67/68/69 cuda dilemma
With the wheel houses in and rear quarter skins temporarily tacked to the outer wheel houses, I finally removed the last section of the trunk floor holding the *** end of the body, and the rear of the frame together. Did a little cleanup with a sanding disc on an angle air "zizzer" as my son calls em on the frame tie bar and it was remarkably clean and free of pitting rust. Hope to finish fitting the trunk floor, as well as primer the underside of the trunk floor, and install It over the next few weekends.
It's looking like I'm gonna be installing and removing this floor a few times before I am 100% satisfied with how it fits and clamps together. Once I am good with that, it goes in for good. Once its welded, that's kind of a 1 shot deal, because it aint comin back out. That's pretty much the story with replacing any sheetmetal. Multiple fitments until just right. This pan is AMD, but I am guessing NOS would be no exception to this fitting and removing multiple times until just right.
A side note, The 69 notchback chunk I dismantled for parts had some pretty wild unsightly gaps where the factory trunk floor seams went together at the back edges of the wheelhouses on that one. One gap was close to 1/8" That was followed by large globs of unceremoniously applied seam sealer to squish in there and cover it all up. This is some proof of the "good enough" mentality from 1969.
I intend to make my seams tighter, and apply the seam sealer a lot nicer since I have a lot more time to fiddle with this than the assembly line did. I have to constantly remind myself this is not an aircraft. This was built in 1969, by hand, pieces didnt fit perfect, assembly line workers didnt care too much either. Still I will take more care to get things a wee bit tighter this go round.
With the wheel houses in and rear quarter skins temporarily tacked to the outer wheel houses, I finally removed the last section of the trunk floor holding the *** end of the body, and the rear of the frame together. Did a little cleanup with a sanding disc on an angle air "zizzer" as my son calls em on the frame tie bar and it was remarkably clean and free of pitting rust. Hope to finish fitting the trunk floor, as well as primer the underside of the trunk floor, and install It over the next few weekends.
It's looking like I'm gonna be installing and removing this floor a few times before I am 100% satisfied with how it fits and clamps together. Once I am good with that, it goes in for good. Once its welded, that's kind of a 1 shot deal, because it aint comin back out. That's pretty much the story with replacing any sheetmetal. Multiple fitments until just right. This pan is AMD, but I am guessing NOS would be no exception to this fitting and removing multiple times until just right.
A side note, The 69 notchback chunk I dismantled for parts had some pretty wild unsightly gaps where the factory trunk floor seams went together at the back edges of the wheelhouses on that one. One gap was close to 1/8" That was followed by large globs of unceremoniously applied seam sealer to squish in there and cover it all up. This is some proof of the "good enough" mentality from 1969.
I intend to make my seams tighter, and apply the seam sealer a lot nicer since I have a lot more time to fiddle with this than the assembly line did. I have to constantly remind myself this is not an aircraft. This was built in 1969, by hand, pieces didnt fit perfect, assembly line workers didnt care too much either. Still I will take more care to get things a wee bit tighter this go round.