Observations of different cars' construction

[Donny]

I really see how these things are built when I media blast them. Currently, I am working on a 67 Ford Fairlane. This is a ND car, and, you'd think it would be lathered in rust, but, it's not! It's a very solid car for being so old, and in such an environment. It could honestly be a South West car how good a shape it's in. I got to hand it to Ford, their cars are solid, and well engineered. I like their take on Uni-body construction and how the front end is gusseted up vs. on our Mopars how the K Member comes out. The Ford seats sit on reinforced floors, to me this looks stronger than the Mopar stuff.

The worst stuff is GM. Their spot welds a the size of my fingernail clippings, and how they sandwiched their Rockers to Floors to Inner Rockers makes me sick! Replacing their floors is a nightmare! As I was peeling back the factory undercoating today, scraping it off, and in the back qtrs the factory stuff in there looked solid, but, put a scraper to it and it came right off, and under it was some newly active rust.

Bottom line, you got to get any of these cars' seams clean and all the undercoating off it...makes my job easier. But, I usually front-load my work; get the main and heavy stuff done first as it's less time in the blast facility.

I like the MOPAR and Ford stuff best to work on. The Ford uses the same size bolts MOPAR uses for the front frame rails' fender attachment points, thus, making securement to the rotisserie far easier and faster! I think I got this car on it, mounted and centered in 2 hrs yesterday, a record time folks!

 

[wannadrag]

No salt on the roads in North or South Dakota.I picked up a car from S Dakota a few years back and was basicly rock solid and looked like it came from the southwest

 

[Meep-Meep]

Donny, if you need 67 Fairlane parts let me know. Is that a GT or GTA car?

 

[Donny]

I don't know what it is.

 

[Sixpack70]

The 66-69 Falcon, Fairlane and Torino platform are nice. Many people don't know they all share the same platform. If the car is complete, they can usually be had for cheap. My 66 Falcon is an original El Paso Car with nearly no rust. The paint looks like hell, but that's normal for the sand blast storms that happen there. They also are a little bigger than a Mustang so the larger engines fit a little easier. My 460 dropped between the shock towers with no issues. My 351c that is currently in there has plenty of room around the headers. The only problem with all of those cars is a lot of parts are not reproduced. Especially for the Falcons.

 

[Propwash]

I agree with you on the older fords Donny. Helped a buddy out a couple years back on his '64 Galaxie. I was pleasantly suprised how well the car was engineered and built. One of those deals where you can look at something, totally understand how/why it works and does a good job at that.