1968 Lincoln Limo

[Barry Wolk]

12-13-2007 POR-15

Earlier, I reported that his car might have been virtually rust free had it not been for the sealant they used on most of the seams. They used two kinds. One was more of a filler and was porous, absorbing moisture but keeping it from passing through the seams. The other sealant was some type of silicone or rubber that was applied to raw steel.

This elastic sealant failed everywhere, causing water to be trapped underneath it.

I am going to remove all traces of remaining sealant and replace it with POR-15 (Paint Over Rust), specially formulated to neutralize rust and seal off future rust by eliminating oxygen from getting to the metal.

The POR-15 instructions call for degreasing of the metal surface. The degreaser should be mixed in a maximum 1:1 with hot water and weaker solutions up to 5:1. All of the areas to receive paint were treated with the degreaser, wiped off and allowed to dry.

Step 2 is to apply a rust neutralizer. The instructions say to keep the areas wet with the neutralizer for 15 minutes before allowing solution to air dry.

Step 3 is to apply the paint. I chose the silver paint because it has much more solids than their black paint allowing it to be used as a filler for small gaps and holes.

This step marks the beginning of refinishing the car as I've now stripped paint off of most areas.

In the instructions for the POR-15 it recommends that you paint both sides of any rusted metal. As a precaution I've painted the lowest level of the inside of the doors. There is an existing sealant that I couldn't remove in this area so I painted over it, giving water a clear pathway to the ample drain holes.

Note: the coarse material above the paint is sound deadener.

[Barry Wolk]

12-16-2007 Drain holes.

If you look at the angle of the bottom of the door you can see a downward slope towards the outer edge of the door.

Water seeks the lowest point which you can see with a straight edge in place. The only way these doors would rust is if the drain holes get plugged. It would probably take an hour a door to disassemble the arm rest and door panel but it would be worth vacuuming out any built up crud. new felts and rubber at the window should ward off future crud build-up.

Went back to work on repairing some rust damage.

Using the material I had bent I fit the pieces using the cut-out and paper templates. The side piece is straight but the original bottom piece has a slight curve to it. I'll duplicate that curve in lead or body filler.

The tail light area was covered in a different type of body sealer. It was very rigid and stuck to the raw steel very well. I removed it anyway in favor of a coat of POR-15. I'm starting to sound like a commercial.

Painted all areas except the body surface. The paint filled some small pinholes but not all the damage. The rust is encapsulated. The small holes will be sealed with body filler and another coat of paint.

[Barry Wolk]

12-19-2007 Brazing rear window opening.

This area was the very worst rust damage. I took a die grinder to all of the holes and opened them up until there was substantial metal at the edge. I installed a backer that also covered the worst of the rust holes. I also ground to fresh metal where all of the original spot welds were so that the brazing would have a solid base.

Using a very small flame I spot brazed the backer in place. The slot allows for the vertical piece to fit. The backers were temporarily screwed in place. Those holes were welded shut.

Spot welding the patch panel in place keeps the sheet metal from warping. I found that the spot weld areas needed a hole in the underlaying metal so that both layers heated properly.

Brazing finished, ready for grinding and a top coat of POR-15.

I decided to strip all of the paint, even from the area behind the bumper. What's another hour or two? I found that the main bumper support was a substantial piece of galvanized steel.

All areas that are rust prone will get a coat or two of POR-15

You'll note that I installed the new pieces slightly below that of the original so that there will be minimal filling necessary.

A little bumpy but body filler will smooth this area nicely. Next step is to assemble the window trim and determine the proper curve to the body filler.

[Barry Wolk]

12-25-2007

Paint nor bondo stick easily to POR-15 but their super-bondo does. After painting the highly distressed area and letting it dry I applied a layer of their body filler over the whole area and sanded away all the high spots leaving the filler and encapsulated rust covered by paint and their bondo. They say that it's 5 times as hard as standard body filler. It's reinforced with glass fibers.

I fitted the window trim to act as a guide to the application of a coat of body filler. You can see the gap I need to fill to match the original opening.

