1968 Plymouth GTX

It is. Hundreds of spot welds. I went through 3 HSS 5/16" spot weld drills on the smaller welds. The 3/8" Blair carbide bit is still going strong and lasts a lot longer. The trick with all of them is to keep your drill rpms low. Carbide is brittle and the uneven surface of the spot weld can chip them, HSS just wears down.
 
The car was manufactured in Los Angeles, CA so maybe it spent some time near the beach? Does seem odd the amount of rust present in places that are generally protected from the elements.

Finally got the passenger's side drip rail off.
Drip Rail Right Removed.JPG


This revealed the extent of the damage to the sail panel area:
Heavy Rust right sail panel.JPG


The driver's side was not quite as bad but still needs attention:
Heavy Rust left sail panel.JPG


Maybe I should start a Go Fund Me page. LOL
 
Wow. My Spitfire was that bad in spots, but those panels are still readily available and relatively inexpensive. Like the Spitfire, maybe there was some design flaw that accelerated this?
Good luck!

Chris
 
You would expect that kind of rust in the floors. Looks like the factory put nothing on the underside of that roof! Was the car built on Monday or Friday?
 
Did a 70 Challenger R/T SE that had nearly identical rust to that under the vinyl top. Of course the whole rear end of the car looked the same. Literally pulled the trunk floor out with my hands. Strangely enough the floorboards were still solid, along with everything forward not too bad.
 
My signature car was like that. The vinyl top had worn out and the water funneled down through the sail panels, rusted through the lower window corners and destroyed the trunk floor.
Trunk floor leftside old.JPG

Ended up replacing the trunk floor, extensions, lower window corners and both quarter panels before it was done.
1968 Coronet RT Finished left side.JPG
 
The car I did got frame rails, rear body panel, 1/4's, deck panel, pretty much everything available from the doors back, but only repairs on doors (rust in corners) and small fender patches. Also had patches put in around bottom of windshield. This car had been sitting a long time unprotected and was also drag raced with a big lead acid battery in the trunk, which probably didn't help. Pretty rare car, and right now is sitting at owners house with all bodywork done in epoxy waiting for me to make it yellow again!
 
The car I did got frame rails, rear body panel, 1/4's, deck panel, pretty much everything available from the doors back, but only repairs on doors (rust in corners) and small fender patches. Also had patches put in around bottom of windshield. This car had been sitting a long time unprotected and was also drag raced with a big lead acid battery in the trunk, which probably didn't help. Pretty rare car, and right now is sitting at owners house with all bodywork done in epoxy waiting for me to make it yellow again!
Make sure to post some pictures when you get it painted.
 
First step will be to media blast all the rust off and see what I am actually looking at. I plan to weld in patches as I like to retain as much of the original metal as possible. Plus the fact that any parts for a classic MOPAR are extremely expensive, as I am sure you well know.
 
Got a question about the frame structure.
In these pictures the areas that are rusted out seem as though they may have been raised and/or indented slightly.
Notice in the first pic a depressed area where the rust hole is:
Roof Structure Rust Left SP 1 Marked Edition.jpg


Another view:
Roof Structure Rust Left SP.JPG


My thinking is the indented area isn't supposed to be there. That it has been caused by rust or being damaged.
The other side is so badly rusted I couldn't determine the proper shape of the metal in this area.
Roof Structure Rust Right SP.JPG


And a side note. Global Warming will destroy the world in 12 years and it has started here in Arizona with 7" of snow last night and another 7" coming today. LOL
Snow 2.21.19.JPG
 
Don't know the answer so my question is where was the quarter panel / roof joint? Is that a recess in the structure to leave room for the joint?
Are there reproduction parts for that? If yes maybe a photo of the repro will tell the story.

So far I think you had more snow there than we had in CT. Too bad about global warming, I was looking forward to wearing shorts year round:cool:.
 
The spot welds were in the recessed flange area of the quarter panel where the roof skin overlaps. So it is on that raised portion.

We are originally from upstate New York so snow doesn't bother us as much as the locals and California transplants. I drove 5 miles to a local store this morning and saw three cars in the ditch, one with the rear bumper ripped off, another was a small (lightweight) 4x4 pick up.

Snow on car  2.20.19.JPG


The have raised the snowfall prediction to 11" more by the end of the day.
 
I have searched the net looking for pictures of this particular section. Saw a glimpse of the area on one article and it appeared to have only the one indentation below the quarter panel seam.

Media blasting the structure showed the vast majority of it to be in good shape:
Roof Support Inside Right.JPG


The right side over the door has some pretty deep pitting so I plan to cut that out as well:
Roof Support Outside Right.JPG

Roof Support Right Center.JPG

Leftside Cowl.JPG

Left Inner Fender.JPG
 
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