Since it will be a while before I am ready to sand everything and apply epoxy, I sprayed the bare metal black.


Reinstalled the door and then began fitting the rocker panel. This took a very long time as The door had to be aligned to the cab first, then the rocker put on and off until I had it trimmed, fitted and properly aligned.


Finally got it tack welded into position and then removed the door.
I'll finish welding it in tomorrow.

Finished the passenger side as far as the floor and rocker panel installation are concerned.
I'll install the door for now just to get it out of the way.


Moved on to the driver's side and cut the rusted portion of the A-pillar off. All of this looks too familiar.


The cowl vent surround area on this side is rusted too. Found what looks like some kind of nest in there.


Ordered a pint each of the blue and white paint codes just to get an idea of how close they match. This will help the owner decide whether he wants the stock colors or not.
I'll get back at it on Monday.

Looks better than Skips cab believe it or not

Very nice work! I've followed all of your builds. You need to work on more Mopars though

Amazing work and an example of how far things can be brought back into shape by the right guy and the right materials.

Two questions.
What brand patch panels are you using (sorry if this was covered already)
Will you remove the temp black coating before the “real” epoxy primer application?


JT

ct71rr wrote:Very nice work! I've followed all of your builds. You need to work on more Mopars though

The classic Mopars are my personal cars. The 1968 GTX will be next as soon as I finish this and one other project.

RamblerRacer wrote:Amazing work and an example of how far things can be brought back into shape by the right guy and the right materials.

Two questions.
What brand patch panels are you using (sorry if this was covered already)
Will you remove the temp black coating before the “real” epoxy primer application?


JT

They are Triplus patch panels made in Taiwan and sold by AMD and LMC. Each one needs trimming and reshaping at different points to get a proper fit. I prefer not to buy anything made in China.

Removed the rusted lower section of the left A-pillar:


Removed the rusted portion of the kick panel:


Removed the rusted outer floor section:


To give you an idea of how much "adjusting" is involved to get these panels to fit right. Notice that I have cheated the panel forward slightly on the hole alignment:


I expect the patch panel holes to be slightly higher at this point because the patch is sitting on the old metal. However notice that the indentation on patch panel still needs to go forward in order to line up.


Same thing at the raised portion:


Once I get it all aligned and trimmed to fit, I will replace the rusted portion of the floor support.

Here is the cowl vent surround rust on this side:


I will need to fabricate a patch for this as well:

Media blasted everything, cut off the rusted portion of the floor support and welded the patch into place but forgot to take pictures.

Did get the outer floor patch welded in:

Welded the A-pillar and kick panel patches in on the driver's side:


Then the installed the Rocker panel:


What you don't see are the many little cuts made with a 1/16" cutoff wheel in order to get the reproduction panels to actually fit the contours of the existing metal.

Installed the door hinges, doors and the cowl grille panel to get the doors somewhat close in alignment.



The passenger door seems to be original where the driver's door has been replaced.
Notice the mirror mounting holes and trim holes on the passenger door.


The driver's door had a replacement mirror installed that didn't use the lower mounting hole in the door. It also had no trim mounting holes so I had to measure the hole locations and sizes from the passenger's door and then drill them into the driver's door:


Now the owner needs to decide which mirrors he will be using so I can weld up the unecessary holes and/or drill new ones.
I still have a few spots of rusted metal to cut out and fabricate patches for and then I can move on to some hammer and dolly work.