Stupid question. I see you body worked the fillers to the quarters. Are you not changing the one anymore?
BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Its an amazing process Donovan. The results speak for themselves. Looks really good. It will make your work much easier now.
I had some rusty parts that I needed to get cleaned up last year, so I decided to try the laser process. I took them to a guy just east of Toronto. I asked him how the process worked, and he offered to demonstrate it for me. I had a couple of rusty exhaust manifolds to clean up. He took one of the manifolds, and had the straight beam set at about 1" wide. He waved the beam over about a 4-5 square inch area, and in the matter of a few seconds, it was completely clean, and looked like new.
As you pointed out, its not exactly cheap, but it does an amazing job.
I had some rusty parts that I needed to get cleaned up last year, so I decided to try the laser process. I took them to a guy just east of Toronto. I asked him how the process worked, and he offered to demonstrate it for me. I had a couple of rusty exhaust manifolds to clean up. He took one of the manifolds, and had the straight beam set at about 1" wide. He waved the beam over about a 4-5 square inch area, and in the matter of a few seconds, it was completely clean, and looked like new.
As you pointed out, its not exactly cheap, but it does an amazing job.
Not a stupid question, but I did address it in the previous to last update post:
Both quarters will still eventually be replaced. But because the insides of the extensions need to be addressed (primed and painted) at the same time as the rest of the tail panel, I had to make sure the bodywork on the outside faces was able to be good first.
Plus it’ll look nicer and be protected long term until I get to replacing the quarter panels.
Operation “Flat Bottomed Girl” is progressing nicely.
As a quick recap, this is replacing the rounded bottom of the original spare tire well with a nice strong, flat bottom to which I can properly mount the battery. The old tray was looking more like a banana than a tray even with the weight of the battery on it, all because of the rounded bottom:
After cutting out the bottom of the well and measuring off of the new billet aluminum battery hold down and rough opening size, I laid out this pattern on an old piece of heavy gauge galvanized sheet metal I had kicking around:
The light black lines indicate the actual size of the tray and bend lines, while the heavy black lines indicate the intended bead roll lines. The perpendicular lines at the ends of the bead roll lines are my start and stop points so I can easily see them as I’m running it through the roller.
After bead rolling you have something that looks like this.
Next was to give the surface a good sanding and cut out the corners:
Quick mockup on the bench with the assembled battery hold down, looking good and should work well.
Then it was over to the box and pan brake to kick the sides up. This required a little bit of trial and error making increasingly small bends each time to each side until they roughly matched the sides of the original well:
Initial fit-up in these next two pictures, I had it close but found it to be sitting slightly crooked:
Not visible in these pictures is the existing bead rolled lines in the upper trunk floor ledge that the new lines exactly match. It’s continuity like this that makes a well thought out and finished product.
The next morning I re-evaluated the situation and cut most of the tack welds and adjusted the positioning about a quarter inch until it was straight in the opening. Once I was happy with it then came levelling. Using the underside of the trunk lid edge above the license plate opening as my datum point, I zeroed my digital angle gauge and used that to level the new bottom side to side.
I’m happy to report I got both the front and rear edges exactly perfect at 0.0 degrees. Once I had the levelling process licked, it was just a matter of adjusting the edges of the sheetmetal until they were flush with each other and placing a tack weld.
When I had my tacks roughly a 1/2” apart, I began fully welding it in. As of writing this 3 of the 4 sides are now fully welded and ground flush inside and out.
Overall view:
Inner (driver’s) side at the top of the picture:
Outer (passenger’s) side:
And a look from underneath:
Once the last side is fully welded out I’ll be cutting all 4 corners off and forming some curved pieces that’ll match the original tub shapes so that it doesn’t look like an unnatural afterthought.
Best part is, the bottom of the tub should now not be visible underneath the bumper from behind.
I should have a finished product for everyone in the next update. Thanks for following along.
Flat bottomed girls! 😅
D.
As a quick recap, this is replacing the rounded bottom of the original spare tire well with a nice strong, flat bottom to which I can properly mount the battery. The old tray was looking more like a banana than a tray even with the weight of the battery on it, all because of the rounded bottom:
After cutting out the bottom of the well and measuring off of the new billet aluminum battery hold down and rough opening size, I laid out this pattern on an old piece of heavy gauge galvanized sheet metal I had kicking around:
The light black lines indicate the actual size of the tray and bend lines, while the heavy black lines indicate the intended bead roll lines. The perpendicular lines at the ends of the bead roll lines are my start and stop points so I can easily see them as I’m running it through the roller.
After bead rolling you have something that looks like this.
Next was to give the surface a good sanding and cut out the corners:
Quick mockup on the bench with the assembled battery hold down, looking good and should work well.
Then it was over to the box and pan brake to kick the sides up. This required a little bit of trial and error making increasingly small bends each time to each side until they roughly matched the sides of the original well:
Initial fit-up in these next two pictures, I had it close but found it to be sitting slightly crooked:
Not visible in these pictures is the existing bead rolled lines in the upper trunk floor ledge that the new lines exactly match. It’s continuity like this that makes a well thought out and finished product.
The next morning I re-evaluated the situation and cut most of the tack welds and adjusted the positioning about a quarter inch until it was straight in the opening. Once I was happy with it then came levelling. Using the underside of the trunk lid edge above the license plate opening as my datum point, I zeroed my digital angle gauge and used that to level the new bottom side to side.
I’m happy to report I got both the front and rear edges exactly perfect at 0.0 degrees. Once I had the levelling process licked, it was just a matter of adjusting the edges of the sheetmetal until they were flush with each other and placing a tack weld.
When I had my tacks roughly a 1/2” apart, I began fully welding it in. As of writing this 3 of the 4 sides are now fully welded and ground flush inside and out.
Overall view:
Inner (driver’s) side at the top of the picture:
Outer (passenger’s) side:
And a look from underneath:
Once the last side is fully welded out I’ll be cutting all 4 corners off and forming some curved pieces that’ll match the original tub shapes so that it doesn’t look like an unnatural afterthought.
Best part is, the bottom of the tub should now not be visible underneath the bumper from behind.
I should have a finished product for everyone in the next update. Thanks for following along.
Flat bottomed girls! 😅
D.
You mentioned it at least twice, but you cannot finish this because I've never ONCE known you to "cut corners". That's so unlike you. 🙂
At least NOW you'll be able to fit a tire in the well that's lost air on one side. 🤪
At least NOW you'll be able to fit a tire in the well that's lost air on one side. 🤪
Thats for the birds...... get it it towed home like a real man. But to be honest his is gonna be bigger wheels than mine and I can't run a spare cause I need 20's to clear my calipers which then means that spare spot won't work anyways
On a car that you care about, definitely make sure you have something for the truck operator to hook onto that is easy, obvious, and you don't care about getting scratched up. I don't have much experience getting towed, but for the most part they seem like knuckle draggers who will take the shortest path possible. Donovan, since this thing will have air ride, are you going to be able to jack it up like a monster truck to get it on a flatbed?
Nope, Mr. McLellan has it exactly right. The big Wilwood rotors and calipers (14” 6 piston front, 12” 4 piston rear) preclude using any sort of factory style space saver spare, which makes the stock spare tire well useless for it’s original purpose.
I may however, end up building a false floor that goes from side to side from the axel kick-up back to the tail panel that might be deep enough to accommodate a full sized wheel and tire underneath it. This would (hopefully) allow room for the spare, cover the battery, and open up the entire width of the trunk floor for storage above.
Absolutely. That’s the beauty of air ride. I can air the car up to its full extension for clearance over speed bumps, parking lot entrances and railroad tracks.
