Thanks between Christmas and my son getting sick I haven't had much time to work on it. Im hoping to get some good time in this week.
BUILD THREAD Rustier then I thought!!!
- Thread starter RabbitHoleSS
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Thanks for the tip. Im thinking I'll need to fix 3 like that, all in the trunk.
Well i went to get my floorpan last Sun. I get there and 2/5 of an elco under a tarp. No roof or front end including the front frame. He tells me I gotta take it all. The town of Speedway, In is on his a** about junk cars sitting out front of IMS. I get it. No hard feelings but i got enough junk.So I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new pan,torque box ,both inner wheel wells, the frame repair washers and lower qtr patch I might need.There scheduled for delivery tommorow. I just hope I can fit the goodmark panel. If your gonna buy new sheet metal, I'd look at rock auto. It was the cheapest by a couple hundred. I did get the body off the frame using a chain hoist in the front I ran a 4x4 thru my choker and used the roof to lift and engine hoist in the back hooked to the trunk latch.I couldn't get the front high enough so I had to setup 2x.I used the engine hoist to get the front up the rest of the way. I don't know if this is safe but it worked. I set it on cinder blocks and 4x4. If you use blocks turn them so the hole faces up not out, put a piece of plywood on top and then set a 4x4 across them.
Its high enough to roll out the frame w/ wheels on it, but its too wide to fit between the blocks. So I'm setting it on 4 wheel dollies without the wheels on it. I found 3 bad frame mount holes.
Passenger #2 mount
Driver#2
Pass. #6
Then the body has some issues too.
Pass #2 body mount
Driver #6 (the rest is still in the frame)
Pass.#4 rear seat brace mount
I have all the replacement sheet metal except that rear seat brace. I made the drop downs at work that the floor sits on. My plan is to get floor braces cut out tommorow and figure out were I want to cut.Im taking your guys advice and cutting up to the factory welds and start cleaning it up from there. The front body mounts will be done first then the drop panels then the floor. I put some hours in cleaning seam sealer and undercoating off this week. I figure there's only about 1000hr more.... So I wanna go to town cleaning were I'll be welding the floor in. The help and words of encouragement on this forum is unbelievable. I just wanna say thanks for helping and spreading your knowledge for us all. I would have never even thought of attempting this if I hadn't ran across this forum 2 yrs ago. Happy New Years.
Its high enough to roll out the frame w/ wheels on it, but its too wide to fit between the blocks. So I'm setting it on 4 wheel dollies without the wheels on it. I found 3 bad frame mount holes.
Passenger #2 mount
Driver#2
Pass. #6
Then the body has some issues too.
Pass #2 body mount
Driver #6 (the rest is still in the frame)
Pass.#4 rear seat brace mount
I have all the replacement sheet metal except that rear seat brace. I made the drop downs at work that the floor sits on. My plan is to get floor braces cut out tommorow and figure out were I want to cut.Im taking your guys advice and cutting up to the factory welds and start cleaning it up from there. The front body mounts will be done first then the drop panels then the floor. I put some hours in cleaning seam sealer and undercoating off this week. I figure there's only about 1000hr more.... So I wanna go to town cleaning were I'll be welding the floor in. The help and words of encouragement on this forum is unbelievable. I just wanna say thanks for helping and spreading your knowledge for us all. I would have never even thought of attempting this if I hadn't ran across this forum 2 yrs ago. Happy New Years.
I started by cutting the floor out about 2 inches from the factory spot welds all the way around. I took off both outer seat mounts and broke the ends of the big brace loose that goes over the hump and cut out underneath it..
Then came some more hits. I knew they were coming but...
With the bottom rusted out and the top like this I decided to try and fix it lol. I measured and marked out the bottom were I wanted to cut. I also wrote down the position of the mount in relation to various fixed positions on the body. I hope this will keep me lined up with the frame and the up and down of the body.
It took about 3 seconds after this point I figured out this isn't gonna work.
So now I'm cutting the whole mount out top and bottom. Except this my replacement part. So I carefully removed the old one to save the top.