The patched area got a base coat of bondo, Thin layers of build-up are better than gobbing on filler.

After getting the patched areas to line up with the window trim I shot a layer of primer over the bondo to protect the freshly sanded metal. This layer of paint, when block sanded, will reveal further neecessary work.

After block sanding the sides I applied a thin layer of bondo over the rest of the lower panel.

I was careful to keep the layer thin so that the curvature would be maintained. After it hardened I started hand sanding but all of my sponges or sanding blocks only made contact at their outer edges.

I resolved that problem by making my own sanding drum. I used 3M adhesive on the tube and back of the paper. It took a couple of attempts to get proper positioning but it produced a very effective sanding tool. I sanded lengthwise while moving the sanding tube in a cross-hatch pattern

A coat of primer to protect what I'd completed.

After it dried it looked flat and straight. I went on to the next task. The rust at the top of the window fooled me. I thought it was just surface rust but it was some serious damage. Apparently there had been a sealant installed but none of it got behind the trim clips. Each clip became a water trap and this is the result.

I used a die grinder with wire brush and holes started to appear. A burr revealed the extent of the damage.

The super-bondo instructions said that it required a backer but there was no way to install one in this location. A different approach was required. I decided to fill the cavity behind the damage with expanding foam. It will cut off all oxygen to the back side of the metal and it will act as a backer for the filler. I'll be making a small recess behind the metal edge so the filler will encapsulate the rust.

Next up is to clean the inside lip of the trunk lid and give it a coat of paint. I'll then reinstall it and fill the antenna holes. Then the sail panel repairs. I've got an idea what I want to do there.

[Barry Wolk]

12-27-2007

Wire brushed off as much of the rust as I could get off, degreased and painted the areas of the trunk that are exposed to moisture. Unpainted areas are inside the trunk and will just get primer and paint.

After two hours of tedious die grinding I sanded about four square feet of the roof

to remove any burrs. I found that the rust spots had a slight rise to them that wouldn't go away with sanding. The iron oxide was harder than the sandpaper grit but not the carbide burr.

I meticulously ground away as many rust spots as I could see. These left depressions that often still had a slight rust deposit at the bottom of the pit. After grinding I used the POR-15 neutralizer and rinsed with water as instructed. I towel dried the surface, allowed it to dry totally and painted on a thick coat of POR-15 over the entire area.

I sanded away the entire coat leaving each divot filled with POR-15 sealing the rust off for eternity, or so they say.

The product on the left is the fiberglass reinforced filler designed specifically to fill large holes. I used that to fill the rust holes in the window frame. This stuff sets up very fast (5 minutes) and is hard as nails. There's a 10 minute work window for final shaving or shaping, but that's about it.

The product on the right is their super fine body filler. It spreads like the consistency of butter.

This is the hole filler, shaped on the left and unworked on the right.

I used the fine filler on all of the divots and sanded it away leaving the roof extremely smooth.

I top coated the sanded metal with red oxide primer which will probably be sanded off by the painter. I started to reinstall the trunk lid to check the fit and to weld up the antenna hole in the trunk lid. I may leave it and install another type of antenna there.

Before and after left side.

Before and after, right side

[JohnD1956]

Hi Barry. I want to thank you for the work you've put into this thread. It is informative and fun to watch what you're doing here. I do have one question.

When you were fixing the areas on the bottom of the windows you mentioned both welding the backing plate and brazing too. Are you using these terms interchangeably, or are you mixing welding and brazing on the same area?

If really brazing, I had heard that this was a bad area to do that due to inconsistent expansion qualities between the weld and the braze material. I don't know if that is true or not but I wonder if you have any comment on that.

[Barry Wolk]

I did experience some of that but knowing that body filler was inevitable it was a simple matter of knocking down the high spots. I did find that a very small tip and very thin brazing rod kept the distortion to a minimum.

I am curious as to how the factory brazed the panels together so nicely. I could detect filled in jig holes but the seam at the roof and sail panel is quite wide, but perfect. What's really odd is that the bronze seam attracts metal shavings like a magnet, even through the primer.

