Well Guys,
After spending hours wading through the muck at the swap meet for a day and coming home with a Roadrunner horn and windshield clips (better than nothing i guess), It was time to get to work today.
Kicked off the day with pulling off the brakes, the parking brake cables, the shocks, the shackles, the leaf springs, then the entire rear end. Pulled off the mudded up trunk lid, tail lights, and then the tail light housings.
Next it was time blance out the car from front to back and left to right so i can properly make measurements from the bottom of the car to the ground. I used a digital laser level in the jams for the front to back and across the hump for side to side.
I had to use rubber shims between the jack stand and the car in several places to tweak the balance to 0.0 degrees.
Next it was time to weld up a support jig for the rear end seeing I am replacing most of the metal from the jams back. This is by no means a primary support for the rear of the car, but gives added support for when the integrity of the trunk pan/extension, and frame rails are removed. I used 1"
10 Ga. C/S square tubing. I went with the main supports arms coming down from the gussets so I would have Vertical and Horizontal structual support for the down legs, and would not have to worry about the main horizontal beam taking a bow. I attached the support legs to a piece of 16 ga. steel then used a punch in sporatic areas to spot weld it to the top of the quarters. I also cranked up my AMPS a bit to burn in a few stringer welds. Plus a little added bonus, when i am finshed with the rear of the car and no longer need the jig, it will double as a nice sturdy stand to hang panels/parts for primer work, and it only cost me $31 bucks for the material.
After pulling out the rear seat, I was pretty happy of the floor underneath. another area that is not too bad is the rear rails. The one in the pic is the better of the two, but both need the shackle rails replaced, so it is all coming out and getting replaced
As you can see below, my rear crossmember and filler panel have seen their better days. The left tail light bucket is dead as well. They are about to go into retirement.
As far a measurement and documentation, obviously that is the key factor in having a job turn out. I took an 6 foot laser level to the garage floor to insure it was level (which it was by +/- .0032), and began using a plumb bob at every reference point possible. I measured at the centers to get my accurate readings and marked them on the floor with a magic marker. I also ended up with a few pages of rough draft drawings for reference as well, which i will put into AutoCAD to help pin point any areas out of wack or areas needing more measurments/review.
So, busy day at the home front, but goes to show how much a guy can get done when the old lady's gone, have a couple ice cold brews, and good tunes are playing on the Juke Box. I'll have pretty much all of my fresh sheetmetal in tomorrow from AMD, so as soon as I can get a bit of time, the battle will continue...Have a good one fella's
s_dancing2:
:grin:
