I'm tearing into my 67 SS 350 coupe. I removed the entire left rear quarter and complete wheelhouse. (I have NOS stuff to repalce it with) I then noticed the shock tower rusted so I cut the "top" off the tower and found that whole structure piece that connects left shock tower to right shock tower is rusted out! I've never seen one rusted there. The good news is I have a Firebird parts car that has all good parts there, the bad news is this looks like a tough job...Anyone ever done this before? I'm not sure what to do and thinking of letting this SS slip into the partscar catagory...Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Gary

Cavemate, Don't do it! Slip into the parts car scene I mean. If your ss is genuine then pay someone to do the shi#y stuff.It will be worth it when you're done, Chris

I've never replaced this particular panel myself, and it does not sound like any fun. If I remember correctly, it sits on top of the frame rails. In order to get a new panel in from underneath, you would probably have to cut it in half and weld it back together after it is in place. Or possibly cut the rusted sections from the car and weld in new sections cut from the replacement panel. If it starts to be more of a "have to do" job rather than a "want to do" job, maybe it's time to relegate it to the parts bin.

The part is sandwiched inbetween the frame rails and the trunk pan. I cut it out of the parts car Firebird and it was a mother..They have spot welds under spot welds. I think if I cut thetrunk pan section out I can access the piece, BUT I'm thinking if I removed the piece will the frame rails flop around? LOL I'm thinking the whole back end will shift out of postition..Well, I'm going to try it and see what happends. Thanks for your words of encouragement guys. It's an all matching #'s car with POP..I'd feel real bad if this didnt work..

Gary

Sound like a BIG job. Good luck with it. Don't let the SS fade away if you can help it!
Gary, you have mail....

joe

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69 Rat-Infested Resti-Clone
WCA Member
Badboatdude@CS.com
69 Pics http://hobbystage.net/camaro/joeg/index.html

Rick's first gen sells replacement panels like those you are describing... and they aren't that expensive... but I imagine the job of putting them in would be a tough one. Try to save it if you can.

Boodle, they repro this piece??? I didn't know anyone would repro it. This is the first one I've ever seen rust out

I would definately weld in some support bars before you begin cutting out the panel, just make sure that you weld them to an area that will be out of your way during the process of removing/replacing the rusted panel.

Im in the process of replacing both of my rear frame rails now, and I had to weld in some new metal on the crossover panel.

Please elaborate on how you plan on getting out the rusted panel and welding in the replacement.

I am pretty sure that they do repro this piece. It is the part that sandwiches between the frame rail and the trunk floor. They have actually two pieces... one for the right side and another for the left so perhaps it is not one big piece or maybe their repro is done in halves to facilitate installation? Anyway, they cost about $30 a side or so if I remember right. They list them with all of the other trunk sheetmetal in their catalog... something like "shock tower reinforcement panels"... something like that.

Good luck.

That's great, Boodle..Nice to hear they're repro-ing structual pieces. I'm going to use the one from the Firebird. It's really clean I just need to add the steel block for the dual exhaust RH hanger!

LiteSpd, Here's my plan..1) remove the two "Y" braces behind the rear seat back..Then, I locate all the spot welds that hold the cross-over to the trunk pan towards the REAR of the car. They're in a "half-moon"
pattern as is the rear of the cross-over.After cutting all the spot welds free, I draw a line between eash spot weld hole and cut the trunk pan there. This way, half the pan is still over the crossover flange..in the front part, the vertical area where the lower part of the "Y" braces are I again located the spot welds that hold the FRONT of the cross-over to the trunk pan. I removed all the sopt welds, INCLUDING THE "Y" welds because they go clear through to the cross-over! (I found that out the hard way!) Next, I draw a line from side to side just BELOW the spot welds. I cut out the line with a die grinder. The sides, (by the shock towers) Are DOUBLE SPOT WELDED..In other words, thay welded the trunk floor to the crossover, then welded the inner wheelhouse OVER those spot welds..It's a tedius job, but you just have to take your time, locate and remove the spot welds...NOW,after locating a few more welds to the shock tower area, a section of the trunk can be lifted and removed to find the cross-over beneath..there are only about 10 spot welds that hold the cross-over to the frame rails..they're easy to locate and remove..The cross over will then (hopefully) lift out from inside the car...The reason I cut lines through areas that have the cross0ver underneath is so the when I weld the trunk pan back in, I can butt weld it with the cross-over flange underneath and the whole job will be undetected from the top and from underneath...wish me luck..she's going under the knife this weekend!

Gary

boodle, you're thinking of the shock tower plates on the left and right side of the car the part that is rusted out on his car is the crossmember that runs between and is imbedded into the unibody frame rails. There is no replacement part for that yet. After a donor piece is cut out, the only way to make sure that the structure mainatins integrity is to remove the frame rails and then you might as well replace them too. Cavemate, I wish you luck with your project. With a matching numbers car, it will be worth your time if you are doing the work yourself.

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69 SS, 350, 4 Speed
75 400, 4 Speed
93 Z28, 6 Speed

Ahh, I think perhaps you may be right 69X11SS. Sorry if I caused confusion. Are you talking about the panel where the muffler hangers attach to then? I am still confused.

Yes, Boodle. The muffler hangers mount there..I bought some 1X1 boxed steel rods to weld into the frame rails for temporary support...I'm taking pics of the precess and I'll post them when I'm through..

Great info. I recently dropped my car off to have rust repair done. Sort of like hoping the phone doesn't ring but wanting to know how it's going! Are the CE frame rails for 67-69 a viable option is they're rusted out? In Summit, it says 'minor' floor mods needed. I remember a post a while ago about some requiring significant floor mods but am not sure if this would be with the 4 link frame rails.

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Rick Dorion
69 RS Conv,355,M20,4.10's and I don't worry about stone chips.