69 Barracuda FB. The next evolution

[gomopar440]

The firewall bulkhead connector showed up in the mail today. I also picked up a DIY trunk floor from a local steel supplier. It's a 4'x8' sheet of 18 ga steel. I tried to get 20 ga, but the distributor kicked back the order unless I wanted to order 5 sheets of it. The local shop had a 4'x8' sheet of 18 ga on hand, so I got that instead.

I originally wanted 20ga because that's the steel thickness limit of the 36" sheet metal brake I ordered. If the brake can't handle an 18ga test bend, I'll have to cut the material to shape and get the steel shop to make the bends for me.

I'll go out to the garage tonight to make the trunk floor pattern out of cardboard. Its too hot out to do anything else during the day.

EDIT: The metal brake arrived today instead of tomorrow. I unboxed it, but it's still too hot out to do much else right now.

 

[gomopar440]

I went back out to the metal shop today and picked up a 6' piece of 1"x3" steel box tube. It's around 14ga wall thickness, so similar thickness as the rear subframes. It's going to be used to make two cross braces to go in front of, and behind, the fuel cell. Those new braces will also give me more options for fuel cell mounting points. I'll planning to just weld in the forward one first, and wait to weld in the rear one until I after have a fuel cell to fit it up.

 

[gomopar440]

Forward fuel cell cross member made. I also got about half of the trunk floor template made. I'll finish the other half this weekend.

The funeral for my friend is tomorrow, so it's unlikely that I'll have much motivation to go out in the garage on the same day.

EDIT: I wrote this post yesterday, but forgot to hit "save".

 

[gomopar440]

Although I ended up getting 18ga sheet metal for the trunk floor, the metal brake I had already bought only can bend up to 20ga. So, I asked the metal shop about bending the metal after I cut it to shape. They're willing to do it, but the want $25 per bend, so $100 for all four bends. After thinking about it, I decided to try a different method. I bought two 5' long pieces of 18ga hole punched angle. It was $25 each for the angle pieces, so $50 to get all the bends covered.

I trimmed up the piece for the driver side drop off edge, and it looks like it will work. The angle piece will be set down just enough to allow the top of the trunk floor to be level with the top of the drop off. The joint will be hidden with seam sealer and will look close to factory, minus the lack of a spare tire well and any dimples. Attaching the angles to the floor will be added by welding them together, but it's worth it to solve my metal bending issue.

Today I also picked out a fuel cell to take advantage of the extra space under the floor gained by removing the spare tire well. I'll figure how to mount it and where to place the other trunk crossmember after it gets here.

 

[68R/T]

ingenuwity is the mother of invention.

 

[b-body-bob]

You can't imagine how many times I've looked at pieces of support angles like that and tried to find a way to use them for something.

 

[gomopar440]

I still have to drill the weld-thru holes on the downward flange side of the angle, because the existing ones got cut off. I did that to match it to the size of the drop off flange. The horizontal side facing the floor is being left as is, so no need to drill holes there. In the end, I'll have to fill twice as many holes, but I'm ok with that. I'm not going to leave any holes open so there will be fewer places for moisture to get trapped between the metal.

 

[gomopar440]

More pseudo flange work done today. I started out by cutting out the Swiss cheese edge of the pass side trunk drop off. I'll just need to cup out a small flat piece to patch the drop off. The angle material will also take care of the drop off bend. The pass side trunk floor bend piece was just a reversed copy of the driver side. Lastly the rear angle part was made. It was a bit trickier than it looked because the flat looking back panel was, in fact, not flat. Deceptively wavy would be a better description. A few well placed cuts along the horizontal allowed the angle to follow the back panel adequately.