50Fastback

Well I successfully removed the entire front clip (grill, inner/outer fenders, the panels that sit to either side of the rad support). This is going to make some rewiring and body work easier, especially the "firewall" area behind the front tires....those are gone completely. Found some bondo on bottom of fenders that I didn't know about too. My question for the future is--what is prescribed order in putting the front clip BACK on? Wondering if doing it in a certain order tends to result in better alignment of things?

Nice looking fastback! I saw some pics of your car but it looked like your outers were solid at a glance, but I know these cars can hide secrets. Curious about your idea to jack up one half of the body (which will be easy for me since half my body mounts don't connect to anything anymore haha)....are you doing this so that you can have access to the top of the frame for rust removal/painting or another reason? Also, can you do this without having to remove the steering column or without distorting panels that tie into the firewall?

Very useful, thanks--it does give a nice visual two work with, even down to an idea of how many/where beads are needed in the floor panels.

Very helpful--thanks!

Good advice on the online panel purchase....not sure if I'll go that route or not again--but have looked at body braces that are relatively affordable and would save me time if purchased vs. fabbed. Thanks for the breakdown on problem areas--most if not all are accurate with my car sadly lol. Doggone MI road salt....

Thanks, I was intending on doing full perimeter welds like you said, as I can tell when I drive the car that this body is not structurally sound, OR level at this point, so I really want to correct all that. If you could send pics to jxc330@gmail.com, I would be really appreciative. I'm glad to hear you've had a car in similar condition because I was initially pretty daunted and almost sold it once or twice after looking under it, but I'm determined to forge ahead--when I found the car it didn't run, all four wheels were seized, no lights worked, etc....so I CAN'T quit on her now Your comment about replacement panels not being exact is timely because the access panel I just got from C2C was NOT something like what Plym. Doctor used to. I spent a bit of time last night beating the thing with a hammer & dolly set I bought trying to get it to conform to the old one. You're correct about the rear quarter light---someone fiberglassed up into the wheel opening where it had eaten away. You mentioned outer rockers--did you mean inner? My outers all appear solid, and unless I'm mistaken I seem to have no inners.....I thought the two usually form a "tube" so to speak. I'm going to take your advice and start in small sections as well, and will begin at that cowl area as soon as I get pics. Thanks.

Okay, now that I've figured out how to successfully load photos, I have a bunch of questions about this body before I dig in deeper on it. As a mentioned earlier it appears to have two layers of floor pans, so looking at the underside of it leaves me confused about know what I'll need to purchase or try recreating. Also....I can reach my hand down into this passage and out of the car---does this mean I need an inner rocker? (the outer rocker is intact). A picture of this area intact on a car would be great.... I'm both eager and hesitant to cut out the driver's side floor pan so I have a clearer picture of what is needed, plus start grinding off rust and painting frame and body mounts. I've watched a lot of pretty talented "YouTubers" (Cold War Motors, DIY Automotive) and I know the general rule of thumb is not to cut too much at once, but based on what I'm seeing I'm thinking of just cutting everything bad out from the bottom of the driver's access panel back to that last body mount in the photos (along the driver's side only). Advice is welcome and appreciated, as this is my first go at sheet metal work. Thanks.

Haha! So true....on some level I miss the days of land lines and snail mail--but then again I wouldn't have this amazing forum and wealth of information at my fingertips....gotta take the good with the bad I guess It's been a couple of years since I've been active on here so nice to hear from you--you schooled/helped me on a few issues in the past.

Great advice--I have an Iphone and am going to work on doing that now--then tonight I'll repost with more pics from inside and under the car. Thanks

Thanks--I see I have to resize them now before uploading.

Thanks!

IMG_2541.HEICHi all-- After a couple year hiatus, I'm back at another round of improving the old fastback. Have ordered a bead roller and am going to tackle floor pans and some other body work myself. Someone did some Mickey Mouse work before and took 16 ga sheet steel and just went over the old rusted out floor pans and then bolted them in and coated them with some tar/body panel deadener. Soooo...I could really use any pics of good sheet metal that would include the driver's access panel (with the panel removed, inner rocker panels, and pics that show body braces/mount locations.