Rusty bucket into Solo toy, Some highlights of my budget autocross build from rust to rocket Options

[Han Solo]

Today I got the upper pad, lower pad, steering wheel, steering column, steering rack and dash assembly out. I'm glad I did! There's some rust invading the steel bulkhead below the right corner of the wind shield. Removing those parts went fairly well with no new wildlife to report. The mice had been nesting in the left vent, building up garbage around the wiring harness. But there's no indication of gnawing on the wires. Tomorrow I'm going to break up the wire bundles and discard every thing going to the front of the car. Nothing from the dash forward will ever need electrical so all that can be cut out. In fact, I don't think I'll even put the dash back in. Probably just fabricate a box for the instrument cluster and use the OEM console gauge cluster. Tomorrow I'm also going to clean all that sheet metal on the front bulkhead to prep for rust treatment.
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[Han Solo]

A great day off for Christmas eve and I'm crawling through the rust (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) First thing I got the wire harness apart and culled anything that will probably never be used again. Basically all this car will need are engine functions (starter, oil pressure, temp, etc). With that mess out of the way I'm wire brushing the whole front bulkhead. There's three bad spots. Under either vent and above the peddle area. I decide to go ahead and patch the peddle area. These rust spots were cause by moisture collecting on the edges of the seam sealer in the fuel tank compartment. I drilled out the spot welds and cut out the offending material. There's one more area directly in front of the tunnel that will need to be addressed and that going to be really difficult to get to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Anyway, when I finished the patch, there's one other task I want to do. I've been reading a post in the tech forum about outer long re-enforcement and it discusses treating inside the long with a sprayer (without removing the outer half). That sounds like something I should really do but the stupid heater hose is not going to make that very effective. I'm convinced I can remove the hose (hard pipes front and back, flexible in the middle). The right side is my choice today and there's bottom material missing near the rear jack point so I figure I can pull out the tubing there. The front hard pipe has two spot welds holding it so I grind those off. Going in between the firewalls, I cut the rear hard pipe in half. I ground off the small rivets that hold the three hose supports located on the inside long. I start wiggling the pipes and I'm looking down inside with a work light and an inspection mirror. There's spot welds on the top of the front and rear hose support brackets so I just drilled those out. That freed everything up and I start dragging the "guts" out. That was really difficult and the flex hose pulled to pieces but eventually I got all that mess out. Last photo shows a camera shot inside the long. The bottom is really toasty but 2/3 of the sides and the top are surprisingly rust free. I'll vacuum out the remaining junk and treat with rust kill. Sorry about the lack of photos but it was a real thrash and I was just focused on "getting 'er done" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)
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[Han Solo]

The wife ran me out of the house while Christmas dinner was being prepared so what else do you do after opening gifts? Actually, she's quite wonderful and knows me SO well. I've got a couple hours and I'm on the rust spot under the passenger vent. It's two bad spots and I'm going to combine those. Cutting around the connecting vent hole for metal that's flat (that hole is recessed). I did one patch and will add another for the upper-vent area. In fact, I think I'm going to wrap that patch all the way up and eliminate that vent hole completely. I know I'm going to grind off the dash mount bracket near the door so I might as well make that area one smooth surface. The only purpose I can foresee would be to possibly have the roll cage extend through that vent hole (I've seen some photos of that) but it's unlikely I'll have a roll cage system that complex.

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[Han Solo]

Another evening of patching fun. Finished up the passenger side vent rust. I cut the dash bracket off with a grinder. Then marked a rectangle bending up from the previous patch. Cut the offending material out and made the patch. I actually ended up making the bends by hand and some nylon hammer assistance. The vertical welds were done in the passenger compartment and the horizontal welds from inside the fuel tank compartment. Everything cleaned up well in the passenger compartment but a bit too tight to get the grinder in on the other side.

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[Han Solo]

Outstanding progress today! I've got POR 15 on the front firewall. Last night I cut out the rust hole under the front hood release. I stripped the hood release handle, cable, trunk hinge and the trunk seal out of the channel (now I've found a source for all 914 rubber). I started with a couple of rectangular shapes but realized that I didn't need the dash mount bracket so turned that into a polygon. I also did the correct procedure and removed the offending metal all the way to the inside of the wheel house. The original metal had a flange and I was able to remove that with a grinder (so much quicker than drilling out the spot welds). Note that there's thick metal where the trunk hinge plate attaches so no worries of burn through there. The patch was cut to fit, I bent the edge and drilled for rosette welds. A little trimming and that went in like a charm. I was able to make all the butt welds from inside the gas tank compartment so those were easy. Then I welded the rosettes along the side and added a couple of seam welds for good measure. I was able to get the grinder into most and it cleaned up nicely. I did not cut out the drivers vent hole as the metal there was in pretty good shape. I may cover it later along with the two lower vent holes.

