68-72 under door metal replacement.

[Jeff Chester]

I have a feeling that I will be trashing this car, it is definitly going to
be a daily driver, But
How hard is it to replace the metal that sits under the door sills on a 68-72 car, I looked at my 75 chunk piece and it looks to be welded to the birdcage, etc. and rivoted under the sills.
Do they sell these pieces?
I saw Parogon sells some of the underbody metal....
Also, the rear plate, behind the seats, how hard. to replace
Trust me I'm tring to make Cavier out of a Hotdog.
Thanks,
Jeff(eatting fishhh eggs)Chester

[Jack H.]

Re: 68-72 under door metal replacement.

If you have that kind of visible rust (I presume it's not just surface scale, easy to blast and re-coat with green dichromate) on the birdcage frame rails, I kind of shudder to tell you what to expect when you head up to the 'source'....

This sort of decay is typical of a long ago 'botched' windshield replacement where water got under the upper windshield surround, collected and trickled down the forward windshield frame/birdcage uprights causing it to 'pool' on the birdcage sill rails, rust through and begin rotting the frame from the top side down....

Is it 'possible' to repair? Yes, but you'll need a whole-blood donor car bird cage, and a LOT of custom cutting/welding to do the job. 'Grafting' donor material onto what remains of the birdcage's door jam/uprights without melting attached fiberglass is a true ART!

[Ron De Vries]

Re: 68-72 under door metal replacement.

Your in for it if you have not done these before. I have done a couple and they take time on a grand scale. As Jack was just saying, you will need a really clean donor car to take from and one can only hope that the lower A and B pillars are still workable, I was not so lucky and spent considerable time fabricating new pieces before I could even attach the new sills to the pillars. Do yours look like these?

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=49583

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=42303

Your best source of referance is your AIM as it shows you basically where all the spot welds were and go. As they will be hidden in the rust and will require being ground off very carefully to release the old sills from the body and cage. Buzz me if you need some more info..and remember, you are having fun

Ron

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=8452