Yeah, baby! And it's all "Back in Black"!

Congrats on your great progress, Dion!

Thanks Chris. & a great song!

That looks great! Too bad these jewels get hidden under the car.

Looks good Dion. What bushings did you use

@TonyA Elephant Racing’s Poly-bronze.

What’s up Dean

Great work Dion - cant wait to see it in person.

Hi mate will PM or email latter for a catch-up,man you have been busy .

Some updates to the project.
Replaced the Lt. outboard seat bracket/hinge that had to be cut out due to rusted out areas on the “riser” portion. Welded the hinge to the riser, also welded a plate to fill the gap beneath the riser that was cut out. Used a spare seat rail assembly to get things lined up.

Plate install

Plate install

Result

Reattached the left rear inner fender to the rear closing panel. It had popped apart when
removing the outer fender panel.

Removed the door stays and refurbished. Used 914rubbers’ kit. I know some have had fitment issues regarding pin sizes. No problems noted with my set. The drivers side definitely needed attention. The plastic bushing was split and missing a good chunk.
No wonder it was always noisy.

Before

After

Began work on the left rear suspension console repair. Finally @Tygaboy !
I picked up the necessary steel from Dave last week and began welding the steel
uprights to the left long. Dave came by this past weekend and brought his heavy duty drill bits & knowledge! Transferred the console bearing bolt hole locations onto 3/16” steel. This was the template. After measuring and locating. Holes were drilled into the
steel uprights as well as thru the steel bar stock. Dave was able to make at his work
some dowel pins. So the jig could be removed easily when it was time to remove spot welds from console.

Uprights and “jig” barstock.

After Dave gave me my instructions I went about welding up the platform to attach the
plates to console. This mother is not going anywhere. This assuring we will have proper location for the new console.

Not a house of cards

Bolted up

Oh yeah, the reason for this endeavor

The offender has been removed!

It was past its time.

Nice work, Dion Is the jig because you are removing the outer console to repair it? May be a dumb question, but that's a heck of a setup and I just wanted to make sure I understand it correctly.

Lots of progress!

Edit: yeah, looks like I posted too soon. Should have given you a chance to finish

Great work!

Now to tackle the inside portion. This part of the console is in worse shape than the bearing area. I was just going to do spot weld removal but also resorted to cutting wheel.
It was basically trash anyway.

Rob, yes it is to make sure I’m within spec when the replacement console is welded back on. Don’t want to be crabbing down the road. This gives a good shot to be in the ballpark of specs.

Slowly removing the old metal.

Engine room side

Removed upper portion.
Have to repair a gap on bottom of kickup . Combo of rust and my removal tactics.

Measure, cut, replace, weld. Forgot to measure twice, left a little too much leeway. didn't account for cutting wheel either :-(

Some primer. Now ready to weld in the pieces Chris sent me. Thanks @tygaboy !
Really appreciate the parts.

Yeah, baby! Great to see you're at the point of installing the console!
And welcome to the club of folks who've removed those mofo consoles. Not fun, as you well know...

Great job on that locator jig, too!

Looking good Dion! I did a LOL when you said Dave made some dowel pins at Work. It reminded me of my dad making stuff at work at the Budd company as a tool as die guy. He would bring stuff home to incorporate into my go cart we were building.

It’s been a little while. Time to update the diary.
With the console jig in place and outer trailing arm console firmly attached I began the task of welding it in place. It was pretty straightforward. The spot weld areas had already been drilled out. Tacked it in. Rechecked the measurements. All was good. Gave it some primer and seam sealer. Next up, the engine (Inner console).

Welded & primered

Inner console piece was prepped and positioned.
I also cut some steel rods to use as measurement guides to keep me on track.

Measurement rods

Welded in and then set to add the extra strengthening pieces that wrap around the console arm.

Extra metal gussets

Some seam seal and primer

Dion - That is one BIG job you just did there, my friend! BIG Congrats on the major item checked off your to-do list. Way to go.

Now onto buttoning up the long.
Some mods needed to resto design piece.

Spiffy “new to me” heater tube put in place.

Double checked alignments and clamped the outer clamshell on. I want to add: prior to welding the outer clamshell on and the rear kickup piece, (forgot to take pics, too excited about getting them on) I sprayed the perimeter where I would be welding with weld through primer. The rest of the panels interior i treated with Eastwood internal chassis coating. Even though the RD panels are galvaneal i figure the extra coating won’t hurt.

Thanks for the kudos Chris! @tygaboy . It was a bit nerve wracking for the novice here.
Welded clamshell

Then finally finished up the kickup area. As you can see I’m not doing the factory jack post. It is never going to be concours. I will always be using my lift to service it.
If it needs lifting on the road well there’s AAA flatbed or use the “donut” areas.

After the kick up i returned to the front of long and worked the a-pillar base

Took the door brace out and thankfully all the measurements stayed in spec!!

Removed the door catch piece. It was a rusty hunk. Surprised it was strong enough to handle the braces. Had to cut out bad metal lurking behind it.

Making way for a clean piece of metal