The 67 Vert rust bucket...

[Mr2.4]

Since i'm new here I figured the best way to get to know all of you would be by posting my project. So here we go. It's a 67 Dart GT conv. 273 2v auto car. It has a 340 in it now. I traded a 85' 300ZX even for it around 12 years ago. Then it looked real nice, little did I know what was lying underneath that pretty orange paint. So now my project begins. This is gonna be a looonnnggg project. Im sure most of you know what it's like to have multiple projects and family.
The car shortly after I got it...

I have done some patch repair work awhile back but didn't take any pics. The front right fender was trash. It was hit in the front and crushed back and the lower rear part was rusted out. Being on a tight budget I decided to fix it. I removed the headlight bucket and hammer and dollied the damage out of the front, and I made a patch panel for the rear. I also welded up all of the holes from where somebody drilled holes for a slide hammer, and the hole where the upper molding goes because i'm not gonna use it.

Now i'm workin on the rear of the car. I got a set of patch panels off of ebay pretty cheap so I figured that I can work wih them. Here is what I am starting with...

I got the panels cut out so I can see what all I have to deal with. It don't seem to bad. Once I sandblast I can really see what i'm dealing with.

Now the test fit. Don't worry these won't be welded on for some time as I am going to sandblast everything and seal it all.

Thats it for the time being. BTW Don't let a chevy guy hold a can of paint around your Mopar!!!

 

[doug 371]

welcome...nice projects...i love progress pics

 

[Twisted72]

Hi and welcome,love those drop top's.It can't be a Michigan car.

 

[fulltank]

Welcome
I just finished the inners on my 68 convertible so I know exactly
what you are up against, you can get inner, lower rear quarter replacements
if the rust is to far gone, they are reasonably priced and fit ok
good luck on the repairs.

 

[1967DartGT]

Can you tell more about your patch panels? Who made them? Did you cut them down or is that the original size? What is the quality/thickness like? Thanks.

 

[Burntorange70]

Nice work so far.* Very cool car. Got to love a Vert. Good luck on the build.

 

[Mr2.4]

Can you tell more about your patch panels? Who made them? Did you cut them down or is that the original size? What is the quality/thickness like? Thanks.

To be honest I don't know who made them. I got them off ebay for $25 each from a guy who didn't need them. I see a set on ebay that are like these but they cover the full wheelwell. I wouldn't recomend these if your into 100% correct because they are not perfect. The wheelwell shape is alittle off and the body lines need alittle reshaping. The thickness is thin like the cars we drive nowadays lol. If you don't mind the little extra work then I say these will be fine though.

To everybody else thanks for the coments. I will keep this updated as often as I can.

 

[340sFastback]

Cool project. Looking forward to some more progress shots.

 

[memike]

Looking good and glad you found this great site to share some great work
to learn by, Looks like your chebby friend is fun to have around.
A little creative but fun. Find a bumper sticker that reads "I would rather be driving a mopar and put it on his bumper down low and see how long it takes him to see it.
Welcome to this great site Mr2.4.

 

[crvtec90]

Lookin good man. When i worked at a chevy dealer one of the bow-tie boys stuck bandaids on my rust holes. Pretty funny though. 8)

 

[Mr2.4]

I got to do alittle work on the car this past a saturday. I managed to clean the undercoating out of the left wheelwell with a pneumatic air scrapper. Man what a dirty job that is. I also removed the gas tank, and crappy exhuast.

 

[Mr2.4]

I finally got to do some more work on the old dart today. Being that i'm on a tight budget, I found some cheap floor pan replacements. Their not the best quality and fit absolutly sucks. But hey I enjoy metal fab and for the price I have no problem massaging them. I took some pictures of some other work and areas of work still needing to be done also. I will start with that.

This is the front right fender. It was in a bad wreck at sometime and was full of holes and crushed back. Also your typical rust at the rear. I removed the headlight bucket and hammer, dollied, and reshaped the front until it was back to close shape. Welded up all the holes that was drilled in and also welded up the upper molding holes as i'm not gonna use the upper moldings.

This area I cut off and repaired all the rust and put rust converter inside of the cowl panel. Then rewelded it up.

This fender I still need to fix. As you can see it is badly beat up. Plus the typical rear rust. I think sometime in its past this car went through a fence.

Now onto the floor. My current part of the project.
Looky at that rust! Swiss Cheese!!!

Here is the amount of work That I am having to do to the rear pans. The one on the left is what I have done to make it fit and look right.

Here it is fitted and screwed down to make my mark for cutting.

Now its got some paint for my mark.

And all cut out and almost ready.

Here is the right side. Look at how bad it fits. If your worried about a perfect car then these are not the pans for you. But if you are lookin for some inexpensive pans and it dosn't bother you that they are not perfect then these will be fine.

Here is something really good about these pans. Look at where they are made.

Thats it for tonight. More to come on the install of these floor pans.

 

[pettybludart]

It,s great to see your making do with what you have..low budget.I can relate to that.Good work,keep it up!

 

[Mr2.4]

Pettybluedart, Thanks for the comments.

I got alittle more work done today. This is time consuming.

Here is my little helper dooing some of my grunt work lol.
Getting ready to drill.

