Roger's Roadrunner

[Donny]

Yeah, Roadrunnerman, your best $$ you can spend initially is getting this car Media Blasted. Sure, this is my profession, and sure I've done the DIY thing many many times mainly due to stubborness, and pride to 'do it yourself', but, when adding it all up, I would not do the DIY route again; it's a longer time frame, not really as well-done as a pro, and, it costs equal if not more than paying your Media Blaster 1500-2000 bucks to get it done correctly. Once Media Blasted, then you can cut out the old metal, you can see what you have...trust me, patience is good and desire is good, but coupling that to a wire wheel brush is (what we used to say in the Army) 'A No-Go at this station'. Wire wheels will NEVER get it as clean, as fast as a media blaster can. Go check out my site, my videos, and facebook page drbplasticmediablasting to see this process. Oh yeah, when you run into Bondo, even the Media Blaster has issues getting it off, but, far easier than any other process out there.

Your car can be brought back; it's rare enough and worth enough in the market, and to you to take the steps to make it happen. AMD metal is good, very good stuff. However, putting new metal over old ain't too good. Yeah, Media Blasting is expensive, but, the end-result is really worth it.

Good luck, I'll be following this thread.

 

[moparstuart]

wow cool car , lots of work ,

 

[roadrunnerman]

hey donny,i will be trying to get as much as i can blasted i just don't know how much the guy does.I know he does small parts for tractors but on the bigger scale i might have to find a more professional shop.

 

[roadrunnerman]

just to let everybody know,i finally ordered the front and rear floor pans,also the rear window channels(inside and outside)did not get the one piece pans. my question to start is when i get them shipped to me,do i start on the front floor pans or rear pans first?trunk pans(left and right)will be ordered later.many questions will come later once i get the parts shipped and in my garage.

 

[detmatt1]

All the floor pans overlap eachother from front to back. Are you doing the rear underseat floorpan as well as the rear footwells?

 

[roadrunnerman]

no,just the front and rear footwell pans.the floor under the rear seat is still solid.I did order the rear pans that include the cross brace the is right under the front of the rear seat.

 

[Propwash]

Good to hear you rolling on the bird Roger. The rear foot well pan overlaps the rear of your front floor pans. I canged out my fronts with no issues of that overlap in the rear. Probably a horse a piece which ever way you go.

 

[roadrunnerman]

so as bad as my floor is,would it be safe to say that i can cut out the bad area's then drill out the spot welds or grind off the rusted metal from the frame members.i know it will be a little trickier close to the area just inside the door rocker.

 

[Propwash]

That is exactly what I did Roger..Floor was so rotton up front I couldn't tell where the spot welds where anyways. :icon_thumleft:

 

[roadrunnerman]

thanks will,that's what i'll do.It seems every time i go in my garage to look it over, it seems more and more of the floor is rusting away,I'm just glad my wife said that i can use our tax return check (every penny) to get the parts i need to get the RR closer to being able to drive.

 

[Propwash]

No sweat! Sounds like a keeper Roger! Hang on to her... I don't know how rotton your front pans are towards the rear, but just to give you a heads up, the front pan has 4/5 spot welds around the seat belt bolt nut that weld it to the inner rocker. Mine was so cancered I could see them and it was a battle till the air hammer came out. Wasted a bunch of time on those little suckers

 

[roadrunnerman]

i'll try and get some pics up today on the floor front and rear so you and everyone else can see how bad it really is.

 

[roadrunnerman]

here is the pictures of my floor which will be the first thing i will work on.any ideas on how to tackle this then what was discussed earlier.

 

[Propwash]

Wow Roger, they look like my old pans, except my bird came with the rare bondo and roofing tin (Fred Flintstone delete option).

Looks like the first issue you may run in to is where the front of the pans lip out and spot welds with the fire wall. If your engine/tranny is still in, it would be a royal pain in the rear to get to them. Maybe go from underneath the car? Otherwise you could trim the new/old pan back a bit and not even mess with that lip...Or, well...just pull the motor/tranny if it's still in.

