71 'cuda finally getting some love after 28 years

[RacerX]

Working on separating the tail panel from the trunk floor, and I am just stunned by the
"workmanship" here...   It seems on par with the sloppy welds on the rear floor pans
though...   

In the pictures, the red circles denote spot welds that MISSED COMPLETELY...  they did not
hit the other panel to be welded.   It was not necessary to drill them, the panels were not
bonded in those locations.    Was this guy drunk?   Just didn't care?   Line moving too fast?

The holes where the spot weld drill went all the way through are places where the spot welder
just barely caught the edge of the second panel.

Also note the red line showing the crappy alignment of the tail panel and trunk floor.   I
guess the mandate in 1970s was slop seam sealer all over it and nobody will see it.   But
wow this is bad even by the stereotypical stories of build quality being poor back in those
days.   

Has anyone seen work like this on their car?   Or did I just get the one built at the end of
the shift on a Friday?     

[RacerX]

Major milestone achieved!     

The rotted trunk floor/frame rails/rear floor assembly is free of the car!   The "sled"
arrangement worked very well.

A few days drilling spot welds and undoing shoddy work from the factory and it was
ready to come out.   Thought we had it free but it wouldn't come, found the small
"gotcha" of the metal tab under the rear floor (circled in red) that isn't present on
the new piece.   Once those were cut on both sides it slid right out!

The new Dynacorn 6000WT trunk floor/frame rail assembly will be installed using
pretty much a reverse of the same process after cleaning up the leftovers of the
spot welds on the rockers and some other repairs.

Nice to see such a major change after chipping away at it for a while!

[RacerX]

Out with the old, in with the new....     

The new one feels heavier than the old one when carrying them.   Perhaps the
50 years of weather-induced weight reduction had a noticeable effect...

Side by side comparison the factory piece looks like crap, like a bunch of backyard yahoos
forced it together with hammers and crowbars.   

[RacerX]

Finally some forward progress on this project...    and a bit of a rant...

Let me begin by saying "at least we have new parts to complain about."   
and "It could be worse...  we could be cutting rusty barely usable pieces out of junkers
as our only source of parts."

SO, the latest batch of AMD parts leaves a bit to be desired....    The rocker panel end cap
is bent in the wrong place.   The bend starts too early and well the result is obvious in the
picture.   The leg is too short and the tail is too long.   Won't work like that.   That part is
fairly easy to fix though...  just flatten it out and bend it again in the correct places.

But shouldn't have to do that.

Next we have the door hinge panels.   The AMD outer one SEEMS OK, but the two inner ones I
received are horrible.  Twisted and bent (they packed them that way, did not happen in shipping) and
has pieces in the wrong place.   Such as one of the nut for the dash bolt is on the WRONG SIDE of
the panel.     Easy enough to fix but shouldn't have to do that...    And if only that was the worst of
the problems with those pieces---

On all four AMD pieces of door hinge supports (inner and outer) the locating notches are hopelessly
wrong.   They don't even match on the AMD pieces.     Seems like it went down like this:

BOSS:   We need locating notches on these parts.
WORKER:   Ok boss.   Where should we put them?
BOSS:   Anywhere you want.   We just need notches. 



Isn't a huge problem, but is a bit annoying.   The other features of the panels are a
fair bit off from originals also.    Don't they model these parts off from originals?

The AMD pieces do not fit together AT ALL.   It is so bad that I am thinking to try to
save my original inner panels and only use the AMD outers, which are tolerable and
seem like they will fit with only mild coaxing.   The inners I fully regret purchasing at
this point.   

This is why I try to do my disassembly in as non-destructive a manner as possible.   If
you just bash your way through it and dig the old metal out without any care at all you
will not have an old part to compare the new one to.    Then when the new one doesn't
fit correctly you do not have a way to help figure out why.   

[RacerX]

The progress I spoke of....

Peeling away the onion so the rocker panel can be replaced.

A bit rusty in there!    Looks like caused by leaks at the bottom of the windshield

[usraptor]

It's been a while since I checked in for some reason. Very impressed with your attention to detail.  Sorry about the mismatched parts but you seem to be able to make the necessary corrections.  Keep up the good work! 

[RacerX]

Major milestone in the cancer surgery achieved....

Removal of the passenger side rocker panel completed and the new AMD rocker set into place for
test fit.

Original plan was to save the inner rocker and replace or patch the outer.   That changed when it was
discovered that the new floor pan I ordered is 71-74 and this car was built with 70 floor and inner
rockers.   Soooo....  we change it all.    Probably a good thing in the long run judging by what was found
after I started digging.

The new inner/outer rocker pair fits reasonably well.   It isn't perfect, but will only take minor massaging
to get it to fit properly.    A huge difference from the piece of crap inner hinge panels AMD sent me.   Those
are 100% junk.

This is where my slding rear frame/floor jig proves it's worth...  I slide the rear clip out of the way
to make working room for rocker removal, and now I can slide it back in to check fit and alignment
against the new rocker.

Next steps here will be to continue the test fit making sure it plays properly with all of the other panels
which were purposely left undisturbed to serve as guides for the new rockers.

Also need to decide on what rust proofing to put on the interior of the rocker before welding the two halves
together.

[Cuda416]

Looking good brother!

[daaboots]

Looking great! I'm pretty jealous of that sweet jig you have