69 Barracuda FB. The next evolution

[gomopar440]

Today I tried the welder on the thinner sheet metal of the trunk drop off. The bent angle piece welded fine to the new patch, since they were both new 18ga material. Wherever I had to weld the new metal to the old stuff, it was hit or miss, depending mostly on whether or not the old metal was thinned out by rust. I had a few blow-throughs on the thin areas, even while using spaced out quick tacks, and allowing the area to cool down by moving the welds to different areas. I'll have to go back and try backing up those areas with some solid copper to try to prevent the blow-throughs. All in all, it's stuck on there solid. I need to get a propane torch to heat up the areas where the new metal needs to dip down to meet the dimples in the original drop off.

Next I moved on to the rear of the inner wheel house. It was previously patched, very badly, so I'm replacing the bad patch with solid metal. My metal brake was able to bend the small (8"-ish) piece of 18ga, so that gave me the main bend to start from. I got a body hammer and dolly kit from HF not long ago, so I used that to coax a couple of passable compound curves into the ends of the metal. The forward inside edge of the driver drop off was sagging pretty badly, so I propped it up level with the floor using a floor jack and some folded cardboard. The patch is mostly shaped and fitted, but I still need to build and weld a small filler piece onto the patch. Once that's done, the front edge of the driver side drop off will finally have somewhere to attach to.

 

[gomopar440]

I got back at it this evening to finish off the wheelhouse patch. I made a small filler piece where the drop off weld flange area went from vertical to horizontal. Once fitted, that piece was then welded to the larger patch.

Drilling the weld through holes was done on the patch after tracing where the drop off flange would intersect the patch flange. I used magnets at first to hold the patch in place for the initial tack welds. About half of the butt weld area fit perfectly, so those areas were tacked together first. The mis-aligned areas were persuaded to get in place with the help of a hammer. For the through hole welds, I clamped the flanges together with vise grips to close the gaps before welding.

Now the drop offs and wheelhouses are ready for the center floor to be attached. Both of the inboard edges are leveled to the top of the subframes. The floor will wait until I've gotten the fuel tank mounts welded in.

And regarding of the fuel tank, earlier I ordered two 8AN fittings for mockup. One 90 degree, and one 120 degree, PTFE swivel fitting. I'm hoping the 120 degree fitting will work as it should give me a tiny bit more vertical clearance. The question I have is whether or not the hose side of the 120 fitting will come too close to the top of the tank. If it does, I'll still have the 90 degree fitting to set the tank height.

BTW: I like the way Ma Mopar designed a handy MIG torch holder right near where I was working when filling the spot welds.