Opinion and advice on my 1968 GTX

OK I have two questions?? I started scrapping the tar of the underside of the GTX today , and there is some flaky rust inside the frame rails , but the rails are good, and I don't want to replace them! How do you get it out and what do you do to stop it from getting any worse , I plan on painting the underside of the car and don't want rust stains...
Second question...How many pin holes in the trunk pan before you would replace it? There a few from sheet metal screws and a couple pin hole from??who knows but 95% of the pan still has factory paint!!
Any advice would be great !!
Cheers

Unless your going to dip the car and ekote it I'd leave the inside of the rails be. If you have pinholes in the trunk floor its probably paper thin and needs to be replaced.

my .02

Or put in a good patch.

Or put in a good patch.

I agree..... Putting in a whole new trunk pan is not a walk in the park. Spot welds to frame rails, inner wheel houses, trunk brace, extension panels, shackle mounts, shock crossmember, rear fill panel supports, trunk latch support, rear pan, rear fill panel and the rear crossmember will definitly keep a guy pretty busy for a while.

On the other hand removing it is about the only decent way of gaining access to the insides of those frame rails. I've been hearing that the rail/rocker sealer you spray in with a extention/snake is a joke.

I'd have it blasted or even at least take a 4 1/2" wire wheel with a bunch of elbow grease to the areas with issues. You'll probably be suprised how much stuff opens up. See what you got and go from there..

Good luck!

Id definitlly be pressure washing in the frame rails as much as possible the u can try sealing it with a rubber spray in compound for peace of mind....

But id also be taking out that gas tank and then wire wheel wherever its a bit pin-holey ...Install a patch from underneath and this way you dont have to replace the whole floor and it retains the stock look....And while you have the gas tank out get it painted.

Whatever you do dont weld with the gas tank still connected / lines exposed ....

I took the the tank out and found another patch and then I scrapped the rear cross brace and found 2 holes ...so I think it's new floor , extentions , and rear brace for me!!! Can I replace all that without taking the 1/4's off?? I will post pics later today to show what I found!

heres the pics

I took the the tank out and found another patch and then I scrapped the rear cross brace and found 2 holes ...so I think it's new floor , extentions , and rear brace for me!!! Can I replace all that without taking the 1/4's off?? I will post pics later today to show what I found!

Yes.....Pain in the rear though. The quarters are spot welded onto the extentions on the bottom lip and forward lip. They also are spot welded to the sides of the fill panel and extention lip towards the rear.

The biggest headache will probably be where the rear lip of the trunk panel tucks down and is spot welded to your fill panel. Also, it is spot welded from the bottom up from the rear crossmember where it's tucked underneath the fill panel. The fill panel braces along with the trunk lid latch support will have to be drilled out. The frame rails along with the shackle mount and trunk brace are pretty straight forward and not too bad to seperate from the pan.

You'll have to go from inside your wheel houses to drill out the inner wheel house to trunk pan welds. Judging from the pic's, be prepared to find some decent rot there. Really typical place for rot. The shock crossmember will only have 2-3 spot welds on each side to drill out and the about a dozen more across the rear interior pan to trunk pan.

I really recommend "Blair" spot weld cutter bits. Clean off all spots welds via wire wheel or blast, hit em with a punch and drill away.

Good luck with your project, and post up some more progress pic's if you get a chance

Thanks for the advice !!! < I will post tons of pics and move it to the reto post .The car had both 1/4's replaced in 1977 or so at the dealership and the car was parked in 83 ..so they are in perfect shape , so are thr frame rails ...Just going to figure out what to tackle first..I think stripping the car should be a good start!

I see this kind of stuff all the time; I media blast this stuff all the time. What I can say you should do may not be what you can do, or, willing/able to do! So, all I can say is under ideal circumstances this is what should be done to this car -- assuming you have an end state of a nice rust free clean car?

1. Find a Media Blaster close to you find out the following;
-how much?
-do they mount it on a rotisserie? (you don't want them crawling around under it blasting; they get tired quickly, and do a half-ass job)
-what media do they use?
-do they get it all off; meaning the rust, bondo, and undercoating?
-do they have a 'standard', meaning a level of expectations you can expect them to achieve?
-do YOU have a plan after the car is blasted; ie primer etc? Be CAREFUL of the Media Blaster place that offers as a service priming/protective coating post media blasting! I say this b/c 9 out of 10 times they hide the work they DON'T do under primer; and, you can't tell one bit! (This is why I don't paint 'em, I want the customer to see it in bare-metal, they can worry about getting it in paint, if they are totally lost, I can hire a guy to prime it if they wish)
2. Disassemble the entire car, a media blaster is not honest with you if he allows you to keep the glass in, the trim on it, and seats in it.
3. Don't use Soda blasting; it will do nothing against rust, and it has no mass to punch out rust and crud, and it leaves the metal too smooth for paint to adhere to it adequately. I'm not 'dissin' Soda, just saying it has its uses; mold removal, swimming pool clean outs, and graffiti removal, not on car body's.
4. Be prepared to need more metal than you think it needs, the car will come back completely different than as it is now, but, you will be committed to it then, be ready to take it to at least a primer and then primer sealer ASAP as you gather funds for the next stage.

