My GY8 '71 Road Runner

[ct71rr]

Continuing on with the cowl, I started welding in the inner fenders to the cowl. Before I did that, I wanted to extend the hood mounting plates that attach to the cowl and inner fenders. These were about 3/16” short of the cowl. I sliced them vertically and added a strip of metal. I did this because I wanted to keep the measurements the same as original. If I removed the mounting plates and slid them over, as is, the captured nuts for mounting the hood would have been inboard 3/16”. I was afraid this would mess with the hood alignment. I also noticed the tabs on top of these mounts, that attach to the top of the cowl, are the wrong shape. After getting those extended, I welded them in. I also wanted to get the inner fender to cowl braces blasted and epoxied. Good thing I still have my pile of old parts I removed. I totally forgot to remove the driver’s side brace from the inner fender I removed about a year ago. I got that off and blasted both.

Hood mounting plates, a little short:

Sliced:

Fixed:

Tab, original/new:

Welded in:

almost tossed this:

One blasted:

Both:

Mocked in:

Lines up with original spot weld:

I ran out of time, also it’s a little too cold to spray epoxy today. I’ll get the braces in epoxy sometime this week, hopefully. And then get them welded in.

Thanks for looking!

 

[HawkRod]

Continuing on with the cowl, I started welding in the inner fenders to the cowl. Before I did that, I wanted to extend the hood mounting plates that attach to the cowl and inner fenders. These were about 3/16” short of the cowl. I sliced them vertically and added a strip of metal. I did this because I wanted to keep the measurements the same as original. If I removed the mounting plates and slid them over, as is, the captured nuts for mounting the hood would have been inboard 3/16”. I was afraid this would mess with the hood alignment. I also noticed the tabs on top of these mounts, that attach to the top of the cowl, are the wrong shape. After getting those extended, I welded them in. I also wanted to get the inner fender to cowl braces blasted and epoxied. Good thing I still have my pile of old parts I removed. I totally forgot to remove the driver’s side brace from the inner fender I removed about a year ago. I got that off and blasted both.

Hood mounting plates, a little short:
View attachment 1274968

Sliced:
View attachment 1274971

Fixed:
View attachment 1274970

Tab, original/new:
View attachment 1274969

Welded in:
View attachment 1274972

almost tossed this:
View attachment 1274973

One blasted:
View attachment 1274974

Both:
View attachment 1274975

Mocked in:
View attachment 1274976

Lines up with original spot weld:
View attachment 1274977

I ran out of time, also it’s a little too cold to spray epoxy today. I’ll get the braces in epoxy sometime this week, hopefully. And then get them welded in.

Thanks for looking!

Impressive work - it'll payoff in the end!

 

[71Beeper]

CT - get rid of those stock braces and go with the US cartool ones.

Stronger than the stock ones.

 

[ct71rr]

CT - get rid of those stock braces and go with the US cartool ones.
View attachment 1275399

Stronger than the stock ones.

I thought about those. How much modification, if any, did you do to get them to fit? I thought I read on another members thread where they had to modify them.

 

[ct71rr]

I forgot to post some pics of the tabs I had to modify to match the originals.

New v. Original:

You can see rust mark of original shape:

Fixed:

 

[71Beeper]

How much modification, if any, did you do to get them to fit? I thought I read on another members thread where they had to modify them.

ct - the plates that fit on the underside of the shock mounts need to be modified, but not by much.
If I can do it, then you can certainly do it.
FYI - us cartool only make them for E-body (don't know why they don't make em for 71-74 B-bodies) that's what I have on mine.

 

[ct71rr]

ct - the plates that fit on the underside of the shock mounts need to be modified, but not by much.
If I can do it, then you can certainly do it.
FYI - us cartool only make them for E-body (don't know why they don't make em for 71-74 B-bodies) that's what I have on mine.

Thanks for the idea Beeper but, in the interest of staying on track, I’m going to roll with the originals. I got to get this thing done. Plus, I’m not thinking of dropping a torque monster in the bay.

 

[ct71rr]

Progress; I got the inner fender supports in SPI epoxy. I then welded them in. I also welded in the wire tabs along the driver’s inner wheel well.

Epoxy:

Welded in:

Tabs in:

And another acorn shell fell out of the trunk lid...

Thanks for looking!!

 

[ct71rr]

This weekend I decided to continue working on the front end. Both of my front rocker end caps are toasty so I decided to replace them. A while back, I purchased a replacement cap for an E Body hoping that it would be close enough to use...nope. Since end caps are not reproduced for my car, I had to make them myself - - or try to. I started on the passenger’s side. After removing this, I found the remains of a rodents - old acorns, nesting material, etc. I vacuumed this all out and used my DIY rocker panel vacuum attachment to get all the way inside. It looks kind of like a light saber - cool! I also found the same evidence of rodent infestation in the driver’s side, after removing that end cap. After removing the driver’s side, I flattened the flanges out to make a posterboard template from it. I then transferred this to sheet metal and cut it out. I didn’t realize, until after I made both replacements, that the end caps differ from side to side. The passenger’s side is much shorter. I then trimmed the passenger’s side end cap to fit. I then spayed the back side of both end caps with Eastwood’s internal frame paint. I also hosed down the inside of the rockers, as well. After welding in the passenger’s side, I started on the driver’s side. The end of the rocker on this side was pretty pitted. I also found a hole in the top of the rocker. I then cut out the piece I needed from a patch panel I purchased many year ago. I had to extend the bottom flange about an inch on the bottom. While welding in the patch for the top of the rocker, I ran out of welding gas. It took me a bit to figure out why I was having trouble welding this patch in. Damn!

