BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Eisberg rustoration, Need some input... Options

[mbseto]

Funny, I am as nervous starting this thread as I was to start cutting into my car.

I resolved to start a rustoration thread when I made my first cuts, so here it is. I'm hoping the community will pipe in periodically with any, "Don't do that!", "Do it this other way!", "Do this first!", or "Don't forget this!" comments that are appropriate. Any and all guidance will be appreciated.

So here's the car as I got it, not quite a year ago:


Started out doing a little engine work to get it running, then drove it around a little bit before starting to take it apart. Took the engine out, put it up on a dolly, took out much of the interior and suspension, and this is how it sits now:






After cleaning out the inside and seeing the rust, it was hard to believe we were driving it at all. These are the first cuts, just straightening out the edges of the rust holes really.


More pics coming soon, I'll be documenting the extent of the damage and forming a battle plan.

[mbseto]

Need an update, Spring got away from me- work, etc. Got some garage work done, but it just didn't feel like enough and I put off posting. Here's a little catch up...

These dang spring clips... Someone suggested that I cut the ones out of my bad long and just weld them into the new long. Problem being that two of them were completely gone, rusted away entirely- just sad little stumps.

They look like they would be easy to make, but as I'm checking out the one remaining one, I see it is spring tempered. I have a buddy with a forge and talked to him about making these... cave-man garage work.

Made the pieces out of basic cold-rolled, there's the one remaining clip from what's left of the original long:


Here's the clips, cut and shaped but not yet tempered. If you squeeze them a little, they just stay bent, they are not springy at all.


Into the forge they go. Heated to cherry, quenched in old motor oil:


The annealing process, per an old book I have, says burn off the oil, then dip in oil again and burn it off again, then do that one more time and you have a spring temper.


Worked like a charm, you can snap them and they vibrate like a tuning fork. Test fit everything with the tube, the long, and the elbows on either end. Hit them with a little weld-through primer and tacked them on.