Too bad there isn't an automotive tech school near you. You may be able to work out some type of deal with them.
Cragar Wheels and Tires, Flat Black Paint, on a Duster body.
Off to a good start.
While I agree with what you're saying, all of the rust above the torsion bar box needs to be addressed at the same time IMO to do it right.Come on guys, where is your sense of adventure. Thinking as a young man buying an affordable A Body, not everyone has 10 grand to throw out on a fixer upper, so you fix what you find.
Get her up on jack stands, back off the torsion adjusters 5 turns, support the tranny.
Drop the bolt in center trans cross member. Now cut off the end of that rusted torsion boxing off clean at the torsion bar casting and the bottom rust, leaving the torsion assembly in.
Now floor Jack and a block of wood, easily jack that torsion assembly back up in place with the tension off the torsion bars. Now weld in the clean replacement crossmember tip to the torsion assembly, and bolt in the trans cross member to support the trans again. He has access to parts car at pick and pull and batt power sawsall.
Worse case senario just rebuild the crossmember tip with 1/8" flat mild steel pieces and weld that back in. Can make some carboard templates off the other side for the pattern pieces.
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Down on her wheels driving again.
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Exactly!While I agree with what you're saying, all of the rust above the torsion bar box needs to be addressed at the same time IMO to do it right.
While I agree with what you're saying, all of the rust above the torsion bar box needs to be addressed at the same time IMO to do it right.
You could put it on a hoist but it may fold in half. Parts car!Plus it looks like there is a lot of rust where the bolt in cross member mounts are.
Again, I completely agree with you on this part too. Then the next step is making sure there aren't any other problem spots that need to be addressed ASAP. I personally would like to see him fix it, and there is plenty of knowledge on this board to help him fix it. But with him being in school, that may not be an option at this moment, and this will only become worse of an issue.I would say half of the A Body owners on here have had to patch their floors in some fashion. There are plenty of posts from members on here on how they have done the next step.
I would say half of the A Body owners on here have had to patch their floors in some fashion. There are plenty of posts from members on here on how they have done the next step.
You had something to weld to though! LOLI put full rear floor pans in mine, plus made some extensions to weld on the front of them because the rust went further front of where the new rear pans ended. Were I a younger man, I would say the job was easy. I will say it wasn't extremely difficult, although my knees didn't like it, even with gel filled knee pads. But I got the job done.
You could put it on a hoist but it may fold in half. Parts car!
You had something to weld to though! LOL
You better have a fully equipped shop to do the metal replacement. The photo above isn't the only area that needs attention. Let's see, a college kid living in Colorado where it snows 6 month of the year. Go to college, get a good job/career, pay off your student loans then you can buy a decent car to have fun with.
only problem with that is...by the time he pays of his student loans, there may not be any A bodies left
I'll sell him mine.only problem with that is...by the time he pays of his student loans, there may not be any A bodies left
Hey Guys
All this talk about rebuilding the Torsion Bar Boxing at the trans crossmember mount area, i remembered I had these professionally made pattern templates here.
Trying to remember who I got these from.
Think it was the meticulous owners of the '69 Satellite I got ahold of a few years back. The guy did some custom classic car sheet metal fabrications on the side. He built a nice Stainless Steel battery tray for the Satellite to catch the battery acid. These people were extreme fussy with their stuff.
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Any how these correct dimension and thickness templates are patterns for the front and rear side of the box section torsion repair.
The front side you just fold 90° at the 2 slots, then that welds to the forward extending box section too, making it really strong.
These could be easily traced on to thin carboard and shipped out to people that could use them. Paying tribute to the skilled mopar man that made them, as he is passed away now.
Interesting what comes up in these discussions . . .