Got a little more done today. The driver’s seat mount riser needed to be removed so I can replace some of the floorpan, and also needed to get some rust taken out. Here’s a picture of what needed to get replaced:
And here’s what it looks like after being replaced:
I had thoughts of just replacing the whole riser with a repro, but it didn’t have as much support on the bottom side and was shaped significantly different. I coated the bottom side with POR-15, so I shouldn’t have any more trouble with rust on it.
I took a break from trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with driver’s floorpan and opened up the cowl area this evening. Here’s the driver’s side:
…and here’s the passenger’s side:
There doesn’t appear to be any rust through, although there’s plenty of rust. Mice really enjoyed packing in the driver’s side with lots of bedding material. There’s no way I could have gotten it out without opening it up. I still need to do some more cleaning, but I’ll eventually just coat everything with POR-15 and close it back up. If things looked any worse, I’d open the side of the cowl up a little higher up so I would be able to reach in there better. I think I can get things accomplished with appropriate tools - of which I need to get figured out yet. I’m thinking a round stiff wire brush to get the surfaces cleaned up and then some sort of brush on a stick to get the POR-15 up into the cowl.
At this point I think my 2 most valuable tools for this project are a Miller Syncrowave 210 and a nice big (15cfm) compressor. The Syncrowave is a TIG welder that I got a MIG gun attachment for, so I’ve been able to use both depending on what I’m needing. I usually use the MIG to tack and stitch weld, then come back with the TIG to smooth things out. It’s been saving me quite a bit of grinding. The big compressor makes it so I never have to wait on air for the air tools. The 2 1/2 horse compressor this replaced wouldn’t even get close to keeping up.
They will need lots of cleaning, but they still appear to be in decent shape. They originally came on an industrial 428, but are currently residing on a 391 in one of my dad’s trucks. When I find a set of usable steel covers I’ll swap them out and put these in storage.
Ah. I think I’m too far west to be a MWI. For some reason the Midwest is east of Central, which I would consider Kansas to be Central. Either way, it doesn’t change the “I”.
Made a bit of progress on the car today. Engine is now perched on an engine stand:
So I need to start cleaning this area:
The oil pan had an issue for quite a while and managed to leave a lot of oil under the car. I think my power steering system wasn’t without fault in that area, either. Whichever one caused it, I need to do a lot of cleaning along with the remaining sheetmetal replacement.
Part of the reason I parked the car was because of the clutch. Here’s what was left:
and here’s the flywheel:
Both will be getting replaced before the car goes back together.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding, it’s kind of a badge of honor. To paraphrase Star Trek “to boldly repair what no man has repaired before”. Or something like that.
I figured it would be something like that - and thanks! I’m sure I’ll be able to say “It would have been cheaper to buy one already done”, but then it wouldn’t be the car I’ve had for almost 30 years.
My progress for today included cutting out the rust underneath the driver’s seat and making a new patch for it:
Once I got it trimmed to size I put it in place:
I’ll have to do a little massaging to it to get some of the ribbing to line up a little better and also to get one of the rear bend seams lined up a little better. I had a hard time deciding how big of a chunk to take out, and ended up taking about the minimum amount out that I could and still get rid of the rust.
I still have some finish work to do on it before putting the seat riser back in, but I don’t think it went too bad. i’m not going to worry about dressing all of the welds, as a fair chunk will be under the seat riser.
Tonight I started taking out the driver’s side torque box. I still have to get the piece out that’s butted up to the firewall, but it’s now opened up to see how much damage is in there. It’s a little more than I had hoped, but it’s not overwhelming. I’ll have to patch the frame rail and also the rocker panel. Here’s what it looks like from the wheel side:
I think this is about the worst of the rust on the car. The other side will probably be about the same, though. This will end up taking more than a few days…
It could be worse. You could be getting a face full of rat’s nest from your heater box like I did with my Galaxie a couple weeks ago (LOL). Keep them updates coming.
I never posted what all came out of the heater box and driver’s side cowl area. The mice spent several years making nests in there. I did find one thing that may have slowed them down at some point. Once I got the front and lower pieces out of the torque box I noticed that there was some rust through on the inner rocker panel. Upon further inspection I noticed there was something else inside there:
Apparently I had a snake living in there at least long enough to shed it’s skin. I think I’ll probably leave it in there just for fun. That way I can say I’m taking “the snake” out for a spin. It may not be a Cobra, but I wouldn’t be lying.
I got the springs and upper control arms pulled out today and did a quick fit-up of the export brace:
Looks like it fits! I’m not sure how much the springs move the shock towers around just sitting there (if anyone has an estimate let me know), but it seemed to line up pretty well as it sits.
The other thing I was trying to do today was get the front end cleaned up a little more. I’m planning on putting some reinforcements in the shock tower area, so I wanted to see how it looked. In spite of dirt being piled up there, it looks pretty good:
I’m still debating whether to spend the time getting pieces cut to size or just spending the money to get ready-made ones to weld in.
Yeah,seeing that snakeskin makes me glad both of my cars came from central Illinois. If they had been Georgia cars, I would have been much more cautious about reaching my hand into the heater box. Never thought I would see one here in the southeast, but I a had to make lane change one day to keep from running over a Diamondback that was stretched out completely across my lane. We mainly have Timber Rattlers and Cotton Mouths. Well that and Scorpions.
Glad too see the export brace seems to line up. Not everybody is that lucky. It’s one of my future to-do things that I am looking forward to, but with a bit of reservation.
I’ve been spending some time cleaning and evaluating what needs to be done. With the shock towers I’ll probably end up making some of my own reinforcements. I’m definitely lucky they’re in as good of shape as they are.
Progress seems to be slowing down, as trying to get to everything is requiring a lot of disassembly. I ended up pulling the steering column and pedals so I can get the firewall/torque boxes done. Here’s a poor picture of the rust cut out:
It’ll take a bit of massaging to get things back together. The shape on the firewall patch is significantly different than stock.
I got the engine compartment mostly stripped. Here’s my “before” picture of the master cylinder area:
This is about half of what got blown out of there. I spent quite a while with an air gun trying to get everything blown out. Now I just need to get things closed up and get the new torque box and firewall patch in place.
I just got a face full of rats nest from the heater box on my Galaxie a month ago, so I feel your pain. At least I have airflow through the vents now, but God Almighty, what a smell!
It’s a 428 industrial engine that was pulled a few years ago when the farmer decided to go to a diesel. I’m not sure what kind of shape it’s in, other than it was running when he pulled it off. It was completely under water at one point during a flood, but was pulled apart, cleaned up and has run since. I’ll have to tear it down to see if it’s usable. I know it’ll at least take different heads and I’ll want to put a different cam in it. I’ve started doing some research on 428’s and apparently the block and rotating assembly should be the same as a 428CJ other than it has a larger flywheel. The heads are truck heads and the cam is designed for low rpm. Hopefully the block and rotating assembly is still good. I’m not sure if it’s ever been bored, so we’ll have to tear it down and check it.
