Panel Welding Progress.

[Bill77]

A little filler will be required, since my welding and metal finishing skills aren't perfect (or is it my patience?).

[77SpideRacer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill77 Primed. Time to take a break.

[Keyspider]

Hi Bill,
Great job you are doing!
I read with interest the burnt foot post....

Here is one that will make you wince....
A number of years ago I was mig welding a rocker/floor juction on a Mini.
The car was on jack stands and I was sitting on the floor with my legs straight and under the car....
Well, just as I got to the center of where I was making the pass, the wire blew thru the floor... I did not see it cos my helmet was not so good.... and I was unsighted for a second... but two things happened instantly...
1/ I got a shower of molten metal just into the nice little pocket fold that mens pants make when we sit down and...
2/ Well, you know how the Mig wire curves as it emerges from the gun.... and how it glows RED HOT when that happens.... well I had a Mig acupuncture session too!
I think they call it a "Prince Albert" these days!
I had some thick cotton coveralls on plus jeans but that made little difference!
What I can tell you is that I got out from under that car in 2 seconds, banged my head good on the door, banged and cut both of knees on the pinch welded lower rocked flange, and spent some time in the shower with it on cold!
This is one that story that I would not have posted pics of!
All healed withing a few weeks, but man it was sore!!!!
I remember turning the wife down more times that I care to remember (Looking back I am sure she did it just for fun)
I still have the scars!!!!!!!!!!!!
The price you pay for being a car nut!

[Bill77]

Yikes!!! My wife joked that my burnt foot "could have been much worse," meaning just what happened to you.

[Keyspider]

Yeah....
They say that making a mistake is normal... making the same mistake twice is stupid....
Guess how I will NOT be welding on my red 74 spider project floors!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey, what about a new Thread....
"The Injured Alfisti Page"??
LMAO

[Bill77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keyspider Hey, what about a new Thread.... "The Injured Alfisti Page"?? LMAO

[Bill77]

Nothing too exciting to report this week. I had an expert look at my car and he recommended that I replace the whole right side rocker panel. The piece I cut out has a lot of rust on the backside, so it would be best to eliminate the problem entirely. Before ordering parts, however, I decided to strip the left side to see what might be hidden under "paint".

Behold, the left side is rust free!!! Wooo Hooo!!! This must be what you SoCal types take for granted. Here in the rust belt, this is like seeing the Runaway Bride in your toast.

[Bill77]

Even the flanges underneath are clean. Hooo waaaa. I'll take luck, thank you very much.

[Bill77]

I also DA'd the front fender to remove all old paint, primer and some filler. A coat of etching primer will protect the metal until a bodyshop eventually takes over....

[Bill77]

Next, a little POR-15 on areas where there was surface rust. POR-15 is amazing stuff. It sticks to rust like glue. The directions warn that if you get some POR-15 on the lid of the can, it will stick to the can and you will never reopen it. They weren't kidding. I nearly destroyed the can trying to remove the lid. The last time I used it was several months ago. I also had an old pie tin from the previous job. The paint brush had become fossilized into the remaining POR-15 paint.

Here's the windshield flange, where the metal was a little rusty but still solid.....

[Bill77]

Like I said, nothing exciting to report. A coat of POR-15 was also applied to the floorpan drain holes. Again, the metal was solid, but the perimeters of the holes had surface rust. POR-15 was applied on the underside, too. That nasty looking stuff is the sound deadener with flaking yellow paint. It's holding up really well, so I'm gonna leave it in place. All it needs is a little wire brushing, then black paint.

[Bill77]

Time for another installment: Rocker Panel Replacement.

The right side rocker had pinhole rust coming through. After removing a piece, it was apparent that the inside was rusting. Time to replace the panel...

Here is a replacement piece from IAP. This piece fit great, unlike the quarter panel lower patch piece I tried earlier.

[Bill77]

I decided to cut out the old panel just short of the factory joint. To insert the new rocker under the factory joint would require cutting of the quarter panel and front fender, which I didn't want to do. Also, the front fender has a reinforcement behind it that sandwiches the rocker between the reinforcement and the fender. This would be very difficult to reconstruct, so I opted to cut the rocker about a half inch away from the factory joints.

The spot welds were ground down and the old panel was chiselled away.

[Bill77]

Working along the top of the rocker....

[Bill77]

The middle rocker was very solid, so this just needed to be sanded, cleaned and prepped, then painted with POR-15 paint, following their instructions. This picture shows the rust cleaned off as best I could.