Can of rusty worms

[Glenwood]

Glenwood, the heading for your build thread is sooooo correct. You have opened a can of rusty worms....lol. It is amazing what can be hidden under paint and undercoating. You should be a spot weld drilling pro by now. Keep chipping away at them old rust worms and keep the updates coming.

Thanks Crumley. I titled it sort of tongue in cheek but boy was I bang on there. I'm running out of rust to repair lol. I have a couple of frame connectors to fit and weld on over the next little while. I hope I'm able weld upside down.
The only things left on the car are the trim and top. Both of which I'm not sure how to remove, if I should decide to attempt to repaint the car. Fun times ahead!

 

[miller]

Wow comes to mind!
I'd say your doing fantastic work there, and way beyond. Rusty worms...yeah.

 

[Glenwood]

Time to cut out the rot of this support rail. I used some 16ga to make a patch.

Tough to form 16ga without a brake. I think I got it pretty close with my vise and a heavy hammer.

There's a slight taper on the rail end. Made a small cut to duplicate it.

I'll wait to fit and weld it in once I have the new trunk pan and extension to check against.

 

[Glenwood]

POR treatment after all the flakes of rust are cleaned out and metal prep applied.

 

[Glenwood]

Thought you guys might be interested in seeing how to install frame connectors, because I have no idea!

Bought these off a member who was kind enough to ship them to me. These US Car Tool connectors are cut pretty close to the floor contour, even with the new AMD floor pan I installed, but they need a lot of trimming.

Pressed all the way up, there's a good 3/8" gap at the front.

 

[Glenwood]

I used a profile comb to try to match the floor and whittled away at it. It took hours of checking, shaving metal, rechecking, etc to get it close.

Gap is much tighter now.

The rear had to be trimmed as I already have torque boxes which interfere with one side.

 

[Glenwood]

The rest of the fit looks pretty good but needs a little shaving here and there.

I'll start the other side tomorrow...time for single malt!

 

[mr. b]

looking great keep up the awesome work

 

[khryslerkid]

Thought you guys might be interested in seeing how to install frame connectors, because I have no idea!

You're doing a good job "faking" it!

 

[ckessel]

The fun part about those connectors is getting the gun in the tight area between the connector and rocker panel. PITB!

 

[kiwigtx]

I just finished re-reading this entire build thread. Wow, Glen you have come a long way since the start when welding was a challenge. Excellent work and some outstanding progress so far.
Keep it up, and you'll be there in no time at all.

 

[Glenwood]

The fun part about those connectors is getting the gun in the tight area between the connector and rocker panel. PITB!

yeah I'm kind of dreading that. It's tight where the floor pan slopes. Not sure how I'll tackle that but I try not to think about it too much yet.

 

[Glenwood]

I just finished re-reading this entire build thread. Wow, Glen you have come a long way since the start when welding was a challenge. Excellent work and some outstanding progress so far.
Keep it up, and you'll be there in no time at all.

Thanks Kiwi! I'd still like to master it but I'm running out of metal to weld lol.

 

[HawkRod]

Some great fab skills on the patch - I'm impressed! I need to get better at this kind of stuff. I am more of a "detach/attach" kind of guy - not so good at the "build from scratch" kind of metal work yet. Great project!

 

[Glenwood]

Thanks Hawk. I wish I had some metal forming equipment to make life easier, although I'd run out of space in the shop. I thought about selling off my wood working equipment but the wife as some cabinets on the honey-do (right now) list, so they have to stay.
I make do with whatever I can find laying around. That rail patch was tough to bend and I thought I was stumped as my vise is a bit too small for the depth of the bends, but I kept at it and got lucky.

 

[HawkRod]

Thanks Hawk. I wish I had some metal forming equipment to make life easier, although I'd run out of space in the shop. I thought about selling off my wood working equipment but the wife as some cabinets on the honey-do (right now) list, so they have to stay.
I make do with whatever I can find laying around. That rail patch was tough to bend and I thought I was stumped as my vise is a bit too small for the depth of the bends, but I kept at it and got lucky.

So I'm even more impressed. I have the same mix of tools - woodworking and metal working. In both cases, enough tools to be dangerous but not enough to be expert!!! I'm in the middle of a complete bathroom redo at the moment...

 

[Glenwood]

A bit more tweaking this morning and this side is done yay!

 

[Glenwood]

On to the driver's side.
Same issue with the torque box. Had to trim here before starting to fit.

 

[Glenwood]

This side fits much closer which ended up in less work to fit.

 

[Glenwood]

Still a few high spots to be shaved. This side only took a few hours.