Ok...got her groove...I mean structure back! Got a couple of pics of the rear floor sections welded in too. Next thing will be making the new front floor pans. finally.
Bill any shots of that hole from inside the car?? nice job on the front of the rocker. You plan on doing that door post befor the floors or will that be part of the floor repair?
Didn't think to get one. I'll take one tomorrow night. The hinge post is half done because I need to pull the door and that has to wait till I'm actually ready to work on the door itself. The cowl hole will wait till the front floors are put in. I'm a bit nervous to cut into the upper cowl now with so much strength missing. Can't see it being likely to sag...but better to play it safe I think. The heater system will have to come out to get a good look at the bottom of the plenum area but it looks like an easy job compared to some cars. Still, stuff I didn't really expect...but thats life!
There's a lot of well-thought-out work in this project. Ought to be outrageously strong when done. Built like a Beirut taxicab The car could hold up well to a V8. Or a really big turbo on the slant.
That is too funny.You think this is tuff!! should see his other project!!! Bill... Your Going to have to start restoring Sherman tanks!!lol
Thanks Zerk! Appreciate it. I had no choice but build it strong because there was so much missing. Just gotta find some 10 ply tires to hold it up!
You're doing a great job on this car. It kinda sucks that the doors are the best, most solid parts of the car, those are the only pieces I wouldn't use. Reading this makes me really look forward to cutting into my '62 Chrysler as soon as the snow melts.
...and half the common sense! LoL I cut the pass floor(s) out tonight and the new floor panel will be kinda easy I think! I'm gonna change it up a bit (story of my life...) due to the way the donor center section needs to fit and also due to needing a way to cut out the temp crossmember once the front floors are in. It'll look good but will have the restorers scratching their heads for sure. LoL Anyway...a few pic's from tonight...
It is strange that is rotted there like it did. I found around here with street parking the driver side use to take the beating with salt and slush..Did you take any of the trans tunnel from the floor donor car. from what your telling me there will be a gape between the floor section and the tunnel. Oh ya you can tell everybody that the trans tunnel was mint!!LOL
I know what you mean Squablow...I'd like for it to change into a 2 dr post eventually, but for now a 4 dr is fine. Unfortunately, the doors aren't perfect...just better! LoL Fitzee...are you talking about the floor from the Plymouth being 3" shorter? The Plymouth tunnel is still part of the two floor halfs...just cut down the center. The front section of the Dodge tunnel over the trans will be easy to extend back to meet that section because its just a simple curve with no other shape and the main floor extensions will be put in after the front floors from the crossmember forward. The center floor sections will be the last to drop in place. And I can't wait for that day!
Man...had a rough week trying to work on the car! Seems like other stuff just kept popping up that needed doing right away and the car lost out. SHOULD be good now for the rest of the coming week minus one evening. We'll see how it goes... My new upper control arms arrived Friday. Came with the ball joints and inner bushings installed! Look to be really nice quality pieces. Managed to get the reinforcement plate replaced on the top of the rail and then started on a floor panel. Hoping to get it finished off and welded in tomorrow evening. I had figured on using the 67 B body style bead placement (as seen in the printout on the drivers rail) but decided to go with something more like the original 63 floor pan design. A bit less work and I wanted some beads in the section outside the rail. Pics can tell the story as well as I can...
Thanks! Hoping to get the other side cut out tomorrow nite to see if anything else needs repair before I do that pan. Got my fingers crossed that everything under there will be good as is. Tommy is supposed to be giving me a hand at the mechanical stuff to try to get a bit farther along but he's been a no show for two weekends...well he actually DID show yesterday...but only to tell me he'd be back in about an hour. Then he didn't show. I'm starting to lose faith...sigh.
Its been almost 10 days since the last update, its probably on the road by now pics pics I want pics !! Rust porn !
Hmmm...I could swear I made one additional post but now its not here! Maybe I deleted it somehow or something. Weird.... The drivers side wasn't near as bad but still needed a new top panel on the rail. The vertical frame reinforcement was better than the other side but not good enough to keep over the long haul so I replaced it with good metal too. Did some additional mechanical stuff myself as the "friend" didn't show again. Last Saturday Monty and I took a long drive to check out some later model Dodges he knew of to see if they had disc spindles. 2 didn't and another at a different location did...but nobody was home to see if they were available or not. Be checking back later... Only got a bit done Sunday as I had previous plans so last weekend was a bust. Thru this week I made and installed the left floor pan and a bit of minor stuff. Usually get about 2-2.5 hours a night so that sucker ate up perhaps 9-10 hours! Suprising how much time can go into a simple looking piece but there's a lot of unseen work like cleaning up the used donor metal and fitting templates etc. Thats the last hard piece though as the center extension panel is simple and the rest is from a donor floor pan. Of course that has some holes to fix too, but still better and nicer looking than fabricating a flat section. Heres a few pics!
2.5 hours a night!! I wish i was getting that!! seems here lately All I get is 15 mins here and there.Only for Jason nothing be done!!Looks good Bill. What the deal with the section that are left out around the panel? I figure you would fill them in first before you installed the pan.But something tells me you have a plan!!
The piece for the hump is just cut to fit and weld in, but the upper sections are part of the firewall and join the floor with a 90* flange so it was just easier to do the floors and then repair the firewall separately. They might need to get a bit bigger before getting filled in and the car was needing the firewall to help keep it stiff with the floors out. Gotta try to get some good time in tomorrow!
Ahhh i feel better now looking good Bill , so you have a donor floor to repair and drop in for the mid section? Its intersting eh how many hours you can put into one repair ...I try not to think about how long some of them take lol!
I would of done it old school and just flinstone it. Thats some tidy work though most people would just cobble something up. Looks real good.
I'm trying guys! Don't want cobbled up stuff...I've had to cut enough of that crap out of previous projects over the years, but then again it isn't necessary to make things factory original either. A few beads here and there, plus a few holes in the right spots for drain plugs and the underfloor will look excellent to a casual glance. You HAVE to get close with fit and shape for a unibody though...and i intend to DRIVE this car, so I can't deal with poor structure. I gotta admit though...she's a hell of a lot worse than I imagined at the start. Steve, the center will be from a 67 Belvedere...different shape and length so I need to add a section just behind the T crossmember. When a purist looks under this he'll be scratching his head for sure!!! LOL
More progress today! Made the filler sections for the floor, removed the temp crossmember (nothing moved at all when I cut thru the welds! Whew...) prepped everything to get ready to weld in the new panels. I made the panels from the outer skin of a Blazer tailgate. Had to fit the donor floor from the Belvedere to get some measurements. Gonna look good once its in to stay I think. The filler panels go under the front of the donor floor and match the way the rear of the donor floor goes under the rear floor section. Thought I'd get them welded in tonight too but it got late, the weldthru primer buzzed me up and I just decided that I didn't want to stay at it till 11.00pm!!! LoL Anyway...pics not talk! Hmmmm...the pics went completely out of order! Maybe my primer "buzz" didn't completely wear off....LoL
Put those floor sections in today and then went to fitzees to get the Hearse seat that Rustydibris (Jason) gave me. The seat is perfect and the blue color is very close to what the original seats for the Dodge are! Perfect!!! Thanks Jason! Those small floor panels sure made a difference in how close the floor looks to being complete. Finally it looks like a small light at the end of a still long tunnel... You just need to keep hammering away at the little things.
Amazing what you've done...I'da never even started on something rusted so bad... Thanx for the pix... R-
The Jalopy Journal
