72 Satellite floor replacement

[tunnelrat81]

So this is what I'm dealing with. I bought my car about a year ago in hopes of fixing it up and driving it. It's my first musclecar and I may have gotten a little over my head. I knew the trunk pan needed replacing but when I took out the back seat and ripped up the carpet more rust and upon closer inspection the right frame rail is also shot, however I only paid the guy $1000 for the car so I knew it needed work. Shortly after finding the rust I realized how expensive replacement panelsare, so I found a 73 in a junk yard an convinced the guy to cut the car in half. Witch was a score cause he did this for only $250. Now here is my problem. I got the half car reduced to nothing but floor, frame rails, and the tail panel. Since my car needs at least 1 rail should I just replace both with the spring connections? If so how would you support the car? If not how should I proceed? The 72 hasn't been cut on yet and I'm reluctant to do anything until I get some professional feedback

 

[tunnelrat81]

pics of the project

Sorry about the angle my garage isn't that big.

 

[Propwash]

I would recommend going over to the "Member restoration threads." A lot of us there have replaced rails or sections of them and there's a bunch of good real world jig, braces and reinforcement pic's to give you piece of mind. As far as your scenario..A couple questions. Is your '72 on a rotisserie? Did you plan on putting the car on a movable jig or keep it stationary with stands? First thing you want to do is arm yourself with a ton of pictures/drawings and reference measurements before sawing anything apart. That's a huge part of coming out on the winning end of things when all said and done. From there it's a matter of how the car is going to be staged for working on. If it's on stands, use a plumb bob, tape measure or laser measure to take reference measurements. On a rolling jig, sorta the same except measurements to the jig or build the jig up to meet the old metal and use as a template for the new. On a rotisserie, well take 4 times as many measurements to include a ton of muti-directional measurement, because you will have a limited amount of stationary measurement references (car itself).

 

[tunnelrat81]

I was planing on supporting the car on stands and keeping it stationery, but when I pull the entire under carriage outthe only place for stands is mid car. Is that a bad idea? I will definitely look at the member restoration threads and thanks for your help.

 

[Propwash]

Hey no problem. Tough one....Basically you're talking about halving the car instead or replacing piece by piece. Got to say that's going to be a fun build. Detmatt did something sort of similar with hid Junkyard Dog ('68 Roadrunner). He replaced the entire rear core with a donor section. His thread is over there as well. Good luck and keep us posted. Sounds pretty cool.