You can see the brazed seam in this picture.

[Barry Wolk]

As an aside. The thickness of the material I was brazing together was the same thickness so I didn't have some of the problems you mentioned. That's why I had to drill holes in my "spot" welds. I was able to get the metals to heat evenly that way.

[Barry Wolk]

12-31-2007

This is what I started with. The padded vinyl top had split and water sought the lowest level and was trapped by the rear moldings. The problem was compounded by caulking the bottom of the trim.

About two hours of die grinder work and I had removed all traces of rust on the surface. There was still some rust at the bottom of the deep pits. I ground away all the thin metal, requiring some extensive patches.

I gave the area a heavy coat of POR-15 and let it cure overnight.

I made some backers out of stainless steel and secured them with screws. I intentionally left a 1/4" gap in-between the backer and the finished surface.

I mixed a batch of the fiberglass reinforced filler and pushed it into the intentional gap and tightened the screws, compressing the filler behind the patch.

After the filler set up I removed the screws and filled the holes.

I used the fine paste to fill the divots left after sanding off the top coat of POR-15. I topped that with bondo as necessary and sanded the area smooth.

Before and after

[West Peterson]

Peter

Is that a photo of you as you realized that your King Midget wasn't going to be done in time for the national meet this year?

Or is that a photo of you when you realized how little work has been accomplished on it in the last year?

[Peter Gariepy]

After watching the resto on this lincoln my "little" problems on my KM are kinda ridiculous. As to the picture, that was when i heard you were a Mac guy. )

[JohnD1956]

Barry, how do you think these patches will stand up to ice cold and colder weather?

JD

[Amphicar BUYER]

Have you used this process before?

What kind of surface prep was done on the back of the panel?

It's quite a project and I am sure it will stun us all upon completion!

[Barry Wolk]

I doubt the car will be used in the cold but I don't see how these patches are any different than bondo patches installed for the last 50 years.

I wire brushed what I could and beveled all of the edges so the patch would have more purchase. I did metal prep the area, too

[Barry Wolk]

1-9-2008 More reassembly

I've decided to reassemble and prime the rear of he car while I ponder whether to make new center doors or try to make these work.

My friend Dan lives a mile from my shop and has graciously allowed me to use his sandblasting booth to clean all my hinges.

I used the paint stripper first and then blasted off the remains. I'm now convinced that the white layer of paint was Imron or some other super hard paint. The sandblaster hardly touched it.

I sealed all the seams with POR-15 and primed the inner door.

Installed the door and adjusted it in the opening. Most of the doors show evidence of "final fit" sledgehammer marks on the bottom of the doors. Now that the door is aligned I can finish the bodywork on this side of the car.

[Barry Wolk]

1-17-2008

Slight distraction. My friend Scott is having the engine from his Lincoln rebuilt. He is refinishing all the bolt-ons and needed to degrease them. Another friend, Doug, gave me a cabinet parts washer about a year ago. I offered it and Scott came by to check it out. I always thought it was filled with cleaning fluid. Not, it was full of rusty nasty water and the motor only hummed when I flipped the switch.

I found everything clogged with some nasty stuff that had petrified eons ago. Scott took the cabinet without the pump, just as a place to contain the mess of degreasing. After several hours of sandblasting and degreasing I have all the components ready to be painted and reassembled.

I recently acquired some new friends and some willing helpers. My friend Shawn works for Ford but has a Packard. We met at a concours I'm on the board of and we hit it off right away. His son James is 16 and has a passion for cars. He really liked my trailer and asked a bunch of questions. I really enjoyed the conversation.

I told Shawn about my Mark II and that discussion led to the Lincoln club I belong to. He asked if there was anything he could do for the club. He was aware of all the auto sponsorship of the concours events drying up in recent years and asked, outside of cash donations, what he could do.

Shawn contacted me about a week later and offered to make arrangements to grant members of our club the Ford X-plan. We are the first automotive club to be offered this discount. Actual employees get slightly better pricing but the deal is hard to beat.

