scuttle panel replacement
 

For anyone who wants to more permanently address windshield scuttle area rot, restoration design makes a partial scuttle panel. This is on my 74 Carrera coupe. I'm about 7-8 hours deep in the project (after removing fenders and windshield etc, just body work) it's not as challenging IMO as doing the front suspension pan. The panel is very good quality and appears, so far, to not need much of any massaging to fit. I figured I have the quarantine time to do this so I might as well.

Will update more pics as I go along

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Good progress this afternoon. Almost done with this part.

Attack rooster keeps us motivated

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Good engineering going on there!

Lots of rally car fabrication so one must ready. Right next to Panoz facilities. Hoping to have this off the to the paint shop this afternoon

Great work and pics! I have the Restoration Design part, but have not started the replacement. I have a couple of questions:

- Do you have any suggestions/tips on where to cut out the old panel? Or is it pretty obvious once you start?

- How/where did you measure to ensure the windshield fits back correctly?

-Anything else I should be aware of before I dive in?

Thanks!

The cutting points for the old panel are pretty obvious when the new panel is sort of lined up on top of it. I cut a little under what I measured just to be sure, as you cannot put back what was just cut.


The windshield fit issue is not something you need to worry about too much as the leading edge of the dashboard has a lip the butts against the new lip. The dashboard lip remains in place so all you need to do is rosette or 'plug weld' the new panel to that already-existing lip.

Block everything off really well! The entire body of the car, with tape on the leading edges to make certain nothing creeps in the existing paintwork.

Welding/grinding/cutting all completed today. I've been keeping track of hours for anyone wanting to tackle this. 19 hours after the fenders/hood/glass are already removed. Now off to the paint shop.

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Nice work.

Paint shop delay, one week. One good thing through this lockdown is a lot of shops are catching up on work, getting out those untouchable projects you don't want to touch unless you have nothing else going.

It looks fantastic. Thank you for the tips and suggestions.

I need an attack rooster. Motivation on rusted suspension pan replacement is flagging.

Where can i get one of those? I didn’t see it in the Restoration Design online catalogue.

Sorry for the delay. Paint shop completed a couple weeks ago. Came out great! I think I would place this just as if not more difficult than a front pan replacement as the front pan requires very specific measurements while the scuttle requires a lot of detail work as it’s a very visible area. Worth it if you need to repair the commonly rusted windshield seal area. The other option to dealing with rust in this area is cutting then piecing together smaller pieces of sheet steel/grafting to the existing panel, which I just don’t see as a great option now that this entire panel is available now.

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Great work there! I am considering purchase of a 1973 car with very similar looking rust damage. Is there anything else up under the scuttle and behind all of the bolted-on bits that might be considered typically problematic or I should look at closer? Any idea how many hours you have into the repair, or alternatively did you get any estimates on having a shop repair/replace? This would be well outside of my comfort zone for self-repair.

The dashboard frame which butts to the scuttle is sometimes an issue as that metal is very thin. Those issues are usually at the right and left sides only. That said, if the rust to the scuttle is not that terrible then the dash frame usually is not that bad.