67/68/69 cuda dilemma

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It just softens it up, then a sharp paint scraper plows right through it. Prob breaks its chemical bond though, as when you scrape it off you see clean primer and paint underneath with a light oily coating on them, so It soaks thru, softens it, and releases it.
 
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Figured I'd hit it with the scraper today and get some of the loose undercoating off, then reapply some more WD40. A lot of it came right off. It's amazing how much lighter this inner fender actually is with what I was able to scrape off today. Pic is after I wiped it down with lacquer thinner and paper towels. Once the thicker stuff is loose after a good WD40 soaking you can help it along by heating it with a torch. What's shown in the pic I didnt need a torch, it scraped right off with little effort.

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Forgot to wear my disposable latex gloves. Next time I wont forget.

Next up will be the replacement spare tire well, and rear transition pan with wheel houses attached. I figure I can strip and primer this stuff and it will be ready for installation when the time comes.
 
Couldent wait. Now its stripped. Amazing how much that undercoat weighs. This is a 67 inner fender. Some holes are not stock and will get filled, other holes are 67 only. And will also get filled. My little buddy wasnt too into helping, so he beat feet out of there in short order after a little bit.

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Yep, got vanilla on a stick dipped in chocolate in the shop freezer. He said nope SMH.

Next I'm gonna drill off the leftover metal I dont need to pare it down to just the inner fender. Will weld fill the unneeded holes, sand it to bare steel, and epoxy primer it.
 
I found a heat gun and scraper work great for undercoat. Also if you have air grinder with wire cup on it, you heat it and use the wire cup. It takes every last ounce off.
 
moparmat2000 said:
One of the things I have been doing is organizing the body bolt collection. I need to have enough good hardware for 2 cars. Awhile back RatrodAl sold me a bunch of body hardware super cheap. I needed it since this 69 didnt come with any.

Anyways, I have been soaking bolt lots in evaporust for 2 weeks at a clip. I put em in a container with an air tight screw on lid. Every time I go out to the shop, I shake em up. After 2 weeks I pour the evaporust in a different container for reuse, rinse the hardware thoroughly with clean water, and dump em out on my patio for a good hot bake to dry them out. Once dry, I sort them into plastic containers in order of thread size/pitch, as well as sort out the ones that aren't useable. I figure once I get this all done, then when assembly time comes I wont be dealing with cleaning rusty crap. Sandblasting does work, but cannot get all the corrosion pitting out, and surface rust will start back where theres still pitting if not cleaned all the way out. Plus I have time. Let em soak till clean. End up with a nice paintable black oxide coating on them.

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I used the evaporust. It works great for a while. Then I cheated out and tried white vinegar. Which works good to, but the bolts ,ect. Get a scaley , rusty residue that keeps coming back. So not so good.
 
furrystump said:
I found a heat gun and scraper work great for undercoat. Also if you have air grinder with wire cup on it, you heat it and use the wire cup. It takes every last ounce off.
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That works, and I have done all that. but it is messy as heck with all the dust from the wire wheel. Plus ya better wear a respirator or your gonna be blowing charcoal briquettes for nose boogers for days. Soak it well w WD40, wait a day or 2, start scraping with a sharp edged scraper with some big sheets of paper underneath . Most of it will practically fall off in chunks in most spots. Anything that's still attached, reapply WD40 and wait a day or 2 and try again. All of its messy, I find the wd40 method to be less messy.
 
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Not too much going on since it's been in the 100s every freakin day with heat indexes of 104° and higher. It's like living in a roasting pan. Wake up its almost 80° already at 7am lol. Anyhoo I been collecting up more parts while we are waiting for cooler weather to continue with this project. Picked up a duplicate set of the same Wesco performance seatbelts I have for my 67. Have a pair of retractable outboard shoulder belts with an 8" sash and D ring, along with chrome lift latch buckles. The rears are a pair of lap belts with the same chrome lift latch buckles. These are a nice modern upgrade to replace the funky 2 piece last minute slapped together shoulder belt design they had in 68-69. See post #113 on page 5 for the extra needed anchor points I made for both cars, and the shoulder belt mockup in my 67 that both cars will have.

The center trunk finish panel also came today. Nice repop of the formula S part. The red looks a bit dark, however I really have nothing to compare it to. I need to eventually get reverse light bezels as well. I have the sockets and lenses. I test fit the repop panel, it will need a little tweaking here and there to get it to fit tight against the trunk, but I expected that. The really good news is the rust thru spot in the back and lower edge of the trunk I can repair and all of it will be hidden by the panel. Only the underside will be visible. That will be easy to bodywork. The other good news is the top surface of the trunk lid is in good condition with only needing surface scale removed, minor bodywork, and epoxy primer appled

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The LH side of the trunk has perforation and some rust peppering that is also perforation. I just have not pushed it thru with a pick yet. The yellow outline is what i will have to cut out. The structural framework on the underside is a bit worse. Its rotted completely thru about 5" across right where the seam is. It's all made of 19ga mild steel sheetmetal of which I have a 4' square of for fabbing repairs so its pretty easy to make new pieces. Theres also a few small screw holes in the top of the trunk lid on the left side like somebody was trying to mock up a sheetmetal spoiler and abandoned the idea. That's maybe how the water got in and rust ate only that one side. I will weld up and grind those holes down too.

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Run me $233 shipped for a set of 4. Wesco performance.

Got the shoulder belts for hardtop with retractor and upper sash so it doesnt cut into the neck. The inboard side w buckle end is an 11" long belt. Perfect for standard height bucket seats.

Rear belts are 60" long standard lap belts.

