[Entropy11]

I ordered AMD 640-3468 “Rear Speaker Shelf Panel” and it should be here Monday I think. It’s a ‘68-72 Chevelle panel but with zero other options aside from complete fabrication, I’ll have to make it work. Of all the manufacturers of that part the AMD stamping at least resembles what I have. Actually it looks 100% compared to Sherman and whoever else I found.

Maybe the supporting arch in the glass support area below the deck filler will be wrong? Who knows. I at least have a correct deck filler panel with the correct arch and that sits on top. Might have to get creative so I’m taking a bunch of reference pics as I go. It feels sketchy cutting so much away right now but there’s no other way to move forward.

[Entropy11]

Some progress pics. The deck filler fit nicely by itself. I’ll have to double check who stamped it but it seemed spot on.

As expected the window arch stamped into the package shelf was wrong. The Chevelle must have less of an arch to it at the bottom. What is stamped into it stops the new deck filler from dropping down where it needs to be, let alone nestling into it like it should. I did a little work to it and think I have it sitting close to where it should be.

Tossed everything together loosely to see how the glass sits with some spacers in it. It also looks like the cardboard/fabric package tray will sit in there where it should with no issues or give away of the work done.

[Entropy11]

Just realized I never posted the carnage pics of what things looked like below the deck filler. You have to love getting into a mess like this where you just find a bunch of MIG wire punched clear through the rotten piece they tried to weld. So much was rotted away that they had to tack a pair of sheet metal braces in there to tie the deck up into place and connect it to the lid hinge support.

[dataway]

I'm very impressed with your perseverance and skill. You should have a YouTube channel that documented all this work.

I've got to admit, there are probably some hidden cavities in my body that have some mig wire collections in them .. and it was not anywhere near as bad as what you are starting with. (and I mean my CAR body by the way)

[Entropy11]

I appreciate the kind words John. Thanks to this site and people like you this thing will hit the road some day soon. Don’t forget- I wouldn’t have functional vent windows if it wasn’t for the parts you sent me! In hindsight I wish I would have at least set the camera up to run time-lapse just for fun and to see overall progress. Space constraints in our home garage kill that idea.

I’ll have a YouTube channel up to document things when we start our next project at our new place. As of now, the next major project will be this train wreck we acquired from an old farm (as-found pic below). No shortage of work to document there lol. Fortunately we have a very solid all original version of it to compare, take measurements, and make jigs from if needed. It’ll be a good time though, I love getting deep into this stuff.

[Shiny]

I'm in awe of anyone with the skills to take that on.

Thanks for sharing your thought process and the work both.

Fixing Pontiacs is not for the faint of heart and this forum is a blessing when it sometimes feels like Pontiacville is a ghost village.

Mike

[Greg Reid]

Like that 'Cuda..

[dataway]

I have a friend you'd like to meet ... his tag is "CudaGuy" ... I've been to his house, probably 40 Mopars in storage in pole barns.

[Entropy11]

Thanks again. Haha… sorry if I get too into the thought process sometimes. I love going into many of these jobs blind when I can’t find any other info online. This forum is a good “brainstorming” note pad sometimes.

That whole back area of the car is really an engineering/assembly work of art. Funny how so many separate pieces have complimentary depressions and tabs to nestle into each other in only one way. I guess on the assembly line they would just line those up and then spot weld away. Repairing the cars would be a breeze with OEM parts haha. With the reproduction parts you see the same little tabs and such but never know if they’re really stamped in the right spot!

[Entropy11]

My wife swayed me to the Mopar dark side. She’s always been a fan of only one specific car, the Plymouth Cuda. She now has a very original and solid ‘74. That field car in the pic above is a ‘73 and we have another ‘73 Barracuda that was supposed to be a parts car but is solid enough to probably build. Hate to see that history disappear, especially when it has a title.

This GTO will always be my go-to car though. Finding all this rot/rust and knowing it must have been left for dead in a field somewhere for many years only brings me closer to it. If that makes and sense? Better days ahead for it for sure.

