Progress, The 2011 Hershey show gave me another shot of motivation Options

[saigon71]

Started cleaning between the inner & outer firewall on the drivers side. I pulled out a lot of scale with an extension magnet:





Treated rusty areas of the door jamb and painted. I wanted to knock this out early so I don't have to remove the door again:







There was some more rust up in the long that has to be removed. The only way I could reach it was with a Dremel tool and a cutting wheel...very tedious:

[saigon71]

Ospho'd, primed and painted the air channel in the rear door jamb:









Did the same with surface rust in the inner fender well:

[saigon71]

Fantastic thread!...discovered it just in time before I start some major hell hole repairs of my own.

Meticulous work Bob, nice one!

Cheers, Ollie.

Thanks Ollie!

Good luck with your hell hole repairs. Be sure to brace the body, measure and re-measure before welding and above all...take your time!

Bob

[Eric_Shea]

Looking good Bob. Great to meet you at Hershey!

[saigon71]

Had to cut out some more rust on the inner firewall:





A small section of the rear pan was shot. I couldn't justify buying a full replacement panel:

[saigon71]

The rust from the boxed section crept into the bottom of the front sill triangle. Fabricated and installed a replacement:

[saigon71]

Wedged a wire brush in a chunk of copper tubing so I could reach in between the inner & outer firewalls to remove some scale, then welded the new floor piece in:












Started rebuilding the inner long hand forming pieces in a vice. Pine 2 X 4's provided a near perfect curve at the bottom where it meets the floor. I forgot to drill holes for rosette welds on the bottom before tacking it in so I wedged a screwdriver in between the pieces and used a spot weld cutter:

[saigon71]

Looking good Bob. Great to meet you at Hershey!

You too Eric...thanks for the education on brake systems that have been sitting for 10 years. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[saigon71]

After the dust settled, I was left with about a three inch strip of the original drivers side long at the top. Luckily, there was a bend in the good remaining metal to keep the car relatively stable. I didn't want to buy a used longitudinal from a donor car. With new replacement panels not being available for this side, I bought the Brad Mayner longitudinal reinforcement/repair kit at Hershey. The plan is to weld in a section of 1/8" steel bar on the inside (both vertical and horizontal) for strength on the inside, use the Mayner kit for strength on the outside, and fill the rest in with a single layer of sheet metal.

Started fitting the Mayner kit:

[saigon71]

Mayner kit fitting continued:

[saigon71]

Welded in the front wheel well piece and finished this area off:









Fabricated and installed the final inner flat piece on the long. I was able to take measurements off the passenger side to determine where it begins to curve up:

[saigon71]

For extra strength on the inside of the long, I picked up a strip of 1/8" steel plate, 3" wide and started fabricating the horizantal section (a vertical section will be added). It was welded to both the egnine mount and long at the rear and tied into the long at the front with rosette welds. It was tight welding in the rear section...I have a lot of grinding to do back there to make sure the weld is solid all the way around:

[FourBlades]

That is some rocking metal working and welding! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

I know how time consuming this stuff is...

That will be one solid car when you are done.

John

[jsayre914]

Yes, we are still waiting for you to finish !!!


as always
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)



p.s. Looks great, nice job!

[hot_shoe914]

Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif)

[OllieG]

Great stuff!...brilliant fabrication..very impressive.

Ollie.

[saigon71]

Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif)

Thanks for the subtle hint Shoe. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My apologies to Brad for continually mis-spelling his last name. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

[saigon71]

Thanks to all for the props on the metal work, I am learning as I go. John (fourblades) is right...this stuff is extremely tedious.

[jsayre914]

Its time to get this thing ready. Dont make me drive up there and finish it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


Updates ??

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[saigon71]

Business expansion got in the way of my shop time there for a while. Went back to work today. I had some touch up welding to do inside the long on the horizontal reinforcement piece. It was tight working in there - at one point, I used an inspection mirror while welding so I could see where I was at. Stuffed some rags into the "completed" portion of the long to keep scale and grinding dust out. Started fabricating the vertical portion of this support piece out of 1/8" steel. The toughest part on the vertical was matching bend of the original long: