Tech Question
Magnus Wallner, Stockholm, Sweden, 1972 Plymouth cuda 340
First of all, thank you for all your help so far. I wouldnever have gotten this far without you and MA.
This is more of a resto-question than a tech-question but here goes…
My ‘Cuda is undergoing major body repair and so far I’ve changed allfloorpans and some parts of the frame. I’m now about to change the rearquarters, outer wheelhouse and trunk extensions as well as the tail panel. Ihave new repro skins for the quarters but I also have a pair of completequarters from a ’70 ‘Cuda that are in decent shape and I wonder if I shoulduse them instead of the new skins since I’ve heard that they sometimes don’tfit very well. Any opinion on that?
My trunk floor is now as good as new. Can I remove the old rottenquarters, tail panel, wheelhouse and change everything at once or should Itake it piece by piece to prevent the entire tail from warping? If piece bypiece, what should I start with?
Regards from Sweden, Magnus
Magnus, the current crop of repro quarter “skins” fit reasonably well. Thebest plan is usually to section them and only install what’s needed. If youhave the patience, a perfect cut can allow a butt-weld that, once groundflush, is virtually invisible.
But if you can wait, full factory-spec quarters are in the works, in fact,Goodmark already has them in stock forChallengers and ’68 / ’69 Plymouth B-bodies. And it seems a shame to”sacrifice” a pair of ’70 quarters on a — no insult intended — lowly ’72!
(Really, I’m not disparaging your ’72, it’s just that ’70s and ’71s areabviously so much more valuable, at least if optioned to the max.)
Removing everything (except the rails, obviously) is fine, but the carshould be supported in a way that doesn’t induce flex or twist — on aperefectly level floor, with equal-height stands under the rails in the areaof the rear sping front mounts.
Rick
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