Doright wrote:

v8nutz wrote: Amazing that the car didn't look too bad in your before pictures.

All of mine dont look bad till you dig into it and then you ask yourself "Why did I choose this as a Hobby???"

Isn't that the truth Dennis. I do this for fun?

I drilled a bunch of holes in the floor pan for spot welding. I had to hammer and dolly the flange on one side, supposed to be 90%, not even close. While I was doing that I noticed that the 9 holes in the pan with caged nuts welded to the back don't line up. The pan is made in the UK not China and is pretty pricey so I expected better.I took a quick measurement and it looks like the holes are off more so than the caged nuts. Need to carefully open up the holes without damaging the nut. I guess there is no such thing as quality control anymore.

I got the sill and floor pan in place for now. The floor pan holes to frame were off so had to open them up, the pan was about 1/4" too far forward. Looks like the trans cover caged nuts are in the right place so at least that's something. I need to clean up and do some rust repair on the trans cover. Once that's done I can bolt it down which should help with fitting the firewall/inner fender pieces.
It was a somewhat more promising day.

I'm still wondering how the dog leg part is going to workout. It's not only a 1/2" out but tapered from 1/4 - 1/2" in a very short space. One thing at a time I guess. I'll only do a few tack welds until I have everything fitted properly.

I stripped the trans cover, had to straighten the flange in numerous places and work out a good sized dent. Strange that it would have that sort of damage given it's location but nothing surprises me anymore with this car. I had to weld a few tears in it and replace about 8" of the forward flange. All in all it's in pretty good shape.

Bolted it down and seems to fit the new floor decently. There's two holes on the side near the back that are a bit off so I need to see what's causing that. The other bolts pulled the floor up to the correct place in the front part so things are looking promising but there's a lot hurdles ahead.

That's looking better, you're getting there.

v8nutz wrote:That's looking better, you're getting there.

Thanks for the encouragement, I need it.

Just a small update. I started stripping the firewall area and discovered that this punky piece at the bottom was spot welded on. Not sure why but it made fixing it easier. It was a bit too far gone to fix it properly so I made a new one. I've never stretched a flange as much as I had to on this. For the most part it worked well, I did get a small split in the flange but I can fix that when the firewall piece gets welded on to it.

For now it just has the bolt through the trans tunnel holding it in place. Once I'm happy with the firewall fit I can spot weld it. Next up will be the firewall/inner fender. I'm sure that will be interesting.

THERE YOU GO !

I make templates with heavy card board from 12 pack of beer or soda to form patches and shapes to cut the metal too then shape it as required.

That's what I do too. I keep every piece of hard cardboard l can.

I melted out the rest of the lead from the dogleg so I could drill out the spot welds. A bit of good news, the lead ended before the seam so that's good.
I need to drill out the b- post and straighten it. I'm still waiting for the new dogleg, hopefully soon.

I drilled out the B-post, mostly so I could work out the dent in it. Couldn't get a hammer in there so I used a C-clamp and pressed it out best I could. I had a bit of the dogleg flange to cut off and then bead blasted it. Not the prettiest thing but it is solid metal so it'll work. Once the replacement dogleg shows up I'll fit it with the B-post and weld it all in.

I assume you all have a seam splitter like the one in the first pic beside the B-post. If you don't I suggest you get one. I don't remember when or where I got it but it is the handiest tool for splitting panels.

I want one of those Steck Panel knives bad I got to order one every time I am drilling panels apart I say that too.....

I like the Welding table Nicey nice!

Doright wrote:I want one of those Steck Panel knives bad I got to order one every time I am drilling panels apart I say that too.....

I like the Welding table Nicey nice!

Get one, they work great.

I've just been picking away at things while I wait for the dogleg, should be here next week.

The bottom of the inner wheel house was rotted off so I made a little patch, a bit of English wheeling and the stretcher and got a pretty nice fit. I always find these little jobs fun. I still need to weld a caged nut on the flange near the bottom but I need the dogleg to get the exact placement.

I body worked the rear wing (fender), primed and sprayed 3 coats of polyester primer. I'll probably bolt it to the car to sand.