Drilling holes!!!

Now hammering! Aghhhhh.:-D

Not bad hammering. She must take after dad! lol

Here is where I gotta cut out the old.

Now it's all cut out and almost ready.

Now onto the fronts. They require alot more work. They are not full pans so I am having to make the rest of it. Here is the bad.

The pan laying in place.

Now hammered and fitted in place.

Here is the templates that I am going to go of off.

I got some of the metal added already just no pics of that yet. I will get more as I go. The work week begins and this project will slow again. Maybe I will be able to work on it some after work a few days during the week.

 

[340sFastback]

Thanks for posting that update. Are you butt welding the floor patches in or will there be some overlap?

 

[Mr2.4]

I've been planing on doing both butt welding at the corners and overlapping the rest. But the more I look, the more I keep telling myself to butt weld it all. Either way I do it i'm gonna finish both sides so that it's all hidden.

 

[Mr2.4]

Another little update. I got to work on the front floorpan some more.:cheers: I have it partially tacked in place at the moment though.

Here is the pan with the rest of the sheet metal added. Well sorta. I got aliitle more to add once it's welded in place.

Now the rust rough cut out.

A wad of rust anyone!

Here is the area somewhat cleaned up, and rust inhibitor put in the rails. Once it was cured I painted it and put weld through paint on top of the rails so that they would be protected after I installed the floor pan.

Here is the pan put in place with some of the spot weld areas welded up. I still have alot of work to do on this side before I move over to the drivers side.

Thats it for now maybe more tomorrow hopefully.

 

[gerty]

You've got a great car to restore, don't see many a body verts.
Thanks for posting those photos of the floor pan repairs. My wife's Swinger has about the same amount of rust and she has bought the same floor pans you used. This will be my first attempt at a floor replacement, the cardboard templates idea answers my questions about how to fill the gaps the pans didn't cover. Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to your updates.
Bob

 

[DieWilde13]

Good Work!!! Think it will be a nice clean Car!!

 

[Mr2.4]

Well I am on to the drivers side front floor pan now. It took me quiet awhile today to finish up the passenger side. There was a major fitment issue that I had to take care of.

As I welded all of the spot weld holes up I noticed how far apart the panel became at the pinch weld area. The pan was bent alittle short I guess.

I had to fix this by slicing the pan apart and moving the pinch area on up and cutting a filler panel to bridge the gap.

Here is the panel in place. I went on the back side and marked the pattern. It's a good thing to always keep your scrap metal around for this kinda stuff.

Here is the metal being tacked in.

Now it's all in. Next step, to finish the rest of the areas that need to have metal put in.

Here it is all tacked down. All that I have left to do is finish welding it down. That will come once I weld the rest of the floor pans down.

Now onto the drivers side. It don't seem to require as much metal as the passenger side did, but it's gonna be a little pain due to the fact that the steering wheel and and brake pedal is in the way. oh well.

The pan accually fits good on this one. Crazy huh. The last one and it fits nice.

Here is the area that I had to add metal to. Luckily it is nowhere near as bad as the other side thankfully.:cheers:

and now we have this side all marked out and ready to be cut out.

Thats it for now. My back really started aching being slumped over for sooooo long, I had to stop for the night.

 

[Useless]

Really nice work! Makes me a little more confident about taking on the floors in my 'vert. Keep us updated!

 

[Mr2.4]

Wow it's been a year and a half since my last update on this car. Time sure can slip by. Well today I got to finally work on the old dart. Accually I have done little things to it at times. I just havn't taken any pics. I have pics today! YAY:cheers:

Here is what I have done in the past months. I only installed one trunk ext. It is like the rest of the patch panels.... A cheap ebay one. These things require ALOT of work to make fit. But atleast it is excess material. If you would like details on how much different they are then I will explain just ask.

Now for what I did today. That left front fender that is soooo rotten at the back well not no more. I fabbed up a new brace and patch panel.

Here is the template that I used for the patch.

metal cut out and test fitted

inner lip welded. Nevermind that nasty lookin welding it's all spots you know how thin metal is when welding.....

and the weld grinded down...

On to the really fun part of this project. This is what ith inner brace looked like.

I had a piece of 90 degree 18gauge steel that I used. I made a temple using the right side fender. Here is the piece after the first few cuts and the first bends

I will let the rest of the pics speak for themselves.

Not to toot my own horn but I am pretty proud of the outcome of the brace. I knew that I could make it, but not that good.:cheers:

 

[Darwin]

Wow, nice work on the fender brace, as well as the rest of your fab work.
Looks like a fun project, good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Mr2.4]

Thanks Darwin. It is a fun project. Thats when I get the chance to work on it.

I managed to get alittle more done today. Woot Woot! This will probably be it for alittle while. But hey some progress is better then none. I got the patch panel on the fender today.

Brace all primed up and ready to be covered up.

Fitment... making sure it still lines up. Check!

Tack welded down. Now time to weld it up...

All welded up and ground smooth.

And a pic from back side...

Next step is to remove the headlight bucket and repair all the damage to the front of the fender.

 

[4spdragtop]

Nice work there!! I just read from beginning to end, gotta feel good with the welding you are doing! Keep it up