Back to the future?

Now that things are not quite as crazy at the office, I have been making progress again on the car.  She is now bottoms-up again, and has gotten a nice thick coat of the primer on this side.  I have also done a little bondo work to ensure all the little pinholes are closed and it is ready for undercoating.

I have also been masking off around all of the panel seams in preparation for application of the seam sealer.  The original seam sealer seams to have been installed with a piece of old lumber and a broken fork, but I thought I'd tidy it up a bit this time.  The result reminds me a lot of the movie Tron, which has a sequel coming out soon.  Little known fact:  Frank Serafine, the sound effects guru for the movie, put a microphone inside a Saab Sonett engine bay and drove around the Hollywood hills and the resulting engine noises were used throughout the movie.

Oooooo Shiny!

After about 10 hours of sanding and 6 hours of painting with a 2" brush, this is the result:

The exterior side of the rear wheel wells and the floor bottom are still unpainted.  I will turn it bottoms-up this week to finish it off, but the bulk of the tricky work is done.  The rust encapsulation paint is brush-on only: hard to get into some of those tight spaces, but the finish is very hard and smooth.  This coat is only a primer, and there is a fair bit of body filler work to be done.  I have decided to only use filler where there are still pinholes in the metal or the finished chassis will be exposed to view, but to let her retain her "battle scars" under her clothing.

Rust-B-Gone

Work is definitely cutting into my car time lately!

Last weekend was 99* and 55% humidity, which works out to a heat index of something like 120.5*.  All the same, I was able to work in the shop: getting a little painting done on some interior components like seat rails, heater fan shroud, door hinges, emergency brake handle, etc.  Also finished painting most of the brake components with the high temp caliper paint.

Today was a few degrees cooler and the first clear day in a week, so I took the oportunity to wire brush the car and remove the last of the old seam sealer.  After a quick vacuum, the rust killer went on and -voila'- no more rust!

My son took the before photos, and helped with the wire brushing and rust treatment.  The frame had been out in the rain for a week, so it had picked up a light haze of rust everywhere.  However, the wire-brushing had to be done anyway to remove weld splatter, paint and other "bits" not removed by the sandblasting - so the exposure to the elements did not add any additional work to the process.

Everything is now a nice hard coat of grey or black.  A light sanding, and it will be ready for paint:

Rockin' and Rollin'

The welding is completed!  The new rocker went in without too much fuss.  I took a lot of measurements before tacking it in place so hopefully it is straight, true, and in relatively correct alignment.  I had to trim a little of the interior baffles to get a good fit.  This is another view depicting the extent of floor board that had to be replaced before the rocker could go on:

The rear wheel well repairs and end cap:

Down the length of the rocker:

And from the top.  I had to fabricate some new angles to re-secure the stiffener beam to the floor panels:

Sheet Metal Mayhem

I had to take a few days off due to a nasty sheet metal cut.  It is healing nicely, so I'm back to the 'ol grind(er).

The driver's side is in much worse shape than the rest of the car.  The car was in a collision on this side, which destroyed the rear door pillar  (which was replaced - poorly) and bent other portions of the body, primarily the rear wheel well.  When the pillar was replaced, the remaining bent sections were not straightened or reattached to it, so


in wet weather, the wheel would throw water through the gap.  The gap drained directly into the rocker panel, which held the water like a bathtub.  This not only destroyed the rocker, but because the gap also allowed water penetration to the interior of the cabin, the floor boards were frequently wet, with the carpet retaining that moisture for long                                                                                                     periods of time.

It took a lot of measuring, straining and persuasion, but I finally got the wheel well back to something close to the correct shape and reattached it to the door pillar.  Note that the flange at far right that closes to the fiberglass body was trimmed back because it was not fitted properly.  I still need to recreate the proper flange shape.  The remaining rust-holed areas have been removed in preparation for the outer rocker panel replacement.

The front wheel well, has similarly been prepped.