He also made an amazing offer to help me work on the limo. Apparently he has no current projects and wanted simply to keep his and James hand in it. I am grateful for the help and the friendship.

Now that they helped me take the massive front bumper off I was able to strip the paint off of the rest of the car. I had just read an article about using a plastic bag over stripper to keep it moist. It didn't seem to make a difference.

Oh, oh! another wad of body filler. Funny though, it was hardly necessary. They filled two holes from the original Star location and installed one on the hood. they installed nuts and bolts in the holes, ground down most of the screw head and bondo'd over the whole thing.

Looks good in gun metal gray.

The roof section they added had to go. It was wavy, wobbly and weak. Some places had 1/4 of bondo and others had none.

Major hack work. Will have to be redone

>

Ground out all the spot welds and exposed more hackery.

Actually, this gives me an opportunity to improve this car by installing a large moon roof where the splice is. The new roof section will be thicker and stronger as will the new side rails.

[Barry Wolk]

1-20-2008

I moved to the front of the car and removed the lower windshield trim and air intake panel. I found that this car had been parked under a pine tree for a long time.

I used a fine piece of welding wire to cut the butyl strip and popped it out. This made it very simple to remove the dash pad. Found some interesting things in the defroster vents. Mostly pens and bottle openers.

I removed as much of the adhesive as I could scrape away and then hit the metal with a wire wheel. I immediately found out that there was very little metal left at the lead edge of the roof. Water stayed trapped under the split vinyl top and ate it away. It was much worse on the driver's side.

A die grinder with a 1/16' blade took the rotted top off in no time. Since the outer skin of the car, while fully welded, adds little to the structure of the car. I almost expected to see gaps open as I cut along the edge of the roof. None appeared. The outer skin was not in tension at all.

The back side looks better than the top, but not much. The metal is paper thin.

When I find my donor '68 or '69 it will be a simple matter of cutting the top off, removing all the metal that's welded to the outer skin and re-spotwelding the replacement in place.

[Guest AntarcticDave]

Great work Barry. That's great about the X-plan for your club. I work for a ocmpany that's a Ford and GM supplier, and get both X-plan type discounts. When I bought my 04 Thunderbird it was good for around another $3,800 off the list price (along with the $6,000 dealer cash back Ford was doing then).

[Barry Wolk]

The X-plan is a no haggle pricing schedule. The price is set by Ford and the dealership is guaranteed a reasonable profit. That's not necessarily true when you negotiate a last nickel deal. Sometimes the health of a dealership is affected by "great deals".

We are losing American car dealers like crazy around here. Unfortunately, when they go away we also lose the expertise that keeps some of old cars on the road.

[West Peterson]

Hi Barry

I was just watching on Speed this weekend where a late 1960s Chevelle had a similar problem with the top. It had a vinyl roof that basically retained the moisture. It was amazing. You could see right through the sheet metal. It was just like a sift. They cut off the entire top and replaced it. Structure and all. Would that not be a better idea for you than to try to reskin it? Seeing that you're looking to use a donor car anyway.

[Barry Wolk]

Not at all West. Since the Lincoln of that era is unit body I'd want to disturb the underlying structure as little as possible. Wasn't the Chevelle a BOF car?

The outer skin on a slab-side is all show, including the roof. The sheet metal adds nothing to the structure. The roof is the last piece to go on so I just have to grind out the spot welds to create a flat clean surface for the new welds.

I will have to remove at the "A" and "B" pillar to preserve the underlying structure until I can remove all the metal but the top skin. Tedious, yes, right thing to do in this case, yes, IMO.

[Barry Wolk]

1-25-2008 "Peeling it like an onion"

Someone once posted that a slab-side Lincoln could be "peeled like an onion", removing successive layers of sheet metal to get to hidden rust within.

After actually attempting that on a small scale the contention has proven to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. There are so many spot welds, some as close as 1/2" apart that there is literally nothing left of the metal to salvage.

