Nooks n' Crannies

After a short break I have been back at it with gusto! I started by stripping the top side of the chassis which was a lot trickier to do than the bottom because of all the nooks and crannies at the rear end:

I found my little Dremel tool to be invaluable in the tight areas, but I had burnt through my small supply of attachments in no time. So I ordered a ton of the small barrel sanding bits and some grinding stones (the orange ones), which arrived the next day:

I struggled initially with the frame head as the angle grinder mounted wire brush just seemed to burnish and smooth out the corrosion rather than revealing the good metal beneath. So, I switched to the flap discs (why didn't I think of this sooner!) and my detail sander which made short work of it! 

I also smoothed out the tunnel lips that support both floor pans, firstly by grinding down the old spot welds and then sanded smooth with the Dremel. I took a reference shot beforehand of the spacing of the old welds so I can replicate a similar spacing when I fit the new floor pan sections:

Next I turned my attention to the sorry looking rear floor pan cross braces. The bottom edges were a right mess, but I was keen to save the support strip that mounts onto the u-shaped bracket. It was kind of hard to see in this state if there was actually anything of it left beneath the underseal and patch repairs:

After giving the area an intensive wire brushing and a gentle grind with the cone attachment in my Dremel this is what I was presented with:

What a state! Can you actually call that welding?! Unfortunately there didn't seem to be much support strip left so I will probably cut it all back to the u-shaped bracket and fabricate something equivalent from scratch. The other side was slightly better, but still far from great:

I decided revisit these troublesome areas at a later date in favour of pushing on with the removal of the cross braces. After careful measuring I made my initial cuts:

The ends that attach to the tunnel were seam welded down the sides and spot welded on the top. I adopted a similar approach to what I developed when I tackled the bottom plate, i.e - thin down the seam weld with the grinder until the joint is weak enough to pry apart:  

Once the process had been repeated on both sides I finished up my obsessive sanding mission and rolled the chassis outside ready for primer:

....and here is the whole thing sealed with a coat of metal primer to prevent any surface rust creeping in whilst I spend the next few months repairing the pan. Feels good to see such a fresh looking basis for the rebuild:

Shiny, shiny metal!

I have to dedicate the next couple of weeks to some personal work, so my garage time is going to be severely restricted. So, I thought I would go for a 'quick win' and strip back the entire underside of the chassis before I slack off. This knotted angle grinder wire wheel was the best method that I found for taking off the thick underseal crust:

An interesting view of my workspace filled with a dense atmosphere of dust. I really like the shards of ethereal light hitting the pan! I decided to set-up a better system for dust extraction at this point as my satuarated mask could only take so much:

After a few hours of messy but fun (honestly) work I had everything stripped and thankfully it all appears to be rather solid:

However, I did come across some ugly welding on both sides of the transmission mount. Although this part of the car will never be seen I will probably clean this area up nonetheless - after all, I will always know that it is there!:  

The only area that is a little shabby is just at the front by the Napoleon's Hat. Nothing too major - just some pitting and a few pinholes: 

Looking fresh after a lick of metal primer:

Bump n' Grind n' Prime

Nothing major to report this week, just been doing a lot of precision grinding to clean up the excess metal from around the bottom of the frame head. Those old seam welds certainly take some time to grind flat! I then wire wheeled the whole area back to bare metal using a combination of drill attachments. Here is the result of my careful labour:

A close-up of the front lip after grinding the welds down so that the steel is back to original thickness:

 

I grabbed an old spray can of metal primer off the shelf and gave it a liberal coat to prevent any surface rust creeping in whilst I strip and repair the rest of the chassis. I will eventually clean off this paint and replace with something more appropriate - It should do fine for now though:

 

Bottom plate removal

Using a wire wheel attached to an angle grinder I cleaned off most of the dirt and surface rust from the frame head. This allowed me to see what I was really dealing with in terms of the metal work condition. Thankfully the frame head looked fairly solid despite being pitted in places. The same could not be said for the bottom plate which was in a sorry state. I agonised for a while as to whether I should try to patch it up or simply cut it out and replace with a repro panel. I choose to cut it out and replace as it was the more thorough option. The added advantage is that with it gone I will have better access to the front of the chassis tunnel. In the near future I intend to clean out all the accumulated rust flakes, dirt and grease from the inside the tunnel and then treat it with Waxoyl or similar to seal evering up. Anyway, I started by cutting around the spot welds:

I then switched to the angle grinder and ground down the seam welds along the front edge. It was quite a long process, but I was deliberately going slow to ensure that I did not damage any metal that I wanted to save:

 

 

For the smaller areas and tight corners I used a Dremmel, which I found to be surprising capable:

Here is the bottom plate starting to come free. Note the area at the top of the image that I separated by 'thinning' the metal of the unwanted bottom plate until it could easily be broken free:

So, after a few evenings of intensive cutting and grinding the bottom plate was off:

A comparison between the old panel and the repro one that will eventually be welded in:

I have heard other people mention that taking off the bottom plate is no easy task and they were certainly right! It takes a lot of persistence and at times I felt frustrated, but I resisted the urge to cut corners (both metaphorically and literally in this case!). I am feeling pretty good about the result as none of the metal that I am trying to save was damaged by the clumsy use of power tools. Slow and steady wins the race! 

