Mopar Muscle – October 2019

(Barré) #1

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
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