Now I've been wanting to get treatment on this dash bulkhead (firewall) for weeks. After just days all these patch areas have started to surface rust and that was driving me nuts. So with this whole area mostly complete, I say the h*ll with it, and Marine Clean and surface prep everything I can get to. The temp in the garage is as good as it going to get in late Dec. so after making sure everything was completely dry, I'm slathering on the POR 15. Man, does it feel good to have that metal covered up I also covered the tunnel as it's ready. Of course some of the flanges will have to be ground clean for welding when it's time to put the pans on. I think next will be to gut the pipes out of the drivers side long, strip the tops of both longs, and then rust treat the interiors and exteriors of both. That will leave the inner firewall and back panel. I had no idea that getting this car structural would be this intense And I haven't even got into the engine compartment yet!
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[J P Stein]

Ayup, a race car don't need much in the way of electronics. ......

[Han Solo]

Ayup, a race car don't need much in the way of electronics. ......

Yes, sir. That looks nice and clean. Your cage builder used the vent holes I see. Is that a XP SCCA Solo car?

[Han Solo]

Well I took a good look at the drivers side long and that side rear jack-point is okay. The plate has a rust hole but I've got the car up on the jack-point. So pulling the heater hoses out the back isn't an option right now. I thought briefly about cutting a hole in the wheel house to pull that out, but that's good metal and I really don't want to bugger up a high stress area like that. So I'm leaving that junk in the long for now. I did strip the tops of both longs, cleaned and treated. I used the last of my first small can of POR 15 and covered the tops and interior sides. I also sprayed metal prep into the passenger side long, flushed and dried that really good with a heat gun. I don't know if that will help but it certainly can't hurt either.

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[ONTHEGRIND]

Looking good keep uo the hard work.

[Han Solo]

It seems that the firewall in this car progressively got worse as I was fixing all the other rust in the drivers compartment. But maybe I just got a really good look at it while I was working inside for hours and hours. Anyway, standard procedure, strip the paint, evaluate the rust holes, mark out segments, cut holes, cut patches and weld them in. I discovered that the actual inner firewall has a flange on the top that joins the outer firewall and back plate (or upper firewall). On the passenger side the rust was pretty extensive not only in the bottom of the upper firewall but into the inner firewall. After cutting those areas out I found rust holes in the side and suspension console (I knew that would be there). I couldn't proceed without making a patch on the side wall and left the rear of that un-welded as I'll have to deal with that when I start patching in the engine compartment. At first I thought of reproducing all the flanges and segments cut out but then I thought "Why go to all that trouble?". Restorers are going to scream hack job here but you'll see a much simpler method I used to get fresh metal in place. Using larger pieces of sheet metal, being able weld kneeling (as opposed to on my back) and having plenty of light - made these patches really easy. I'm working my way from passenger side to drivers side and hopefully will have this area patched and sealed by the end of this weekend.

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[IGTARD]

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[Han Solo]

Another patch done at the center of the firewall and I even formed this one correctly. Made the flange bend back towards the engine bay and I'll weld that up when I'm thrashing around in there. Note that I've been ripping out the metal "shelf" that seals the cooling tin on the front of the engine. That was completely rotted near the hell hole and is not much better shape as I work my way from passenger to drivers side. I don't think this piece is absolutely needed anyway. Last night I started in on the last patch but with temps in the lower 20's my air tools were starting to freeze up. So I had to stop before I fitted the last patch. We'll get a little reprieve on Sat. and I'd REALLY like to have this firewall sealed before it gets into single digits on Sun.

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[Han Solo]

Before...

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After...

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That last patch was a real PITA. There is a contour to the top of the lower inner firewall so making that bend and the bend to the middle "hump" was very difficult. I made a long rectangle, bent the flange, split the flange for the hump bend and then made several splits for the contour bend. It's not a pretty patch but it will work. In addition to the spot welds on the engine bay side where the two flanges meet, I also seam welded the middle and drivers side patches along the bottom. At the factory they only welded about 3' on each side and the rest of that area was seam sealed. That's were all the rust started. I cleaned everything up, treated with metal prep and slathered on the POR 15.

Next up will be to raise the car some with my hillbilly lift and start cleaning up the engine compartment. It's dark, dirty and that process is not going to be pleasant.

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[Han Solo]

Last day of mild weather here so I'm back out in the shop first thing this morning. I figured I needed to move my rigging beam to the rear of the car for good access to the outer firewall and engine bay. The best spot I could find was under the trunk support between the sway bar brackets. It took a couple of attempts but I eventually found the right combo of blocks. So I raised it up to 48" garage floor to floor pan (if it was there).

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That made for a very comfortable position when I'm standing inside the engine compartment. I repositioned my work lights and it's time to get going with the wire brush. Here's what it looked like prior to cleaning...

