CFD's Build Thread

[CFD]

Yesterday was a totally useless day. Spent some time deciding how I want to do the floors then I wasted much time trying to come up with some pre bent hat channel to use as floor stiffeners, similar to what the factory does, came up empty handed, tried a couple of companies that custom bend them but they couldn't do them to my dimensions. Today I decided to make them. They are not at all complicated but because of the size they were a pain in the butt. Even though it's a ton of work I wanted to do it this way rather than building a tubular floor frame to keep the weight down and give it a somewhat stock look. When the floor sits on the channel it creates a box that is structurally strong and can be sealed to make it weather tight. I hung one of the doors to check alignment and take a look at the rockers with it in place to decide where and how to cut out the rest of the floor but keep the rockers in place for now. I came up with a game plan that will allow me to do the floors and not have to deal with the rockers for now. I was surprised how well the door still lines up, almost perfect. The drivers door was off by almost a half inch when I bought the car so I will deal with that before I tie everything together. Started laying out the hat channels, tomorrow I will start to fabricate a new sill. The hard part will be separating the rocker from the sill, from the factory they are spot welded but most of it has been patched multiple times and welded solid.

[CFD]

Started in on the floors. Like everything else there have been many repairs making it difficult to separate panels. I cut out the sill and rear section of floor right up to the rockers layer by layer until I have the factory metal and first repair. From there I started building the new sill and installing the stiffeners, tomorrow I will make a couple of bungs for the rear body mounts so the bolts will sit flush to the floor and give a solid mounting point. Then I will do the rear section of the floor, that will give it enough strength so I can move forward to the front section and body mounts. I will do them the same way. Making the tunnel will be a bit of work, my roll isn't big enough to do it so I may have to form it by hand.

[ZZZTOPZZZ]

What a great project! I have one question: I notice a teeny bit of surface rust on the tubular frame parts - what will you use to combat that? Maybe naval jelly? I know, this is the least of your worries at this point.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by ZZZTOPZZZ

What a great project! I have one question: I notice a teeny bit of surface rust on the tubular frame parts - what will you use to combat that? Maybe naval jelly? I know, this is the least of your worries at this point.

The frame rails are made with hot rolled steel which has scaling on it from the manufacturing process so my plan is to have it sandblasted before finishing.

Working on the trans tunnel now, will update this later.

[CFD]

Got the drive shaft tunnel tied into the rear floor supports. I cut out part of the front section to make room for the tunnel but the car is not strong enough yet to remove the body mount bolts so I am going to work on the rear brackets that tie the door jam, sill, floors and inner fenders together. When I cut the old inner fenders out I retained them to reuse but after sandblasting and getting a better look I am going to fabricate new ones. Once in place it will be strong enough to cut out the two front mounts and install the new ones and fabricate the front part of the sill. The rear was the more difficult because the frame and floors are not straight, for about 15" from the back of the main frame rails they are parallel to the ground then angle up. Getting the floor braces and tunnel all to the same angle as the frame required doing the tunnel in two pieces. The front is more straight forward

[hammdo]

Beautiful... love the updates...

This will be a work of art when done...

-Don

[CFD]

Hi all, Merry Christmas.

Got the rear brackets cut out, spent a bit of time separating the factory seams so I could somewhat duplicate the original shape, it has a sort of u channel, from the factory it has a wood inlay so the interior panel can be nailed to it. I won't be using that method but wanted to retain the shape. What I decided to do was bead roll the channel the using the brake bend the outside leg. The factory channel is a bit deeper, I may not bother with it or I will finish it by hand. I am also undecided if I will cut out the center as it was from the factory or bead roll the shape and leave the panel solid. With the cut out it makes access to the lower portion of the fender easy in case of the need for a future repair. I'll decide on it next time I work on it.

[CFD]

Pretty much finished the rear support brackets, I decided to beadroll them but not cut out the center. I can always do that at any time should I decide to. I also took a little time to work on the channel. I was able to get it near perfect with a hammer and dolly. I didn't weld them in yet because I would like to finish the top edge to match the oem edge on the mating part. I don't have the right step dies to do it so I will order a set, if they're in stock, if not, I'll make a set tomorrow.

[CFD]

The factory edge on the panels is deeper than any available dies so I did it with tipping dies and finished it off with a hammer and dolly. Came out good so I tacked the panels in place. As it is, everything has stiffened up nicely, it is very solid. I then got all the edges of the stiffeners and front trunk panel straightened and aligned so they are ready for the rear floor pans. I made a template and cut the first panel, tomorrow I will do the other one, flange the edges, beadroll and get them ready for installation. Before I tack them in place I will fit the doors one more time to make sure nothing moved because once welded in the rear door jam will not be moveable if need be.

[davesnever]

Looking very clean! Are you going to leave the original dash panel or make your own?

[CFD]

Originally Posted by davesnever

Looking very clean! Are you going to leave the original dash panel or make your own?

When I first bought the car it had a hacked up dash so I already made a billet gauge mount equipped with autometer gauges, billet glove box and fit a radio. The only other plan is to use the two ashtray openings for bi-level climate control. Lol. I'll make billet frames to match the other components

[CFD]

Made up both rear floor pans and the related body mounts. I cut out two 1/8 steel plates and welded them to the rear stiffener. I then cut a 3/8 wide piece of 2" tubing and welded it to the plates. After fitting the floor pans I transferred the hole. Now when I weld in the pans I will weld around the sleeves. This distributes the stress area from around the bolt head to a much larger area making it a very strong mount and allows the bolt to be recessed into the floor. Super clean and strong. Tomorrow I will flange the floor pans, bead roll them and tack them in place.

[CFD]

Finished the rear floor pans yesterday, today I am going to remove them, deburr everything and get them tacked in place.

[davesnever]

Wow, that's beautiful. That's quite the accomplishment, almost a shame to cover it up now.