You could be well healed $$ wise to have a professional shop do it, or, you may want to do it yourself for the satisfaction! I appreciate both approaches. But, if you lack the time/$$ like most of us do, you may want to section the car project into sections; strip it down of all the stuff in it/on it. Then secure your blaster guy (stay away from sand), (and yank the top cowel off the lower part of the windshield, there are a lot of spot welds there, but, often, it's a rats nest in there!

Bottom line; GOOD LUCK!!!

1977 was a LONG time ago, don't assume they are good to go now...as I said, get it media blasted this way you know what you are dealing with, I bet 'cha you will find crappy work in the dealers' work in putting on qtrs back in 1977!

I stripped the car to bare bones and I am going to put it on my new rottiserie ( figured it was a good investment)I have an appointment with media blast next monday ,it will stay there for a few days...then I will prime it back at my shop!it's still 3-4 weeks before the barracuda comes back from the body shop,,,,sooo I have some time to play with the GTX and order sheet metal, I know the 1/4;s are mint cause I checked very closely, unfortunetly they were brased welded but the job was o.k , I wold like to keep them on cause they are factory chrysler steel...I will post pics monday or tuesday!!
Cheers

I guess the next question is were do you guys like to buy your panels from, AMD, Year One , Goodmark, I have ordered some stuff from Year One with great results ....AMD won`t ship to Canada ;(

There,s a couple of mopar restoration and parts suppliers close to Newmarket that could supply the panels and parts needed.National Moparts in Beaverton@1 888-652-7464 and McLean Classics in Caledon(hwy50+9 area)
http://www.macleanclassics.com/

I'd go AMD 500.......By no means are they perfect and they will require "tweaking" here and there, but still surpass the quality of there competitors products. Goodmark is ok, but i've ran in to a few problems that were not too easily remedied with them

Not shipping to Canada eh? So they can ship the metal from Taiwan to Georgia, but not across the border up north huh? What the heck is up with that! Maybe just go with a vendor that stocks AMD and have them expedite the shipping....

Try Jeff at 521 restorations! Great guy!

well at the a bodie forum it won't let download pics of my barracuda so I will here!! yes, yes I have 3 projects on the go at the same time!! Visa loves me!!LOL

and a couple more!!

Wow, an A body that still has a trunk well. Nice. :headbang:

If your frame rails have good structural integrity I'd drill some strategically placed holes in the trunk floor just large enough to get a hose nozzle inside and spray that waxy goo from Eastwood http://www.eastwood.com/rustproofing-and-undercoating-system.html

And about the trunk floor. Can you stand inside and jump up and down and not fall through? If so then I'd say it's strong enough and all you need to do is fix the rust holes and other holes with POR15 and glass cloth. Welding / soldering / brazing metal patches is also an option but you must find clean bare metal first or you will hate it. My 68 RR is peppered with small rust holes and I'm NOT putting in a floor. Screw that!

Nice Barracuda by the way. I had a 68 340 S coupe back in the 80's that was originally yellow but was green when I got it. With all the dark green MoPars I saw over the years it's hard to believe someone went out of their way to make another one!!

after lots of thought and advice, I have taken the car apart, media blasted, and sent it to the body shop, metal has been removed, to get into all the rails , sand blast, then new metal will be raplace!!Taking the car apart was fun with no surprises other than more rust than we thought!

the quarters were braised on in the 70's and are mopar (still avail then) they are very nice so we will leave those on, heres a few more pics

heres a little more progress. new inner fenders, floors, shock cross brace, trunk floor, and extensions....

Wow! looking really good!!

nice transformation.

WOW!!!!!!!!!You have alot goin' on!! My back and arms hurt from seeing those great pic's:munky2:The cuda looks like it was in much better condition than the "X" from the start.Nice to see you doin' it right:occasion14::yes::notworthy::notworthy::

Yes the Barracuda was in much better shape and it's a Canadian Car!!! The X wasn't that bad I just donn't want any little flaws or repairs so I went with "replace what's not perfect" theory , I will have more pics of the Barracuda in a week it close to paint now!! I want to take it to Moparfest this year!! Can't wait....X will be next year , once the metal and paint is done "july-ish" I will spend the winter putting it back together and sell the Barracuda in the fall to fund it ...or maybe the race car?? LOL

I alos recommend Jeff at 521 restorations! I've done business with him and he's a GREAT guy!

lots of updates but no pics , metal work is done , and started on body work!! good thing the panel ar good , but there is always lots of straightening and sanding!! I will post pics soon ....Barracuda came back today ....now reassemble time ...will post pics of that soon too!
Cheeers!