1970 Swinger 340 Hemi Orange 4 speed

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I got the other pieces of the lower A-piller blasted and found a few pinholes... So now I'll be making some patches. I have to make two patches, one patch where the holes are (obviously) and the other where there's a group of large craters seen in the pic below... It's not thru there, but it's very thin and I'm not chancing it. All the other pitting has been cleaned spotless of rust and epoxied, so I will never have to worry about rust in those areas, they're still really solid (minor pitting as seen below)

I'm glad I seperated the lower hinge mount because If I left it, it would have come back to haunt me down the road, there was rust sandwiched in between there and it looks pretty common. My donor piece had it and so did the original. The other side will get the same treatment. I sprayed some epoxy on all the bare metal and this weekend I'll continue to weld and hopefully get everything finished up on the lower A-pillar so I can finally weld the rocker on!

As you can tell by the amount of pics I'm really documenting this build and hopefully this is helpful to other people doing this as well.















I hate rust! If you think you've got something solid, chop it out and look at the backside.. You might be surprised how "rust free" it really is.
 
Rust, the old girl had her share but your making continued progress and your inspiring others that it maybe a lot of work but with a bit of thought and maybe some advice these cars can be saved, nice work. Dan.
 
Great job, going to be a sweet Swinger when you are done! Another 340 car saved :)
 
Hemiorangeswinger said:
I got them from Princess Auto. I'm not sure if you have any stores in the US, but you can buy them online. They were $15 for four and are very well made. Power fist brand.

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Clamps/4-pc-Butt-Welding-Clamp-Set/8393878.p

These are also very handy.
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Clamps/4-pc-Micro-Welding-Clamp-Set/8393845.p
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I have lost many hours of my life just wandering around the local Princess Auto store checking out all the cool stuff!
 
Thanks for the comments guys! I hope this inspires people to restore them.. Not part them.

Haha yeah princess auto has some nice stuff, Canadian tire is better for hand tools tho!

I've got the a-pillar done and it was a lot of work.. I realigned the door and set the rocker back on and I've now got a better gap then factory.

















A skim coat of metal filler over some of my butt welds and they'll be perfect.
 
looking good...... I went thru a lot of the same rust repair a few years back and can really appreciate all the hours of work involved.
 
I've been following along since the beginning and am truly impressed with your mad skills! I'm sure you are inspiring many people to restore their cars instead of parting them out. It takes alot of time to do what you are doing, but I'm sure you will be able to appreciate it that much more once the car is done!

Keep up the great work!
 
76orangewagon said:
looking good...... I went thru a lot of the same rust repair a few years back and can really appreciate all the hours of work involved.
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Thanks! I've been following your build and it's given me inspiration on my car... Your car is looking great and you started off with a rusty one as well!


Captain Canuck said:
I've been following along since the beginning and am truly impressed with your mad skills! I'm sure you are inspiring many people to restore their cars instead of parting them out. It takes alot of time to do what you are doing, but I'm sure you will be able to appreciate it that much more once the car is done!

Keep up the great work!
Click to expand...

Thanks!! Yeah it's rewarding cutting out all the rust and replacing it with new metal. I'm hoping to have the drivers side sheet metal finished by February and then I'll spin the car around and do the passenger side. Getting the car in paint by next fall in my goal.

I started welding the rocker panel on today and got in about 50% complete. Hopefully during the week I can finish it up. I think the rockers are the hardest part of all this metal replacement. Next is the wheel well tub and trunk extension, then door striker and quarter skin.







I had to make a shim here to get my door to rocker gap correct.






 
Thanks for the comments guys. I don't do this for a living so I don't know if I'm pro, :p but my Dad does and I've spent many hours learning from him while I was growing up. This car is my first real major rust surgery project.. I have done little rust repairs before, but nothing this in depth. I'm just taking my time and measuring, bracing and cleaning out every spot of rust as I go, because I never want to do this car again and I plan on keeping it.
 
Rocker is done! It took aprox. 130hrs to do, since I ran into more rust (to be expected) so here's my weekly pics..













 
I applied all metal (water proof) over all my butt welds, then sanded and puttied.









Finally epoxy!! Everything will get high build primer once all the metal work is done. This gives a good foundation for primer and great rust proofing. This epoxy is the last of the good stuff.













 
On to the wheelwell tub, trunk extension, door striker and quarter now. It's surprisingly clean in behind the quarter and I'm probably going to butt weld a section on to the original outer wheel well tub (the inner and outer is seam welded togather like a gas tank and I don't want to seperate them since it's a waterproof seal and has no rust in that area)

There is going to be a lot of aligning with the new quarter before I weld the wheelwell tub/ trunk extension in. I am painting hemi orange in behind the quarter before I install it as well. I also have the original style sound deadener on its way from resto rick, so I can recreate the original mess.



I have to do one repair on the inner, which is an easy fix. Takin the original undercoat off is not fun!






 
Here's what 10hrs of scraping off undercoat and stripping the original paint inside the wheel well looks like... It was not fun! I also cut out the bumper brace so I can clean in behind it and fix the one rust hole. She's coming along slowly...

I need to make two little patches on the inner wheel well tub.

MERRY CHRISTMAS













 
Wow! You have done a great job and is a true inspiration for the rest of us! Thanks for sharing!

:coffee2:
 
65dartcharger said:
Wow! You have done a great job and is a true inspiration for the rest of us! Thanks for sharing!

:coffee2:
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Thanks for the kind words! Tomorrow and this weekend I plan on locking myself in the garage and getting a bunch of work done on it... UPS lost my sound deadener for my quarters, so that's gonna be a battle and hold me back a bit.
 
Very nice project. Slow and steady is the only way to go. Your dad taught you well! You just can't rush body work.
 
Nice work, and you are doing it the right way...which is nice to see. Keep up the good work.
 
Great work man, thoroughly impressed with your work. Cant wait to see this one finished!
 
Thanks guys!!

I got some more done today.. I got the new trunk extension set in place and rough cut the outer wheel well tub in place with 2" of overlap (will be butt welded togather) hopefully I'll get the new quarter hung in place tomorrow so I can set the outer wheelwell tub and trunk extension in place properly. Once they are fitting snug I will take the quarter back off and start the long task of welding.











 
don-cha just wanna drive that damn car!!! I think you are hitting this project with the right direction and attitude. One piece at a time. Spreading out your load so it is like your fixing rust on ten cars and not just one. Very impressive indeed..!

John
 
Rocky_JS said:
don-cha just wanna drive that damn car!!! I think you are hitting this project with the right direction and attitude. One piece at a time. Spreading out your load so it is like your fixing rust on ten cars and not just one. Very impressive indeed..!

John
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Yeah I do! I can flintstone it around the block with the current rust hole in the floor, haha. Thanks John, I have to go one piece at a time or I'll get overwhelmed with all the rust repair.

I've got the quarter cut off and spent some time tonight trimming around the roof/quarter seam. I am leaving part of the old quarter in behind the roof skin (as pictured) and I trimmed 5/16" off the roof skin. Now I'm going to trim the new quarter to sit on top of the old quarter lip and butt flush up against the roof seam and I'll butt weld them together. Trying to tuck the new quarter under the roof would just cause headaches and mess the roof skin up.



 
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