67/68/69 cuda dilemma

Stephen Hotz · Nov 13, 2020

Dang that thing is looking good!

moparmat2000 · Nov 13, 2020

Thanks Steve. It's getting there. Once I get the latch box and latch catch installed and all my welds ground smooth, then it's on to the next project on this poor thing.

moparmat2000 · Nov 14, 2020

Trunk latch box is in, everything adjusted. Closes nice n square. After all the weld grinding I will start on the next project. What will it be ?

moparmat2000 · Nov 15, 2020

Got a wild hair up my *** to do more cutting and demolition. Not quite unfucking an old race car, but something new to work on none the less. A bit too much rot, and a crappy pop riveted patch job that just has to go. A little wire conduit tubing temp welded in to keep it square. Temp installed to check fit of the inner fender I bought off sedanman years ago. Theres definitely no shortage of projects to do on this thing, I think I just need a dart board or a wheel of fortune spinner wheel thing with sheetmetal projects listed on it that need to be completed lol.

trigger_andy · Nov 16, 2020

Impressive work as always. I'll be using your work when I finally start my Barracuda.

I can see where you ground out the spot welds on the inner fender, but how is the bottom length secured to the chassis leg?

moparmat2000 · Nov 16, 2020

Oh its spotwelded to the flange on the framerail too, and theres also about 8-10 spots on the shock tower support.

trigger_andy · Nov 16, 2020

moparmat2000 said:
Oh its spotwelded to the flange on the framerail too, and theres also about 8-10 spots on the shock tower support.

Ah ok, hard to see in the pics. I guess it will be more apparent when you start to weld it in.

I like your bracing idea. I need to replace at least one inner fender on my Barracuda. If I braced it like that I wonder if it it would be strong enough for rolling onto a plant trailer to drive 2 moles to the Media Blasters? I'd remove the doors as well and brace accross them too.

moparmat2000 · Nov 16, 2020

RH side inner fender is in good shape on this one, but I am contemplating carefully drilling it off to get at sandblasting the corrosion behind it and then just reinstalling it. Will likely pull the other fender, hood, K frame and suspension out and put the body front on a wheeled dolley I currently have on my 67 so i can push it outside to sand blast it. I will be replacing the cowl outer with a new one, and sandblasting the inner cowl plenum, along with the engine compartment. With no weight in the car, I doubt it will flex much. Just use bubble levels when you square it up to weld in the new panels.

moparmat2000 · Nov 16, 2020

I will also be making a new lower radiator support out of 2x3 boxed steel like I did for my 67. Heres pix of what I will be making for the radiator support on the 69. The notch out for the radiator let's it tuck up nice and tight just below the valance.

IMFURYS · Nov 16, 2020

moparmat2000 said:
I will also be making a new lower radiator support out of 2x3 boxed steel like I did for my 67. Heres pix of what I will be making for the radiator support on the 69. The notch out for the radiator let's it tuck up nice and tight just below the valance.

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Hey Matt,
I can't remember, are you putting a fiberglass hood/scoop on Patrick's car with the lite weight hood springs?

moparmat2000 · Nov 16, 2020

Steel hood, fiberglass bolt on scoop

moparmat2000 · Nov 23, 2020

Bunch of holes and dimples on my 67 LH inner fender that are not on a 69 inner fender. I welded em all up and ground em flat. Started to bend out the front framerail flanges where ricky racer beat them flat for a bigger radiator. Thank God he did not butcher the radiator support.

moparmat2000 · Nov 28, 2020

Since I'm going to remove the outer cowl and sandblast the front end on this thing, I decided to strip everything off, and install the wheeled dolley on the front to be able to roll it outside. Ricky racer drilled a hole in the firewall, and through the lower cowl plenum in an attempt to mount gages on the top of the cowl.

Part of the reason I am removing the outer cowl is to address any corrosion that may be hiding in there, repair the drilled hole that ricky racer popped in there, then seal the inner plenum in epoxy primer, and to also remove all sorts of junk I found in there with a cheap phone mounted borescope I fed it up inside there to look around. All kinds of ****. Washers, screwdriver shank, it's all in there.

Got a nice deep transmission pan with drain plug for the 42RH from Morris 4x4 center $54 shipped w sales tax. I thought was a pretty good deal. Will fit A904, A999, and 42RH. Dont go by their fitment chart.

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moparmat2000 · Nov 28, 2020

Well I got the hood and hinges off. With the temp brace on the LH side still tacked in to hold the radiator support where it needs to be, I decided to make some bolt on removable temp bracing for both sides instead. This way where its attached nothing is welded to the car to be cut off later, and it gives me access to drill off the cowl so I can sandblast inside there too.

Then my attention turned to the radiator support nutplates. Only 1 out of 4 of them was decent. One was broken clean off, one was barely intact, and 1 had a screw broken off in it. I wanted to repair these to appear stock factory installed. Hopefully how I fixed this problem can help some of you out with the same issue

I had a spare weld on 1/4-20 nutplate, and I broke off the one that was barely hanging on. Then cleaned up and straightened the holes. I used a threaded stud mounted flush to use as a handhold and to keep weld slag out of the threads when welding. I then drilled out the broken screw on the 3rd nutplate, and chased out the hole with a 1/4-20 tap. At least now a radiator can be bolted on now LOL.

