[SteveH21]

When you are done with the donor car would the original transmission tunnel be available? Assuming it's from a column shift car and has no holes in it. Since I put the T5 in the shifter location is centered. And the previous owner installed the fiberglass bulge they used for 3 and 4 speed cars and I'd like to return it back to a full stronger tunnel.

If it's available let me know.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Rodbender]

When you are done with the donor car would the original transmission tunnel be available? Assuming it's from a column shift car and has no holes in it. Since I put the T5 in the shifter location is centered. And the previous owner installed the fiberglass bulge they used for 3 and 4 speed cars and I'd like to return it back to a full stronger tunnel.

If it's available let me know.

Thanks
Steve

With any luck, I'll have the chassis back together this spring. The donor has a hole cut in the side of the tunnel as well. However, this car will never be a pristine example. So, the patch piece in there now, can be refurbed to fit nicely. Maybe remind me again this spring..

 

[Rodbender]

Here is the separation cut of the original front end. You can see the slice behind the seat pan. At this point I was going to keep the rear pan in and repair it. You can see where someone brazed in the sheet metal floor pans. Especially in the first pic. There was a lot of original metal that was gone on this car. That someone made a valiant effort to keep it on the road.

 

[Rodbender]

In the upper righthand corner of the first pic, you can see where I chose to separate the rocker at the front. There's a small slot that lines up in the middle of a hole for relocation. The bottom pic shows the extent of the rust carnage at the rear and the removal of the poorly fabbed inner rail.

 

[Iowan]

I have pieced together many bodies over the last 40 years but never a unibody to the extant you are. The last was a 55 Chevy from a cowl and a roof ten years ago, I thought that was a lot of work.
It looks like you have a handel on things.

 

[Rodbender]

Here you can see what was left of the original rear floor pan area under the seat. The larger piece is from the hardtop and will need trimming on the outside to accommodate the inner frame rails.In the other pic, there's the repair piece I fabbed to fix the toeboard.

 

[Rodbender]

This is the same area. I believe the small path is on the "later to be removed" torque box section. As most of you convertible owners know, the toe board and torque box are almost sandwiched together.

 

[Rodbender]

This was another piece to repair the frame rail. The bottom picture was the beginning of the separation of the two halves of the car. I found my motorcycle lift made easy work of leveling the car.

 

[Action]

Wow!!!

Action

 

[Rodbender]

Since the car was parked nose first in the garage, I figured a way to get the front half out by going over the rear section. The pallet racking was bolted to some heavy casters by a 2x4 steel tube. In this pic you can see the rockers at the bottom and the rusted out frame reinforcements under the floor pans. I used an assortment of jack stands, ratchet straps and an engine lift. to finally get the front half high enough. (The windshield frame was getting close to not going.) The rear was almost sitting on the ground.

 

[Rodbender]

So, here you can see the original front coming over the rear section. (I had to tie down the trunk hinges for clearance.) You can see the ratchet straps in the background that I used to get the front end up where it needed to be.

 

[Cacstang]

WOW!! Nice balancing act!! An ambitious project, unlike me ,you are a great fabricator, I can make do though, great progress, thanks for the update 👍

 

[Action]

Seems like he is full time on that project.

I am in that same boat as far as skill set. Give me something like that and it take me about 3 months to make it into scrap metal. Then I would have to buy another car.

Action

 

[Rodbender]

First off, thanks everyone for your kind comments. This is the farthest I've ever hacked into a car. If the parts hadn't fallen into my lap, It would have been a parts car. So, here's the old front end. As you can see, it's pretty scabby. I'm pretty sure the whole 5 gallon bucket of tar was used on this poor thing. Below, is the beginnign of getting the new front section on the , now visible, rack set up. In the background you can barely see the Genie lift used in getting these hulks where I needed them.

 

[Rodbender]

Fortunately, I had a few flat bed carts for stuff like this. Here's the donor front end, partially repaired, going to the garage. I'm almost caught up on pictures now. This year's progress will be posted from here. My goal is to get the body put back together this year. The bottom pic is the 1 inch square tubing welded in for some other seats. (you can see the patch for the floor shift on the trans tunnel as well.) The Rust Bucket came with stock buckets and a console. So, that's what's going back in. I like the stock unmolested interiors.

 

[Action]

I like stock arrangements as well. I am not opposed to hidden improvements, but if you are buying a 1960 anything, that piece is very unique era. It can never be mass produced that way again. There are laws against that. Nothing is perfect!

Action

 

[Rodbender]

So, here we have the two rear spring hangers for the torque box. As you can see they are a bit rusty. My plans for these are to repair what is rusted and to add reinforcements to make them stronger. In the top pic, the top angled part wraps around the inner frame rail. I'll post a pic later to demonstrate.

 

[POWERBAND]

... plans for these are to repair what is rusted and to add reinforcements to make them stronger.

'63 more-door wagon has run faithfully for @ 20 years with various engines and transmission 'upgrades'. Faithfully mostly original but floor pans welded in by an amateur ( PO) with creaks coming from twisting semi-solid unibody . Frame connectors were added and and tied to the semi-solid torque box / rear spring hangers. The frame conn's also enabled upgraded rear engine/tranny support and notching OEM crossmember neccessary for T5 OD tranny install. Very different solid car the first time I 'dropped the clutch'.



. . .


. .

. .

hav efun

 

[Rodbender]

... plans for these are to repair what is rusted and to add reinforcements to make them stronger.

'63 more-door wagon has run faithfully for @ 20 years with various engines and transmission 'upgrades'. Faithfully mostly original but floor pans welded in by an amateur ( PO) with creaks coming from twisting semi-solid unibody . Frame connectors were added and and tied to the semi-solid torque box / rear spring hangers. The frame conn's also enabled upgraded rear engine/tranny support and notching OEM crossmember neccessary for T5 OD tranny install. Very different solid car the first time I 'dropped the clutch'.



. . .


. .

. .

hav efun

I agree. When I compare this car to my early model Mustang, the rear axle attachment points are pretty cheesy. With some good traction and horsepower, one could launch the whole rear end out from the weak spring hangers.

 

[POWERBAND]

the '61 had some front suspension/batt. acid problems as well:

. .

... luckily widely available early Mustang frame brackets and radiator support parts are close enuff' to be adapted.

. . .