Project Silver Fox AWD Updated 7/1

[Finn]

Impressive work man! Keep it up.

[motorcitydak]

Thanks HOTROD and Finn. HOTROD, any pieces I have cut off the car are up for grabs. Which sail panel are you looking for? The pass side is pretty much wasted, just see the pics below

Home at last


Back up into the air and ready for the work to resume


Working my way around again. I think the guy you did the spot welds was really lazy or had a bad machine. The welds on this side were way smaller and weaker than the ones I had on the other side




This area was paper thin if the metal was still there so it all had to go


Awesome patch job


with some sweet welds


Rotted out sail panel too




And she is outta there!


This metal is a little thin too


I think these are supposed to touch, not sure why someone cut it out


My stable of Dodges: '08 Caliber R/T 5 speed 30mpg DD, the Silver fox and the '96 Dakota-Dana 44 front, 35 inch tires, 14 inch coilovers, 5.7 HEMI

[tan top]

got some metal work going on dude !!    , keep the pictures coming 

[motorcitydak]

Wow, it has been a really long time since I have updated this with anything. I have done a little work since this, Im not sure why I didn't put it up tho. I just picked up the x-mas present for the Fox today, I had to rent this to get it. Any guesses what I got now?

[1BAD68]

Did it come from AMD?

[motorcitydak]

Nope

[b5blue]

Engine/tranny? 

[tan top]

Engine/tranny? 

yep think that also !! 

[ACUDANUT]

 A stolen U-Haul trailer. 

[bakerhillpins]

Engine/tranny? 

yep think that also !! 

Me thinks so too.

[Lennard]

Hey MCD, do you still have this left side sailpanel? If so, are you willing to cut it off from the rest of the quarterpanel and how much would it cost including shipping to zip 86440? Mine has big rust holes in it...

[motorcitydak]

I should still have the sail panel from my old drivers quarter. We can do this just like I did for B5, just post up a pick of what you have/need. Ill mark mine for where I can cut it and if its good, Ill cut that part out and send it to you. Just let me make sure that I still have it and its in good usable shape. That part is back at my mom's house rite now so I cannot check it out or get some pics for you rite now.

[Lennard]

Here are some pics of the part i need. I taped it a little to far over on the outside i guess. It's the inside triangle shaped piece that i could use.

[motorcitydak]

I see the one rust hole by the window. Im pretty sure that my piece can work for you, just keep in mind that I cut the piece from the flanges so you will have to be a little creative get my piece to fit in. Im glad that you taped over that line ridge to the side of the car. I think it will be easier for you to weld the new piece in with the seam on the side rather than just trying to replace the sail panel alone. Also, the piece that I have will not extend quite that high towards the roof as you have marked off. It ends at the joint that is under the lead on your car, you can see it in your 3rd pic about 4 inches down from where you taped off. Im more than happy to help you out with this piece as long as you think it will work for you

[Lennard]

The other (smaller) rust hole is under the tape. Do you have Paypal? If you can cut out what you think i need and send it, i would appreciate it.

[motorcitydak]

Where exactly is this other smaller rust hole? I taped mine off but I want to make sure that my piece will take care of as much rust as possible. I laid the tape down in as straight a line as I could. That way it will be easier for you to hide the seam. I also brought it down a little farther so you will not have to patch over the side, it will be more of a flat area. I do want to keep the cut away from the fuel cap just in case I can find someone else who needs that piece. Anyways, here is what I laid out. I can move it if needed. I noticed after I took the pics that the tape my the fuel door was not quite straight so I moved it a little, it should be one nice straight cut now.

[Lennard]

  This will work fine, just let me know where to send the $ via p.m.

[motorcitydak]

Ok guys, I guess it is time to finally let the cat out of the bag here about what I got the car for X Mas. I had a few guesses and some in the ball park but none quite hit the nail on the head. I got this little gem fit onto the car saturday. Now, when I say fit, I mean that I put it on by myself and clamped it into place in a few areas while I put sheet metal screws. I did not have to do any bending, hammering or swearing.

I did a little prep to the inside of the panel with some Eastwood rubberized undercoat. I taped off the flanges where Ill be welding then sanded the bare metal to give a good surface to adhere to. After that, I used some SEM weld thru primer on the flanges to protect them as well. Once that dried I popped a lot of holes in there for spot welds. I ended up with this





By the way, its from Classic Body Designs

I treated the car to a little more POR-15 treatment before the quarter went on. Actually, Ive had this done for about a month or so



And after maybe an hour, here is what I have. I have not welded this on yet, it is completely held on with screws which will be removed as I work my way around with the welder.  As you can see, it looks awesome.