IMFURYS · Nov 28, 2020

moparmat2000 said:
Well I got the hood and hinges off. With the temp brace on the LH side still tacked in to hold the radiator support where it needs to be, I decided to make some bolt on removable temp bracing for both sides.

Then my attention turned to the radiator support nutplates. Only 1 out of 4 of them was decent. One was broken clean off, one was barely intact, and 1 had a screw broken off in it. I wanted to repair these to appear stock factory installed. Hopefully how I fixed this problem can help some of you out with the same issue

I had a spare weld on 1/4-20 nutplate, and I broke the one off that was barely hanging on, and cleaned up and straightened the holes. I used a threaded stud mounted flush to use as a handhold and to keep weld slag out of the threads when welding. I then drilled out the broken screw on the 3rd nutplate, and chased out the hole with a 1/4-20 tap. At least now a radiator can be bolted on now LOL.

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More pretty work. How close would you say you are to having the 69 where you want it (body wise) and switching back to working on the 67? I'm looking forward to seeing that build thread too.

moparmat2000 · Nov 28, 2020

Years and years away. If you honestly want to know, I seem to creep along with this stuff. Sometimes it's hard to get motivation. Other times I get this insane burst of energy to get a bunch done.

moparmat2000 · Dec 4, 2020

Trans pan came in. This thing is is nice. I also picked up some 14 gage 2x3 to redo the subframe connectors and make the new lower radiator support.

Been busy though for the last few days chasing a dead short in the turn signal wiring in my truck. Needed it all working so I could go pick up this steel. Hint it wasnt a bad switch in the column. It was actually shorted directly to ground between the output side of the fuse to the flasher relay.

I had a big pile of wiring from the 92 dakota I scrapped. I used that in the same color codes, shrink tube, and a bunch of spade connectors to make a temporary wire around the problem which is definitely inside the cab, but i will go looking for the shorted wire eventually. Reverse lights are on the same turn signal circuit that I wired around so i have no reverse lights, but at least I have turn signals now. This is a temp fix, but in my world it will probably end up staying a temp fix for the next 10 years.

moparmat2000 · Dec 5, 2020

.got to poking around on the LH framerail with the inner fender off and found this. No better time to repair it than now I suppose. The rails are 14 gage steel. I decided to fab up a splice piece out of 14 gage sheet. Just a little more tweaking and it will fit exact. The inside of the framerail is all light surface rust. Nothing to get real worried about. I only sandblast outside my shop for obvious reasons, and will have this closed in before then. I will likely use Por15 inside here before I weld it up. Underside of the new piece I just hit with a little weld thru primer. The old piece was clean on the underside. Still had primer on it. Last pic is the RH framerail as a comparison.

moparmat2000 · Dec 6, 2020

Well I always said I wasnt a fan of Por15. But my experiences with it are from almost 30 years ago. I decided to give it a shot again. Did 2 coats on the inside of the framerail as far as an acid brush could reach. Then after heat gun drying it, I applied 3 brush coats of epoxy primer. The weld overlap areas got zinc weld thru primer, and the prerequisite 1/4" holes for rosette welds. I will weld it up and grind it down tomorrow evening. Then turn my attention towards the fwd framerail top cap next. am very pleased with the results so far. The rest of the inside of the framerail is in good shape. I ran my borescope down through it and the metal is solid with only light surface rust in spots. This car lives in a dry environment and I plan on shooting a rust inhibitor inside the rails when all is said and done anyways.

forced 340 · Dec 7, 2020

Impressive as hell!!!

moparmat2000 · Dec 7, 2020

trigger_andy said:
Ah ok, hard to see in the pics. I guess it will be more apparent when you start to weld it in.

I like your bracing idea. I need to replace at least one inner fender on my Barracuda. If I braced it like that I wonder if it it would be strong enough for rolling onto a plant trailer to drive 2 moles to the Media Blasters? I'd remove the doors as well and brace accross them too.

I think if you brace it, it will be fine as long as nobody pushes or pulls against it.

moparmat2000 · Dec 10, 2020

forced 340 said:
Impressive as hell!!!

Thanks man!!

moparmat2000 · Dec 10, 2020

So I decided to tackle the fab of the fwd LH framerail top cap. Same gage steel as the other piece. I decided I would weld them in at the same time when ready. Anyhoo this one has a step or joggle in the metal. How I did this was with a heavy duty shop press, 2 heavy steel plates, and thinner sheetmetal placed on top on one side and on bottom on the other taped in place with a small space between the 2 to allow the shop press to press the metal into a step or joggle. Pic #5 you can see the step in the original original piece, and the new stamped piece held under it. I was careful to not joggle the metal past the slot I cut where the side had to get bent 90° up, and bent the side up 90° afterwards. I then welded up the slot i cut for the step to be pressed, and ground a radius in it. I also picked up this duplicolor etch primer that I am liking a lot for repairs such as this. Follow along with the pix to get a better idea how this was done. I still have to clean out the inside of the framerail under where this section goes, then apply some Por15 and epoxy primer, but that wont take very long to do.