I made a pattern from cardboard. Traced it oversized onto the top of the old mount and cut it out. I test fit and trimmed for probably 1 hr.Then I got impatient and thought I knew just were to cut. So I got out the cutoff wheel and proceeded to cut WAAAAY too much out. This was unfortunate if I would have took my time it would have been a much easier weld with the tight fit. I didn't realize until I welded it in that I should have made it a much simpler shape(I cut were they did when they torched it in the junkyard) instead of all the corners.
I found 2 holes on top were the big gap was after grinding it down. It seems solid. Then I focused on the extra metal on the bottom of the mount.
I got it all cleaned up. But some spots were pitted and I used rust converter on it. Im gonna sand it down to the pits and brush epoxy on tommorow before I put the new metal over it.
I also had to deal with this on the inner rocker area. So I cut it out after I went back to my parts rocker and cut the piece needed.
I almost traded those rockers for a set of 18s wheels. The only reason I didn't was because he wanted the spindles off my parts car but I wanted it to be mobile. Man I'm glad I kept them. I'll have to do most of this to the other side as well.
I couldn't really reach inside the rocker behind this piece so i used a stone wheel on a die grinder. It helped to knock most the rust off. Then I spent 20 min with a red scotchbrite. I sprayed the rust converter in the rocker. It was all I could think to do. Im gonna scuff it again before brushing epoxy on.
I also got all my seat mounts braces and seat belt mounts off the old floor. This was very time consuming. Seperating the underbody brace and big floor brace was a mf*****. If your replacing floors and can find a donor I'd go that route. I didn't wanna wait and chances of finding one were seeming slim. So I bought goodmarks pan. There's NO bracing or mounts whatsoever.
Im hoping tommorow to get everything prepped and painted ready to be welded in. I still have to make the bottom pieces of metal on the mount, but I have the pattern so should be easy. Next update will include something going back on the car I promise. This actually felt like a small win for me. It may not seem like much, but I definitely gained some confidence after fixing the body mount. On a side note I found an 87 ss with a georgia title. She wants 5k. Its as rust free a g body as I've ever seen. The only problem was cracking/checking paint on the fender. There's no rust anywere I could see. I offered her 4k just for sh*ts n gigs. She said no. Probably a good thing.
This ☝was awesome advice. It made it a breeze. I can't imagine how much harder it would have been without it. The HFT spot weld cutters walked on me alot so i started drilling 1/8 in pilot holes. It helped but I kept breaking them , but they let me return them. After the floor was out I went through with seam splitters,spot weld cutters, 5/16 bits and 2 grinders with cutoff/grinding wheels each. I used the spot cutters for anything I wanted to save and the grinders/drill bits for everything else.This was time consuming but not extremely difficult.
Then came some more hits. I knew they were coming but...
With the bottom rusted out and the top like this I decided to try and fix it lol. I measured and marked out the bottom were I wanted to cut. I also wrote down the position of the mount in relation to various fixed positions on the body. I hope this will keep me lined up with the frame and the up and down of the body.
It took about 3 seconds after this point I figured out this isn't gonna work.
So now I'm cutting the whole mount out top and bottom. Except this my replacement part. So I carefully removed the old one to save the top.
I made a pattern from cardboard. Traced it oversized onto the top of the old mount and cut it out. I test fit and trimmed for probably 1 hr.Then I got impatient and thought I knew just were to cut. So I got out the cutoff wheel and proceeded to cut WAAAAY too much out. This was unfortunate if I would have took my time it would have been a much easier weld with the tight fit. I didn't realize until I welded it in that I should have made it a much simpler shape(I cut were they did when they torched it in the junkyard) instead of all the corners.
I found 2 holes on top were the big gap was after grinding it down. It seems solid. Then I focused on the extra metal on the bottom of the mount.
I got it all cleaned up. But some spots were pitted and I used rust converter on it. Im gonna sand it down to the pits and brush epoxy on tommorow before I put the new metal over it.
