Hey I'm finally getting back to the repairs! Now one of my prime objectives in this restoration is to make the repairs as clean as possible with no visible welds. Up to now I've been doing all my repairs with plug welds and have found them to be very sound and easy to do (although it is a slow process). So I will be using this technique to weld in the floor panels. So I welded a set of tubes in a cross brace fashion to support the opening and then cut-out the outer rocker all the way back to the B pillar (for now).
In order to remove the sill, the upper and lower flange spot welds have to be drilled out. Well after drilling a series of 1/4 in holes at the spot weld locations, I was dismayed when I then tried to shear the rest of the weld off and pry the panels apart with a thin chisel and hammer. Man the welds in this area are much, much stronger and larger than those on the front panels that I had repaired earlier on. Not wanting to cause too much mayhem this way...I came up with another plan that will not require the drilling off of these spot welds.
The lower flange welds were much easier to tackle. In fact a good number of them were already broken due to the previous accident damage. Thankfully the metal on these parts is in great condition with only minor surface rust so I should be OK to remove and re-install them without needing new parts.
The inner sill also needed some local straightening.....it was easy to do this now with full access to both side of the inner sill.....I just love these workhorse clamps! even these thick pieces were a breeze to straighten.
..more to come..