C8 progress in Texas

[David DeWeese]

Thanks George for the wood treatment formula.
Had a problem with the strength of the rear body in that the tailgate opening was very hard to keep square. You can lean back on the sides and it will bend.
There is a support under the tailgate area to help stop this on this rear body,(photo 1), but uses only a few small rivets for strengthening the tailgate opening.
Checked my available photos and found that apparently there was a problem with the design of this area of the rear body. Photo 2 shows what looks like a field modification to try and strengthen this area, and photo 3 shows even another attempt at beefing-up the rear tailgate opening.
After some head banging, I decided to make sort of a "hybrid" rear area using the lower section from photo 1 and the plate steel brackets from photo 3.
Not exactly original for a C8 Duple rear body, but much stronger!
Photos courtesy of Mike Kelly's CD and Tony Smith.
Thanks, David