Welcome back.

Nice work Nathan; good to see you back

I wish someone would make the front panel new good work!

I'm looking back at pics of the progress. I move pretty slowly, and I feel like it's not worth posting progress, but then if I compare where I'm at now it seems like I've come so far.

To document the work I did on the points that the front cross panel attaches, I guess I should start with some scary pics of the state of things when I first removed the front cross panel.

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I made these jig pieces to locate the holes for the headlight lids. I turned dowels to size and welded them to a length of 1/4 inch plate, positioned them based on the replacement nose which everything was in good shape.
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The hole position was pretty compromised. I verified the hole position on my 72
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The replacements .. a little pitting but I can live with it, it's not too bad.
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A few repairs and fitting
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the other side...
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The brazing, the deformation, the ensuing corrosion of the original fronts of the bottoms of the headlight buckets
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cut out
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The replacements had issues of their own but better than what came out.
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A flexible template ala Wray Schelin
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Patched the spot weld holes and rust repaired on both sides
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fitting
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more to come...

Fitting, ready to weld I think

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Cut off the lower support brace pretty far back on the driver's side on account of the damage.
There was a large cut left open at the lower driver side, from the inner fender front to the area below the headlight bucket.

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Prepped to patch
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This is the passenger side lower support. It's interesting the original has no hole, I think on account of it being a standard equipment car/no fog lights. Both original and replacement are from 70 model years.

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Fitting up
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And got that welded in.. Ospho really makes it look like part of the car, for better or worse.

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I've used ospho to prevent rust flashing up on stuff, but I kind of wonder if it's going to make things harder than if I'd sprayed 2k primer as I've come along. I've had this notion to try to claim territory by primering as I go along, like an area at a time..


Anyway, I've got specifics on a few more areas where the cross panel connects, but it seems I don't have pics of the resolution as of yet. I'll post that progress soon.

Amazing. Makes me wish I could weld. I have a somewhat similar '70. Bad red on top of black. Less rust than yours, I think (hope) but your tangerine is gonna be an awesome color while my black would be almost as bad as the red. Loving the visualizer too!

Thanks Karl. I'm just ok at welding. Mostly I've tig welded everything. A few spots it's safer to use mig. For the most part I've burnished everything after.

I do love the tangerine, such a bright cheerful color. I had a black parts car and all the details fall into shadow while at the same time every little blemish/imperfection shows. I'd almost be tempted to do a color change.

A little diversion today. I got some pieces from Restoration design. I'm not sure what you call this piece. It is a reinforcement for the front of the front suspension.

Here are some pics going way back.

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This piece was completely separated from the fat mig bead that holds it to the threaded boss of the suspension mount, and held in about 2 places by little tacked brazings. A little work revealed some nastiness.

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The replacement piece before grinding off the fat bead around the threaded insert

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Comparing the replacement to the original, there's about 10mm missing from the one side. I don't know if this is an early late thing or what.

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I'm out of practice. I was always a better grinder than a welder anyway.

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Another flexible template. The part is pretty accurate except the one side being short, the angle of the other side is slightly off, and it's made of the wrong gauge. It's 0.055 " where the original is 0.035".

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Coming along. You can see the patch in the corner here, too. A bit more burnishing to do. I'm going to selectively primer beneath this piece before it goes in.

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Great work- you are making terrific progress; keep up the good work.

I was just looking for another piece on Restoration Design's site, and was surprised to see they are making a front cross panel!

It's a later panel, I think the 73/74 version so it wouldn't have worked anyway. It says it's 72-74 but the 72 car I've got (4/72 production date) has the early panel.

https://www.restoration-design.com/store/product/PP340B

edit, they actually have all 3 panels!

This would have saved me a lot of time
https://www.restoration-design.com/store/product/PP340A

It's labelled wrong, also says 72-74. I think it should be 70-72 model year, the other 73-74, and they have the 75-76 one too

https://www.restoration-design.com/store/product/PP340C

Nice! Careful what you wish for

The car has come along way since you took a chance on it. Very nice fab work.

Great work !