Preparing for Left Outer Longitudinal
Back to bodywork today. I finished the left side edge of the tunnel a week or so ago, it wasn't that hard. After doing that, I cut away enough of the outer longitudinal to remove the heater tube muffler and tube supports that reside inside. They were both in pretty bad shape. I had already ordered new heater tube supports, anticipating that the old ones were beyond saving; I may be able to repair the heater tube with some duct tape, because it broke at the end. Luckily, we are after functionality here, not beauty.
This is what duct tape is supposed to be used for, anyway!
In preparation for doing the rest of the left side longitudinal repairs, I spent the morning cutting off the left rocker panel and the rest of the outer longitudinal. The rocker panel is going to be replaced later anyway, and to properly (easily!!!) remove the outer longitudinal, it has to come off. I scribed a cut-line on the rocker panel well below the actual overlapping flange where the rocker meets the fenders, so that there would be room to spare when putting on the replacement.
I cut along the length of the rocker, underneath the door sill area, where the outer longitudinal is sandwiched between the inner longitudinal on the top and the rocker panel on the bottom. For this purpose, the grinding wheel was the only cutting tool I have that was able to get into the close quarters required.
After most of the rocker was removed, I started cleaning up the area near the front part, where the horizontal part of the rocker meets up with another piece of sheet metal that it overlaps underneath the door hinges. I also removed the lower portion of the front closing panel, scribing a line right beneath the lowest "rib" in the metal.
I have already ordered full replacement panels for the front closing panels, but fabricating replacement panels if you are only removing this much metal wouldn't be too hard, as you don't need to fabricate any reinforcing ribs in the metal.
Finally, I started removing more of the frame area near the left rear closing panel, where the heater tube enters the body. On both sides of the car, there is a lot of rust and perforated metal in this part. Unfortunately. Unfortunately because there are really no repair sections for this part that will work properly, so everything is going to have to be repaired with hand-made patches.
That is where I will begin tomorrow-- more frame repair, and if I finish that, work on properly trimming and fitting the outer longitudinal. If I can get the outer longitudinal on by the end of the month, I figure I'm doing pretty well. That said, I've been pretty bad with my time predictions in the past. Should we say end of April instead of March?
Posted by pbrown at March 22, 2004 05:29 PM