[Shiny]

Honestly, in 1972 and in my young eyes, any 'Cuda was just badass. Don't shoot me for this but the look of any 'Cuda, Mach 1, or Boss mustang caught my eye more than any Camaro or Firebird, even as cool as they were.... Trans Ams were too scarce to even know they existed at my high school. The first time I saw a yellow AAR 'Cuda in the high school lot (rich kids), I was smitten by the overall look. I still am, actually. The 71-72 "gill-grills" were masterful marketing IMO.

Back to your thread, now...

Yes, wouldn't it be a different world if you could buy original parts over the counter?

I agree the assembly engineering was impressive but Kudos for evaluating today's options and settling on a repro Chevelle part as the path. Sharing it and your thought process on this forum will definitely help others. That's the beauty of this site.

Mike

[Entropy11]

Originally Posted by Shiny

Honestly, in 1972 and in my young eyes, any 'Cuda was just badass. Don't shoot me for this but the look of any 'Cuda, Mach 1, or Boss mustang caught my eye more than any Camaro or Firebird, even as cool as they were.... Trans Ams were too scarce to even know they existed at my high school. The first time I saw a yellow AAR 'Cuda in the high school lot (rich kids), I was smitten by the overall look. I still am, actually. The 71-72 "gill-grills" were masterful marketing IMO.

Back to your thread, now...

Yes, wouldn't it be a different world if you could buy original parts over the counter?

I agree the assembly engineering was impressive but Kudos for evaluating today's options and settling on a repro Chevelle part as the path. Sharing it and your thought process on this forum will definitely help others. That's the beauty of this site.

Mike

Thanks for that Mike. It’s great knowing this info could possibly steer someone down a path to restoring their car.

Totally agree with you. I’m into such a variety of cars but some some just capture what I think that era must have been at the time. Such beauty trapped in so many specific (sometimes one-off) years that I think there was something for everybody. For me it’s the ‘71-72 Roadrunners, ‘70 Super Bee, either generation AMC Javelin, or even the Ford Maverick. Such iconic cars in my mind. Any Cuda fits there too for me. Man, any ‘71 car now with the gills on it equals instant $$$. Just a tough yet sporty looking body style with that last 4yrs.

At the top of my “must build” list (besides my GTO thankfully) is the AAR and any ‘69-70 Mustang Mach 1 or any sports roof (im not picky). I’ve seen a few “builder quality” AAR’s locally but it’s impossible at the moment and I still have loads of more “practice” restoration to do first lol. Oh, I can’t forget the ‘72 Gran Torino Sport. That’s the only muscle car I actually remember at all from that era as I grew up with us having one for the first 7-8 years of my life. My parents still tell me the story how I cried the day they sold it and refused to eat… I guess it was tough for me losing that car even back then lol!!!

[Greg Reid]

I have a crush on a number of Mopar B bodies.... Just never was in the cards for me to get one. Closest I ever came was a '68 Chrysler 300 convertible loaded with every option and a 440.

[Entropy11]

Finally put a few min of work in tonight after being knocked down by Covid for nearly 2 weeks. The illness was bad enough but the allergic reaction (nearly suffocating) from the meds they gave me was a whole different story…

So I stalled out a bit just before getting sick. I took measurements from a straight edge laid across the deck filler area down to the top of the deck filler as well as the window channel recess. Now when I take this same measurement on the new parts held in place with Clecos, I’m coming up 1/2” short (the new deck filler sits higher). When I test fit the glass with spacers in the correct place for setting the window, things seem off. I thought maybe my “Chevelle” structure below needed some more adjustment and was holding the filler up. Pulled everything out, popped just the deck filler in place along with the glass and I get the same result.

