Punky Manor - Vintage Stock Car - Tribute Build

Body & Paint - Part 2

One of the biggest challenges for getting the Tribute Torino ready for paint was finding nearly 50 year old replacement body parts. A lot of older muscle cars have a wide variety of replacement body panels available. That is not the case for the 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport. There are no front fenders available, and only poorly made patch panels for the lower half of the rear quarters.

In my last post, I covered some of the 5 years of adventures that were required to track down all the parts I needed to do the repairs to the body. I ended up having to find two passenger side rear quarters, cutting them down and welding them back together to make one full rear quarter.

After Welding the two halves together, I filled the weld area with fiberglass reinforced body filler. After that was leveled out I applied a few coats of lightweight auto body filler and then primed the quarter. I also finished the inside of the rear quarter so that the welded seam could not be seen when the trunk is open.

Since the front fenders are not being reproduced, I drove down to Kansas City to pick up a pair from a FaceBook Torino Group member. They were in fairly decent shape but did need some repairs once I cut off all the unwanted sheet metal.

I fabricated patch panels for both fenders. The lower part of the drivers side front fender was the roughest of the two.

So, the right rear quarter panel is ready for assembly as well as both front fenders. In my next post I will continue on with the rest of the body panel prep. I also have a funny story to share about how not to unload a race car. Take care for now.