Went to work with a screwdriver on the bottom of the drivers side long. The worst spot on the bottom is at the curve between the inner & outer firewall where it curves to meet the long:

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The sail vinyl on the passenger side was peeling off at the bottom and it looks like it "shrunk" a little bit as it would not go below the line of the crome trim. Installing new vinyl is not in the cards at this time, so I gently pryed up the vinyl, applied 3M adhesive using a fine paint brush and clamped a piece of kindling on to hold everything in place. I was left with two small bubbles about an inch up from the bottom:

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Started cleaning/inspecting the tunnel. I had to remove the shift rod for better access. The car was shifting pretty well before, so I measured the spline depth at the shifter as a starting point for re-assembly. Overall, the tunnel itself doesn't appear to be too bad...but I discovered a few small holes about half way back:

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Looking good, keep it up.

Wow, great progress, looking forward to more

Amazing Bob.

now get crakin'

I am soooo excited to see it at hershey this year.

Great progress, and I think it looks awesome out of the garage

Thanks! It dawned on me last week that Hershey is about 80 days away...it's "go time!"

Eric - I get your posts confused with Zachs now - not sure why.

Joe - looks like we may both be putting an engine in shortly before Hershey. Let me know if you need a hand with the install and I will do the same. We live pretty close.

I'm the skinnier, better looking one.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Picked up a pretty awesome tool on Monday. I wanted to be able to look in the tunnel and the rusted out areas between the inner and outer firewall to know how much I need to cut out:

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With the car sitting on all fours, I relieved the tension on the passenger side body brace turnbuckle. The gap is slightly smaller at the bottom of the door, but it opens and closes very well:

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Leveled the car and installed the battery tray. The Optima 34R battery is a full inch taller than the old Interstate that came with the car. After tack welding it in place, Hollywood stopped over and helped me get the engine bay cover on (with rain tray installed) to make sure everything would clear. With the terminals on the inboard side, there is interference with the rain tray...I should have bought the 34. It should be fun returning a battery purchased off the internet. Plus, I will beed to trim about 1/8" off the bottom of the battery case for proper fit. Side note...the MFG installed the red protective cap on the negative terminal and the black one on the positive.

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Good work!

Removed the drivers side jacking donut and most of the drivers side jack post. Found a large mouse nest inside the long...looks like it has been holding water and rusting for a long time.

This side is nearly as bad as the passenger. I am bummed out and taking the day off:

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My quest to drive the car to Hershey this year ended upon discovering how bad the driver's side "hell hole" was. Had to take some time off and step away from the project.

Like Spraggi says..."next year."

I was devastated about it, but got back to work today.

Started drilling out spot welds on the underside of the long, sill and clamshell and cut the rusty sill and door jamb out...trying to do it without a massive cut on the fender:

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Wire-wheeled the seam between the upper & lower firewall....this looks eerily similar to the same area on the passenger side:

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You are making great progress and got serious skills.

Loving this thread.

Keep the faith.

John

GO BOB GO !!!

Bob your car is in very capable hands and will be a nice treasure when your done!

The cutting continued yesterday.

Got a line on a drivers side longitudinal from Bruce (Bdstone) on this site from a recently restored car with front end damage. The problem is that I need tell him where to cut it at.

Drilled out the spot welds on the rear firewall that held the rusty metal in place and cut out the bad section & cut away part of the rusty clam shell forward of the jack post and the long aft of the jack post. I was able to get a good look back into the long. It looks pretty solid aft of the engine mount, but I still need to get in there to clean to make sure. Damn that mouse nest held a lot of water!

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More cutting. Just like on the passenger side, there was rust through at the bottom of the front fender well where it meets the long. I opened it up to take a look. The front 2" of the inner long is rusted through on the bottom and it crept up about an inch on the outer clamshell. With both sides open, I was able to blast compressed air through the remaining section to get the loose rust out:

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Cleaned the bottom with a wire wheel. The rust through on the bottom is isolated to the very front and about 9" around the old jackpost...right around the area of the mouse nest:

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After cutting out most of the rusty sections of longitudinal, this is what I am left with. The car started to sag so I tightened up the turnbuckle...still not sure I want to replace the entire long, but I am scratching my head for another solution. I have been in contact with Brad Mayner about his long kit:

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While figuring out the best way to repair the long, I started tearing into the "box" below the front door jamb. Three layers and all had serious rust problems. I saved what I could of the old pieces and added new metal. The innermost level was completely shot and had to be made from scratch. Additionally, the vertical support piece in the front of the wheel well was rusted out about an 1 1/2" up from the pan.

Went to work fabircating all the pieces. Sprayed all rusty metal with ospho & hit everything else with weld-thru primer:

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Found some rust under the seam sealer in the front fender well, cleaned the area and prepped for ospho:
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Dude, you are amazing!

Had to pull the antenna out to get at some rust in the wheel well. While it was out, I cleaned it up, lubed it and ospho'd/painted the rusty mounting point:

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Primed, seam-sealed and painted the passenger door jamb:

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The drivers side inner suspension drain hole was plugged solid with dirt & scale. using an assortment of screwdrivers, small picks, safety wire and compressed air I was able to clear it:

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Picked up a rattle can extension for use with Eastwood's rust converter so I could reach into the clamshell to protect the metal...it made a hell of a mess. I have had problems with heavy coats of this stuff staying tacky so I applied a little extra heat with a space heater for a couple of days:

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2 weeks left

Next year!

Just put the engine in and the wheels back on. Its not so far

Prepped all parts for welding the lower fender well and front box & started welding. I had some problems with burn-thru on the inner layer of the box, so I had to turn the mig down to a lower setting:

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The lower fender at the door jamb was rusted through so I hammered out some small patches. It was a royal PITA welding & grinding in the bottom of the front door jamb:

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Welded in layer two of the rebuilt front box today & applied rust encapsulator. Progress is slow in this area due to the rustproofing after each layer:

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Welded on a newly made holder for the gas tank expansion lines:

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Finished sanding the spot putty on the lower fender & shot it with primer:

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Welded & ground the outer layer of the front pillar box:

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Had to modify some tools to clean the inside of the remaining long. A small wire brush fit well into a 3' piece of PVC so I could reach into the long to remove some scale. To get the crud out of the outer suspension console, I taped some hose on the air chuck and fed it through the holes on the inside of the long. The area was then sprayed with Rust Encapsulator:

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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.

Went to work on the bumper I bought at Hershey. It was pretty clean, but there was some "surface" rust under one of the tits. All four bolts broke off when removing them. I tried pulling the tits off my old bumper and the same thing happened. I wasn't a big fan of the look of the 74 bumpers, so the bumper got backdated. Welded backers on the holes & filled with weld. There were still a couple of slight low spots where the tits were, so I had to apply a light layer of filler before priming and painting:

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

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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:

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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:

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

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

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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

Looking good Bob. Great to meet you at Hershey!

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

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

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

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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:

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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:

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You too Eric...thanks for the education on brake systems that have been sitting for 10 years.

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:

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Mayner kit fitting continued:

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

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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:

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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:

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That is some rocking metal working and welding!

I know how time consuming this stuff is...

That will be one solid car when you are done.

John

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


as always




p.s. Looks great, nice job!

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

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

Ollie.

Thanks for the subtle hint Shoe.

My apologies to Brad for continually mis-spelling his last name.

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.

Its time to get this thing ready. Dont make me drive up there and finish it


Updates ??

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:

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