OK...So I took off the rocker panels to get a look at the longs and guess they look pretty good to me?

What do you guys think????

ED
Click to view attachment

Damn good, Ed!

I know mine are about to hand me some trouble around the jackposts, but I have to break off the cheeseheads if they don't come off with PBBlast and a vice grips soon.

I have been soaking the screws for 3 weeks now every couple of days. No budge.

Bad, but I have knocked out all the dirt, and there were a few flakes of rust, not a shower or anything. Mine will not look as good as yours do, but what crap there is will be cut out. Waiting for the jackposts for both sides from AA. Only one side has some issues.

Why wait for it? I will probably have both cut out and new welded in.

You did great! How did the screws come out?

Mine are ballbusters.

John

They came out without a problem. We sprayed some WD40... One side of the car had rivets and the other side small bolts.

Click to view attachmentHere is a pic of the other side.

I just pulled my panels last weekend. To get the cheesehead bolts out I sprayed with PB Blaster a a week earlier, jacked the car way up and used an impact driver (you need the car jacked high to get room to swing the hammer), and then used a second floor jack under a larger screwdriver so that the screwdriver was wedged between the bolt and the jack. This keeps the screwdriver from coming out when you turn it. I then turned it with a crescent wrench and that worked to back each bolt out.

--Steve

Ed - you'll want to wire wheel all that surface rust at the door sill/threshold, sill triangle braces & jack post support area & get up in behind there to make sure that there's no rust going on - as well as getting up under the battery tray to make sure there's nothing in the hell hole coming down that side on the inner wheel housing, inner long/engine shelf & rear suspension console from both the top side & under the car (check the other driver side too).

You may be able to straighten & re-weld that rear-most pass. sill triangle, or get a new one from Restoration Design (I gave you their link for floor pans before), & replace them all if the surface rust on the bottom of the others turns out to be deeper when you wire wheel & dig into them. Ditto for the battery tray/support & hell hole area below that.

Also pull off your engine bay firewall pad & look for rust behind it from moisture the pad can hold against the firewall - esp. along the engine shelf. Another area is to pull off the steering rack cover/pan & check the area there for rust problems where water can get into the gas tank area &/or the windshield washer tank/hoses/connections can leak down below & work through. If your rain tray is the flat bottomed/angled early type, & shows any signs of warping at the forward edge between the 3 forward braces/struts - then be aware that it can allow wash & rain water to cascade onto the firewall heat/sound pad & be held there to rust over time!

Also, pull off the outer door seals on the door & crawl under & check both the seal channels & bottom of doors, pull out the cowl-to-fender seals & check down in there & pull off the F&R trunk seals & check under them for rust in the channels, rear floor of R trunk & under spare floor of F trunk, pull the F&R bumpers to check for rust problems behind them, along where the sails meet the rear fenders & the F & R door jambs, & anywhere you see surface "bubbles".

Use a screwdriver to poke around & scrape to see if you have any other rust, & wire wheel/brush the surface rust for same. Spare no suspects & show no mercy if rust is suspected anywhere!

When you're done with all these rust repairs, then contact Mark W./Mikey914 in the member vendor section here, & order replacement seals for all of the above & any other door, window, targa top & body seals, etc. which are hard, shrunk, cracked/torn, deteriorating or otherwise suspect. He makes many of the NLA & still available seals, & can advise which to change from his stock &/or OEM ones (he may even be able to stop by your place when he's in SoCal if you ask him).

Have fun!

Steve - I hope you used jackstands under the car while you were under there!

4 jackstands (2 supporting and 2 just below for backup), plus a ramp under the wheel, whenever I'm under the car. For the above trick, when I was actually using the impact driver and the screwdriver on a vice, the car was jacked up beyond the hight of the jackstands supported by only the floorjack, but I wasn't under the car.

Thanks, Steve!

That jacking up high thing is exactly why I will have to have a body shop remove them. I can't go that high, and when they do get the rockers off, they will have to cut out the jack points to weld in the new ones, which should be here today.

My detailer has a body shop. Just hope it is reasonable. I have tried almost everything but the impact screwdriver, precisely because I can't get the car up that high.

Wish I could, but you know, I only have 2 jackstands, need 4, and need better ones than I have, so that is 200 bucks right there. Then a really good and tall hydraulic jack, which I don't have either. I am looking at 300 bucks just to get the car up that high, then 100 bucks or more for the impact screwdriver.

I have budgeted more for the work, but not that much more. I just don't want to be on my back drilling out the screws for an ezout solution. I will pay for that, just this once.

THANKS!

John

And Ed, after brushing/cutting that rust in the cockpit/rails/sills, the POR15 3 step process is pretty amazing stuff. Guys have used the treatment on whole underbodies to convert the rust then paint over it with the POR15.

I can tell you that Metal Ready is amazing stuff. But you have to wear gloves and glasses and do it with a fan on.

John