Now, if that writer had made the contention that the sheet metal could be separated in successive layers if new panels were to be installed, I would agree with that, but to say that the car could be put back together using the same sheet metal is simply the fantasy of the writer.

It's a good thing that they used so many spot welds because about 10% were not effective.

You can see the sub structure of the roof that makes the actual roof panel simply icing on the cake. The bits and pieces of metal on the wood panel are all that's left of three feet of roof edge. There was barely 1/4" in between the 1/2" long spot welds. Certainly not enough to reattach the roof with any integrity. I certainly question the credibility of the writer that made the claim.

The topic of dipping these cars in a primer bath came up recently and that thread answered a question I had about this car. At the upper right and upper left of the windshield opening there were small phillips-head screws in holes. These screws were covered over with the hard sealant used in various places on the car. They didn't screw two pieces of metal together, as one would have thought. The screws simply filled the holes.

Turns out, that's exactly what the holes were for. They simply filled holes that were left open during the body dipping process. These holes were to vent the huge air bubble that would have formed under the roof panel. Even with the vent hole a large bubble kept the underside of the roof panel from being primed.

[Barry Wolk]

1-29-2008

Installed front door shell in middle door position. Can not figure out why the original fabricator replaced the door skin.

Still looking for a parts car. No urgency, still have lots to do without it.

Ground out the rusted metal from the door frame and found fairly clean metal underneath. When this area rusted through water seeped into the lower levels of the body and wept out the existing drain holes.

Fabricated some patch panels. Will braze in place tonight.

[Barry Wolk]

1-30-2008

Instead of brazing the patches were welded using wire from my MIG and the gas torch.

Now here's an oddity for you.

When I'm grinding metal on the car I get a straight line on the roof in metal shavings. The shavings line up perfectly with the brazed joint in the roof and sail panel joint. The metal panels are steel but the joint is brass.

Brass is non-ferrous so it can't be magnetic. How could there be a magnetic field between two pieces of steel if they're physically connected at the rear window opening?

[Barry Wolk]

1-4-2008 Final repairs to rotted out door frame.

The barrier that trapped the water in the lower area was rotted away and needed to be replaced.

It was handy that I had another door frame 4 feet away. I covered the piece with duct tape and marked out a pattern.

I transferred the pattern to a piece of scrap sheet metal and rough shaped it with the bandsaw.

I ground the piece to fit the opening.

Dropped it into the damaged door frame, making sure the drainage hole stayed open.

Torch welded the new piece in place.

Coated the area with POR-15 allowing it to flow out of the drain hole, permanently sealing the area.

[Barry Wolk]

3-12-2008 Back to work after much needed vacation.

I removed the grill that covers the air intake in front of the windshield. I found bags of pine needles and other debris. It had apparently been turned into a rodent condo at one time.

I observed that there were three cuts in the sheet metal on the cowling. Apparently someone felt it necessary to cut this metal and bend it out of the way to access the hydraulic motor for the wipers. I don't understand this as I was able to get it out easily.

After removing all the paint in the area I had Shawn do some more welding for me. Sorry about the lousy picture.

I'll treat the inside of this area to a coating of black POR-15.

After drilling a drainage hole for the area behind this patch Shawn tack welded the patch and proceeded to complete the welding on the dogleg and the rear quarter.

Let the leading begin! It's much simpler than I thought. I've used lead in art glass projects and the processes are the same.

Lead will only stick properly to clean metal. After using a flux on the area to be "tinned" the sheet metal and lead stick is heated to a point where lead will adhere to the surface of the steel. A quick wipe with a rag will reveal any spots that didn't tin. These areas must be redone.

Shawn brought a number of wood leading tools with him. I was surprised when he asked if I had any used motor oil. We wanted to use it to bathe the tool surface in to keep it from burning.

Using the tool and the torch I was able to melt enough lead to cover the repaired area. It looked pretty ugly when I was done and I was concerned that the dirty oil had embedded itself in the softened lead I had pushed in place.

I went at it with a body file and took it down to the proper height. It was a lot of work but very satisfying to see the repair take shape.

