Gerahead's 71 Dart

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HemiPar said:
I welded mine up cause at the time I was not going vinyl top. After I painted the car I decided to put the top on. I took it to a shop and they installed the top. They did not have to use staples, so I don't really think it is nessary.
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Thanks Jeff. How easily did they come out? L8r
 
we just ground down the staples that would'nt come out on my Dart with a wizard... I actually left the staple holes, when my new top was installed the edges were just glued down over top of where the holes were.. no new staples were required..
 
Well, this friggin' heat wave isn't doing much for my motivation...........

I have most of the welding done for the passenger side quarter replacement. I am happy with the seam finishing on most of it....but not all of it. I have been really impressed with some of the finish work that I have seen here. Anyone willing to share their process for how you do your butt weld dressing for invisible repairs? I am pretty well equipped, tool-wise for just about any method that I can think of. Just looking for technique suggestions. Thanks in advance. L8r
 
I am finally declaring the passenger side quarterpanel done. Seems like this has taken forever! I spent a little time today trying to head off some potential future problems too. The bottom rear corner on the skin that I installed was just bent over at the corner. So I welded that up and smoothed her over. Same thing at the apex of the body line on the back edge. This one just seemed like a good place for the steel to crack and work its way around to the outer surface. No good. Headed out of town for the next week so I won't be able to get back after it until next weekend. Slow, but progress is still progress. L8r
 

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......got the driver's side quarterpanel cut out over the weekend:blob: and everything looked to be in pretty good shape. Found a couple more "extra" bolts lying in the canyon. In fact, one of them was glued in place with bondo. The outer wheel house wasn't all boogered up and the lip was pretty solid. Then I cut the last of the lower quarter away :violent1:. You may recall from a couple of pages back that I found where a PO had just slathered some mud into a rust hole behind the wheel, rather than fixing it. Well, it turns out that the trunk extension is rusted through in a couple of spots around the drain hole and is pretty pitted over the full length, about a 1/3rd of the way up. Looks like I will be getting a new extension panel in the mail. I really wasn't thinking that I would have this to deal with.
So the rest of the drop-off is really solid...............do I replace the whole thing........or find a convenient spot, whack it off and just replace what needs replacin'? It looks like it will be a lot easier to just replace the rusted steel rather than the whole panel. Wadda ya think? Thanks.
 

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PoisonDart74 said:
Nice build! Those extensions are pretty easy to fab up. Just make your own:
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In principal, you are probably right, but.........since I don't have even a small brake, I would be kluging something together to make the bottom side bend. I don't have the steel, so I would have to source that. The crud extends up into the reinforcing ribs so I would need to figure that procedure out as well. It certainly isn't that I would prefer to not spend the hundo for a new panel, 'cuz I'm all about saving a buck where I can for sure. Thanks. L8r
 
I noticed this when I replaced the quarter on the passenger side as well and can't figure out a reason for it..............the outer wheel house has two slices, at a right angle to the edge of the pinch weld flange at the 10 and 2 o"clock positions. Anyone have an idea why they are there? Any reason why I shouldn't weld 'em up?
While I am waiting for my new AMD trunk extension to show up, I've been putzin' with the little stuff. I welded up the holes in the wheel house flange from the old wheel well molding, filled in a couple of places where I got a little carried away and created bull's eyes with my spot weld cutter. There was a HUGE gap where the inner/outer wheel house seam and the trunk floor extension all come together. That corner somehow got pushed out from the direction of inside the trunk and created a big hole at that junction. Got out the BFH and coaxed her back where it belongs. Man, that took some serious force to get bent the way it was! Making dust and shakin' lots of stuff loose #-oL8r
 
The new trunk floor extension arrived from AMD today. That is an impressive looking piece! I had myself convinced to just replace the rot, but this is too nice a part to not use completely. Any advice? All of the lower part of the quarter is gone and out of the way. L8r
 
No takers on the question, but I changed my strategy anyway. Instead of drilling through the spot welds, I cut out most of the old extension, pretty close to the pinchwelds. Then I cut through the spot welds with a cutting wheel from the outer side, leaving the wheel house, trunk floor and taillight panel flanges unmolested. I had to cut through a couple of stitch welds at the rear trunk brace, but I could get at them pretty easily. There were two spot welds that I had to drill out because from the back side they were covered by the tail light panal brace. The flanges cleaned up really nice after I dollied them back straight and the replacement panel fit in really nicely with everything cleaned up. I cut the hole for the evaporator stack going through the trunk floor and just need to clean up the edges with a die grinder, punch a few holes for plug welds and get after it with my Lincoln and I will finally be able to start hanging the new quarter on that side. L8r
Photos: trimmed, cleanded and test fit.
 
....forgot to attach the pix before pulling the trigger....
 

