Making an A-body Whole Again with Hard to Find Metal from AMD
When restoring a classic car, uncovering hidden rust is inevitable—and often, it’s worse than expected. That’s exactly what happened with our 1968 Pontiac GTO, known as Project Payback. Despite being a high desert car, it wasn’t immune to the notorious rust-prone areas of GM A-bodies, particularly around the lower windshield channel. The A-body design had a flaw where the front and rear windshields trapped moisture, leading to oxidation and serious metal damage over time.
Our first discovery came when we removed the rear glass to install a roll bar, only to find the lower channel was too rusted to reinstall the glass without replacing it. After removing the rest of the glass and having the shell acid-dipped, we found even more rust damage, particularly in the front lower windshield channel and cowl area.
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| | The lower windshield channel simply slips under the metal dash, which houses the VIN tag. There are holes for the screws, which attach it. So there is no tricky alignment issues that you'd typically associate with body work. | |
Finding replacement parts for these trouble spots can be a challenge, but Auto Metal Direct (AMD) came through with a rare replacement lower windshield channel (P/N 465-3468) that fits all ’68-’72 GM A-bodies, including the GTO, Skylark, Chevelle, Monte Carlo, and Cutlass.
The installation of the new lower windshield channel was surprisingly straightforward. It simply slides under the metal dash, which houses the VIN tag, and aligns with pre-drilled screw holes—no tricky adjustments needed. The skilled team at Innovation Performance Technologies guided us through the process, making sure everything was done right. The channel, dash, and cowl come together like a well-fitting puzzle. After punching out the welds on the cowl, we unbolted the rusted channel from the dash and replaced it with the new one. The new channel was then bolted to the dash and welded to the cowl, which also needed replacement due to rust.
| | If it wasn’t completely rotted out, you could see where the cowl attaches to the lower windshield channel. That will have to wait for another day. If you are restoring an A-body, it would be a good bet that you’d need to replace both of these, too. | |
These kinds of discoveries highlight the less glamorous side of car restoration. Initially, our plan was to get the car running and looking decent, but as we dug deeper, it became clear that a higher level of craftsmanship was needed. We’ve faced our share of surprises on this project, but in the end, our GTO will be rock solid, ready to provide decades of enjoyment once it’s back on the road.
Product Link: 465-3468
Stay tuned for more updates as they continue to tackle the rust and bring Project Payback back to life! Link Below:
Original Article By Scott Parker | August 28, 2024
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