Before:

After:

I believe that this will be the final design. It solves a number of problems by getting rid of the center door. There is a lot of stress at the attachment point of the front "B" pillar and the roof. This is due to the lack of a rigid structure below. By welding the center door frame in place and covering it with a continuous piece of sheet metal the center of the car will be much stronger.

It will also allow me to use the space for entertainment and luxury items befitting a proper limousine.

[thomatt12]

Good job on restoring your ride sir.

_________________________

Aftermarket car parts are good for your ride!

[Guest elmo39]

Barry a better option than waste oil is melted bees wax , if it does get imbedded in the lead it won;t come back to haunt you later

[Barry Wolk]

Back to the project:

Had my crew drag it home today. I'm amazed at how clean it is. It has every panel I'll need to complete the limo.

Only surface rust on the inside of the fenders and doors.

Adam, from Mob Steel, gave me every trim and spare part they could find for the car.

Seems almost a shame to cut this baby apart. Let the fun begin.

[Barry Wolk]

[size:150]DECONSTRUCTING A SLAB-SIDE LINCOLN

In order to salvage the roof and sail panels as a unit I needed to detach it from the space-frame of the unit body. Grinding out hundreds of spot welds to detach the panels would have left me with holes in the flanges sometimes less than 1" apart, so I removed the roof from the inside. By using this method I will be able to remove up to 4 layers of sheet metal, leaving the flange edges intact.

A BOF car often has only one layer of sheet metal for the roof panel to attach to but the unit body Lincolns have two, boxed for strength. I started by removing the inner box. This allowed me access to the outer shell of the boxed support where I cut another line, freeing the roof and sail panels from the sub structure.

Lincoln advertised that these cars were dipped and electro-statically charged the cars for better primer adhesion. Maybe the dip tank wasn't working the day this car went down the line but I think the claim is BS. After taking two of these apart I see no sign of dipping. Here's the inside of a boxed area. Even with an air bubble at the top of this assembly there would have been some primer inside this area.

I cut away one of the "A" pillars to put some stress on the rest of the roof. The grinding wheel kept getting pinched under the stress of the car's structure changing. The pillar is made of three pieces of 1/16" steel reinforced with 1/8" metal at the intersection of the pillars and room.

After burning through about a dozen 4" x 1/16" cutting blades I had the roof assembly free. It appears to me that the roof, sail panels and rear window opening were a sub-assembly that included the front trunk gasket groove. It appears to be a sub assembly because there are machine-made bronze welds and bronze filled locating holes. It was apparently made on a buck.

I spent a lot of time making repairs around the rear window of the limo. The results weren't bad but swapping out for perfect sheet metal is the way to go. It will be a slow process preparing the pieces for a swap, but the end results will be superior.

The next step is to remove the flanges of the sub-assembly leaving a perfect edge on the roof panel. Because the roof panel was spot welded to boxed members that were welded together there will be lots of hidden spot welds. It'll be very tedious but I'll end up with a perfect replacement panel. Cutting it into front and rear portions is is the only thing that concerns me now.

[West Peterson]

Good to see the project started up again.

[Bill Stoneberg]

I wondered what happened to your Lincoln. Glad to see it back again. Did it take that long to find a pars car ?

[Barry Wolk]

I wanted to find a parts car that was so rough that I didn't mind taking it off the road. This parts car wasn't rough at all. It was a restoration of a very clean car in progress. Something went wrong with the paint and it didn't adhere properly and started peeling. Instead of stripping and repainting it the owner found another car and transferred a bunch of parts to it, leaving this a shell.

Fortunately, it had everything I needed, and more.

[West Peterson]

From an armchair quarterback's viewpoint, it looks like it might have almost been easier to make your cuts at the windshield post and through the floor boards and replace the entire rear section, as opposed to separating all the outer and inner panels, then fitting each back into place.

[Barry Wolk]

It's a unit body car. The outer sheet metal is not structural. Disrupting the inner sheet metal would have weakened the car.

It's not tough work, just dirty and time consuming.

[Barry Wolk]

Further deconstruction.