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I can't believe that I have been away this long. Not much progress to update. I got the quarterpanel trimmed so that I could start fitting it up before I tack the floor extension into place. It fits really well around the the wheel house and rocker, but the edge where it wraps around the trunk panel seems to be too long? I'll have to look into that further. I had mapped out a plan to plumb hard pipe into my garage for airlines to the compressor quite a while back. I have had the pipe laying along side my garage for quite a while too. I got the pipe scuffed and painted to try to slow down the rust. Two weeks back a good buddy of mine came over to help with the pipe install. He has hooked me up with all the materials as well. He has all the tools to easily cut and thread pipe, so that part of the job was way simpler. I now have drops at the compressor and both ends of the shop so I shouldn't have to be draggin hoses all over the place and should dramatically reduce the water in the system. Now I just need to acquire the additional regulator and fittings and I will be all set. I should be able to get some quality time out in the shelter this weekend. We had to do the pipe installation while working around all the contents of the garage so first order of business will be to do a littel sweeping where stuff was hauled away from the walls and put everything back! L8r
 
Well, it seems that there is a lot to cover since my last post. The biggest is that over the winter, my wife of over 38 years passed away. It was a very advanced case of gall bladder cancer. It has no symptoms and no way of screening for it. It was found during surgery for gall stones and less than 3-weeks later I was making funeral arrangements. Coupled with an unusually heavy work-related travel schedule, I have had to spend an awful lot of my 'free' time getting my head and my life back on some sort of normal plane. not to mention that the upper midwest seems to have been swallowed by the winter that will not end. :banghead::banghead:

Back to the project........... The gap I noted in the fitment of the DS quarterpanel to the taillight panel was caused by some very difficult to see bending of the taillight panel. I was able to massage it back into position with my BFH. I modified the trunk extension panel to include the opening for the evaporator venting assembly for the fuel system on the 71 models. Punched some holes for plug welds and dusted off the Lincoln and went to work on Saturday. I got the extension all burned in. There are a couple of the hard to reach welds on the rear side of the wheel house that are uglier than I am willing to settle for, so I still need to dress them down. Now, on to getting the quarter skin welded in. L8r
 
Jim, so sorry to hear of your loss. I have always appreciated your comments on my build, and those L8R's. Ben.
 
Ben and DartTT,
Thanks for the thoughts guys. I sincerely appreciate them. This certainly isn't what I thought that I would be having to deal with at this point in my life.
 
wow... so very sorry to hear of your loss.. Thoughts and prayers are with you my friend...
 
Been slaving away at the project, but didn't really have much to show for it until today, or really this weekend. I got the new trunk floor extension welded in and today a buddy of mine. Boss Bill (that's him in the second pic, drilling plug weld holes in the 1/4), came over and gave me a hand getting the new driver's side quarter tacked in. I still have a fair amount of work to do to finish it, but what is left I can handle pretty easily by myself. Sometimes a guy just really needs another pair of hands that know what is going on. I guess now I know what I will be doing the next few nights when there isn't a Stanley Cup game on...........L8r
 

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Wow, I guess it has been a lot longer since I have been here than I realized!
Finally, after setback after setback, I am back in the saddle:blob:
I lost my storage space for the trailer and my Olds, so I have had to shuffle lots of stuff in the garage and have just now gotten things reorganized to the point that I can get back into the garage. When I last left, I had tacked the driver's side quarter into position and then pretty much quit. What I had noticed then was that the alignment at the top rear edge of the panel and the taillight panel was off by about 3/16. I first thought about a small pie cut in the top edge of the panel (hence the tape), but then decided to try building up the 'low' spot' first. You can always grind that away, right :eek:ops:
So I bent up a piece of 3/16 tig welding rod and tacked it into place to check the fit and then welded it in to the top portion of the original quarter after checking the alignment with the deck lid opening. I have some finish grinding to do, but I am happy with the gap and alignment of the quarter panel extension. Feels really good to be back at it!! L8r
 

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Long holiday weekend got in the way of much progress. I have the seam of the driver's quarter welded in with tacks about every 1/2 inch. I will probably make another couple of passes to get one more in between each of these and then grind it down for the last ones in between. I had forgotten how long this takes . . . . . L8r
 
I spent several hours last night adding some more welds to the quarter panel seam and grinding them down. Some time over the winter I acquired an electric die grinder (cutter) from HF. Good price on sale so I figured I'd give it a try. Used it last night for the first time. I like it! My 60-gal compressor is an oil-less type, so it is very noisy. So I have the compressor noise and the pheumatic cutter noise both to deal with. This way it is just the cutter. Much nicer and easier on the ears!
Couple of hours and only got about 1/2 of the top seam prepped. I guess I know what I will be doing again tonight. L8r
 
The process with the die grinder and cutting wheel was way too slow. I picked up a 40 grit flap wheel on the way home from work to give it a try. I got as much done in 10 minutes as I did last night in an hour and a half. Plenty of control too using a 4-1/2" grinder. Started stitching the tack welds together and got a few done before I ran outta gas in the welder. I guess I am on vacation until I can get it refilled. This is the first time I have had to refill the bottle since I bought my mig welder, that has been a long time! I guess now it is dinner time.
 
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