The Dark Horse project

[rtgambit]

rtgambit you might want to make sure your rear valence will match up to your quarters.  When I put mine up, I found that the one quarter that I didn't do, didn't align correctly.  I had to break all the welds to the inner trunk extention to fix it and that wasn't fun.

Thanks for the heads up! I haven't welded the quarter to the trunk extension yet, so I'll pull out the rear valence and check things out before I do anything permanent.

[gomopar440]

Holy moley! Talk about major surgery!  After seeing that I'm actually happy with the amount of rust on my car!

Yea it was a mess. I had to put the entirely new floor sections front and back as well as the full trunk floor, both dropoffs and outer wheel houses, both quarters. As if that wasnt enough, we threw in the mini-tub job right in the middle of all that.

Next on the list is some structural reinforcement. I'm going to replace the bad rear lower sub frame sections on both sides with a MP 3" spring relocation kit. The sections that the relo kit replaces look like swiss cheese right now. Here's what's coming out soon. http://www.moparnuts.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3427&d=1148966624

While that's going in I'll also be adding the MP subframe connectors (yes, right through the new floor pans ) and some custom torque boxes from Auto Rust Tech. I had them make them without the access holes since I wont be using the bolt on forward spring perches after the relo kit is installed.

[Four-Forty-fied]

Hey gomopar440, have you seen the subframe connectors from US Car Tool? No need to cut the new floor pans as they follow the floor contour. They work with torque boxes, but I don't know about the 3" spring kit.

http://uscartool.com/

I bought them, but have not installed them yet.

[gomopar440]

Yea, I've seen them. I belive that the solid square tube type that I already bought will be stronger than the sheet metal ones from US Car Tool. I got my torque boxes from Auto Rust Tech for the same reason. The ART ones are much thicker (12 ga) than the more correct looking ones from Harms(16-18 ga?). With an estimated 650 hp at the crank on the new engine, I'm planning on making the unibody as solid/strong as I possibly can. I'm doing it this way mostly because of the amount of rust I've had to deal with in this car. Some of it is in structural areas so the stronger I make the less I have to worry about it.

If I had a crystal ball I'd see a lot of this in my car's future. Right now all I see is this...

[rtgambit]

No updates for yesterday - got to swap shifts with the other supervisor so I could play baseball last night. We lost. 

Today is Sarah's and my 5th anniversary, so I didn't spend all morning in the garage. We went out for breakfest at our favourite place (Smitty's!), and then went grocery shopping for a while. I finally got outside a little after 12, so I got a bit of work done.

As per the suggestion of HemiDog I pulled the rear valence out to make sure that things were lining up properly. I still need to drill holes in the extensions and bottom of quarter panels, but things are looking pretty close.

I started off by trimming a small amount of excess from the quarter panel patch.



Everything looks good! I've got it stitched into place along the top of the seam. The bottom portions will need to be reshaped slightly to get everything to mate properly.



The rear valence. Needs a little work.



Another shot of the rear of the car. I can't believe what a difference the quarter panels make for the overall look of the car. It's coming together! 

[Street_Challenged73]

Very nice!!!  It really does change the appearance of the car once fresh quarters are put on.  Best of all, no rust!!!!

[rtgambit]

More updates!

While I'm waiting on information about the distance between the quarters I decided to tackle some of the other problem areas on the car. First up is the hole in the inner wheelhouse on the drivers side.

This rusted completely through, and from the looks of it, it started in the passenger compartment. Maybe having the PO park it outside without a back window had something to do with it? 



A shot underneath from the wheelwell.



This is another one of the pieces I salvaged from the parts car. Here I'm roughing the size out and then went through the process of trimming the excess until it fit the replacement area.



Replacement section half-welded in. Not a whole lot of room to work with here!



Another shot underneath. I ground down the undercoating to make sure I got a good weld area. This stuff is almost as hard as rock in some places! When I was cutting the replacement section out I went through 3 cutting wheels!

[A110235]

Great work man!  I know what you mean about that undercoating being a pain.  I had pretty good luck scraping it off after I heated the crap out of it with a heat gun for a while.

Kyle

[rtgambit]

Great work man!  I know what you mean about that undercoating being a pain.  I had pretty good luck scraping it off after I heated the crap out of it with a heat gun for a while.

Kyle

Hmm... I don't have a heat gun, but I do have a propane torch in my plumbing kit. I might give that a try when I get the car mounted back on the rotisserie.

When I cut the floor out of the parts car I used diesel to dissolve the undercoating. The only downside was that I went through a lot of paper towels and shop rags.

[A110235]

I do have a propane torch in my plumbing kit.

Yep, that works great also. 

[rtgambit]

While I'm at it I should also post the latest update, shouldn't I?  


The section on the right is the seat area that I cut from the car. The one on the left is from the parts car.



The hole in the seat got bigger!



Getting the replacement section trimmed properly. Still needs a little more before I can weld this into place.

[rtgambit]

Today's update is brought to you by Kirkland Signatures water. I went through enough of it over the weekend that they should be sponsoring the car!


Putting the final touches on the seat area.



Everything welded tight. Just need to finish grinding the welds down smooth.



This is the forward section of the drivers side wheelhouse. Lots of rusties in here!



Template made up for the section of wheelhouse.



This is the part on other side of the wheelhouse, which is normally an extension of the passenger seat area.



Inner part welded in.



Outer section welded in.


Woo! What's next?

[MOPAR FANATIC]

  HOLY BUCKETS, and i thought i had to do some work on my chally.you are
doing one heck of a job on it.  looking great 

[rtgambit]

Well, it's pretty much as I figured, with Abigail here it's kinda hard to tear myself away to work on the car. Or that's how it's been for the past couple of weeks. Wow, crazy to think that I've been a Dad for almost 2 weeks now. 

Anyways, I got a little bit of work done a few days before Abby was born.

I put the 4 speed hump into the sandblast cabinet for some work previously. Now I'm finishing the job.


A little more rust gone, and you can see where the metal needs to be replaced.


Roughing in the final area where the cuts need to be made (remember this floor was from an automatic parts car).

[Jacksboys]

Wow!
You have a lot more desire to finish that car than I would have.  I know that E-bodies are high priced,  but I would have tried to buy one in a little better shape. I give you a bunch of credit for taking on that project.  Also you are very good at fabricating and welding.  Keep up the hard work, I cannot wait to see it finished.