Here is the panel gap with the door. Its really good, I just have to move the door down about 1/8 down and it will be all set. By the way, the black dots on the door are some rubberized undercoating overspray from the quarter panel



Lennard, I will get your piece cut up and ready to go in a few days. Ill let you know

[Lennard]

Lennard, I will get your piece cut up and ready to go in a few days. Ill let you know

Nice work you are doing there, I'm still drilling/grinding/cutting my trunk floor out.

[elacruze]

Great work. I wish I had the cojones to do my own.

[sixty8charger]

Great work. I wish I had the cojones to do my own.

dido..

[Patronus]

Sure is nice seeing em after so long without a quarter on. 
Just make sure you fit the decklid and the rear glass before you weld 

[motorcitydak]

I did quite a bit more work to the car over the last few days, just not exactly a lot of differences in the pics. The big thing that I got around to was welding the passenger side quarter panel on. That was a real PITA, I had probably 300 spot welds to do. I had to clamp, hammer, weld and grind down every single one. Ive also been getting the quarter/roof seam to lay back down. It doesnt like to move much either so it also requires a lot a clamping and hammer work. Im also collecting a lot of parts to get the front end together. I have a week off in March so I want to get the front end in place then except probably for the UCA's. I should be getting my knuckles soon as well as another transmission and a transfer case. Ill need some tube and plate steel to mount the front parts and a die for my tubing bender. Im also going to get some things to weigh the car as a shell to finally put to rest the question of what these cars weigh in shell form.

Along with the quarter panel being solidly attached to the car, I messed around with the front end and finished up my chassis table. I know everyone else uses steel for this but wood is just sooooooooo much easier to work with and not to mention way cheaper. With the car being up of the jack stands, I just had to figure out where the ground would actually be. I made the table just over 17 inches high and puts the car at its ride height. This turned out to be just about where the stock suspension was at its full compression to give you an idea of how low it will be. I used a plumbob off a few points on the car and marked that spot on the floor then set the table into place as well. I then marked the tables position on the floor and also marked the table so I can know where to put everything back to. I marked the center of the front spindles on the table then pulled the table out and lowered the k member off the car for the last time. The table went back in very easily with all the marking I did. Not very much serious work was done however, I still need more parts to start seriously mocking things up. My plan for rite now tho is to have a complete rolling chassis some time this summer.

Ok, on with the pics

Here is the finished chassis table. I had some roller tires on the front end just to see how far up the suspension had to go. I took em off and held the suspension there with the ratchet straps you see here





A good shot showing the clearance under the car



One from the front, you can see that I could not use this suspension geometry at this ride height



Once I got the front k member off the front end, the car was very near balanced on the rear 2 jack stands. I could pick up the front of the car with 1 finger under the rad support. I removed the rear axle to balance it out a little better. I can still lift it by pulling up maybe 40 pounds tho so I just really have to be careful around it



Table back in place





This is the rear jack stand that the car is almost perfectly balanced on rite now. The CG of the shell is maybe a few inches forward of this point



After that, I set the wheel, fender and LCA roughly into place. I still have to get some c6 rear hubs, get those redrilled for a 5x4.5 then I can see just where the wheels will sit. I put the front diff in the area it will eventually live but I forgot to get a shot of that. Lets just say that the motor will be placed around the diff, not the other way around

[Bobby41909]

A chemical dip might be the best way to clean up every nook and cranny and start the metal work. Heard some bad stuff about the chemical dip though, like left over residue that you can't get out that can harm the new paint, not sure how true that is.

Restoration shop doing my car won't  do a chemical dip due to that issue.  They say, you can never be 100% sure you got it all out and if it comes out in the wrong place...by by paint.  Soda blast the car....no issues going forward.

[motorcitydak]

Hey guys, I had to bring this one back up from the dead. I have some more work done to the car and never updated this thread. I finally got to start hacking into the car which I know a lot of you will cringe at. I have cut more than a few sections out of the front frame rails. One of those holes is in place of the factory rear K frame bolt so there is no going back from here. This is a quick run down to get everyone up to date

The front LCA's Im using, cost me $0.99!



Front setup, still do not have the upper control arm





Started cutting out the inner fenders, anyone notice that the inner fender brace was never welded to the UCA bucket?





New front crossmember



Finished up the crossmember LCA mounts and taco gussets