PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Shiny is Good! => Your Project => Topic started by: tjm73 on October 01, 2014, 03:56:02 PM
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Is there such a thing as an inner taillight panel/brace? Was looking at my car ('73 hatch) recently and noticed mangled metal I had missed before.
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Not sure about your year, but back when I had my 79 hatchback it had an inner brace for the tail lights. I cut it out to put 75 Mustang II tail lights on it.
Russ
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My 71 hatch had the full width inner brace panel. My present 2 door 72 sedan only has a narrow rear brace just wide enough to hold the trunk latch, ~8" wide. Just speculating, the 2 door sedan cross brace below the rear window where the trunk lid hinges bolt on (speaker shelf), takes the place of the full width cross brace inside the tail light panel on the hatch model. From a 12-1-1974 repair manual (see below), the 71-73 hatch full width inner brace panel part number is D2FZ 6440492A. Click on photo for a clearer view.
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Well.......cra p. How am I gonna find one of those?
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I would put an ad in the wanted section and hope some one's part's car could sacrifice this part for your project.
From your previous post, you mentioned back halving this car. If this still is the plan, your new rear subframe could be made to provide the structural integrity better than the missing inner rear panel. You would have to fabricate something to hold the hatch latch or just use hood pins on the hatch. If you are going to retain the stock interior plastic panels, you will also need to fabricate something for the rear cross plastic cover to be mounted to.
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I want to make the car complete as it should be stock before I do any modification cutting.