Had a small bit of rust in the drivers foot well, and I had to do just a little bit of modification to fit around the V8 engine.
I have been slowly gathering all the various bits and pieces to build up the dash area.
I am going to make Series-II style windscreen hinges.
All the welding is complete. Have been busy stripping paint, and getting it ready for the POR-15.
I have a hobart 180amp mig welder. For sheet metal I run .023 solid core wire and argon mix gas. Lowest heat setting.
Sitting in the drivers seat, the lower left frot corner of the foot well was rusted through, right where all three piece meet up. The hole was probably under 2". But as you can see in the photos I replaced more. I like going back to solid steel if I am welding. I don't weld on rusted areas.
Before cutting out the rust, I made templates from old manilla folders. There is about a 1/2" overlap between my patches and the existing steel.
I aggressively removed all the paint, and drilled out some of the spot welds, then used a cut off wheel on a dremel to remove.
Bent the replacement piece in my vise.
Then went slow and started welding it all back together.
I have seen the technique for thin metal called stitch welding. It's not one long continuous bead but rather 1/2", skip ahead, another 1/2' etc. Then go back and fill in the gaps.
I am not going for originality so didnt worry about butt joints or hiding the repairs. My goal was solid.
After the POR15, the engine side is getting coated with foil faced sound deadener. Then the outside of the footwells will get coated with bed liner.
The areas visible after assembly will get color painted to match the rest of the vehicle.
The top and lower will get stripped to bare metal, POR15, new foam, and leather wrapped.
