What size/offset front wheels are you running? Interested in seeing what you do to the front fenders.

The spot welder was a Miller, don’t remember the model. I borrowed it from a friend. Probably only good for non-structural welds because the current and clamp force are a little low. But it sure is heavy !!
The wheels are 18x10-inch wide Livewires with 5.75. backspacing. I know for sure this is right at the limit. Depending who you talk with, a 9-9.5 inch wheel and 265 may be more conservative for Tru Turn and a 67 Camaro. There are so many variables. I plan to really work on the fender lip to make it all work out. I just decided I was going to commit to 10-inch wheels not matter what. It worked on the 48 hour car with some camber so I am pretty confident I can make it work on mine. Hope it isn't false confidence !

With the tubs in I was finally ready to weld in the upper 4-link pockets. It went really fast with the MIG welder. There were a couple of spots where I had to bang the floor around with a 20oz ball peen hammer but mostly the gaps closed up nice. I still need to skip weld around the edges, sort of saving that for a rainy day.

https://i.imgur.com/UmSDZW7l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/h2SJHh2l.jpg

With the pockets welded in (mostly) I was just looking to get some motivation. I purchased a digital level and tack-welded some temporary stands to the welding table. I decided to buy a pinion center locating tool from Moser. It was really well made from stainless, so it won’t rust and everything is laser cut. I like buying things that turn out better than expected. With the pinion angle set, I was able to slip the Quadralink brackets on and start tacking everything. This took a lot of time but it was really an interesting job. Compared to working in the trunk on the wheel tubs, standing upright at the welding table was just more fun !

https://i.imgur.com/v2BLOwPl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BB6gvQEl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nDbU3mtl.jpg

With the brackets tacked in place I was able to put the rear end under the car and get it all centered left-to-right and also front-to-back. I put the wheels up on stands and sighted down the axle tubes to get it lined up in the center of the wheel wells. This was a pretty good evening.

https://i.imgur.com/eB3G92Vl.jpg

I had gone back and forth whether to spend money on a rotisserie. It is sort of a luxury and I really didn’t want to tie up funds in something that wasn’t directly car parts. I was having some problems with out-of-position welds various places around the car, so I decided to just buy it and plan to sell it to someone after I am through. I was thinking of building one but I decided that would eat up too much car time and actually cost more than buying a good one. I ended up buying the AT+ from Accessible Systems. I have been really happy with it. Top notch quality and it has lived up to all their claims on the website. Since I work by myself, I really needed a lift that was easy to balance and manipulate with one person. I set the car up and had it balanced within an hour or so. The body seems really secure on this stand.

https://i.imgur.com/qCLmOVDl.jpg

Before putting the car on the rotisserie I wanted to finish some of the firewall work that would be harder to do with something in the way. I cut out some of the beat up firewall and started welding in the DSE panel. This actually turned out to be really easy and took only about 8 hours spread out over a couple of days.

https://i.imgur.com/TEDhsrfl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pN9Hvszl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tJx5yhWl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UW59NEil.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JFhrKeTl.jpg

So, I thought the filler panel was going to be hard and the hydraulic clutch bracket was going to be easy. It turned out just the opposite for me. For the clutch master bracket, fabricating the filler panels, welding the round hole up underneath and getting it all to look good really took some time. There are so many curved surfaces and compound angles that I threw away a couple sets of closeout pieces before I got them close. I am pretty sure I have almost as much time in the hydraulic bracket as the firewall filler panel. It came out pretty good but I still have a little clean-up work to do.

https://i.imgur.com/KHutS9sl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/X8GyAyQl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9v4mbq0l.jpg

Time to move on to the subframe connectors.

Starting on the subframe connectors I cut out the seat pans per the DSE instructions.

https://i.imgur.com/cbe5i2tl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3CXwKBXl.jpg

Then cut the slot in the floor. This was another one of those sort of stressful jobs. I measured a bunch of times to make sure I didn’t mess it up before slitting the floor pan to slide the connectors in place.

https://i.imgur.com/lT0t7sWl.jpg

I cut the opening per the instructions but I actually ended up having to weld a piece back in. I wasn’t too bummed because it didn’t take too long to fix. I wasn’t sure why so far off but my body uses aluminum full–height mounts. I think the cut dimension is more geared to half-height mounts. Cut conservatively was the lesson I learned.

https://i.imgur.com/JgnkYiul.jpg

Of course the second one is always easier because you know what to expect.

https://i.imgur.com/C7KqSukl.jpg

I welded the closeouts before final tacking in the connectors. I also welded some sleeves inside so the tubes won’t crush when I tighten the bolts. I drilled some small holes and tack welded the sleeves in place so they would not drop out.

https://i.imgur.com/eqfOiFkl.jpg

Cleaned-up they look like this. I decided to use all pilot holes for bolts rather than weld them together. Someday the subframe may come out of the car and having it welded in doesn’t seem like the best idea.

https://i.imgur.com/rPC9noQl.jpg

I decided the best thing to do now was to put in the front subframe and line everything up. I spent quite a while leveling and measuring to make sure the subframe was in square.

https://i.imgur.com/75AjmZol.jpg

Once it was square and tight, I put the connectors in and made sure everything lined up. I was happy that it did. This would have been a bad thing to mess up, so it was nice to see it all work out.
I tacked the connectors in place and also tacked the brackets to the subframe.

https://i.imgur.com/cskgXehl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RjaR032l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jNa0YEPl.jpg

I decided not to weld the brackets until the car is a little further along. Some people claim it will settle with the engine, interior and seats installed. So I will cut the spot welds and do final weld at a later time.
To take a break I decided to weld up the firewall blower motor hole. This really was an easy job. Sometimes you just have to do some easy things to get motivated to do the hard jobs.

https://i.imgur.com/z9y0MFjl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1JB69h7l.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/liV8aG7l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FWLQ6del.jpg

It was good to see most of the big holes in the body start to close-up. The only big job left is cutting the tunnel for the T-56 installation. That is a ways off at this point.

nice work, coming out very clean.