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You can see where the PORT 15 has worked it's way through my patches on the firewall. You probably wouldn't want me welding gas pipe (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) Anyway, I can weld a bead along those on this side before painting. So, to get some real cleaning done I remove the trunk lid brackets, brake lines, brake splitter, blower, circuit board, fuel pump and FPR. I cut the fuel pump bracket and blower bracket out also as I won't be needing those. The firewall cleans up better than I expected. The only rust holes are along the lower flange but the enough left to give me a really good idea on what I need to fabricate. The rear floor pan joins both the inner and outer firewall so I'll have to fix that edge. The driver side long is in pretty good shape. There's a little pan with a drain (clogged of course) just behind the firewall that's pretty rusty but no holes. Of course the battery tray area is a mess. That long has a rust hole on top just behind the fire wall and the side metal has that hole that I partially fixed on the other side. There's another rust hole on the side where the tray attaches. So quite a bit of work on that long. What's really funny though is how the PO fixed the suspension console when the "ear" broke off. It's a piece of 1.5" angle iron cut and fitted with three nuts and bolts. I've already got a replacement piece that looks like it will work very nicely. I'll probably cut out the rest of the engine shelving on the sides and rear to speed the structural work up. Something tells me I'll be working in this area till spring (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

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[Han Solo]

It finally warmed up enough Thurs. for me to get a few hours in. I decided to go ahead and strip what was left of the right suspension console. I started by cutting some of the engine shelving out to the rear of both suspension consoles. There was some rust in those areas and I'm not worried about keeping that intact anyway. Then I drilled out the spot welds at the rear of the assembly. There appeared to be more spot welds along the top edge and the front but the corrosion made it really hard to ID those. I just got busy with the grinder and within two hours had that joker off. That assembly wraps under the long and joins where the trailing arm bracket attaches. It appears that is all one piece fitted at the factory (there must have been a notch where the seam under the long passes). However, the fine replacement part from RD stops at that seam but more on that later.

I got back into grinding this morning and cleaned up the area under the long. There's a pretty good rust hole under there and that will have to be fixed. In fact, the underside of the long is missing from about 10" forward of the firewall to close to the suspension bracket. I'm going to attempt one long patch under there but first I'm dealing with the top in the hell hole. There's a rust hole in the wheel house I patched first. That went well and hopefully tomorrow I can patch the top of the long.

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[Han Solo]

Back at it today and at first I'm focusing on the top of the long. I remember TR's post about two layers of metal so I go easy and start peeling back the top layer with a wide chisel. The bottom layer is mostly intact except right against the firewall. So I trimmed that layer square only loosing about 3". Note that the top layer appears to be thicker. Anyway, I peel that back to the same rear line as last night's wheel house patch. While preparing the area, I'm digging out all the seam sealer around the stupid heater pipe (really fearing more rust) and of course there is. It's a crack where the outer firewall joins the side of the long. That looks pretty structural to me so it's got to be fixed well. I cut the pipe off as close as possible and took the grinder to the stump. That left a round hole with thin compromised metal so I squared that off. Then I sprayed weld through primer over the whole area (and on the back sides of the two patches). To form both patches I'm finally getting smart and making templates out of construction paper. I use spot welds for strength and follow up with lap welds in strategic areas. To fix the large patch on the top of the long (really no way to clamp there) I started welding in the corner by the firewall, beating the metal close, pushing with my pry-bar and making another weld. It's not a very pretty patch but I was able to keep it nice and tight as I welded to the rear.

Next will be the hole in the wheel house. That's going to be a real challenge with two bends but I don't think that's a stress area (the battery will be located elsewhere) so butt welds will be fine.

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[J P Stein]

My cage builder would be me. I did it twice.
Running down tubes to the shock towers the second time.......the best mod I ever did to the shitbox......live & learn, eh? The halo was more dangerous than no cage at all. ........

[J P Stein]

I did start with a a car as rust free as possible then statred seam welding, end to end.

Good luck, yours is much more challenging. Mine was about 6-8 years start to finish. ....

[Han Solo]

Last night's patch was tough. The battery tray area of the wheel house had two holes. At first I was going to just cut that area out but I enlarged the patch to join up with a previous patch in the lower corner. Three sides were butt welded and on the bottom I lapped into the good metal inside the wheel house with spot welds. Making the bends was very difficult. Trying to beat the sheet metal in the small space of the wheel house was not fun. I worked the tack welds from the front to the back and had to split the patch to make the rear bend.

I think next I'm going under the long to patch the hole that was under the suspension console. Then I'll be ready to attach the RD suspension console new part.

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[CptTripps]

Dude...you're killing it.

It's a lot of HARD work some days, but in the end, it'll all be worth it. Great thread. You really "saved one" here. There are a lot of people that would have just crushed the thing and been done with it.

Bravo!