Topic: Rear tail light panel on a 64 Stang

[slingslingbinks]

Sence i haven't came up with a fix for my Rad. support,(mine was replaced with a 65-66 Non louverd model and i haven't came up with a donar support and front cross member), I decided to make a jig for the rear of the car so i can pull the back half of the rotisserie out to work on the tail light panel and trunk floor. My tail panel, the trunk floor that is connected to the panel need's replaced (rear cross member)along with the trunk bumper braces and trunk striker bracket that is spot welded to the rear panel need replaced. I also hope i can get away with trunk side floor pans for the damage in the trunk floor from the trunk bumper braces being pushed on from a rear end hit. Don't see any thing bent or rusted on the frame rail's. So i may get off on the easy side. Gonna pull out the rotisserie today and check the damage out and i'll report my finding's. C-ya Scott

[slingslingbinks]

 Here's what i did today. As the car is on a rotisserie and it was in the way, I made this jig to support the back of the car and pulled out the rear rotisserie. As i was cutting out the spot welds between the tail light panel and the rear cross member i noticed alot of brass, The panel had been replaced before and braze spot welded in place and it was also brazed around the quarters. The inner rear trunk bracket's were not spot welded to the tail light panel, But you could see where they once were spot welded once and the spot weld's and reminance of left over panel were not cleaned up. Once these bracket's were removed from the trunk floor pan it was decited to cut out part of the floor to inspect the frame rail's. Thank goodness that with the creased floor pan the rail's were good. Oh and i also noticed that the tail light panel bracket has a date code on it a month before the rest of the sheet metal has. C-ya Scott

[slingslingbinks]

Sence i'd already tore into the trunk floor pan's and i'm still not sold on the fact that the frame rail's might be bent, i decided to rip the rear end and lief spring's from my 65 Stang donar and make a tool to check my frame rail alignment on the 64. So i jacked up the 65 and started to Try and remove the lief spring bolt's. A blue wrench was needed on the rear's and i got the nut's off the front, But the bolt had siezed to the metal sleeve in the bushing. So i cut the rubber out of the way and used a 4 inch cut off wheel on my angle grinder and cut 1/2 way through the sleeve and the bolt. Turned the bolt and done the other half. now the lief spring is out, Can't say much for the bolt, sleeve and bushing that's still in the spring. Then i took a 3 inch square tube and drilled a hole through it and added a 1/2 flat washer to one side to shim it up and welded another long 1 inch square thick wall pipe to it and lay'd it out the back of the car and bent it to match the frame rail, and out the back to the rear lief spring hanger. Then i welded tab's to the 1 inch pipe to touch the frame and some that will slide down the sides of the frame. I also made an attachment to the back on the end to help me align the tail light panel. And i got tired of holding my arm's up to work under it so i made a 22 inch tall boy creeper. I hope the pictures tell the story and the tool doe's align with the frame on the 64.