The rear panel below the rumble seat is held in place with machine screws to the curved inner panel on top and screws to the rear subframe channel at the bottom. The panel has D nuts riveted in place for the screws but someone broke the heads off years ago so the last time the car was repaired, they punched new holes beside the D nuts and screwed it together with sheet metal screws.
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| Wrong Screws |
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| Tapped Hole and Metal Screw |
Picture one and two shows the original broken off screw with the broken off sheet metal screws. The panel has an inner brace crimped in place that I was able to remove to get to the back side of the screws and get them all out. I then ran a tap through the D nuts and they were useable again. Then I put the brace back in place.
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| New Screws |
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| New Screws |
The bottom of this same panel bolts in place to the rear subframe channel. Eight D nuts are riveted to the channel before an inner channel is welded to it. All our D nuts were missing so they had to be replaced. The D nuts have to come up from the bottom side and have a flange peened over to hold them in place. Since there is now no access from the bottom I had to drill eight 1/2 holes in the channel to insert the D nuts. I taped a D nut in place from the top to locate my hole and drilled all the way through, then removed the D nut and finished drilling from the bottom side. I had a magnet just the right size to insert the D nut up from the bottom and then held it in place with a screw until I could get it to the vice and insert the channel over a piece of 1/2 steel rod to peen the nut.
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| D Nut Hole |
Picture 5 shows the channel with the missing D nuts.
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| New Access Holes |
Picture 6 shows the 1/2 access holes drilled in the bottom side.
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| Magnetic D Nut Holder |
Next is a D nut on the magnet.
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| Bucking Tool in Vice |
Next pic is the steel rod in the vice for peening the nut.
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| On Vice With Bolt |
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| Nut in Place for Peening |
The next pic shows the channel on the steel rod with a bolt in the D nut to hold it in place until the steel rod is under it, then I removed the bolt and the next pic shows it in place ready to peen.
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| Peened |
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| Rear Subframe With New D Nuts |
The next pic shows a D nut in place peened over with a new bolt in it and the last one shows the rear channel ready for bolting together.
Next time we will repair the rear triangle braces that go on the ends of these panels to provide support for the rear quarter panels. Steve
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