My 69 Road Runner

[hunt2elk]

VERY Nice... I cheated and just stuck mine in the Evaporust bucket. (tip for the lazier ones, like me)
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I like that stuff too, but am always torn as to what to do after the parts come out. If left bare, I'm sure they will rust again in short order. So in my mind it has to be painted. Might as well just blast and epoxy prime so as to never have to worry about corrosion again?

 

[dadsbee]

I hear yah. I just figured it lasted 50 years with only lightly rusting so I wasn't going to tear it apart, since the bearings all had no play in them. Dunk, paint the pedals and sprayed the bare metal with gun oil. I'm never crawling in there again.. I hope! lol Don't let me stop you from doing it RIGHT, like I said tips for the lazy!

 

[hunt2elk]

I am going to back up a month to get caught up to where I am at in the project.
Since the biggest point of this redo was to address some issues on the bottom of the car and it would be blasted clean, I decided to stiffen up the car somewhat. This is the first car that I ever tied the frames together on, did it about 10 years ago. I used 1.5" x 2.5" .125" tubing. Cut the back at an angle and butted the front to the torsion bar support. This actually works quite well as all 3 brake and fuel lines clear with no mods. On my last 3 cars I went a bit farther and put a piece of flat stock at the front to spread the load out and also have a custom channel bent to wrap around the rear of the connector and frame rail stub. Decided to cut out my connectors and try the USCT style for the first time as well as add torque boxes (which I have also put on my last 2 cars). Pics of what I cut out.

 

[hunt2elk]

The USCT is a cool idea and looks good once installed, but does have drawbacks imo. I had to extend the notch on the left rail a bit to get my brake line through. Not much and not a big deal. What was a big deal was getting an access hole for the e-brake cable. I got everything lined up, cut slots, and welded in a piece of 1/2" black pipe. Then onto the right side. The slot for the fuel line had to be really modified. I think it ended up at over 6 inches. I can get my line through now, but it is a bugger. I am certain I will be touching up the paint after the line is installed. What I didn't like (and I know there was a discussion about this recently), is how flimsy things were after my mods. So I welded in flat stock to help matters as best I could. Might not do much, but makes me feel better. Scrapped off the old paint and pushed the car outside. Got on my back with my portable sand blaster and went to town. That is not a fun job by the way. I then sprayed epoxy primer where the channels go as well as inside the channels. Cleaned up the edges where the weld will be and sprayed weld through primer there. In hindsight, with all the time it took on these rails, I don't believe I would ever use them again. They do look cool though.

 

[hunt2elk]

After modifying for the lines, there is still the matter of test fitting and grinding so they butt up to the floorpan nice. Then it is a whole bunch of tack welds. It doesn't look terrible, but I think I will smear some seam sealer over the welds before paint. Lots of time went into getting these installed...

 

[69 GTX]

My set must of been before they put cut outs for lines in. I put holes in after the fact. I like you, spent a lot of time making them fit really nice. However when done it looks factory and much stiffer than just tubing connecting front to back without tying to floor pan. I put lizard skin on the bottom of mine which pretty much covered the welds.

 

[747mopar]

After modifying for the lines, there is still the matter of test fitting and grinding so they butt up to the floorpan nice. Then it is a whole bunch of tack welds. It doesn't look terrible, but I think I will smear some seam sealer over the welds before paint. Lots of time went into getting these installed...

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Excellent work, looks top notch.

 

[69 GTX]

You will be amazed how much flex the connectors, torque boxes, front stub braces, and front inner fender braces make. I wanted to make sure racing this car wouldn't do damage to the paint body work. I also welded the seam on The Dutchman panel below the window and smoothed it. Hopefully that isn't a mistake.

 

[hunt2elk]

I put lizard skin on the bottom of mine which pretty much covered the welds.

What is lizard skin, a bedliner spray?

 

[hunt2elk]

On to the torque boxes. This is the third set of these I have installed so knew what to expect. Nothing to major. Some tweaking here and there as well as adding metal to some spots to get them to fit nice.

 

[hunt2elk]

At this point I was thinking of replacing the lower radiator support with a USCT piece since I am in the stiffening mode. Couldn't find any in stock, so called them directly to find out when they would be available. Talked to John who I believe is the owner. Heck of a nice guy and very helpful. He told me that the radiator support would do nothing for me since I wasn't running coil overs, but did say that adding inner fender braces and welding the floor to firewall seam solid would. Apparently they have done quite a bit of testing of these old Mopars and body flex. So that is the route I went. Same deal as the connectors and torque boxes - I pushed the shell outside and blasted the areas that will be covered up. Then epoxy primer before welding.

 

[hunt2elk]

.

 

[hunt2elk]

Luckily I checked the fitment of the splash shields before blasting and painting them. These had to be modified to fit around the new inner fender braces.

 

[dadsbee]

Man I thought you were working really fast... then it dawned on me I've heard some of this before.. LOL

 

[hunt2elk]

Man I thought you were working really fast... then it dawned on me I've heard some of this before.. LOL

Just getting this thread up to date Wayne. Actually wasn't going to do a build thread on this one because as you know it is rather time consuming, but a couple of members talked me into it. And I don't go into 1/100th of the detail that you do . Not working fast at all as it has been torn apart for 2 months now. One more little thing and we are all up to date....

 

[ct71rr]

A lot of nice work there! What torque boxes did you go with?

 

[hunt2elk]

Not really certain what the reasoning was for these 2 - 1.5" holes drilled in the firewall. They were there when the guy brought the car here from Texas. Found a hole saw that was close and zipped through some 18 gauge. Couple of custom bends, and welded them in. Should totally disappear during sand blasting. I have been putting a 1 inch hole on my cars in that general location however. Put in a rubber grommet and fill the hole with the wires for the wire around bulkhead connector/amp gauge MADD bypass, mechanical oil and water temp senders, and A/F gauge wiring. Just enough room left over to get a vacuum line through when I have a gauge in the car for carb tuning.

 

[hunt2elk]

And the finished product.

 

[hunt2elk]

A lot of nice work there! What torque boxes did you go with?

US Cartool.

 

[69 GTX]

Lizard skin has sound and thermal coatings that are water soluble. I used sound in the cabin & thermal on the under caridge. I have a gun if you decide to go that way. Painted over it.