I would cut the garbage metal away around the frame/torsion bar crossmember and then go from there. Nice thing about the half cancered up stuff is if you can get an air hammer under a lip of it, the hammer will peel off that remaining rotton metal off the frame/x-member like an orange peel. No air= a BFH and a chisel. Besides, I don't know if you ever noticed or not, but it seems sometimes the old spot welds that have corroded a bit seem to have been hardened in a way and really gives a spot weld cutter bit a run for it's money. A grinder or an air hammer will make light work of it.

Your wiring covers on the side will have to come off as well as the 40 lbs of factory seam sealer that covers the spot welded on tabs that hold them on. The outer edge of your front pans and spot welds holding them on are underneath all that.

I noticed on my RR after cutting out one pan, the car sagged just a little bit up there. The door wouldn't shut anymore. A 2" x 4" and floor jack under the frame rail/torsion bar crossmember fixed that. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Wouldn't want to see you weld in a fresh pan after not knowing the car sagged and now you're stuck with that droop unless you cut out what you just welded in.

After you got the wiring covers off, lay on the new pans and draw a line along the edge of the new pan where it lines up against the tunnel. Draw a line about 1 1/2" lower than that line and cut along it. Obviously that new pan won't sit quite flush on the old because of the lip up front as well as the back of the pan is not tucked under the rear foot pan yet. Once out, that will give you a bit more working space to stand/kneel in till you go back and fine tune that cut across for weld up.

Obviously someone has modified those front pans before. From what I can see off the photo showing the boot and console shifter linkage, your new pans cut line will be higher up than that when all said and done. So you could quite possibly eliminate that old ugly edge moving forward. Also, where the front pan tucks under the rear foot pans, about 1/4 up the tunnel, the factory welded the leading edge lip of the rear foot pan to the front floor pan..You'll have to grind that out. The rest of the mate up for the rear foot well/front pan is spot welds running across the pans and another where it curves up towards the jam.

Good luck to ya.You won't have any problems knocking these out......you'll see it's pretty easy/self explainatory work, just kinda grunt work.

BTW...I don't know where you ordered or are ordering you pans from, but if they are AMD, they will come with the bucket seat supports already welded on so don't go buying them seperately if you go that route. They will not have those little fold clips that hold down the wiring running to the console. Big deal right? A little sliver of 22 gauge and a tac in the middle your golden. Dip the ends in liquid electical tape a couple times and let dry, if you want to get rid of sharp edges as well as have the rubberized ends look on them.

 

[roadrunnerman]

thanks will.no air hammer but i do have a BFH and a chisel plus a grinder.as for the shifter linkage and boot,what someone did was cut out that section and then took sheet metal screws and screwed it right to the floor hump.It is an auto on the column but i'm going to keep it a floor shift(auto).The parts were ordered this morning,should be here by the time i get back home from the road,so i will be checking any and all responses.thanks for the heads up on the floor sag,will make sure everything is stable after i get the engine and tranny out and have the car sitting where i can work on it from all sides.

 

[Propwash]

No problem Roger. i'll be looking forward to all the carnage as soon as you make it back off the road..Hope your not paying for your own diesel...

 

[oneway71]

You have your work cut out for you! I am looking forward to seeing your progress!

 

[roadrunnerman]

just to give update(no pics), my floor pans are here:upside down: along with my rear window corners,am pulling the motor out this weekend and will take it to the engine shop on monday (2 1/2-3 hrs away).As soon as i can move a vehicle out of storage i will put my 71 charger in its place so i can position the RR in the middle of my back section of my garage and get to everything on all sides. No will i do not pay for my own diesel( thank goodness) at around $4.00 a gal(average) and a 220 gal capacity i would have to stay out on the road too long for me to make any $$.

 

[TheSwede]

Hi Roger!
Update?
Pictures?

 

[Ron 73]

I wish you luck on it, be a sweet ride when done for sure!