Really!!!! sub standard repair.

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If you're going to go and sign up and share with everybody how upset you are you may as well say who the car came from...and not teeter on intimidating the person as if you could ruin them any second.

Be upfront.

Either public lashings... or keep it silent and just share the really cool conversion you're doing...aka edit out the extras
 
you may as well say who the car came from...

why?

i have no idea who performed the repair. and frankly i don't want to know. it wont achieve anything.

doesn't stop me ranting about it. and you never know the 'welder' may be embarrassed enough to, if there is a next time, do a much better job.

Plus i have no idea of the circumstances and have no desire to 'ruin' them. it's not how i roll.


thanks for the input but i'm going to have to disagree with you.
 
have a picture of a car i did the lions share of a restoration 10+ years ago.


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Ford GT40 Mk III


and i was the first person to drive it on public roads in over 30 years. ('tis just a part of what i do for a living)
 
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and i don't need loads of sealer to hide the welds.
 
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Link to US advert from a couple of years ago
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the car now resides in the UK and i'm the third UK owner. that above linked advert shows floor sections recently replaced.

took the interior out to sort a couple minor of issues which has turned to a massive weldathon.


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you are not supposed to be able pop a welded floor out with a screw driver. Who ever 'welded' these floors in should be really embarrassed and not allowed near a welder ever again. no naming names so please no digging and let them be embarrassed in private. it took longer to clean the sealer off hiding the poor repair than removing the poor repair itself.

but it gets worse.

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yep that is a 15 inch grinder cut in the sill (rocker) panel not repaired before the floor was put back over it. There are other cuts in the torque reaction cross member which require welding before the floors get put back in properly as well as a really hacked floor edges that need tidying.

I'm going to put extra strength in the chassis just to make sure so part way through fabricating frame connectors.

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rant over (for now)
That, gentlemen, is why I waited. And waited to find a rust free Dart. High Nevada Desert car its whole life.
 
Cool to see the shell of a British auto. So the floor board still has the steering column opening on the left side. Tells me the cars are made to US specks and converted to European ones. Question is: Was the conversion done here or over seas?
 
Cool to see the shell of a British auto. So the floor board still has the steering column opening on the left side. Tells me the cars are made to US specks and converted to European ones. Question is: Was the conversion done here or over seas?
Go back through, and read the OPs thread. He is doing the conversion to RHD himself. The car was LHD when he bought it.
 
Swinger 340 just an FYI the second gen RHD barracudas that ended up in England were built By Chrysler South Africa as RHD, and imported into England by Warwick Wright importers. The RHD barracudas in South Africa were badged as Valiant Bareacudas. The ones shipped to england were badged as Plymouths.
 
Just remember with seam sealer, it's not for covering up bad welds, it's for doing exactly what the name implies. Sealing the welded seam. Spot welding leaves unwelded sections between each spot weld. That means moisture can get between those sections. For me, seam sealer is a part of the job. Without it, your work is compromised.
 
Just remember with seam sealer, it's not for covering up bad welds, it's for doing exactly what the name implies. Sealing the welded seam. Spot welding leaves unwelded sections between each spot weld. That means moisture can get between those sections. For me, seam sealer is a part of the job. Without it, your work is compromised.

Very true.

but i'm sure on the packaging it wont say "also useful to cover up the sh**iest of welds and hide the fact there are no welds in large areas" like the original 'welder' had used it for.

the old seam sealer used when the vehicle body was assembled in '66 is flaking off and will need redoing when all the modifications are done. So it will be seeing some seam sealer.

So how do you swap the steering box to the right side ?

you can't

so i'm converting it to power rack. and centralizing the engine. and modifying the oil filter housing. and introducing way more Caster by moving the K frame forward slightly. etc
 
You do good work and obviously know what you are doing.
Looking forward to more updates and pics as this build progresses.
 
IF I am buying any car that someone else has worked on, I just plain tell them I will have a conversation with them to try to decide IF they had the ability to actually work on the car.
If if am selling a car, I ask IF they have ever restored a car to ANY degree, therefore they understand what is involved!
 
Very true.

but i'm sure on the packaging it wont say "also useful to cover up the sh**iest of welds and hide the fact there are no welds in large areas" like the original 'welder' had used it for.

the old seam sealer used when the vehicle body was assembled in '66 is flaking off and will need redoing when all the modifications are done. So it will be seeing some seam sealer.



you can't

so i'm converting it to power rack. and centralizing the engine. and modifying the oil filter housing. and introducing way more Caster by moving the K frame forward slightly. etc
LOL Well no, it doesn't say that and I think I also covered that in my post. lol
 
Now, I’ve seen some shady work, but this 67 Barracuda was the worst I’ve seen. Looks good in the picture, but underneath was weld after weld after weld, just to try to keep it from collapsing in on itself. There were also 2 quarter skins installed right over the original quarter on each side. There was more angle iron in the engine bay and under the car than there was original structure, and there was so much slag on the welds that most pieces just popped right back off. It was bought by a friend of mine who planned on driving it, until he tried to put a new fuel tank in it, and there was nowhere to hang the tank from. It also shifted very hard, as the entire car was collapsing in on itself, and it was binding the shifting rods. On the plus side, the interior was near perfect, all the trim on the outside was in very nice shape, and it had a commando motor in it. I traded a little 66 Formula S project I had for it, and saved another Mopar lover from giving up on the hobby.