I also had to deal with this on the inner rocker area. So I cut it out after I went back to my parts rocker and cut the piece needed.
I almost traded those rockers for a set of 18s wheels. The only reason I didn't was because he wanted the spindles off my parts car but I wanted it to be mobile. Man I'm glad I kept them. I'll have to do most of this to the other side as well.
I couldn't really reach inside the rocker behind this piece so i used a stone wheel on a die grinder. It helped to knock most the rust off. Then I spent 20 min with a red scotchbrite. I sprayed the rust converter in the rocker. It was all I could think to do. Im gonna scuff it again before brushing epoxy on.
I also got all my seat mounts braces and seat belt mounts off the old floor. This was very time consuming. Seperating the underbody brace and big floor brace was a mf*****. If your replacing floors and can find a donor I'd go that route. I didn't wanna wait and chances of finding one were seeming slim. So I bought goodmarks pan. There's NO bracing or mounts whatsoever.
Im hoping tommorow to get everything prepped and painted ready to be welded in. I still have to make the bottom pieces of metal on the mount, but I have the pattern so should be easy. Next update will include something going back on the car I promise. This actually felt like a small win for me. It may not seem like much, but I definitely gained some confidence after fixing the body mount. On a side note I found an 87 ss with a georgia title. She wants 5k. Its as rust free a g body as I've ever seen. The only problem was cracking/checking paint on the fender. There's no rust anywere I could see. I offered her 4k just for sh*ts n gigs. She said no. Probably a good thing.
Glad to see your progressing/learning . Body reconstruction isn’t painless. You’ll make some mistakes, as long as you find them and fix them you’ll be fine. More sheetmetal and welding will fix most anything you run into. It takes alot of patients and work to transfer the small but important parts as you’ve learned. It’s tough even when your experienced .to stay focused and patient enough to continue correctly . Look at what you’ve already accomplished and remember your goal and proceed. Real good job so far, especially for someone new to type of project. KEEP GOING !!!
This feels all too familiar. Stick with it and feel free to use a little artistic license. 
Well after I sprayed rustoleum converter and let it dry for 24hrs. Inside where the rust was thicker,I went to scuff it up with scotchbrite but I noticed rust dust coming from under the converter. This leads me to believe you can only use it on microscopic rust.
So the only way I could think to get after the rust in there was to make a spot blaster and buying fine coal slag from TSC.
I used glasses and a shield but still got it in my eyes,ears,etc. If I do it again indoors, I'll make a head to toe suit or something.I used it to blast inside the rocker and kick panel before I epoxied it all. It worked great but I forgot to get pics of it blasted.I brushed the epoxy on thick and got it in as far as I could. It was dripping out of the rockers. After 24hrs I cleared the weep holes with a pick and scraped away where the plug welds would go.
I let it dry for about 3 days because I was busy with work/home. When I came back. I made the bottom layer of the mount out of 2 pieces of 18ga. and epoxied both sides then welded the bottom of the mount in after it dried.
I scraped/sanded away the epoxy from were I was gonna weld. Next time im only painting what is sandwiched and inaccessible when in place. It just made it tougher to weld by painting everything. I couldn't figure out how to make the holes so there kinda jacked up but it shouldn't matter. The other side will have to be right on because of the alignment hole on the driver mount. It took me a couple hours of fitting the mount in place but it was worth it. It ended up fitting pretty well.
After grinding the weld I fit the mount itself. This was the time consuming part. I got my notes out and used a tape measure/ torpedo level to get everything squared away.
The fit was tight I'm pretty happy with it. It looks symmetrical with the driver mount. I really hope when i go to put it back on the frame the mounts are in the right spot.
It feels good to finally fix something on the car instead of taking it apart. Now I get to do the other side. The bottom of the driver#2 isn't as bad but the top is toast. So I think I'll just use the mount on my parts rocker just like the pass side since it has no rust and is a whole piece.
So the only way I could think to get after the rust in there was to make a spot blaster and buying fine coal slag from TSC.
