Yeah, its the first time I had seen upside down on blocks but I looked at all the points where contact was made and nothing was stressed under the weight so I guess it works. The guy doing it has been restoring mopars for decades so I guess he knows what works and what doesn't. But yeah, I gave it a strange look when I walked in and saw it off the rotisserie on jack stands and milk crates in that orientation.
Work looks impressive, but it's a shame you added frame connectors in my opinion...just reined the value of an original car...
I promise you, if I ever sell it, and the market at the time makes it worth it, I will cut those things off, grind down the welds and repaint like there was nothing there, put the column shift and auto back in, and put the wheels and tires back to stock. If it was numbers matching I wouldn't have changed a thing. But that debate can go on and on. I hear you though.
Larry, so rather than welding up to an existing vert upper quarter my body guy used a complete new amd quarter and cut along the line of the old quarter where it mates with the vert trim. You have to recess the edge a little to match up as well and under the trunk filler there is a piece that has to be shaped and tucked under. Once the car is right side up again I'll take some pictures.
So also, I've been doing some experimenting with that grain texture and I think I've got something here that may be of use to others here. Basically at the moment I have more time than money so it makes this worth it, but I've got a lot of beat up plastic that some day I'd probably replace but if I can make it look good for a few more years, I'll opt for that. I know there's no real solution for revitalizing plastic that has lost all its plasticizers but I was able to fix a lot of cracks, reinforce some areas really well and lastly, get a great result in finishing a repair with the grain reproduced - well as an experiment any way.
Watch you tube for some videos on using a soldering iron for repairing cracks and reinforcing with copper wire. It works. Also I did some research and did some experiments and here's what works I've found. Buy Alginate molding material - you can get it on amazon. You won't need more than a pound. Mix it and apply to a very clean piece of trim with the grain, try to tap out any bubbles. Give it the better part of a day to dry out then it should easily peel off the trim. Next sand your repair down and clean well. Apply a film of plastic bonding epoxy, I used the Locktite brand on amazon. Then press your new Alginate mold onto the epoxy with a block or roller with a couple pounds of pressure, not too much though, try to roll it on to work out any bubbles. Just leave it set for 12- 24 hour and then it should peel off real easy leaving a beautiful grain behind.
Next I gotta find a black abs dye that won't build up too much and obscure the new grain and try it on a non-test piece. The pictures below are, close up of the mold texture copy, a copper wire reinforcing a crack prior to sinking it deeper in the plastic, a screw hole that had cracked, reinforced with a loop of copper wire (already sunk in and covered, and a finished epoxy grain transfer on a test piece of abs.