A strip of floor board the entire length of the rocker panel had to be replaced , as well as a larger portion at the confluence of the floor panels at the center of the car.  The old rocker assembly has been completely  removed (inner and outer panels and both end caps).

I received the replacement rocker pieces yesterday (Thanks RG!) and have installed the inner half.  I still need to do a little more patchwork at the front wheel well before I can install the outer half and end caps.

Weld, Baby, Weld!

I finally made it to the metal shop on Monday.  As expected, once I had material in hand, I started to make quick progress.  Repairs to the passenger side wheel wells and fire wall have been completed, the rear passenger structural tube and passenger jack point restored, passenger floor pan reinforced, and the passenger door body mount re-fabricated.

(front wheel well:  prepped)

(front wheel well:  after)

(rear wheel well:  before)

(rear wheel well:  after)

(rear wheel well:  before)

(rear wheel well:  prepped)

(rear wheel well:  after)

(passenger body mount)

(old)     -     (new)

(rear structural tube:  prepped - All the junk on the floor was packed in the little structural channel above.  The only opening to the space was a 1" diameter knockout.  I removed all the loose rust from the cavity and applied rust killer before closing it in again.

(after:  patched hole is at top, repaired jack point on rocker panel at bottom.)

(interior firewall:  before)

(interior firewall:  after)

(If the after photos look upside-down, it's because they are.  I now have the car bottoms-up to work on the rocker panels and trunk floor.  However, I thought it would be easier to compare results if the photos were in a similar orientation.)

I have also repaired the driver side trunk floor at the tow hook.  The damage here seems more probably due to improper towing or jacking rather than the collision event that damaged the front and driver sides of the vehicle.

(tow point:  before)

(tow point:  after)

I'm definitely not the world's best welder, but I'm improving.

For those of you that keep asking "did you prime it yet?  It's going to start rusting right away!" - I'm starting to get some light rust again in places (particularly where I've touched the car or otherwise left body moisture behind) but I have planned all along to rust proof and use rust-proof paint anyway.  This light surface rust won't be a problem, and until the welding/grinding is completed, I would just burn the primer off anyway.  In any case, at this rate it will only be another week before the new paint starts to go on!

Next up:  the trunk floor and rocker panels!

A nip here, and a tuck there

So now that the rusty bits are out of the way, the chassis resembles clean metal panels in most places and swiss cheese in the majority of others.

Because no one likes a cheesy car, my next task is to repair and/or replace the parts that most resemble lace or an old log ravished by termites.

Simply because it is the more accessible side at the moment, I am working around the car, clockwise, starting at the front passenger wheel well.  Areas addressed so far include:

1. Rust damage at fire wall / rocker panel area - expected damage type and area
2. Stress Fracture at stiffener brace - evidence of frame stress
3. Stripped out / dented brace connection point - repair needed for proper re-attachment of brace
4. Bent / Warped vent flaps - due to buckling of front corner
5. Bent / warped tow point area - due in part to improper jacking, but it turns out the worst damage is due to this whole corner being pushed back approx. 1/2" (presumably in a past wreck - this would be consistent with damage to the driver side fiberglass, radiator damage, and stress fracture (#2 above)).
6. Bowed out / disconnected panel - also due to the pushed-in corner.

1.  Rusted metal removed and prepped for patch work

2.  Cracked area welded shut

3.  Brace mount area re-shaped.  (I still need to weld a flat washer over the hole to restore the structural capacity.)
4.  Vent fins straightened / repositioned
5.  Bottom corner brace beat back into place and sheet metal flattened.
6.  Repositioning of the corner corrected most of the bow in the side panel.  Panel tack welded back into place along the length of the panel.

What at first looked to be mostly cosmetic repair turned out to largely require structural repairs to the main front channel frame.  As seen below, the bottom right corner is particularly buggered, and required beating back into place.

This is what it looks like after a lot of straightening. Note that although the worst damage was on the passenger side, it was enough force to tear the channel on the driver side, requiring a welding repair.