Today, I made the patch for the right side inner quarter structure. I wasn't completely happy with the way the left side fit and looked, so I made this one to fit inside the existing panel. Looks WAY better in there.
On this side, I cut out the rotten wheel house so I could extend the patch far enough to cut and form to the new house.
Here's a "stop" the owner screwed on 51 years ago to fill a large rust hole with bondo...
Seems I forgot to take a pic of the bondo mountain under the stop.
New panel all formed and cut to fit.
Much better looking and easier to weld too.
I liked how this fit and looked so well, I modified the left side to be the same.
In getting ready to test fit the floor pan, I had to remove the weld flange remnant from the toe board. I don't like spot weld drills for this, as they partially cut into the panel I want to save. Using a grinding wheel is my preferred method of spot weld removal and then clean up the flange with a 80 grit disc.
Then I started mocking up the new wide wheel tubs. These are for a sedan, so I cut off the lower part that won't be used on the wagon.
I layed it in place, to get an idea of where I was going to go with this and it seems that it will be easier than I thought to graft this onto the wall. Cutting the cabin and cargo floors will be a challenge.
As well as getting the radius cut in the existing panels to fit the new house into the wall and blending it so it looks like to belongs there.
Test fitting the cabin floor is about the next move, so I have to remove the rest of the old cabin floor at the cargo floor. There is a brace under this to reinforce the cabin floor, so I just drilled thru all 3 panels to remove the floor remnant and brace. Only got halfway thru when the time bell rang. I'll get this out and the floor layed in place next Monday. I think the car will take on a pretty cool appearance with a complete, new floor sitting place...
Thanks for tuning in for the fun and butchery.
