Operation Integrity Options

[amfab]

OK, well I had to have a thread title. I am calling it that because it will restore structural integrity to the car and I want to be able to say that the rust has been correctly repaired if I eventually sell the car, unlike the lack of integrity of the person who hid the rust to sell it.

Pictures below

The floor is a little shiny because there is still some mineral spirits on it from trying to get the tar off.

The open areas that you are seeing are after I wire brushed with knotted wire wheels on a grinder, then a carbide burr on a die grinder. While I will take some more off, what you see is getting close to good weldable metal.

First the longs:

The driver’s side is the worst. The bottom edges inside and out were full of holes, or very thin, so I cut the outside of the driver’s all the way off—except I haven’t got to the front under the door pillar yet.

I have cut out about 30 percent of the passenger’s side. The middle section is solid but I will replace it anyway. I started getting a little scared to take more out until I brace up the body.

The floor pan:

There are lots of sloppy welded patches and holes around the seams. The rear passenger’s and rear drivers quarters of the floor pan have been replaced with some plain steel—blue for some reason. The PO welded a solid bar on each side to mount the seat hinges. Sloppy, unground welds abound. There are some rust-through spots at the front of the pan that will need patching, but overall the pan in front of the cross member is solid.

Some patches in the lower firewall are solid.

Measuring diagonally, window frame to targa bar and straight back window frame to targa bar it is off no more than 1/8 inch. This changes depending upon doors open or closed or movement of the jack stands. The door gaps were never problems—maybe the driver’s side was a little wide. So it seems the car is pretty within spec and adjustable doorframe bars should be able to pull—or push—things to be good

Here is where I need advice. This is my plan, please give feedback:

1) Pull Wiring harness, speedometer cable and gas lines out of the center tunnel (What else is in there?) pull gas tank.


2) Pull doors and build adjustable bars to align doorframes

3) Continue to grind back to clean metal in the inside of the longs. Sandblast, then create internal angled patch pieces to repair the inner longitudinals from 18ga cold rolled. I am using michelko’s example see:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...st&p=219748

4) Cut off the majority of the inner rockers (The upper half or three quarters of the longs are very solid) and replace with inner rockers from Restoration Design.

5) Coat interiors of longs with Ospho then Eastwood frame coating

6) Patch any inner long parts to the area aft of the Restoration Design patch with 18ga cold rolled steel.

7) Install Brad Mayuer reinforcement kit over the longs

8) Cut rear floor quarters and cross member out

9) Weld in new rear floor panel and cross member, grinding out old welds and creating flanges from18ga where necessary—in the spots where there is no flange left in spots along the firewall and inner long

10) Remove and rebuild pedal cluster and create patches for small rust spots in the front of the footwells.

11) Sandblast interior and prime and paint.

12) Cut holes for front sway bar, sand blast and prime and paint bottom of gas tank area.

13) Install gas tank, new stainless gas lines and reinstall wiring harness.

Please give any feedback regarding my plan

[amfab]

I agree it is better to build a jig and do a full restoration but I do not have the time to do it all at once. The car is not perfect, but the trunks are good and solid and the body is decent. So it is Longs, then floor pan, then the car goes back together to drive. Current plan: Driver's long is disassembled and Osphoed (I believe that is a verb, at least around here).
Now I am going to use michelko’s strategy:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...st&p=217612
and fab new pieces for the rear of the longs and double it up as the factory and michelko did. Then I will run a layer of “L” shaped 18 ga all the way forward to cover rust abscesses and stiffen the inner long. Then comes the inner rocker from RD.
The Brad Mayeur kit will go over it.

The car is now supported at the front of the torsion bar tubes, the tubes coming off the rear suspension and with a bar going across the bottom of the pan on two jack stands. In addition, I have one adjustable stand under the transmission taking a little stress off the back.
The bar is level; the tops of the longs inside the car are level to less than .8mm.
I have measured these dimensions:
-Between roll bar and windshield flange
-Between hinge and door lock pillars
-Diagonal distance across roof opening
-Diagonal distance across passenger compartment
These are all really close to factory specs, by close I mean, all within a less than 1mm.
The passenger’s door lines up well. All gaps are pretty even and about 3.5–4.5mm.
The driver’s side however has bigger gaps, 3.5 to over 5.6mm in one spot up near the cowl.
With all the measurements lining up, I could not figure out the 5.6mm issue. After screwing with the door and confirming measurements and level several times, I made a paper template of the back of the front fender up by the cowl. The paper covered the fender from the welting at the hood gap to the welting at the doorjamb down about 8 inches of the upper front door gap where the large gap is. I then flipped the paper and placed it over the passenger’s side.
It showed 1mm to 1.5mm of fender at the exact spot the driver’s side has too large a gap. It appears that the last paint job may have had someone get a little too aggressive with a sander or grinder and took a little too much off. I decided to keep the car straight and live with the annoying extra 1.5mm gap (see picture). Ill fix it down the road as I get into learning to paint.