Tipping point, ‘72 rebuild Options

[Ishley]

I’ve been working on my 72 1.7 since March when I decided to tear it all down and rebuild / fix rust and update all the things that were never done. It’s a mostly all original car with 94k miles. The car was painted twice (poorly) and had rust in the longs and some bad repairs.

I’ve repaired the longs, hell hole and most of the misc rot areas (bumper mounts etc) and today a started on the floors.

The jig I built is based on the restoration design bottom section built with 1 1/4 square 1/8” walled steel. I fabricated and bolted it to the trans mount and front suspension mount area. Then I attached 2x6’s and 3/4 plywood and lots of constructions screws.

We rolled it on its side today so I can weld in the new floor and finish up what I hope is the worst of the metal work.

I’m sending the hoods, engine cover and doors to a dipper next week to have the paint stripped. Also some parts I can’t fit in my blast cabinet will be blasted there.

After the new floors are done I might wheel the car out of the garage and have one of those mobile sand blasters come and do the trunk areas. I plan to paint the whole bottom before I get it all off the jig.

Been a lot of work but I feel like i really making progress. A lot of lonely days cutting welding and grinding. The disassembly of the suspension parts took a while along with cleaning and sandblasting all the parts.

I’ve only seen one othe post with a tip over jig like this… but it was easy and it works. 3 of us tipped it… but 2 people could do it.

[Ishley]

Thanks for the thoughts. It’s not a cart but a tip over jig. The wheels are there to make it easy to position. Of course one would add a cross brace if it was used it as a cart. I posted it to show the idea of another tip over method.

As mentioned I used the restoration design jig (they call it a Rotisserie) as a model. I just didn’t build 2 hoops as I didn’t want to spend money on all that extra steel and then cut it up after I was done with it. The rear is mounted to the trans mount exactly like the RD version and the front I modified to use a single cross brace and use the front suspension aux mount as part of their design. I think the way I did it is stronger plus I’m shipping that part (aux brace) off to be blasted.

I spent about $110 on metal… $80 on wood, $20 on wheels and probably $15 on mounting bolts. It works but the metal jig is not perfect. I welded it together on a less the. Perfect table… but it’s strong and it works for this application. Also it was a cheap way to get the job done and something I felt was very secure to hold the car. The tub and what I have left in it weighs less the. 600lbs so it’s not really that heavy. I had my engineer nephew (he designs massive auto and train bridges) in go thru and calculate all the bolt loads in sheer and it’s not going to break there.

As far as dipping the doors and hoods… I don’t think there is any glue left in there. I was thinking I would be adding in some panel glue on the hoods as the sheet metal has some oil can. Blasting has some issues too as I’m sure you are aware. I’ll discuss it again with the experts who have done this.. but I’m confident this is best and safe for these parts. I actually regret mentioning it.