You are doing an excellent job. Taking your time is key, so don't get discouraged. Doing it right like you are doing takes time. Great story with the history of the car also. I can't wait to see more.

Thank you !
Thank you.

BTW. I got some ideas from your 69 project. It really came out great. I just bookmarked the silicon braze link !

Nice work! Your doing a great job on this rebuild.

After I finished the small repair where I cut a little too far I finished welding the seat pan cutouts back in the car. I was a little more careful on the other side.

https://i.imgur.com/er2OyDnl.jpg

I use lots of magnets to hold things in alignment. This works pretty well with MIG but don’t try it with TIG. First time I welded up close to a magnet with TIG I couldn’t figure out why the arc was wandering all over the place.

https://i.imgur.com/XQ4zs87l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Z9Yx3XTl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zIAG7CEl.jpg

I re-discovered a cool thing about this time in the project. Flap disks are probably the best creation of all time. They remove material like crazy without getting too hot and warping everything. You still have to be careful not to over-grind things but they work great. When grinding MIG welds you need a really aggressive cutter because it is so hard and these flap wheels just work well. This photo is from today after making my weekly welding store run. These parts are going to be 3 layers under everything but they actually came out looking OK.

https://i.imgur.com/Y3VbcGRl.jpg

With the subframe connectors partially installed I was tripping over fewer loose parts every trip to the garage. I decide it was finally time to put the body up on the twirler because that was the largest piece I was tripping over. This not only was easy but it lets me lift the body and tilt it at an angle so I can get everything stored underneath when I want to park my other vehicle in the garage !

https://i.imgur.com/R0vQnHRl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yyh6eYdl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pBpLDu0l.jpg

Here is an image the first time I had it all balanced and went vertical. I knew that the stand and connections were strong but the first time you go past vertical just feels weird.

https://i.imgur.com/iGQNWHxl.jpg

Finally had it upside down so I could get some things welded and cleaned-up on the bottom.

https://i.imgur.com/N0cMtUZl.jpg

I started cleaning the left side of the cross-member with the flap wheel. I had a few holes to weld up. I think they were from the original cross-flow rear muffler – long gone by the time I got the car. I don’t want to go crazy on the bottom but it will get paint not bed liner so I want it to look decent. The coil-over mounts are just tacked for now in case I want a make minor changes once the rearend is all lined-up.

https://i.imgur.com/AFJiez5l.jpg

I also finished welding the left subframe connector on the bottom side. Now all the litte burn-throughs and gaps are filled with weld so the topside should go fast with the MIG welder.

https://i.imgur.com/1PJWrcEl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Cjq1QpYl.jpg

I still can’t lay down a constant bead to save my life but it is strong and that’s all the matters. Nothing a few extra coats of primer won’t cover.
I finally got my alignment bar and adapters on order. This was a fun time because I got to actually put the axle ends on the housing. I flipped the car over and lowered it to place the wheels and tires in the tubs. This was so nice to see all that rubber not sticking outside the wheel opening. It is just a little high in the photo but that is the lowest point of the twirler and good enough to take some width measurements.

https://i.imgur.com/3O73G07l.jpg

I measured 3 or 4 or 10 times and then wrote a number on the floor. I subtracted the rotor hat thickness and came up with 55 inches axle flange-to-flange (more-or-less). I wrote that number in big letters on the floor so I couldn’t forget it. The rear wheels are 19 x 12 with a 6 inch backspace. The tires are 325/19s.
Then I made a pretty dumb mistake and cut the housing flange-to-flange width to my axle flange dimensions. Got the ends all tacked on didn’t figure it out until my final measurement. So the photo here is really 5 inches too wide. I have to admit that because someone will spot the axle ends are not close enough to the outer 4-link brackets. It is just best to admit my sin now!

https://i.imgur.com/lbKoMSkl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tRiLag3l.jpg

With the ends tack welded on the housing it was fun to mock-up the brakes and put the Moser rear cover on. It is starting to look pretty good and after the final fit check with axles I will weld all the brackets up to complete it. There are two version of this mock-up photo.

Tidy version: where it looks like everything is pretty organized and under control.

https://i.imgur.com/FVzdUQUl.jpg

Real version: looking the other direction at all the chaos.

https://i.imgur.com/TJLNYU0l.jpg

With the final sizing all planned out I ordered the axles, differential, gears and setup kit. Those will be coming in next week. Soon after the rearend is all fitted, I will get the transmission on order so I can mock that up and start cutting the tunnel, the last really big metal job. Next after tunnel mods is to fit the air-conditioner under the dash. I want the A/C mounted because I can’t body-work the firewall until all the holes are drilled and mounts all figured out. Those two jobs will probably take me deep into the Fall. I still need to weld the RH subframe connector and clean up the cross member on that side of the car. There are quite a few hours there and I will work that in between rear end assembly mock-up.

Procrastination sucks ! Posting all this at once was way harder than if I just started doing it as I went along. But I am finally all caught up on posting. Now I can post the occasional project shot and answer "why aren't you working on your car " questions and it won't take so much time !