Now I need to grind down the rough edges, clean everything up and straighten up those flanges.... 

Spot weld cutting

Well, as you can see from the picture below (taken a few weeks ago) my framehead bottom plate is in a sorry state, particually on the drivers side. Just look at the size of that rust scab!

 

Thankfullly the rest of the frame head seems pretty solid so I have decided to cut off the whole bottom plate and replace it with an aftermarket panel. I will then clean up the rest of the frame head, which should only need minor repairs (if any). I am keen to retain as much of the original metal work of the car as possible and figured I would salvage the brake line brakets and graft them onto the new panel. I have heard that the ones that come attached to the replacement panel are flimsy and utterly crap, so I think this will be worth the little extra effort. I have circled them in red below:

Flipping the pan back over I started out by wire brushing the area below the brackets and then lightly sanded to reveal the location of the spot welds. As you can see there are 3 distinct spots under each bracket which needed to be drilled out:

 

This is the spot weld cutting bit for my drill that I opted to use. Basically I used a centre punch to create a dimple in the middle of each spot weld then placed the spring loaded guide pin (the protruding part you can see on the left of the photo) into the depression:

Working with the drill on a slow roatation I steadily cut through just the top layer of metal:

 

Then gently separeted the bracket from the old panel:

 

 

I then clamped the piece into a vice ready for grinding down the excess weld material:

Here is the piece after grinding. Now it just needs cleaning up and a quick lick of paint to keep it from rusting until the time comes to attach it to the new panel:

Now that I am practiced in the art of spot weld cutting I better crack on and drill out all the little buggers that are holding the bottom plate in place...

Pan rotisserie (and other short stories)

Most of the past couple of weeks have been spent organising and equipping the new garage as well as clearing out the old one. I have now built a workbench, layed out a tool board, put up shelves etc. In between these tasks I have made time to continue cleaning up the chassis. I decided to start by removing the rough cut floor pan remnants away from the supporting lip that runs along either side of the tunnel. Initially I was using my air chisel, but found it to be quite severe and could easily damage areas of the old metal that I was keen to save. So, I opted to do it by hand using pry bars, long screwdrivers and hand chisels. I basically worked my way around the parimeter popping off the spot welds one by one:

 

In theory this should have been a quick win, but the reality was that it took 10 times as long owing to all the past botched repairs and inconveniently welded parts that had be stuck together in areas that should never have been joined. For example; one seat runner was welded to the tunnel rather than spot welded to floor pan.... and then there were repair plates that had been placed over severely rusted areas without the old rot being cut out first.... Anyway, little by little I made progress and took the excess metal off cleanly. 
 

Next up was a seized bolt that was holding the pedal mounts in place. I tried everything to get it turning – penetrating oil, heat, wire brushing – but the stubborn little thing did not want to budge! I felt the only way forward was to carefully drill it out. I started by centre punching the top of the nut and then drilled a small pilot hole. Using a wider drill bit I slowly widened the hole:

I then switched to my trusty electric saw and made a horizontal cut to get rid of the overhanging sides of the bolt:

When I got the cut flush I simply tapped the piece out:

It took some time a patience, but I was pleased with the outcome

The next task will be to wire brush the old paint, underseal and dirt off of the framehead and bottom plate so that I can assess how much metal work needs replacing. To make this impending task easier I decided to build a simple wooden pan rotisserie so that I could reposition and rotate the chassis as desired without breaking my back each time. I constructed the framework entirely from scrap timber that had been left by the previous occupant and thanks to the fact that I can now operate my power tools (electricity, beautiful electricity, I am loving all 240 volts of it!) I had it built in no time. The only problem I came accross was how to secure the rear frame horns to a pivot piece. The original bolts were simply not long enough to pass through a piece of wood and reach the internal threads. I looked about for equivalent bolts of the same diameter with a longer shaft, but they were either ridiculously expensive or had a different screw profile. I ultimately concluded that trying to force a modern bolt to fit could lead to the threads becoming deformed or weakened. My garage neighbor, Tony, then came up with a simple solution; take a thick length of dowell (slightly oversized), taper the end and screw it in so that it threads itself:

 

I was dubious at first, but decided to give it a go and was impessed with how sturdy it seemed. I added a piece in on the other side and cut the dowell to a desired length. I then gently tapped on the connecting wooden pivot piece using a rubber mallet. 

This joint should hold well for the duration of the pan restoration. 

 

Here is the finished product with braked swivel casters added and the pan mounted up:

Simple and effective! Now I am ready for the fun to begin....