I am about to start replacing the trunk pan and have the car in the air supported well. I have already replaced the front full side floor pans as well as supports, and replaced rusted metal under the supports on the rockers. I will be replacing the rear seat pan as well.

I will eventually be doing major surgery of some sort on the quarter panels. Probably replacement.

My question is, do I replace outter and inner fenders on the rear while I am there working on the floor pan....or wait until I drop the body back down on the frame and work on the quarter panel?

... I thought I would only have to fix a small section of the one floor pan :(

In the category of rust ....remind me to never buy a midwest car again!

Steve

Steve,
I think you could do the inner/outer when you do the quarter. Make sure when you drop the body back down, you won't make it tougher to get to any bad spots.

I made a similar mistake. I was told my car was from Texas and as it turns out the car spent 20+ years in New Jersey :eek: Someone went to a lot of effort and expense to cover up alot of rust and body rot to sell this '70 6 cyl bench car. I will know how and what to look for on a car before buying next time. We live and learn. graemlins/sad.gif

Sounds like a lot of potential body/frame misalignment if you are replacing all of the floor supports and possibly the trunk supports with the body off.

I am curious how you can locate the body mount locations that you are replacing and keep them in the correct relationship - vertically I mean. What are you using for reference points to avoid this?

Yeah, there is the potential of misalignment. I only know one thing, the ends of the braces were rusty and under them where they welded to the rockers was rust holes as big as your fist.

There was no way in hell I could figure how to get to that area to repair it with the body on the frame.

The nuts for the body mount bolts are in positions that can move around a bit in a horizontal axis. There should be a little room for play.

I scribed lines on where the old braces lined up for body mounts and put the new ones right back where the old ones lined up.

I hope that's good enough, and if it's not, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I only know I couldn't live with known rust problems that were a disaster waiting to happen.

If I need help I'll just call on you and a few of my buds in the Tri-State Chevelle club and together we'll figure something out smile.gif

Steve

Steve, I didn't realize you were in Beavercreek - I am in Tipp City and am planning to be at the next Tri-State meeting on Dec 13th. I'll probably see you at the meeting if you come.

I understand where you are coming from on the rust as my 69 convertible had the same issues. My fix was to remove the complete inner rocker and have 16 guage steel sheared and bent at 90 to replace the whole thing from the cowl to the rear wheel on both sides. It turned out very good and I also replaced all 3 floor supports and the trunk supports - very solid.

At the time I was very worried about how this would all fit the frame when I put it back on (again, vertical alignment). What I found was that most of it was pretty good but the 2 under the rear seat required some spacing washers between the body and the bushings (about 3/16"). I don't like it, but I couldn't think of any way to align all the mounts with the body off.

I'm doing my 65 with the body supported and aligned by 2" OD X 6" long aluminum spacers I wiped up on a lathe. I made long bolts out of threaded rod with nuts welded on to bolt everything together. So far it's working great, very solid and plenty of room. Yes, the frame is straight. I'm replacing the floors right now with the trunk to come soon. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Bob, so you kind of fabricated a jig? Do you have any pictures so I can get ideas for my next resto job. I really want to have a better plan next time to avoid all misalignment.

No, I didn't make a jig I just made spacers to replace the rubber bushings, just like a "body lift" the 4x4 guys do. The bottom of my rocker panel is flush with the top of the frame so I can get at everything. As long as most of the new longer bolts are tight everything will stay in alignment. On your convertible it might not be enough. I can e-mail some pictures if you want.