. They panel bonded then spot welded all the pinch welds they could get to. Brian was wire brazing the exposed seams (new technology to me). Greg followed up with a skim coat of a dura-bond type product. I like what I see.
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