Progress Thread The "grátis" 1966 Coupe - final sheet metal repairs

[wicked93gs]

It was. My main concern with this one in addition to the waviness is how soft the bends are. It's a mushy stamping.

My experience so far has been that Dynacorn parts are typically much better stamped. Sometimes I'll order the CJ Classics branded parts since they're sometimes be Dynacorn parts. It's hit or miss. When I did torque boxes, I ordered the '67-'68 Dynacorn pieces that weren't welded together. They screwed up and sent me a '69-'70 set that had the parking break pass-through on the driver's side. It still fit just fine.

Yeah...CJs parts are all over the place...like you said, the classics line is often Dynacorn...I know the strut rod braces I bought were(those are actually better than the original for strength), as well as a lot of misc panels. It is rather baffling since my radiator support was so much better quality. They must have swapped suppliers in the last 6 months or so for the rad support. Time to go to NPD I guess, at least with NPD you can get better info on the supplier.

 

[02 281 GT]

Yeah...CJs parts are all over the place...like you said, the classics line is often Dynacorn...I know the strut rod braces I bought were(those are actually better than the original for strength), as well as a lot of misc panels. It is rather baffling since my radiator support was so much better quality. They must have swapped suppliers in the last 6 months or so for the rad support. Time to go to NPD I guess, at least with NPD you can get better info on the supplier.

I found a place called Dynacorn Depot that only sells Dynacorn parts. I'll be using them whenever I want to make sure it's a Dynacorn part.

 

[Indianamustang]

Hey, new to the site and just stumbled on your thread. Love watching your car come together. I noticed you were working on the upholstery earlier in the year. I just finished recovering my seats in my 65, it was challenging but I managed to do it all myself. Not sure what you will be using but I'd highly recommend TMI products. I couldn't be happier. Anyway the car is looking good.

 

[wicked93gs]

Hey, new to the site and just stumbled on your thread. Love watching your car come together. I noticed you were working on the upholstery earlier in the year. I just finished recovering my seats in my 65, it was challenging but I managed to do it all myself. Not sure what you will be using but I'd highly recommend TMI products. I couldn't be happier. Anyway the car is looking good.

I have heard good and bad things about TMI...mainly that installing TMI upholstery over the stock foam causes it to "flatten" the seat more than the factory upholstery....that TMI upholstery fits best with TMI foam, but then the foam is much firmer than stock...also that the durability on TMI is lacking if you intend to daily drive your car. Not that you have much choice, its either TMI or Distinctive Industries I think...I plan on going DI myself though....mainly because I do plan to daily drive the car when its done, durability is the most important aspect for me.

 

[Indianamustang]

I have heard good and bad things about TMI...mainly that installing TMI upholstery over the stock foam causes it to "flatten" the seat more than the factory upholstery....that TMI upholstery fits best with TMI foam, but then the foam is much firmer than stock...also that the durability on TMI is lacking if you intend to daily drive your car. Not that you have much choice, its either TMI or Distinctive Industries I think...I plan on going DI myself though....mainly because I do plan to daily drive the car when its done, durability is the most important aspect for me.

Yeah based on what I read and how mine came out, I agree. I used the TMI foam and it’s definitely firmer, and I got the sport so it sits way higher than the originals. My car will only be driven occasionally for 8 months a year so I should be ok. Redoing them is worth the investment though, I didn’t realize how bad the old stuff smelled until I did this project.

 

[02 281 GT]

My original seat foam was far past the point of being usable. TMI is the company I plan to go with. I'll have to improvise for the rear seat since no one makes repro rear seat bottom foam.

I've ran out of projects to do at the new house, but I'm being lazy with getting back to the car for some reason. The rotisserie was back ordered, unfortunately. I'm also waiting on back ordered sheet metal to arrive. The CJ's radiator support and battery apron weren't up to my standard, so I'm ordering the Dynacorn specific parts. Not sure when they'll arrive.

 

[horse sence]

Expect a lot of parts to be back ordered ,may be for a couple of months at least . The stroke kit Nick ordered is on back order and they cant say when it will come . I am having trouble getting parts out because of material back orders ,looks like this will be a problem for a while .

 

[02 281 GT]

Expect a lot of parts to be back ordered ,may be for a couple of months at least . The stroke kit Nick ordered is on back order and they cant say when it will come . I am having trouble getting parts out because of material back orders ,looks like this will be a problem for a while .

Thankfully, the parts that were back ordered all shipped early last week. Only the radiator support hasn’t yet arrived. The driver side fender apron and rear passenger side apron are Dynacorn parts that were drop shipped. The radiator support should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.

The Dynacorn parts are a much better stamping. I’ll be making sure that any future parts I order from CJ are Dynacorn before I order.

 

[wicked93gs]

"Dynacorn" is a misnomer anyway. For example, the strut rod brackets I installed a few weeks ago were "MuscleCar GT"....which is just one of the Dynacorn suppliers, its all very confusing and makes it very difficult because while MuscleCar GT may supply Dynacorn some parts, they dont supply them all, so its tough to even say if the strut rod brackets are Dynacorn or not...they certainly are not concours correct, being stronger than stock and looking slightly different with stitch welds instead of spot welds, etc. In the end, I am just glad that aftermarket parts are readily enough available we are complaining about quality to start with...I had an old 77 Celica GT and finding aftermarket sheet metal of any type for that car was a miracle...enough of a miracle we would have been glad to have bad-fitting stuff.

 

[02 281 GT]

The driver side apron came in a Musclecar GT box, as did the floor pan that was branded as Scott Drake. I'm very satisfied with the quality of their stampings so far. Very crisp lines and sharp bends.

 

[02 281 GT]

Now these are some nice stampings! It's a night and day difference.

 

[horse sence]

I hear people complain all the time about Dynacorn replacement parts ,but when you can do a side by side with the other replacement parts there is no question about it ,its heavier gauge ,much nicer stampings and i seldom have fitting issues

 

[02 281 GT]

In the process of gearing up to overcome my laziness and get back to work on the car, I decided to make a short video comparing the CJ Pony Parts generic radiator support and battery apron to the Dynacorn pieces I recently acquired.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra9VK19uzhI

 

[horse sence]

That is a great video and spot on !
I do not like the weld through either ,the best welds are the cleanest metal possible .the rockers also have a good fit and a bad fit rocker and i believe the problems most people have is they get the cheaper parts and not the best fitting part . It suddenly came to me that we need a sheet metal replacement thread in the sticky threads ,not only to show how to fit the parts but the differences .
Nice job and keep doing the videos !

 

[horse sence]

@Noobz347 how do we create a sticky thread on sheetmetal replacement ,one we can build on as we go ,or can we ?

 

[Noobz347]

@Noobz347 how do we create a sticky thread on sheetmetal replacement ,one we can build on as we go ,or can we ?

Is this a "how-to" or general discussion?

 

[horse sence]

I was thinking a how to ,but could go either way

 

[Olivethefet]

Nice video! We bought one of those cheap radiator supports to replace the support that was on my car. When we got it it was just like the cheap one you have. We ended up just cutting it up and using pieces of it to repair the original.

 

[2Blue2]

Just the gauged thickness should be enough to convince ya

 

[02 281 GT]

My back-ordered rotisserie arrives today.