Mopar Muscle Association UK

Wow Your're doing a fantastic job, it's great to see someone with so much talent doing it on thier own car, keep the pics and the write ups coming.

Thank you all so much for your comments. There is always that question in the back of your head when you are doing something new “am I doing this right?” So to hear feedback from people whom have been in the Mopar game for so long is, well, it definitely inspires confidence and fuels me to keep going. So thank you!

I am inspecting each part coming off to see how it was assembled and trying really hard to weld it back in the same way. I count spot welds and add an extra few just to feel “safe”

So far the AMD parts have been great. I have had to install the wheel wells about half an inch lower than oem in order for them to comfortably meet the quarter, and the side trunk extension needed to be “re worked” a little. Other than that everything is coming together really well.

Most of the time spent is test fitting. Honestly, quarter panels have been on and of so many times I can literally slot them on and off now all on my own, which is great as I don’t have to keep calling the mrs out to help!

I am at the stage of test fitting everything currently. I have jumped the gun quite a bit on this post, as I’m going to transition this thread using this post in to where I am today, and then continue from here as I will be able to be a little more organised and thorough with these posts.

All the old rusty parts are out and gone, the frame rails, wheel wells, rockers are welded in. The car is cleaned of any rust, deagreased, rust protected and over coated with POR-15 and weld primed. I used bedliner in the inside of the quarters by upol, I like the textured finish inside the quarters and I also like that it is a quality product, and that it plays part in deadening sound. It splurged a little but il sort that tomorrow by flattening then going over with a light coat, and make it look pretty! The holes for the passenger side welds are all now made and that quarter should not need to come off again. Il do the right side tomorrow.

I also had have blasted and prepped my suspension parts. Rebuilt leaf springs ready for re installation. I did not get them tempered, I feel this may be something il live to regret. Il decided what to do with this part of the build after the car is running.

I also need to order a plenum for underneath the deck lid and trunk gutters, I seem to have missed these when I ordered my parts aaaargh!!

All I can say is have huge respect for people who do this for a living. It is honestly a test of ones patience, passion and stamina. Just thinking about it gets tiring sometimes Hence, Matt H, I make you right. An hour or two a night is the way forward when feeling in inspired. Although the car is currently taking most of my weekends

Enjoy the pics, and thanks for reading! Il add more tomorrow with real good progress!

Great work....looking like a car again!! Thanks for the update and great photos.

Cheers Steve

MattH wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 21 1:40 pm
The beauty of the forum is that it becomes a valuable reference and the images and commentary you have started here will be valuable to so many in the future.

MMA forum 1 - 0 Facebook

As long as all your photos don't get lost in a freak backing up glitch

Great work

amazing work

and if nasa can make good use of plastic conduit so can the rest of us


you say you didn't know how to do this!!!!

i can only look in in amazement, fantastic, i can usually work out what i need to do, but when i execute the plan its always a bit rubbish and i end up doing it 3 times to get to just about acceptable

you seem to have the Planning and the skills all sewn up

what an effort and what a fantastic result.

post up everything you like....every car thing i ever did started with seeing it in the flesh or on the net, wondering, planning and then trying to do it,
internet boards provide the information and inspiration, they really help with the ideas and planning.
more people doing it RIGHT with the correct info posting...Its a pleasure to read

i'm already thinking maybe i should just weld a couple of new hangers onto my exhaust....Myself....thats a big step for me, my best welds are usually the ones that accidentally connect the piece to the workbench

hobbyweld here i come


see......inspiration.....! i might get off my backside and do something
.

Dave

As you’ve already found out these cars were just chucked together, panel gaps were uneven, there were runs in the paint and a fair amount of sheet metal had no paint on it at all. Much as you might try to build your car like the factory did, it will be a far superior product as you will take so much more care than any line assembly worker ever did. Americans especially tend to over restore cars, they want flawless and these cars were far from that. One of the inner wings on my car had been so badly fitted from the factory, I had to cut all the spot welds and re fit it correctly.

Wow, thank you all so much for your wonderful comments! I come here to share my build with interested and like minded people as I’m struggling to get that from family and close friends. I never realised I was also signing up for inspiration and drive because honestly, your comments I making me try just that little harder each day!

From the bottom of my heart thank you so much for the kind words written.

