I picked a good sunny day to wheel the car out...

...and do a little preliminary cleaning.

After vacuuming out a LOT of crud I hosed it out...

...gee, I sure hope I didn't cause any RUST :)

It was also a good test of the new rotisserie, which worked GREAT!

I stripped a rear fender to see how much rust I would have to deal with...

oh boy, send the small patch panel back to Moss and order out the full rear arch replacement panel!

I temporarily primed the raw metal; with the heat and humidity you can watch it rust.

Passenger side door gap was tight in the front...

and the rear.

I marked some reference points...

and measured the gap closely.

This is the distance I was measuring.

Lifting slightly under the sill...

opened up the gap a bit.

Bottom tapping plate might need replacement...

since somebody chose to use large wood screws in place of two of the three original bolts.

The only good bolt was frozen tight...

and had to be drilled out.

When you think you only need a screwdriver to remove a door, think again!

The door off and a fabricated brace installed.

It attaches like the one on the driver's side, at the striker plate...

and top hinge tapping plate.

The passenger side home made floor pan...

was removed.

Here's what's left of the rusted out battery/heater tray and the passenger footwell side panel.

The opened up engine bay. An aluminum bolt-in battery tray will be fabricated.

The remaining tray flanges will be ground flat.

The front inner fenders will be cut away keeping only the framework for attaching the aluminum panels.

Front inner fenders cut away and primed.

I didn't cut away the top panel on the driver's side; I will need to trial fit the Tilton pedal box before doing so.

The larger rear fender patch panels arrived; they will do much better!

More primer in the engine bay.

Stripping the rear clip.

The back valance had been hit at one time...

whoever repaired it was better with Bondo than with...

a hammer and dolly.

Fortunately though there's not an structural damage...I'll try to save this panel.

Stripping the transmission tunnel.

The rear bulkhead didn't look too bad...

might be able to save it and the front of the trunk floor.

The section right behind the seats needs nothing but primer and paint.

Time to hammer out that back valance.

First, a coat of primer...

the left side is not bad at all.

then sand off the primer...

hammer and dolly out the dents, primer, sand, hammer, repeat...

until most of the dents are gone.

In keeping with the "clean lines" look...

I decided to shave off the fender beading...

on both rear fenders.

The grooves will later be filled and sanded smooth before painting.

Next, turn it up on the side...

and start scraping.

LOTS of rust...

everywhere you look.

The trunk floor has to be replaced.

Not sure about the bulkhead.

When the rotisserie is rotated to the most vertical position, the index holes don't line up...

the quick and dirty fix is to tie strap it and ratchet it tight.

The trunk floor is rough cut out...

then the remaining small pieces.

Rear valence will need some attention later on...there's a couple small perforations in the heavy rust.

A 1"X1" steel spreader bar is added for reinforcement...

it will later have plates added to support the rear legs of the roll bar.

Out comes a portion of the bulkhead...

here's why...the spring pocket, a key load member, is virtually gone...

The only way to get in there and replace it...

is by removing the bulkhead front and rear.

There are six braces that join the two halves of the rear bulkhead; rather than spending $26 each, I decided to fabricate my own.

A template was cut from card stock, then transferred to 16 gauge steel to match the originals.

The steel was cut out using an air shear.

Then it went to the 36" metal brake to have the two flanges raised.

This is the first...

and then the second; note that they are mirror images, one for the left side of the bulkhead, one for the right.

The bulkhead pieces were first cut close to the tunnel...

then the welded flange removed and the tunnel ground smooth.

The same was done for the inside face of the wheel wells...

and the front face.

The bulkhead removed.

The lower portion of the dog leg (the angled section just to the rear of the door) is beyond repair...

on both sides; they will be replaced

Before starting to trial fit the trunk floor, the lower portion of the rear fenders were cut away...

as well as the rotten braces separating the wheel well and the trunk area...

new pieces will need to be fabricated as replacements are not available.

The trunk floor was set into place...

and clamped.

The fit is not bad...

but there will be a lot of fill work to do.

There will be reinforcement added between the top of the floor and the added steel tube.

The decision was made to cut the car into two sections for better access...

to the doglegs that would need replacement.

Some boards and two furniture dollies were assembled and the car dropped from the rotisserie.

Twenty minutes later...two halves.

The sills were cut free and the dogleg cleaned up and marked...

both came off at the same place.

Measurements were made and transferred to flat stock.

An air shear was used to make most cuts.

A left and righ lower dog leg would be constructed.

The pices is composed of two parts, this smaller being the face the door closess to.

A large arc can be cut with the shears, but not a tight radius.

A hand brake is used in the tight spaces.

The step drill was used as the 16 gauge was too thick for the hand punch.

A bead rooler was used to form...

an offset on one edge of the large flat that would mate with the top of the inner sill.

Welding up the parts.

The lower dog legs will be tack welded in place for now...

until the two halves of the car, and sills, come back together...

then they will be finish welded.

The back half was flipped over for easier access to the bottom; more cleaning and grinding.

It was then hoisted up so I can work on both sides of the trunk floor easily.

The lower rear valance has some rust through; next step will be to add a patch strip across the full width.

I started by curring off an inch and a half strip...

all the way across.

Next I laid out a piece of new sheetmetal with a lap flange on each side; it will then be sheared down the middle.

Here I've just started forming the compound curve in the passenger side patch strip.

The patch strips curve top to bottom and from the car's center to the outside end.

The existing sheetmetal will lap over the flange and be plug welded.

The passenger side strip continues on into the curve below the taillight.

Clamped and ready to plug weld.

The curved end.

First plug weld.

After completing all plug welds I then stitched welded the overlapping edge...

then ground the welds flat.

The rough finished curved end.

Then it's on to the other half.

The full patch welded in and ground flat.

A few minutes will be needed to straighten out the valance before the floor goes in.

The valance patch from the inside of the boot.

The valance straightened and ready for the boot floor.

The rear valance was primed before starting the boot floor.

The angular braces in the boot had rusted out ends that were removed and the edge folded back at 90 degrees.

The areas about to be covered by the boot floor were primed.

Then the boot floor was tacked to the wheel wells...

on both sides.

The floor did not pull down completely tight but is solid...

I may need a little filler between the flange and the floor pan.

Next will be the front section of the floor pan and the bracing strip...

as well as tacking the rear of the boot floor to the valance.

The two halves of the reinforcement strip were formed similar to the rear valance, but just curved along the short axis.

The reinforcement strip was plug welded to the 1"X1" reinforcement spreader and the boot floor and then the edge stitch welded to the floor.

Inside the boot.

The welds were then ground flat.

Both sides welded in place.

The boot floor in place and primed.