Rear frame rails and inner wheel wells

I've been a bit lazy with the blog lately due to many private reasons. In spring I was not lazy with project Snowback so here is a belated update of what was done in February.

The newly re-skinned door made a reference point for aligning the quarter panel, so the rusted sheet metal could be cut off. I started cautiously by cutting it about 2" from the final line in order to keep it rigid during the wheel house repairs.  I would trim the excess off when the quarters panels would be fit.

The cut-out revealed the badly rusted outer wheel house and the inner wheel house which was not that bad but was pitted in the area where it attaches to the trunk floor flange.

As the trunk floor drop-off would also be replaced there was not much to be done other than to remove the wheel house entirely. This demanded for a few spot welds to be drilled out.

Spot-welds marked for drilling

Finally,when all the spot welds had been drilled and excess metal had been ground off I was able to test fit the new replacement wheel house. At the time the remainders of the trunk floor drop-off was also removed. I was suggested by a couple of FMOC fellow members that I should mini-tub the wheel wells so that wider wheels would have more room. That would require the inner wheel house to move about 2" inwards. I measured and concluded that only less than 1" is available without affecting the fold-down rear seat. I intend to keep it untouched so I rejected the idea of mini-tubbing. Originality and functionality went over the performance.

So, prior to welding wheel houses the trunk floor would need to be welded. As a matter of fact you will have to mate all the parts before welding any. Once you are sure that all of the parts (quarter panel, outer wheel house, inner wheel house, trunk floor) go hand-in-hand you are ready for welding them in reverse order.

But the rear part of the frame rail seemed like this.

My spare part supplier had frame rail repair sections in stock and I received them the next morning (!). The car got supported from the body and the rear axle with leaf springs were loosened. Next thing to do was to carefully measure the distance from the shackle mounting and mark the cutting line. For easier working I went with only cutting the rotted area and left as much original metal as possible.

I cut 31 cm from the shackle mount

Careful measuring and masking the cut

I made use of the left over by welding it upside down as an overlapping section to give more support that just seam welding the parts together.

Adding some overlap

Then the rear part was clamped tight and welded. When correctly cut the parts will automatically position themselves. I took measures for reference but I did not add support to the tail light panel because there is not much weight on it as almost everything of the rear is away. 

Once the front and rear were one again I was able to verify the distance between the frame rails at the shackle mounts and weld to the bumper bracket.

Now that I had reached the ground the fitting of the trunk floor and wheel wells would finally begin. This phase consists of uncountable number of repeated fitting, cutting and measuring until you're sure that you are ready to weld. And all this is repeated on the other side of the car !

Here are some pictures of this. Enjoy !

With the driver side solid again I moved to the passenger side. After cutting bigger pieces the body looked quite scary.

Right quarter removed

Recording the position of  the seat bracket

A block of wood and a clamp keeping the gas tank opening square and within measures

The trunk floor front panel is being welded. I used gas tank (empty) as a gauge to verify correct position.

The reparation continues in the next post outer wheel wells and quarter panels.

Torque Boxes

To stiffen up the front of the unibody the torque boxes are the stuff. In '65 only the convertibles came with them from the factory, but later Ford added them to hardtops and fastbacks too. They are quite difficult to install unless you have the floor open for it. I will replace the floor pans so this is the time to add torque boxes. I would not consider floor pan replacement without first installing them. If the floor pans and toe boards are good to go then the torque box with outer section only might be the solution for anyone who wants to add rigidity to their unibody.

First thing to do is to paint the inside of them as it is almost impossible to do after welding them in.

First time fitting the torque box and removing the remainders of floor support. These boxes are very precise in measures.

Hydraulic jack is needed because the box sits tight between the rocker and frame rail. The flange in the lower edge of the frame rail needs to reshaped to give room for the box. Despite the box being accurate shaped it has to be test fit many times.

Once all the fitting is done, the areas to be covered are to be primed. Then the plug weld holes are drilled.

The edge of the torque box is cut so that it will meet the flange of the frame rail. The flange is partially seen behind the clutch pedal in the below picture.

The inbound flange of the torque box welds in the bottom of the frame rail extension. These plugs are the last ones to weld, after the torque box is attached elsewhere. I'll weld these plugs later when I hoist the car for floor pan replacement.

Here the torque box is butt welded to the frame rail (on the right) and to the rocker panel (on the right).

Same process on the passenger side of the car. Note that the outer firewall patch almost touches the upper edge of the box, which is good and helps for making a smooth seam between the firewall, torque box and the toe board. On the driver side there remains a gap which has to be addressed either by a sheet metal patch or precisely shaping and welding the toe board.

The torque boxes are there and I am confiding that the body is solid and more of the floor pans can be cut out for toe board patching.