Hi All

After finishing my rotisserie I am finally getting back to actual car work (started in 03). I am redoing what I did in the past (made a mess of it) and hopefully moving on from there. Doug has is helping me with the restoration, so hopefully we can make some actual progress. The entire passenger side of my car is pretty rotten so we have our work cut out for us. I got the good part of the long cut out so when Doug gets here maybe we can start filling in the gaps.
In this pic I have cut out the outside long bit.

10/1/15: Joined in the build off challenge!

MMM...Rust

At this point I was afraid that there was not enough metal to really support the car suspended from the rotisserie, so my lift to the rescue. Now I feel better about cutting out more metal. Hopefully when Doug gets here I will have things ready to go so we can make some real progress.

I have an old Restoration Design? patch panel for the lower inside firewall. It is basically flat. The original has a dimple as does the current Restoration Designs panel. What is the dimple for?

The dimple actually touches the outside panel. That gets spot welded to add strength to the box the inner and outer panel are forming. Does that make sense?

Thanks Rick,

That makes sense. So I need to make a part to weld between the inner and outer firewall parts since min patch does not have the dimple.

I can probably get you a dimple patch to weld in if desired. How was your outer lower firewall?

That would be great Doug. The outer section is bad to. The lower inch or so is gone and the part under the seam sealer around the heater tube is also gone. I also found some rust on the engine mount.

Did a little work to boost confidence. It did not come out great, but it is much better than before.

I'm having second thoughts about what I told you. If I can get a look at one of my cars I can remind myself about that pocket. Could be what I told you.

Sweet! Kids are ready to test drive!

Hi Doug,

Glad to see you here. Don't hang out too long or you will have to learn to weld! Some mean person suggested that all the recent effort was so I could have the car ready as a collage graduation present for Hugh. Personally I did not think that was funny.... well maybe a little.

Tackled another little spot tonight. I am not quite finished, but it looks better than the rusty holes.

Plugged the antenna hole.

Doug Leehr came out today and we got right to work. Doug and I have been busy cutting out the cancer. First we did a little bracing.

Next we started cutting. First the motor mount had to come out.

Then we cut a patch panel to weld in after we clean up the rust.

Lastly we cut out the rest of the rust. In this section. And started to test fit patch panels.

Doug and I worked like elves today. While I did some cleaning Doug whipped up a curvy inner long bit.

We got that part tacked in and cut out the rest of the lower inner long, and tacked in new metal.

At this point we decided to cut out for the day. We were getting burned out. We had been grinding away at this project for hours.........

Keep it up! Making real progress there.

Thanks Conrad!
It has been really nice to get back to work on this. I could not have done much of it with out Doug.

Well it has been a while since my last update, but I have not been totally slack. After Doug left I have been filling in the welds and I made three plates to help strengthen all the welded joints. I have been welding these in a little at a time.

For now I am out of wire so it is time to grind some welds and clean house. I have my helpers all working hard.

With the holidays over it is time to get back to work. Thanks to my Dad and Father-in-Law, I got some new parts and new supplies. I got a big shipment from RD, a nice autodark helmet and switched my welder over to 10lb. spools.

With the welder up and running I decided to start working on one of the cross braces.

Looking good man!

I love this stage of the project.

John

Did a little more today. I have started working on the inner and outer fire wall bits. I started working on the outer section and realized there was no reason for it to be in the right place in relation to the long. After measuring and adjusting I am thinking about welding in the inner part first, but how in the heck am I going to locate that stupid dimple?

I went back to working on the out firewall, because I have not decided what to do about the dimple. After a long time the two sides of my car are connected at the firewall!

I have been picking away at the inner firewall. The patch did not have the dimple, so I cut my old dimple out and welded it in to the patch panel. I have been tacking it in over the last few days.

I have been pecking away at the project.

I got the inside coated with copperweld and the seat belt nut in.

Now I am test fitting the outer cover. I can't believe I am actually getting close to closing this long up. I know I still have tons to do, but this will be a nice milestone to cross.

OK so I have started to test fit the outer long parts. When that is right and welded on, when do the experts think I can remove some of the bracing. Not the main brace, but some of the other bits. I need to remove some of it to start fitting the upper firewall.

Anyone.... anyone....Bueller...Bueller

I wouldn't remove any of it until the long is closed. After that I might keep a simple door brace while it's still on the rotisserie being welded on.

Nothing can come off until the outer rocker is welded in.
My .02c.

OK, thanks guys.

The outer long parts clamped/screwed on.

Edit: Not sure what happened here.

The outer long parts clamped/screwed on.

While I wait for some expert double checking on the outer long, I have moved on to some other bad spots.

This spot is much harder. I am really struggling to fabricate a patch. Does anyone have a parts car they can cut this bit out of?

Ok, the curvy part is probably rotted out on most cars that one would cut up. This is my solution. Not elegant, but it works.

I am glad this is done.

Looks good!

Well with the honeybee season in full swing work has slowed down a little. I have however been chipping away at it. Slowly seeming up the long.Click to view attachment

I also worked on the engine mount. I still need to blast and prime it, but the metal work looks OK.

Bee work and other projects have slowed the car work down, but not all the work is unrelated. I finally got a shed roof built off my shop.

Once the shed was done I could move my giant stack of lumber out of the shop, which gave me this!

So now I can get back to work. With newly gained access to the bead blaster I was able to finish my engine mount.

I may have accidentally gotten the engine mount in the right place! Still triple checking the numbers, before I weld it in.

Good timing on the update... Was just about to text you.