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thought you'd like to see a before and after from underneath.

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extra hole is for the handbrake cable.
 
more random photos.

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re-bushed the gear linkage so has zero play now. (didn't always engage Park before)

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If you thought a CRX was small.


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bloody hell thats a lot of work

i know you have a plan but there are other options as well....

Elko/ dodge city conversions in Oz can do you a /6 or 318 or indeed hemi 6 K-frame ready modified to take either a power or manual variable rate RHD rack from the holden/monaro/ vauxhall/ or for LHD a RWD Aussie Built pontiac Chevy police car (2door 4door) pre converted. i.e you get a kit, coupleing to column etc

if you wanted RHD wih a steering box an aussie RH chassis rail repair sleeve and a rectangular section welded on to the bottom of it, covers you for the mount
you need to split open the bottom of the rail add in a zig zag of metal partitions (with drian holes) and 2 pices of pipe for top 2 bolts the box section you weld under does the bottom bolt
given what you have done already it would not be that hard

depends how far you wanna go

as with all RHD mopars one stiff chassis rail and one bendy one leads to the stiff one cracking after 30 years :)

for this you'd need aussie lower balljoints
aussie idler and pitman
aussie RHD stering box minimum of the case, you need the RHD case (you can put LHD guts in it no problem, pictures on the MMA site )
and a c bracket on the oposite rail for the idler
remeber RHD has the pitman arm facing the oposite way (in built bump steer) and the ballnut in the steering box is upside down. its Australian innit :)

if you want a look at RHD set up i'll be at the Mopar nats happy to jack it up

if you wanted manual trans an aussie 318 bellhousing can be bolted to an a833 with an adapter. use a dakota roller spigot and the clutch set up is the same, you just put a strengthening plate on the chassis for the outer ballstud end of the clutch z bar if you car never had one...


all the RHD stuff is based on the Aussie and SA set up replciated by hamtramck for the run of 68 and 69 Barracudas sent to UK and Oz Jamaica etc so chrysler did successful RHD builds of barracuda

If you wanted a heater, one from a R- VE valiant (62-68) has a transverse motor. no hole in firewall a later one has the logitundinal motor and you need a hole in the firewall
and if you want crotch cooling/ bee up the right leg of your shorts,standard style vents they are of course mirror image of the US ones, the heater / vent sits on the left and an independent vent for the right with the pulls in the right place
i think the early cars had them..... i might be wrong

the odd bit of trim etc the aussie AP5 and AP6 valiant would be a place to start

wiper motor you might have fun with..... not sure if they are handed

but the rest of the car all just goes in the same place...

dave
 
forgot about hand brake
mine is by the drivers door, i use US parts to repair it erm i guess its just a swap side to side if you have the same set up as me
 
cheers Dave, very informative as usual.

On the pre'67 A Body the steering is all attached to the K frame so no need to do any chassis modifications (and no cracked chassis')

I mocked the steering rack into position and it looks like it'll work with a K frame mod for the brackets.

But what i'll also be doing is lowering the K frame slightly and moving it forward slightly. (and a small notch in the sump as the power rack is quite chunky.) The reason for lowering is it improves bump steer (plus gives me a little more room) and moving it forward i can gain more Caster at a sensible ride height.

i did some mock up testing on the Gold car to see what affect dropping the K frame and running with shorter steering links.

for this i knocked up a bump steer gauge.

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and plotted the results

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Up and down on the '0' Zero line would be perfect with no bump steer.

as you can see the standard set up was the worst in terms of steering change and the best was with just a K frame drop.

but as i'll be using a shorter steering link the Blue line is what i'll end up with which you can see has virtually zero bump steer one inch above and below ride height.

i will have to limit droop anyway as the rack steering arm cannot go as low as the original set up and i'm thinking small coil-over shocks to assist the torsion bars at full bump (i have the heaviest torsion bars fitted from factory as it had Aircon originally)

as for the Handbrake i have used all the original LHD stuff and mirror imaged the cables, mounting points, guides and under dash lever.
 
genius love the use of the dial guage nice
sound like you have it sussed way better than i could.... i'm much more suck it and see...... more time spent on correcting disasters than driving :)

you could run a bigger bumpstop for the top arms

if you can find A body big block torsion bars they may help must be someone in the UK who took em out to replace with slant bars to go racing....
dunno which way they are offset at the hex ends
i.e thin bar more offset
fat bar less
or is it the other way round??

basically
does a fatter bar bias the suspension into bigger droop or is the hex offset less with them becasue they twist less at standard ride height... Dunno. someone will..

full force of a torsion bar aginst a modified bumpstop is what spoils my suggestion i guess.

coilovers into the top front shock mount might cause the Mk2 ford cortina issue
i.e streight through when you least expect it..... hard to tell when the things were not made for a macpherson strut.

Dave
 
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