I dont think the price is bad at all really for what you get. A modern design shoulder belt setup with 60s style lift latches
 
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I have 2 factory sets , not in the best of shape. Faded and rusty.
 
Sell that old stuff to the resto crowd. Theres a guy that restores that stuff on here. These shoulder belts you can take up the slack like a modern shoulder belt, bend and reach forward and the retractor let's you etc.

Them old factory 2 piece double buckle nightmares sucked ***. I had them in a 68 barracuda, 68 charger, and 69 charger in the 80s and 90s in the age before the internet. Had the net been hoppin and boppin back then I woulda had a set of these in each car lol. Back then N.J. required shoulder belt use if the vehicle was equipped, and those things sucked *** really bad. Now for a 100 point resto, well then yeah you put em in with correct date codes etc.

For a driver I recommend these. If your car came with shoulder belts, you only have to add one outboard anchor point on each side on the floor. If it was a lap belt only car, my 67s coat hook hole is almost dead on where my sons 69 has its upper belt anchor point. Weld grade 8 nuts to thick steel squares, fit em in there, and weld in place.
 
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What's really funny is the FMVSS tags on these read that they are made by seatbelt solutions Florida. Heres the thing even though seatbelt solutions makes them. Even though their prices are lower than Wesco Performance for the same belt. the seatbelt solutions retractor doesnt have that nice pebble grain black cover that fully encases the unit, and it has a funky anchor point steel bar stitched in as opposed to the anchors I made. This may be a better plug n play solution for those of you who prefer to not DIY an anchor mount.

My consensus on this is seatbelt solutions may make these to order for Wesco Performance, and Wesco uses their own retractor covers to make em appear like their own in house belt. I dont care, the wesco shoulder belts have better features IMHO and just like seatbelt solutions, you pick your belt color, and buckle type among a bunch of options.

When I bought the set for my 67 a few years back they were $212 shipped with a free shipping discount code. With my sons, no such luck on that so $232 and change for em shipped. Still a good deal.
 
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RAT ROD AL said:
I used the evaporust. It works great for a while. Then I cheated out and tried white vinegar. Which works good to, but the bolts ,ect. Get a scaley , rusty residue that keeps coming back. So not so good.
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Use the white vinegar it works great, but rinse them thoroughly in water with dissolved TSP (trisodium phosphate) then let air dry. The TSP will prevent flash rusting, then you can let them air dry. Works great. You can buy it at lowes or home depot in the paint section. Comes as a white powder in a box for about $5. Usually I use 2 heaping table spoons to a gallon of water.
 
Not too much going on with the usual heat wave out here. However school starts tomorrow, and I got a plan. As it starts cooling off late September, we will get out there to work on it together when I get off work.

I leave 3:30. His older sis picks him up at 3pm and hangs with him till I get home, then it's off to the shop to work till the wifey gets home. So that gives us a solid 1.5 to 2 hours to get some work done every day, and progress will pick back up. May see about picking him up some work pants and work tee shirts for him to use out there with me

On a different note, we had some more paint go out of date at work. This is almost a dead ringer for 69 barracuda torch red. Its called shadow red. I have a complete 3 quart kit complete with activator and reducer. I will likely use this on areas not seen like floorpan, behind the dash on the inside firewall, inside the roof, around windshield and backlite seal areas, inside cowl etc. Going to test a spot next to a polished up spot of good condition OEM red still on the car at the trunk drip rail weatherstrip flange and see how close it matches.

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Got a bit further on the speaker grille frames. Heres how far I have gotten as of lunchtime today. Going to have to chain drill each hole and break the centers out, then file em out smooth and to the scribe lines with a rotary file on an air high speed inline grinder. When I'm done with all that, its gonna look like tinkerbell farted on me.

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moparmat2000 said:
Got a bit further on the speaker grille frames. Heres how far I have gotten as of lunchtime today. Going to have to chain drill each hole and break the centers out, then file em out smooth and to the scribe lines with a rotary file on an air high speed inline grinder. When I'm done with all that, its gonna look like tinkerbell farted on me.

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Just reminded me of how much I miss working at a place that has a CNC waterjet cutter...
 
Damn I got to make 4 of these for 2 cars. This is gonna take forever. Screen is a fair representation of what it's going to look like. Going to paint it all black.

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Beveled the edges today, and a quick shot of leftover epoxy primer. Just think I have 3 more of these to go since I am making them up for 2 cars yaaaay. I am thinking of painting the screen with the frame after bonding it on instead of leaving it natural silver color.

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Got one sandblasted at lunch break, 3 more to go. 15x7 fifth ave steelies. Picked up some new 225/60R15s to put on these. I plan on spraying some of that light grey epoxy primer on these. Then rattle can gloss black rustoleum on the sides and backs. I will use an actual automotive gloss black on the front side. Cant decide weather or not to weld up the small holes next to the lug nut holes and grind flat, or leave em there.

It seems like I am getting ahead of myself since this car needs everything else, but not really. I am converting to BBP, and need 4 rims w tires to roll it around. Problem was finding good used 15" tires in my area. The ranchers put em on their old junk flatbed trailers and run em out the rest of the way.

So I found these off brand tires new at an online tire place called www.tireseasy.com for $57 each with free shipping about 2 weeks ago $228 total. Nice aggressive tread, 60,000 mile wear warranty. I got a friend who is the local high school auto shop teacher. Gonna bring him the rims and tires to get mounted and balanced after I paint em up. Told him shorty valve stems, and wheel weights on the back please. I will just coat the tires with silicone protectant on both sides, and keep the car on jack stands to keep them from getting flat spots.

Will post more pix as I go.

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