Day 36 - Trunk 2

This weekend we worked on the trunk, By “We” I mean Travis. Travis got the panels fit and drilled them and also clekoed them in place. Clekos are those pins stinking out of the metal. They allow us to place a piece in place temporarily and remove with ease.

From 2010-07-31 (by Eye-Fi)

From 2010-07-31 (by Eye-Fi)

Day 34 - Even Still More Floors

Travis and I got the rest of the floor in, basically the 2 rear sections of the floor pans. With these installed the floor is complete. We still have to weld a few pieces from the other side and clean up the welds but its a big milestone. Now we are on to the trunk.

Day 33 - More Floors

Today, Travis and I got the Driver side floor in. This time around it was a little bit more difficult the new floor pan required some…” persuasion” to fit properly. After some negotiating with a hammer, we got the panel settled in and began to hammer and dolly the panel to fit. Travis began welding and we were off. We did hit a snag where the pan wasn’t making contact with floor brace. So we had to grind and re-drill the pan, hammer it down then re-weld.

Day 32 - Passenger Floor Installation

This weekend we busted out the welder and started putting the floor back in. We were using “0.23” welding wire which was pretty forgiving on the sheet metal but proved to be a bit more difficult welding the sheet metal to the frame. I also found I should have used many more plug welds to secure the floor to the floor supports. We will probably have to drill a few more just to secure the floor a little bit more. Travis cut out the driver side after we had the passenger side welded in. We just need to reset the Driver side panel tape line and then perform a few final cuts and it should be ready to weld.

Passenger Floor Removal pt 2

Today, Travis and I finished cutting out the floor. We then grinded down all the welds and re fit the panel.

We then re-drew the line in masking tape for our final cut. We left about 1/2 inch of the original panel on the inside so we could flange it and have a small over lap. While the floor was in place, I went under the car with a can of spray paint and sprayed the edges of the support brackets. This gave us an exact placement of the supports so I could pre drill the panel for plug welds.

We sanded down all the edges and spots that would be welded to ensure proper contact and fusion.

We flanged the panel on the inside and placed the floor pan for a final fit. Lastly, we riveted the panel in place. We should be able to begin welding next weekend.

Day 31 - Time to Rip, Grind and Burn!

The front end still has a lot of work to deal with, so while I try to get more tools in working order, Travis stopped by and started the cutting. We first placed the new floor on top of the old one. A couple of brackets were in the way so Travis had to grind down the welds on each bracket and remove them. Now with a closer to true fit for the floor, we masked off a line where the New Floor pan will sit (beige). We then masked off another 2 inches below that for our cut line (blue). Once set Travis used the cut-off wheel to remove the center section of our old floor pan.

Here is the section cut out. Quick note, The air hammer was great at seperating the panels. Here you can see the section of floor pan we are seperating from the support: