Meet the Flinstones...

Floor Removal continues. The floor beams are still pretty sound, but they are swollen with rust so I am going to pull them out. The top hat channel at the rear of the floor is solid except at the ends. I am still debating how much of floor has to come out. Both cross member sections are bad so having the floor out will make their replacement somewhat easier.

It is starting to get cold again so I have not put much time in this past week. I am hoping to get back there today or tonight for another bus lab session.

Floor Removal Started

I started to remove the floor today. It is spot welded onto the "joists" in the valley of each rib. I also cut out the left front frame outrigger. I should have a new one arriving in the mail this week. I am soooo looking forward to welding in clean sheet metal!

The more you look , the more you find

I removed the interior panels today and pulled out all of the fiberglass that someone had gobbed into the LF wheel well.
Notice the little hole in the frame. Nice.
From inside, looking out into LF wheel well.
Notice where new rocker skin was scabbed on over the old rusty one. There is about 1/8" layer of body filler in this area on the outside. The floor is pretty bad in spots too. I think I will pull it all up, but I have to start paying attention to what is actually holding the body up!

Removing the Driver's Dogleg

2 hours and maybe 50 spotwelds later... Driver's dogleg is off. I just sawed it off ahead of the B-pillar and then drilled out the rest of the spot welds that connect it to the wheel house. The B-pillar is really bad and I can see evidence of prior repair attempts.













Here is that B-Pillar.













Hard to tell what it what in this shot the jack point is sort of there, but this is mostly rot - I will be cutting this out next.

Iner Support update

No pics this time, but I spent another couple of hours working the front inner support into position. The outer extremes of this repair piece require some tweaking to fit just right. I am on the waiting list for the A-Pillar repair pieces. They are made in Columbia (the country). So while I wait I will do some barn cleaning. After the A-Pillars go in, I will be able to put the whole nose back together. It is getting a little cold now. Last night was only 25°F, but that concrete floor felt much colder! Stay Tuned!

Test Fit of New Inner Support

Getting There

Spent a few hours today to remove the rest of the inner support. This was time consuming as there are some more significant weld joints between the support and the frame heads. I still have yet to remove the tabs that lay on top of the frame rails. I think I will end up cutting a hole in the floor to gain proper access. Progress, slow and steady!