Here's some of the raw materials courtesy of rhodyguy. This is off of Joney's old car.

Dave

Isn't that how he got that "scratch" on his hand?

no, clutch tube for the blood letting.

Thats the left side! Issues I bet?

We all want the "the girl with a short skirt and a lonnnnng....lonnng JACKET"
I love it!

This started out as a plugged drain in the engine shelf. I've had this car since 1982 and for the first 20 years I had no idea that they were even there. 3 years ago I attempted to repair this, I replaced a small portion of the inner firewall, a portion of the engine shelf and the very bottom of the firewall on the driver's side. They all had small perforations from rust. At the time, I didn't open the long although the surface was pretty pitted. Since then cowl shake has increased and I don't like the door gap so, I'm going to take another crack at it. This time I'm going to see what's inside and replace what's required and then I'm going to instal an engman kit.

Dave

yep. one way drains that don't.

k

So dave your replacing the suspension console as well?

Hi Rich good to hear from you

No, unless there are surprises in there. I know for sure the top of the long from an inch or so in front of the firewall back about 12 inches. Possibly, a small are on the outside of the long just in front of the jack point. But, I won't really know until I'm in there.

Dave

This all started because I had a plugged drain in the engine shelf on the driver's side for who knows how long. I never knew about them. Anyway, I have driver's side rust and now it's time to fix it.

There were 3 things that concerned me. First the door gap was too narrow and it improved when I jacked the car. Second, the last time it was aligned they weren't able to get the same amount of negative camber on the left side. Third, cowl shake was increasing. So, it's time to do something.

I've been looking for a car that had a decent engine shelf and Kevin had one so I hacked most of the left side long out of it and took it home. I'm definitely going to use theengine shelf and I suspect the rest will be useful for trial fits.

The first thing I wanted to do was check to see what could be the outcome after I was done so, I braced the door openning and jacked it open. Here's what I ended with

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I jacked it open with this arrangement.

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Dave

I used my funky camber gauge to see if there was any change and sure enough they are now the same on both rears.

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I also measured the distance from the windshield hoop to the targa bar and made sure they were equal.

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As a side note, this cleaned up an uneven trunk lid gap that bugged me also.

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After looking at the pieces off of Jonsey's car I suspect that the rust on the top of the long probably allows the long to flex at the the area of the firewall. I imagine I'll find more rust on th inside. Alot of pieces meet there and it is perforated by the heater tubing. On the other side is the jack point. It sure seems like a weak spot in the making.

I should start cutting this weekend so we'll see.

Dave

Dave

Looking forward to your progress Dave

Ferg

Uh-oh. Hope this doesn't end up as 3years on jack stands. I did this area fairly recently and mine was fairly solid but I was amazed at the rust present. Inside + behind the jack point, inside the four engine mount consol. Yuk. Has to be done sometime though

zoiks. the silver car came in handy.

k

K. It's been great just to see how it all goes together. Everything's unhooked,Old Smokie will come out tomorrow after work.

Engine is out. I won't boor you with pics of an empty engine compartment.

I did however start to dissect the long out of Joney's car. I removed the heater tube which is only held with spot welds and seem sealer. It was a late car so it has double inner and outer walls. It came with the noemal animal nest. Yuk!

This gave me some pretty good ideas of where to look for the problems. The first picture shows a view up the inside of the long from the front to rear. In the circle is the hole for the heater tube through the 2 layers of metal.

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The second is the view of the jake plate directly across from the heater tube.

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I suspect my car is bending along this line since it is naturally weak. On top of that the firewall is directly above it and it acts as a fulcum.

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This arrangement seems destined to fail. Iam amazed it has lasted as long as it did.

Dave