August 2009 - We're in for a real shock!

Ya, I know. Cheezy title but you'll figure out what i'm talking about soon.
I see I have a new blogspot friend joining me. Hi Lilia! Lilia was my grad date from wayyyyy back. Not going to mention how far back :) Thanks for joining Lilia!
Also I received some emails from some old friends and co workers who are going to be following this blog. I guess I'm gonna have to spice things up and make myself look better than I really am.
Here we go...

Next on my rust hit list was replacement of the battery apron. This was almost an easy install but once again the replacement parts required a bit of encouragement to fit. What a PITA.



As you can see I created some stitch welds here from the outside of the apron. This created a fairly seamless look when viewed from the engine bay. No grinding required :)

Since i'll be pushing some pretty big numbers from my motor I decided to add the same reinforced shock tower treatments that were used on the Boss 302 Mustangs. I was lucky to find a guy on ebay who was gracious enough to sell me a full reinforcement package that he designed himself which replicates and betters the old system. It consisted of two wrap around plates that mate with the existing tower reinforcement plates as well as an additional plate that stiffens the inside of the shock tower where the tower meets the frame rail.

JULY 2009. I'VE BEEN FRAMED!

Isn't this a beautiful site? Rust. Ahhh... For me rust isn't such a bad thing cuz' not only do I get to put brand new metal in it's place but I also get to practice more welding!
Ya! I turned to my trusted friends over at Mustangs Unlimited for the 2 pieces that make up the front frame rail. I ordered the passenger side (Right) but what do they send me?


The drivers side (left)... what a bunch of turnips.
The good news is I now get more practice by fabricating a new inside box frame rail from a left side to a right. This was not easy as they are quite different.
Here i've cut and began reshaping the left rail to work on the right side. I won't get into the boring details of what I did but rest assured, i made it work :) Some fancy work here to try and replicate the original
Notching of the old frame for removal of the rusted piece (view taken from the top while inside the engine compartment)
Cutting out of the old frame rail is now complete

The new piece fits great. A lot of care and attention was taken to ensure that this was welded square and true as any misalignment could cause a lot of problems with the other body panels I needed to replace (not to mention the front bumper)
OK, so not the prettiest weld but this was thick metal and I wanted to make sure that it was SOLID! Note patching of one of the bolt holes. Since I was using the wrong side I need to plug the old holes and redrill to match the original ones. Since the outer frame rail gets welded beside this I wasn't worried about grinding the welds on the inside of this box. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the next step but trust me, it worked out well...
See?

Tackling the engine compartment

Rust never sleeps so I didn't want to take a chance with the engine compartment. As shown before the batter apron was toast so I carefully removed it. 3 bolts a bunch of spot welds and lots of cutting and grinding and viola the old tray is gone!


There was also small traces of rust that had been forming on the radiator support. Once again I had to weigh the option of trying to repair spots against the cost of buying a new rad support and re and re'ing. New rad support won. Heck...i've got lots of money tied up in this thing. Whats another 120 bucks?
(spot weld cutter)
Taking out the rad support was a lot more difficult than I had imagined.
Although these pictures look like they were done over a period of a few hours it's actually taking
me weeks. A busy work like and home life with the family only offers up a few hours of my own time to tackle this project. Nevertheless this is my choice for relaxing hobby.




All done. The rad support and battery apron are now off. Lets see what kind of things are rearing their ugly heads now that half the engine compartment is exposed.

Floor pan replacement. Drivers side

I decided to tackle the drivers side next. Same procedure as before.
Here we see the new floor pan and seat platform. I decided to buy new seat platforms ONLY because I butchered the old ones taking them out. Not a costly item but of course, it's adding to the cost.

Here is the underside of the floor pan where the new pan meets the tranny tunnel. Because this could be seen if anyone looks at the underside, I wanted the seem to look as flawless as possible. I used etching primer before I laid a light coat of bondo.

After sanding down the bondo you the distortion of the metal becomes evident. After another thin layer and some heavy high build primer this will look nice and seamless.


In this shot we see part of the front drivers floor pan with the floor-to-firewall panel (this was a new replacement panel) all seam welded to the front firewall and tranny tunnel. This shot was taken while standing inside the engine compartment.

The body continued

After rough cutting around the frame rails I had to bring out the trusty spot weld cutter and drill out the welds. What a pain this is. After my 157th weld I figured out the easiest way to do this. If you cannot see the weld run your finger along the seam and you'll feel a small divot in the sheet metal. This more than likely will be your weld. Take a centerpunch and drive it into the middle of the divot. From there the spot weld cutter (using the type with the retractable center needle) will center itself quite nicely. After I cut out the weld I used a cold chisel to drive between the two pieces and separate them. EZ


Last restoration I learned a valuable thing: Don't try and seam weld without first laying out some tacks. Unless you are using the right equipment and are and extremely good welder the panels will warp on you. Even welding tacks every 1" apart could cause distortion if not done properly. Since i'm not an expert welder I decided to set my tacks every 2". Then from there go back and place one in between. By the way those body magnets are the cats a$$! From this point I laid down my seam welds. I was careful not to weld too long as I felt that with my skill i'd distort the metal. So, I'd lay a 2" weld and then move further down the line, lay another 2" weld and continue. Then I'd go back and continue from where I left off repeating the pattern. This meant more grinding after I was done but I would rather grind than have to reheat sheetmetal and try to straighten it.
Some of the jonts weren't butt welded. Some, like the area in the back of the floor pan as well as the area near the front tunnel were lapped just like the originals.

Dealing with the body issues

Here i'm assessing the body damage on the passenger floor pan. I could have bought a patch panel for such a small area but for the low price and for the sake of a few hours of extra work I decided that i'd replace the entire floor pan.
I first tried cutting the seat platform and pan using a metal "zip" wheel. The sparks and dust was horrific. Not to mention the time it took for it cut through. I decided to use my cordless sawzall. Heck, it was worth the try. Wow! Did this ever make of quick work.
After I cut out the seat platform I laid the floor pan on top and quickly marked out my cut lines. From there I deducted around 1/2" just because I didn't want to overcut and find out the my floor pan wasn't big enough for my opening. After cutting out the old floor pan I could easily trim the 1/2" to suit.