1966 Valiant for the Other Daughter....

Rebuilt the hinges and worked on the RH door today. Worked out a number dents and welded up the hole that were drilled to sort of fix the dents the first time. I ran out of gas for the welder so I can only get things ready. Fixed the rust in the front of the door... these early A Bodies this front corner is a mud trap and they all have problems there... Started to work on the LH hinges. Thank goodness this '66 seems to have '67 and up hinges. '66 are hybrid '65 and '67 but these were full '67 and up.

Hinges: I bolt them upside down to drive out the pins and remove the "S" spring.

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Lower hinge gets an oversized pin (these are much better than the ones that add a bushing to the lower pin). First drill it out slightly undersized to the reamer (I use RestoRick kits and you can get the correct reamer from him) then use the reamer. Press the upper new bushing in with a vice or C clamp then install on the car to drive in the pins. Don't forget to put some grease on the pins. (remembered the Marine this time)

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Spent some time working on the door, blasted it then worked where it looks like 4 different mirrors were ripped off.... someone hated mirrors.... Just need to get gas so I can weld up those holes and do the final shaping.

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Once done moved to the Sears aftermarket AC damage and then to the extra holes from various seat installed over the years.. The drivers size the pan was cracked so I removed the reinforcement and welded it up like new.

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Looking good, Jim. I was getting a little worried about your whereabouts. I'm done for the winter. Bought myself a gas mig, fluxcore, tig, and stick combination welder.
I'm going to practice with it for a bit , then, try my hand at fixing the front nose piece .
 
Looking good, Jim. I was getting a little worried about your whereabouts. I'm done for the winter. Bought myself a gas mig, fluxcore, tig, and stick combination welder.
I'm going to practice with it for a bit , then, try my hand at fixing the front nose piece .

Big show last weekend so I was getting the other 3 ready for the last few weeks. It is finally cooling down so much more pleasant working outside now.
 
Another day of repairs. I made a couple of access holes where the sill plate goes to be able to get the curb jumper dent out of the rocker. It is 100% better. After that it was time to attach the last piece of rust known. Don't throw away pieces of body work, 9 times out of 10 they will be useful. A simple torch will melt the lead. I welded up the entire seam as I will epoxy it then use carbon fiber fill (CarboFill) from SEM in place of the lead. The lead in the corners were cracked anyway so I will be doing the same thing to the other side as well.

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Jim I may have missed it, but do you know that is the end of the rust in the cowl? Its very common to remove the cowl top (200 spot welds) on Mustangs to replace or repair.
Edit: Only 100 or so spot welds on the bottom panel.
 
Jim I may have missed it, but do you know that is the end of the rust in the cowl? Its very common to remove the cowl top (200 spot welds) on Mustangs to replace or repair.
Edit: Only 100 or so spot welds on the bottom panel.

Yea it was full of mud and nests. I have it cleaned out and blasted the best I can. This car will never see water again as long as we own it. I poked around looking for soft spots and I don’t see any. I’m not drilling out any more spot welds!
 
Rolled it on its side and blew it out.

Remember there are drain holes on the ends of the cowl behind the fenders... kinda right under the hood torsion springs there. it all just runs out those holds when it is tipped. I'll blast it with the high pressure washer wand as well when I am cleaning it for the first coating of epoxy
 
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