I used glasses and a shield but still got it in my eyes,ears,etc. If I do it again indoors, I'll make a head to toe suit or something.I used it to blast inside the rocker and kick panel before I epoxied it all. It worked great but I forgot to get pics of it blasted.I brushed the epoxy on thick and got it in as far as I could. It was dripping out of the rockers. After 24hrs I cleared the weep holes with a pick and scraped away where the plug welds would go.
I let it dry for about 3 days because I was busy with work/home. When I came back. I made the bottom layer of the mount out of 2 pieces of 18ga. and epoxied both sides then welded the bottom of the mount in after it dried.
I scraped/sanded away the epoxy from were I was gonna weld. Next time im only painting what is sandwiched and inaccessible when in place. It just made it tougher to weld by painting everything. I couldn't figure out how to make the holes so there kinda jacked up but it shouldn't matter. The other side will have to be right on because of the alignment hole on the driver mount. It took me a couple hours of fitting the mount in place but it was worth it. It ended up fitting pretty well.
After grinding the weld I fit the mount itself. This was the time consuming part. I got my notes out and used a tape measure/ torpedo level to get everything squared away.
The fit was tight I'm pretty happy with it. It looks symmetrical with the driver mount. I really hope when i go to put it back on the frame the mounts are in the right spot.
It feels good to finally fix something on the car instead of taking it apart. Now I get to do the other side. The bottom of the driver#2 isn't as bad but the top is toast. So I think I'll just use the mount on my parts rocker just like the pass side since it has no rust and is a whole piece.
U
Thanks for all your help and encouragement!! Seriously every piece of advice has been a blessing. Especially cutting the floor to the factory seams. Any advice on overhead welding. I damn near caught what little hair I have left on fire lol. The work you did on the elco wagon is unreal. Its Gotta be the only elco wagon out there.
Im not very far into your SS build but im pretty much hooked so only 60 more pages or so to go. You should rename it the 4. GREAT. With Twins their awesome. Ill be honest I feel like Im barely brave enough to do the bare minimum bodywork. The artistic licensing might have to wait for the mechanical part of the build. Which I promised myself I wouldn't even think about til the body/frame are straight...But since I bought an 05 silverado 2500 2wd with 47k miles and is made up of 50% rust its getting harder....This feels all too familiar. Stick with it and feel free to use a little artistic license.
Got a few tips for you, 1 for any small holes you have in your metal ( like when the little hole saw went through both layers ) flatten out a piece of half inch copper pipe to use as backing when you weld/fill the hole. The weld won’t stick to the copper.This also leads to step 2 good sized magnets can be VERY useful for this and other tasks. I got a bunch years ago, can’t tell you how many times they really helped. 3 is a very good tool, it’s called a Mule Skinner wire wheel . It’s sold as 2 pieces, the arbor and the wheel. The wires on the wheel are packed in an epoxy so they don’t come out and fly around like regular wire wheels. The idea for the 2 pieces is that when it starts forming in one direction, you take it apart and flip the wheel over. They DON’T work in reverse, it will come unthreaded if you do. Since the early 70s I’ve only ever bought 2 ( I lost the first one ) they are WELL worth the price for cleaning around welds and any small areas.
Thanks for the tips. I already used the copper trick and works like a charm. I wrapped some copper gutter around a dolly to fill in the firewall holes. I bought a welder with a bunch of accessories a while back. 2 were copper bars 4x3in and 8x3in with magnets embedded. Now I know what there for. I looked up the mule skinner 80 bucks for a wire wheel makes me apprehensive but I trust you and any product that hasn't changed in 40 yrs. I also like the idea of it not flying apart especially with my son helping more. So I'm ordering it next week. I started out buying the cheapest consumables possible but they burn up so fast and do a mediocre job while there good. The only cheap consumables im using now are the HF spot weld cutters(they let me return broken ones). Even the HF solid wire is trash. I went and bought more lincoln superarc. So it seems atleast to me cheaper isn't always better.Im fitting the driver mount this weekend. It should go alot smoother since the kick panel is good. I also got a heat gun for the seam sealer and helps quite a bit.
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