After removing the top by cutting it away from the structure I found that there were many hundreds of spot-welds to remove the remaining structural elements from the panels I wanted to save. The critical factor was retaining the flanges.

This gauge is set for 1". You can see that the spotwelds are about 3/4" apart. Taking the panel from the outside would have destroyed the flanges.

I used a number of methods to remove the underlying metal. I found that the spot weld hole saws didn't work well at all because they often went too deep, cutting into the salvaged panel. They also didn't work at all on the oblong welds. I found that the best tool was an air cut-off tool with a 1/16" thick blade. The thin blade seemed to remove much more material than an 1/8" blade and was easier to control.

I found out that by grinding the welds out in this manner I was able to wear down the layers of metal until paper thin. The metal would instantly darken when it got to the right thickness because of the heat of the blade. The metal that didn't darken was the weld itself as it became part of the underlying metal.

This allowed me to use a thin screwdriver to "pop" the foil-thick metal, leaving a telltale location on the second layer.

Once you see a darkened circle of thin metal the metal can be pried free, exposing the exact location of the weld on the second layer.

I stripped the paint off the roof in preparation for cutting it into front and rear sections. I found that using a bristle brush to distribute the stripper and wisk away paint that had separated, the job went much faster. Most strippers are temperature sensitive so I kept the shop at 70°.

I measured the panels I'm replacing and determined a cut line.

I used the 1/16" blade and cut on the dotted line, carefully leaving some small sections intact for stability.

New front section dropped right into place.

The remainder of the parts car is looking pretty sad.

[Barry Wolk]

I removed the remnants of the old roof sheet-metal. My welds and bondo work looked pretty good from the backside but there's nothing like a near perfect roof panel.

I ground all the rust and paint off of the roof's mating surface to ensure a good bond between the outer sheet metal and the sub-structure.

A test fit of the panel showed that I needed further alteration where the roof panels met the track in the trunk for the weather stripping.

A little grinding and the panel dropped right into place. Mass production is a wonderful thing. I won't do any welding until I strip the paint off of the new trunk lid and install it. I want to make sure the gaps are proper before I make anything permanent.

Anybody in the Detroit area got a spot-welder?

[Barry Wolk]

After installing the original front door in its original position and the donor car's front door in the center I'm left with a gap. This gap will be filled with the lead edge of the front door as an extension of the fixed center doors. Fixing the center door gains the structure a lot of strength and allows me to add a second "B" pillar about a foot behind the original. This will allow me to move the divider wall back about 6", giving me much needed legroom up front.

I cut the door in two pieces. The top piece will extend back straight, replacing the rise in the lead edge of the center front door. This will make all the car's line parallel.

In cutting the door in two I discovered that the side impact barriers in '68 were a joke. I can't imagine this rudimentary box shape would deflect much of an impact at all. There's not a lot of strength there.

After a little more trimming the panel drops in near it's final position, making it a true slab-side again.

[West Peterson]

Impressive problem solving, Barry.

What are you going to do with the remaining roof gap? Sunroof?

[Barry Wolk]

Yes. I have a line on a "breadboard" used for factory training. I hope to have that soon so that I can button up the top.

It is critical that I get the body line correct as it will stick out like a sore thumb if I don't. With a snap string as a guide line I spent several hours aligning the doors so that I had a straight line from the center of the rear door to the center of the front fender, where the body line takes a slight downward dip. Now I understand all of the evidentce of body "adjustments" left by small sledge hammers and pry bars.

Since there was no rust and no sign of accidents on any of these panels I found it odd to find so much factory-installed body filler. Nearly half the surface of all the doors was slathered with plastic body filler.

After stripping the paint off of the splice piece I started to fit it and soon discovered that the window edge on the center door started rising gradually from front to rear. It will require a new door top. Every problem creates an opportunity. I can now incorporate a window lip into this new piece of metal, solving the problem with weatherproofing the center fixed window.

With the splice piece trimmed and nearly flush I taped in place to see what the finished panel will look like.

I am pleased.