Passenger’ side:

Driver’s side:

FU Rodents!!

Part of the nest:

Vacuum attachment:

Use the force!

Jam it in, that’s what she said!:

Driver’s side:

Original caps with E-Body repro part:

Making the template:

Transferring to metal:

 

[ct71rr]

More:
New piece under original:

New end caps next to originals:

Backs sprayed:

Rocker panel:

Added 1 inch to bottom flange:

Passenger’s side welded in:

Need to remove this:

Hard to see, there’s a hole up there:

Parts coated - back side:

Inner rocker coated, hole patched - need to clean up though:

I need to get more gas, hopefully tomorrow. Thanks for looking!!

 

[chargervert]

Those effing rodents get into every part of your car and destroy it from the inside out!

 

[ct71rr]

They do!! Acorn shells are still falling out of my trunk lid. I’ve already cleaned out about 5 good sized nests.

 

[ct71rr]

Part of the reason I ran out of gas last week was my mig gun’s gas was not shutting off when I released the trigger. The gas would either stay completely on or release a small constant flow that I couldn’t hear. I tracked it down to the valve body in the gun. The plunger/valve was sticking slightly after releasing the trigger and not sealing all the way causing the gas to sneak by. I sprayed some WD40 on the plunger and this seems to have solved the issue.

I was able to weld in the outer rocker patch on the driver’s side and the outer rocker end plate. I then moved on to replacing the radiator support. Mine was pretty dented up and rusty. The AMD replacement radiator support was missing the flanges that attach to the inside of the frame rails. This also left a gap visible between the support and the frame rail (forgot to take a pic). This gap was about 1/4” at the top, tapering to almost nothing at the bottom. I cut the flanges off of my original support and welded them on. I also found the bends on the flanges that attach to the bottoms of the frame rails to be off, as well. I had to rebend the angles as the are suppose to be flush with the flanges that attache to the outside of the frame rail. I then sprayed all of the surfaces that would be welded together with inner frame rail paint. I think this offers more protection over copper weld through primer. I found that the copper primer scratches off way to easily.

Gas valve on my mig gun:

Outer rocker patch and end cap :

Dented up:

Flange bent too high. Needs to be where red line is:

Missing flanges:

Cut off:

Welded on:

 

[ct71rr]

More:
There was a gap here originally, because of missing flanges:

Painted:

Welded in:

Flanges:

Make the noise!:

Thanks for looking!!

 

[ct71rr]

Hello all, I had some time this weekend to do a few things. The lower flange on the passenger’s side cowl side panel was scaly and crusty so, I decided to replace it. The outer rocker in this area was a little scaly, as well. And I found a small hole on the bottom of the outer rocker. I patched the really bad section, welded up the hole and treated the area with Ospho.

Scaly section (forgot to take pic of flange):

Patched outer rocker:

Patched flange:

Thanks for looking!

 

[Snook]

Great job!

Chuck (snook)

 

[ct71rr]

I got some more work done today. The passenger’s side lower splash shield is dented pretty good on my car. I tried banging, pulling, heating and hammering with no luck. It’s pretty tuff getting behind it to give it a good whack to begin with. I decided to take a gamble on the E-Body replacement piece from AMD. Looking at the pics on their website, it looks identical (to me anyway). I’m happy to say, the pieces are identical! So, out with the old and in with the new. I wish it was that easy. This splash shield gave me a good ***-kicking. This was by far the most difficult piece I have removed yet. I’m not exactly sure why. It fought me the entire way.
I’m happy to say I got the new piece in but will have to go back and touch-up some of my shitty plug-welds. I also cleaned up the welds along the inside of the firewall.

Lower Splash Shield (old and new):

Dent:

Removed:

I had to extend the flange. 1/2” to 1/16” left to right:

Installed:

Firewall welds touched up:

Thank for looking!

 

[440jimr]

Very nice work. I really appreciate the detailed installation photos and description of each piece as you install them!

 

[ct71rr]

I didn’t have much time to work on the Road Runner this weekend. I was able to patch two small areas on the passenger’s side cowl side panel (black marker). There two areas were pin-holed from rust. I was thinking of welding the holes closed but the metal was a bit thin.

Patch areas:

Patched:

 

[71Beeper]

Interesting that your panel needs work. The drivers side on mine were okay, it was the edge that needed work.