I don’t know. I trimmed down any high spots I had on the flanges where the deck filler spot welds in left and right sides (outward of the trunk hinges) thinking maybe it was forcing the center of the filler to bow upwards. It doesn’t feel like the deck filler has tension pushing in on it from the quarters, but I swore I’d read somewhere that the quarters usually tend to pop inwards a bit with everything removed. Maybe just my deck filler stamping is askew and has too much arch, I don’t know, but it’s frustrating that I’m this far off 🤔

[Entropy11]

I ended up finding a Dynacorn deck filler cheap and thought I’d give it a try to see if it would solve my issues. No luck. Maybe it brought me 1/8” closer to my original measurement but the trade off wasn’t worth it.

I can pass along a 1:1 comparison between the Dynacorn piece and the previous Goodmark deck filler.

The Dynacorn was an ill-fitting mess compared to the Goodmark stamping.

- The 90° folded ends where it ties into the quarters were not even square. Both were actually canted to one side (the same side) and therefore not parallel to the quarters.

- The above mentioned tabs were not centered on the stamping, meaning that if you welded it in place, the center of the deck filler would not match the center of the car.

- The overall width of the piece was about 3/8-1/2” too wide. Even if the tabs were square and centered, you could never fit it in place until you cut the tabs off and welded them back on in the correct place

- The contour of the panel where it meets the quarters on both sides does not match the quarter contour and the width of the stamping from the window mounting recess to the trunk weatherstrip channel was roughly 3/8” too short.

In short- the Dynacorn stamping requires hours of work to even get close to the fit of the Goodmark stamping right out of the box. You’d still be creating most of the contour with filler while the Goodmark dropped in looking OEM with zero work.

FYI: I got the Goodmark shipped to me with tax for $83. The Dynacorn would have been roughly $50 more from the cheapest source if I had to pay full price. For anyone in the future that cares… the package tray/shelf that I used above was an AMD part.

[Entropy11]

Spent the evening tweaking the location where the deck lid hinges tie-in to the package shelf structure that sits below the deck filler. I had disassembly pics of the one good side that wasn’t rotted out but the pics are pointless without replacement OEM stampings. I think I’m close enough now and can just tweak the deck lid mounting bolts if needed. Setting the height correctly so the lid blends into the deck filler and quarters seemed more important.

The deck filler is just sitting in place in this pic except for the rain gutter area held with clecos from below to check the finished height. I will unfortunately have to find a way to cinch the lower glass mounting area down to get the arch shaped correctly. This is the single major negative when using the chevelle package tray/shelf structure. The glass channel on the deck filler would normally spot weld to the structure below… but that was removed so the deck filler would sit properly (Chevelle arch shape was different and interfered with the GTO deck filler arch). It’s all good though, I have an idea for a simple solution... I hope. 😂

[dataway]

Looks great from here.

[Entropy11]

Haven’t updated in a while. The package tray/shelf structure and deck filler are now welded in. It took a few hours of trial and error tacking the hinge supports to the shelf structure while test fitting the deck filler and deck lid. Once that was in I took a detour to work on the left side rear window channel. Uncovered an ugly previous repair with a strip of sheet metal and filler. Ended up making my own piece with the brake, bead roller (flattening dies only), and the shrinker/stretcher. I was able to keep the weld seam near that 90° break into the channel so I got it welded in quick and no distortion. Finished out ok so I’m happy that’s behind me.

The other pics are of the tab off the quarter that ties into the side tab on the deck filler. Only one side was rotted so I had a free template from the other. Nobody will ever see it but it only took a few minutes to make the right piece. I hardly ever MIG but did with this tab repair just for something different and quicker.

I’ll have some pics of how I cinched the window channel edge of the deck filler to the original height as soon as I dig them up. It’s fun when it actually goes as planned for a change. Haha

[dataway]

Was the window channel a pre-made panel or did you make that? Just wondering about the nice looking trim studs.
As usual, wonderful work you are doing.
Which TIG hand control are you using these days?

[Shiny]

You have to be happy with that progress. Looks like you overcame some big challenges. Amazing to me. Nice!