Today was final Adjustments and test fit, ready for welding. I have propelled this thread now to bring up to date. In days that I can’t get to work on the car, il revisit jobs Iv done just to keep this thread going and interesting, as there is so much been done that I have not covered yet.

Next up....

VALENCE CORNERS!!!

And rear arse test fit from this point I’m hoping to not have to re take any panels off.

Valence corners.... Huge topic worthy of a thread of their own. Basically, nothing gets finalised until these little guys are sitting happy. I was incredibly nervous about this stage, as if these guys sit wrong, it means Iv been doing it wrong. Besides, dodgy corner valences stick out like a saw thumb, don’t they?

My plan is to weld back from this point after welding these in correctly fitted only to the quarter or the rear valance. It seems that, if I was to weld and finish them in place then il be restricted to get right the trunk extensions, so by only welding them to either the quarter, or the rear valance, I should still have ability to flex in order to get the rest of the arse of the car lined up.

Today I drilled out weld holes and por~15 the inside of all panels installed. I used u~poll raptor bedliner for the inside of the quarters and painted the inside of the rear valence, trunk extensions, rear light cluster and valence corners with por-15. I also primed all holes for welding using u~polls no 2. I hope I have done enough to have confidence that this car exposable to the elements to atleast some degree! I won’t be driving in the wet, and the car will be kept in a barn but I would like to know that it can withstand some degree of weather abuse if it needs to!

I will be doing a little adjusting to get the bottom of the outer wheel wells to meet the quarter panel n the lip of the arch as it doesn’t seem to want to meet. I know it’s in the rights place as every thing ales is on point so I’m going to assume this is either a build issue with my car, or a pattern part stamping issue.

Also, some of my welds were really not nice to look at today. It was spitting and splattering on a few of the welds. Sometimes I think my welder has a mood of its own. They were strong welds so it’s all good and thank god they will remain under the quarter so that’s that!

Anyhow, enjoy this pics, and thanks for being interested and reading my post

Pattern panels never do fit each other without some amount of massaging, AMD are as good as it gets but even their stuff needs some degree of work. I can accept that but what really drives me mad is other reproduction parts that don't fit or don't look correct, there's just no excuse for that. I can understand now why high end restorers insist on NOS parts at whatever cost. Biggest issue I've found with welders is the electrical supply, you want a good stout cable that's as short as possible, no doubt you already know that.

This is epic. I know how chuffed I was with the couple of little patches I put in mine, so you enjoy the satisfaction you'll get from this and no, your friends and family probably wont get it, but we do

Now that looks damm good

Dom66 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 21 11:34 am your friends and family probably wont get it, but we do

Very true, to most of them it'll just be a rusty old car. Keep going, keep posting.

don't worry when you put the axle back in if one wheel sticks out 1/2 an inch more than the other

they are all like that

same at the front 1 upper A arm mount is likely to be arriving everywhere a fraction of a second before the other

nobody ever worked out if it was a deliberate attempt to cater for (USA LHD) road camber or a 1 eyed chap in the chassis welding section of the line

Dave

Dave999 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 21 10:30 pm don't worry when you put the axle back in if one wheel sticks out 1/2 an inch more than the other

they are all like that

same at the front 1 upper A arm mount is likely to be arriving everywhere a fraction of a second before the other

nobody ever worked out if it was a deliberate attempt to cater for (USA LHD) road camber or a 1 eyed chap in the chassis welding section of the line

Dave

Thanks for the heads up! That is the kinda of thing that would drive my OCD crazy

Blue wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 21 9:03 am Pattern panels never do fit each other without some amount of massaging, AMD are as good as it gets but even their stuff needs some degree of work. I can accept that but what really drives me mad is other reproduction parts that don't fit or don't look correct, there's just no excuse for that. I can understand now why high end restorers insist on NOS parts at whatever cost. Biggest issue I've found with welders is the electrical supply, you want a good stout cable that's as short as possible, no doubt you already know that.

Yes indeed. Till now, the quarter panels and trunk floor have been great, pretty much slipped straight in! However, the trunk extensions and wheel wells, have been an absolute nightmare to be honest. Pretty much have to re fabricate them, trim nits off, add bits on.

The trick is knowing that you’ll need trick them to work…. If you spend your money thinking these baby’s will slot right in, your gonna be heart broken