72' Cuda 340 4 spd teardown

[William H Meister]

Hello:
A quick update on the teardown process. Thanks to members help with the steering column removal. I have found three or four areas with moderate to severe rust and would like opinions on if they can be repaired with or without new panels.
1/ Underbattery tray, perforation, can it be patched?
2/ Rear window channel,best way to repair. Only one bad corner.
3/ Upper cowl rusted from inside, crack and thinning around fender
    brace but mostly surface rust.
4/ Floor pans have some pin holes.
Planning on media blasting and priming next.

Thanks

Bill

[femtnmax]

Some folks media blast first, then see how bad the panels look.   One car on this forum, the roof looked like swiss cheese when the blasting was done, obviously needed a new roof skin.
Patching panels is time consuming and requires perfection so you don't warp the panel due to the heat of welding.   So is the time spent there less expensive for you than buying a new skin??     I'm not the best welder of thin gage sheet metal, and the paint shop warned me that cutting and patching panels can eat up a lot of hours shop labor (fitting, welding, smoothing weld seam, bondo, etc) They recommended replacing complete panels, which is the direction I'm going.  I hate to spend $$$ on a good paint job and have rust start poking thru later on.
JMHO.   

[e-tek]

Funny the advise you get sometimes...
Looks like a large part of your concern is the area under the dash - looks like it was submerged in salt water for 20ryears!! I'm not sure how far you want to go, but it's unlikely you'd want to sand blast up in there.... it's the perfect application for metalready and POR15, or some some such product. Spray all the rust with a phoshate product, wipe it down, then brush on, r spray, the rustpaint. The sound deadener and dash covers it all.
As for the sheet metal - I'd replace with new. period. Cut patch for under battery tray. Cut two patch panel strips for rr window - MoparAction (or MMuscle?) just did this operation...  Pin holes in floors...tougher call - just a few? I might use kitty-hair fibreglass repair....more? Replace pan. Check out www.autobodystore.com 's forum - best for bodywork!

[William H Meister]

 :thumbsup:Thanks for the feedback, I will be media blasting soon. Will post the pics.
Bill

[E-Body Products]

I tend to agree with the post regarding panel replacement to a degree.  It depends on how big the area is.  This is a judgement call.  However, I have see where a small area is actually larger than expected.

You can check out my website for pictures of panels that I have installed.  The one piece floor is a job to install, but the results are great when done.

If you need replacement panels you can send me an e-mail for a quote.  I am a Sherman and AMD dealer.

Thanks,

Daniel Jones
www.ebodyproducts.com
dj1965@mikrotec.com