Mopar Muscle – October 2019

RECONSTUCTED LIPS

BY MARK EHLEN

EVEN RELATIVELY RUST-FREE CARS HAVE

RUST-DAMAGED WHEEL LIPS. HERE’S THE

BEST AND SIMPLEST WAY TO RETURN THEM

TO LIKE-NEW CONDITION

For

probably decades now, the

Holy Grail of muscle-car finds

would be to travel to a desert

state to find a rust-free example to restore—

the kind that wouldn’t need any sheetmetal

repairs at all, save for the odd door ding and

so on. No rust, no accidents, just strip it

down, paint it, and reassemble it into your

ultimate dream car.

Well, have fun with that fantasy. Not to say

that there might not be a few lurking around

somewhere, as there have certainly been a

good number of remarkable barn finds that

have come to light in recent years, but how

many have been truly rust-free cars?

Precious few, probably. Muscle Car

Restorations in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin,

has restored hundreds of cars over the last

three decades, and there has been only one

in recent memory that hasn’t needed new

metal somewhere. A lot of cars come in with

claims that they are rust-free, but the trip to

the dip tank always reveals another reality.

In that light, original unrestored cars

are likely to be much better to work with,

because their true condition can be much

easier to ascertain if it hasn’t been previously

restored. That very well may justify the value

of some of these finds, as it’s easier to see

what you are really getting into.

This 1970 Plymouth GTX is just such

a car. Involved in a rather serious accident

decades ago, it was stashed away waiting

for the repairs that never happened. When

the original owner’s son finally brought it

to MCR, it was pretty clear what it was

going to take to bring it back to how it was

fondly remembered.

Besides the damaged parts, the only real

obvious rust issues were the rear quarters

behind the rear wheels. But if the quarter

is bad, you can count on the fender lip

around the wheel opening to be bad, too.

That area where the outer wheelhouse and

the quarter meet always collects moisture

in one form or another and has a very

difficult time drying out.

So even though this car was stored

inside after the accident, it still suffered rust

damage along that seam. Fortunately, Auto

Metal Direct reproduces an excellent version

of that panel.

But since only the extreme edge of

it needs work, there is no reason to have

to replace the entire panel, so MCR will

slice off the needed section and splice only

that onto the car. This preserves as much

of the original car as possible, but it still

produces a perfect repair that will be

virtually undetectable.

No matter

how clean you

think your car

is, the rear

quarter-lip

seam between

the quarter

and the outer

wheeltub is

going to have

rust occurring.

Moisture can’t

be prevented

from getting

in there, and

given decades

to work, it will

cause damage.

MOPAR MUSCLE OCTOBER 2019 19