[akitaman]

Here's the story. This 1969 Gtv has had a less then perfect life. It was bought in Southern California then the owner moved to Boise Idaho where it had seen some very hard winters. It then found its new home in the great northwest. It now has a new owner who is doing it the justice it deserves. The motor, transmission and suspension are being built and dyno'd by Wes Ingram. More on that later. The body is, and was, in need of some work. The car was rear ended at some point in time. The repairs to the rear were suspect at best.
View attachment 89695

View attachment 89696

There were indicators that we had issues to deal with. If you look close to the rear of the car you can see odd "cracking" above the wheel arches. This was where to much body filler and not deep enough scratch (36 grit) on the bare steel had happen. Moisture will get under the filler and rust will push the filler up, causing the cracking.

We did some of the repairs before the car went to the blasters (so the blasting itself wouldn't destroy the car). For example, replaced the rockers, lower quarters and rear wheel arches. As an added bonus, the blasting cleans the welds so well, that it can be near impossible to tell that a panel was replaced.

The next job was to pull the trunk floor and repair the inner structure.

 

[la_strega_nera]

pics no worky?

 

[PSk]

Daron,

Unfortunately to see these wonderful pictures we need access to http://gtam.silvahalo.com

Best
Pete

 

[smestas]

Daron,

You need to fix all your image links. They are creating about 20+ request for user and pass to view them. Looks like someone changed your directory settings where the images live.

In the future it might be better to upload your images to the BB then linking to them from your site to prevent this from happening and to allow pages to load faster.

Thanks as always for the informative images and posts.

 

[akitaman]

Sorry for the problem. The tech team is working on it.

Simon- I'm as technical as a walnut. My wife is in the same line of work as you. I will have her school me on your request.

 

[akitaman]

Continuing with the story. Once the floor was exposed (via the rear apron being removed). we could see the total damage. Poor panel install, trunk floor support bent and much more.

In this photo the middle (under rear window) needed to be pulled out.

Here Jay is relieving the tension from the pull.

Here you can see how far off the trunk lid to quarter panel relationship was.

The trunk needed a lot of pulling power.

 

[PSk]

Now this is a very interesting thread!!!, and the results will be amazing I'm sure .

Poor car, hopefully it will stop crying on the inside ...
Pete

 

[akitaman]

Hi Pete. I will post more pictures today as to how it looks now. Because our computer hosting provider is down, it takes me a while to post them this way. So I will do it after a good hot cup of tea...... and nap, and breakfast, and football......

 

[akitaman]

Before we replace the trunk floor we have to pull the old one as much into shape as we can. This way when the new unit goes in, we can line up the perimeter correctly. This effort will make for a seamless install.

Here the old unit was patched up and pulled into the general location that it should have been in.

Here the donor unit was prepped for install.

Once the old floor was cut out, you can clearly see the damage that was caused in the axle housing.

Here we are pulling the housing down into place. More relief pulling was required after this photo.

Here we tacked welded the replacement floor in place.