392 in a 70 Duster

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For as hard as I worked this weekend, there's not much progress to show.

Decided to add jacks to the rotisserie

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Got the dash out. I'm worried about touching the A/C. I don't think I can possibly get that put back together

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Took off the rear bumper, but didn't get it mounted to the rotisserie, but I think I have a plan and will get it mounted this week.

Car isn't quite as rust-free as I thought

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Given that I have to cut large parts of the floor out anyway for the trans tunnel, I'm not sure what the best route is to fix this. Do I buy new floorpans and then turn around and cut away the new pans? Or do I buy the smallest patch that will replace the rot?
 
I guess it depends how bad the pan is. I fabbed a new pan section when I had the tunnel rolled (well, really, my fab guy did) and mine was in better shape than yours appears
 
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Sorry, I didn't get that crossmember measurement for you this weekend. I've spent most of my time since Thursday evening in bed. Now I have Pneumonia..... that should slowdown progress.
Chances are that you'll be getting close to that hole with your new trans hump because you'll probably wanna make a flange around the outside of the hump. It might be a waste to buy the whole side floorpan if you just end up needing a little patch.
I didn't have any decent pics of that side but I cut a pretty big hole out of a brand new AMD full floorpan!
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Nevermind. I just looked at your pic again. For some reason I was thinking that was the passenger side.
I looks like you need a new drivers side floor pan now that I've looked at it again. That would be the best looking way to fix it anyway.
 
Thanks. I think you're right. Before I order anything, going to hit all the rust with the wire wheel and see how much of it is rot vs surface rust.
 
I took it pretty easy this weekend, but the progress looks way more significant than it did last weekend when I was busting my ***.

Disassembly is almost done. Need to remove the rear window, axle, gas tank and a few more things from under the dash:

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Rolled it outside and hit it with the pressure washer

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Then, today, I got most of the bulky parts up off the floor of the garage and all my tools put back where they go:

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I hit some of the rustier floor spots with the wire wheel. I don't see any other places the rust has penetrated through, although I see some spots where the metal now has a rough texture. Should I be patching these spots?

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payneinthe said:
I hit some of the rustier floor spots with the wire wheel. I don't see any other places the rust has penetrated through, although I see some spots where the metal now has a rough texture. Should I be patching these spots?

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Something for you to think about. When I was at the point where you are, I didn't plan ahead. After I got all the floor pan work done, bought the new gas tank with the integral fuel pump, I decided to relocate the springs so I could mini tub the car for bigger tires, because I worried the 392 Gen3 would blow the tires off all the time. The result of relocating the springs meant the new tank interfered with the exhaust, and in the end to make it all work together I cut out the spare tire well, had to make a new gas tank, etc. I'm glad I did what I did, but I sure wish I would have given little more though to where I was going. Just saying ----
 
Good advice, @retroron. I've decided on the StreetLynx, Ford 9" and mini tubs for the rear. I believe this setup will work with exhaust and stock tank, but I will find out.
 
payneinthe said:
Good advice, @retroron. I've decided on the StreetLynx, Ford 9" and mini tubs for the rear. I believe this setup will work with exhaust and stock tank, but I will find out.
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If your steel is good and solid but just has some pitting, clean it with a blaster or wire wheel then use some All Metal putty to smooth it back out. I did this in the trunk pan of my Roadrunner and it looks like brand new.
 
payneinthe said:
Good advice, @retroron. I've decided on the StreetLynx, Ford 9" and mini tubs for the rear. I believe this setup will work with exhaust and stock tank, but I will find out.
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My issue became that the exhaust had no room, because the tubs took up the room that the exhaust occupied previously. Hope your 4 link allows for that
 
This is why I hate dealing with businesses over the phone. People screw up. Computer's dont. Looks like a Duster and a Chevelle are not quite the same thing.

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I've still got some work to do on this damned rotisserie. Unfortunately, the bumper mounting is far off from vertical, so I need to cut and reweld this thing.

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If you look closely, you can see lots of places where the frame and underbody have been smashed on rocks. Combined with the amount of mud caked on everything, we're thinking this car spent some time off-road.

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Pretty successful weekend, I'd say. Got the car completely stripped. Every last clip, screw and bolt is out.

Almost finished the frame repair. Was about half an hour from being done when the angle grinder died.

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Looks like you are getting a good start.
I like the Dewalt 4 1/2" grinders the best but I have wore one of those out myself. I have two of them, I usually keep a flap wheel on one and a cutoff wheel on the other one.
 
It was a Dewalt that I busted and a Dewalt that's on its way from Amazon. Agree they're great.

I'm really not crazy about the Auto-Set on the Millermatic 211. It just puts way too much wire speed. From here on, I'm going to manually set the wire speed. Grinder's been getting a workout with these huge gobs of weld.
 
payneinthe said:
It was a Dewalt that I busted and a Dewalt that's on its way from Amazon. Agree they're great.

I'm really not crazy about the Auto-Set on the Millermatic 211. It just puts way too much wire speed. From here on, I'm going to manually set the wire speed. Grinder's been getting a workout with these huge gobs of weld.
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That sucks. I have an older Millermatic 210, it doesn't have autoset. Miller makes some awesome welders though!
 
retroron said:
My issue became that the exhaust had no room, because the tubs took up the room that the exhaust occupied previously. Hope your 4 link allows for that
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If you don't mind me asking what mini-tub kit did you use? I was planning to do that on my car and I was also looking at purchasing the TTI 3' exhaust system with headers.
 
671fireman said:
If you don't mind me asking what mini-tub kit did you use? I was planning to do that on my car and I was also looking at purchasing the TTI 3' exhaust system with headers.
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I used the US car tool mini tub kit and it worked out well. I bought the TTI 3 inch headers that were supposed to be a bolt on fit, but they weren't so I had to send them back. The right header interfered with the starter boss on the right side of the transmission housing. The suggested fit of cutting the transmission housing to provide clearance was unacceptable to me. TTI modified the right header so it cleared the housing. After I installed the Magnum Force front end an set up the steering, there steering shaft would clear the tubing of the left header. My fab guy who builds show headers, modified the left side and then I had the headers recoated. If I were doing it again, I'd have my fab guy make me a set of headers they'd be better and cheaper.
 
Stripped down the doors and fenders and got everything ready to go to sandblasting. The sandblaster comes Friday to pick her up.

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I found out after it got to the blaster that they cannot sandblast the undercoating. If I had known beforehand, I would have scraped it off myself. It didn't make sense to have them bring the car back, so it looks like I'm paying them to scrape off the undercoating. Sucks, but I really want to get to building.
 
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