Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

Today I hosed down the seams with the inner frame coating from Eastwood. I cut the spray tip off the supplied wand as I didn't want the multiple direction spray, just straight. I put a brake clean extension in the wand, taped it together since it was loose. After the first spray down with the regular spray head, I put the modded wand unit on and hosed down the seams/overlaps etc. Wanted to make sure those inner areas had some protection prior the seam sealer application. Let it dry today since it was flooded with coating and tomorrow seam seal. I made sure there was some pieces of paper under the car to catch the drips and run off.

 

[ckessel]

Today was seam sealer day. Next step will be extracting the lh tub after I remove undercoating/seam sealer etc from the work area.

 

[ckessel]

Yesterday and today were spent removing the factory undercoating from the soon the be cut areas. Razor scraper, putty knife, screwdrivers [use them like chisels] and a dead blow hammer. To be continued over the next few days.

 

[ckessel]

A couple more shots of yesterdays work.

 

[ckessel]

Today I removed the remainder from the future work areas. It dawned on me that I'm sculpting a metal car out of undercoating. Chipping away till metal shows up using screwdrivers and a dead blow hammer. Ha! I'll be putting my paper shields back up soon since I need to wire wheel some of these areas for cutting/drilling which will enable me to see the spot welds easier.

 

[ckessel]

Yesterday I hit the initial cut areas with the wire wheel. After that it was spot weld drill time. I have a trio of CCP bits that were purchased off Amazon. The first one lasted quite awhile, used it on the other side, but it started getting dull so I pulled out the other two. They went tits up quickly. Whaddaya expect for $13? I bit the bullet and ordered a Blair brand, same as my broaches and will be waiting on that till mid week. Hope it rocks since it was $50 or so. After that I taped off the cut areas on the floor/rail and marked them out. Make some more chips soon.

 

[Photon440]

I've found that a needle scaler does a quick job of removing undercoating.

 

[ckessel]

I've read about people using those or the hot wrench method. Have torches but don't want to deal with the fumes and potential car-b-q. Needle unit may not get used after this so I figured I'll funnel my funds elsewhere.
Today I got the wheelhouse out.

 

[ckessel]

Have some free time today so I'm going to be cutting spot welds. Starting with all these pieces on the tub.

 

[ckessel]

Here is the tub with the appendages off.

 

[ckessel]

I got the tub cleaned off today. After that I was up in the hole getting areas prepped for fitting of the tub and spacer. Lots of grinding grit on the floor and lift. Great job for the shop vac.

 

[ckessel]

After doing some homeowner stuff today, I drilled a bunch of holes for upcoming spot welds and put the tub together with the spacer.

 

[ckessel]

Today I spent some time fitting up the lh tub. Getting close to weld time. One area needed some trim time beforehand. The inner brace interfered with the new piece. Hit the brace with a wheel and cut some area from the tub spacer. I have it marked on the backside so it can get welded to the structure and not have a long unsecured portion.

 

[ckessel]

The lh unit is in with some screws. Will continue fit work then pull it out to weld. Will weld floor to rail in places where it was cut and then get it ready for welding to car.

 

[ckessel]

The lh tub got some welds today. Using the Vice Grip C style welding pliers, I tacked the pieces together. Moved the pliers two hole at a time to pull the pieces tight together, then remove and place on the next pair. When I had the tacks down I removed the screws and zipped them together. On the front portion I needed to add some material like on the rh side. If I didn't do that, there would be an unsecured area flapping in the breeze.

 

[ckessel]

Today I secured the floor to the rails. Since the flange was cut off to enable the tub to be flush against the rail, there was no attachment of the floor to the rail in that area. Good to go now. Grind the welds down next.

 

[ckessel]

Today I knocked the welds down on the rails then put the tub outside so I could hose the center seam down with frame coating prior to seam sealer application. Will let it cook the rest of the day outside so the coating can dry. I played it on very heavy from both sides to help ensure the inner crevices get protection.

 

[ckessel]

Some seam sealer down prior to final fit work.

 

[ckessel]

Over the last few days I've gotten most of the lh tub in and welded. More to follow. In the third photo you can see a series of spot welds on the wheel side. Thats where I had to trim back the weld flange on the other side so it could get around the trunk hinge outer pillar. I notched the pillar some so there would be a little edge sliding up into it. I also was able to get in on the trunk side to put a few welds in that area to stitch it all together.

 

[ckessel]

I've got the road side secured now. After I ran the vacuum to pull up the latest grit, I started making this first filler piece.