Bodywork Part 1

This chapter describes the bodywork that I performed with the body still on the frame, mostly replacing rusty floors and rocker panels. Keeping the body on the frame was essential for preserving alignment. Part 2 describes the work with the body removed from the frame, including unfinished floor and rocker welding, which was easier to do without the wheels and drivetrain in the way. Part 3 describes the restoration of external parts of the body: doors, fenders, hood, and so on.

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Contents

Rust Repair Procedure

This section presents an example of how I repair rusted body metal. I won't go into this much detail in descriptions of similar repairs.

I removed the lower door-seal retainer and found rust under it. This door threshold is a part of the rocker I didn't plan to replace, so I cut out the rusted area and replaced it with a simple, L-shaped piece. After trimming the replacement piece to fit, I clamped it in place with a copper slab underneath. It's not always possible to use a copper back-up, but when it can be used, it is quite helpful in preventing burn-through.

The new piece was stitch-welded into place and the flange was plug-welded; I rebuilt the inner and outer flanges as well as the threshold. The welds then were ground flat. The camera makes the ground-down weld look strange, almost black, but it does not look that way to the eye.

With a temporary coat of weld-through primer to protect the bare metal, the repair is almost invisible.

Below, the finished threshold, much later, after a little body filler, sanding, priming and painting. It shows no visible indications of the repair.

The seal retainers were not replaced. Instead, I installed TR6-style door gussets and TR6 seals, which fit over the flange.

Rocker Panels

The rockers were the worst of the body problems. They were rusted through and had to be replaced. I decided to work on them with the body on the frame, as it eliminated potential alignment problems.

I started with the right-side rocker panel. I cut off the rusty part of the rocker to see how bad the damage was. Inside I found the rest of the animal nest (which I noted in the Teardown section) and quite a few empty pecan shells.

The insides looked pretty crunchy, but in fact much of the area, especially the upper parts, was OK. Looking inside the rocker, you can see a seam. The metal below that seam is actually part of the floor; above, it is the inner sill.

I cut out the lower inner rocker. I had planned to replace it with a simple, flat piece of sheet metal, but eventually I changed my mind and decided to replace the entire floor. Many of the panels were spot-welded into place. To remove them, I drilled out the spot welds with a special tool. The spot welds were not easy to find, though, even after wire-brushing off all the paint and rust.

I wire brushed the surface rust off the insides of the sills; then, to prevent further rusting, I sprayed a coat of weld-through primer. The left side is shown below, with the floor removed, and the right side. The hole is for the rust repair shown above.

There was rust under the left door seal as well as the right. I repaired it in a similar manner.

Again, covered with a little primer, the repair is almost invisible.

I sprayed a coat of primer onto the outsides of the repaired areas of the inner sill, then ran a bead of sealer between the floor and the sill.

You can see from the pictures that the floors were replaced before the rocker panels. That's necessary, as the lower part of the floor comprises the inner rocker, and the outer rocker must be welded to it.

Trimming the rocker was not as difficult as I expected. After trimming it to fit and drilling some holes for plug welds, I welded the bottom edge.

I had already sprayed weld-through primer on the insides of the rocker, the sill, and the part of the floor that realizes the inner rocker, and I put a bead of sealer along the seam between the latter two pieces. To prevent water from getting trapped in the gap along the lower edge, I gently pulled back the top of the rocker and sprayed in some thick black paint, allowing it to flow into the gap and seal it. This should keep the rust goblin away for some time.

In the first picture below, the upper edge of the rocker has been welded, the welds have been ground down, and the end plugs have been installed. In the final picture, it has been given a light coat of primer to prevent rusting. I still needed to use a little body filler here and there, and to do a little trimming, but all that could wait until the body was off the frame. At this point, the left side was finished.

Below, fitting the right-side rocker. This was a seemingly endless process of checking, trimming, and rechecking.

Finally, it fit. Below, I've welded the rocker into place and sprayed a coat of primer onto the lower, plug welds. I still needed to grind off the upper weld and install the end plugs. The second picture shows a detail of the stitch welds. I don't claim to be a great welder, but I've improved with practice.

I fitted the end caps, ground down the welds, and gave everything a coat of primer for rust protection. To prevent internal rust, the end caps were sprayed with primer before they were installed. The rear end cap didn't fit well, but I planned to nudge it into the correct fit when the body was off the frame and the rear wheel was out of the way.

Here the rocker is finished. This was the final bit of bodywork before lifting the body off the frame.

Left Floor

The floors were covered with a thick, black antirust paint, along with carpet-glue residue, which made it difficult to evaluate their condition. As I removed the paint and glue, it became clear that the floors on both sides of the car had a fair amount of rust.

On the left side, I found quite a bit of rust, and it seemed that the best solution was to replace the left floor. The inner sill was also rusty in places; I cut out the bad parts and rebuilt them from stock steel sheet. (See Inner Sill Repair, below.)

The first step in removing the floor was to drill out the spot welds. I then cut out all of the floor but the rear six inches. Since the rocker was gone, it was easy to remove the floor; I just jacked the body up an inch and slid it out from the side.

This gave me my first good top view of the frame, which was seriously filthy but, so far, not rusty.

The supports for the inner rocker were pretty chewed up from drilling the spot welds and other cutting. They were easy to restore, though. I cleaned them up, took off the rust, gave them a coat of weld-through primer, and welded them to the new floor panel.

I rough-cut the floor panel and fit it to the car, marking where I needed to trim it. After trimming, checking it repeatedly, and fine-adjusting the fit, I welded it into place and ground the welds down. With a little body filler and paint, the floor panel will look like it has always been there.

I didn't weld the front of the floor at this point, as that job would be easier once the body was off the frame and the transmission and front suspension were out of the way. Although it looks like there is a lot of room in the footwell, it's hard to get into it while wearing a welding helmet.

Right Floor

Initially, I thought the right floor looked OK, and I expected to be able to fix it with a couple of patches. As I removed paint and other gunk, however, it became clear that it had quite a few areas that were rusted through, some covered with fiberglass. Much of the rest was deeply pitted, thinned too much for welding. I eventually decided, somewhat reluctantly, to replace the entire floor.

To remove the floor, I first drilled out the spot welds and rough-cut it, as I did the left side, and slid it out from the side. I then trimmed the remaining parts a little to remove all the rusty stuff and to make it easy to fit the new floor. Once it was removed, I had a top view of the right-side frame, showing again that it was grungy but not rusty. Once the floor was trimmed, I tacked it into place, then stitch-welded it. As with the left side, I didn't do the welds at the front edge, as they would be easier once the body was off the frame.

Finishing the Floors

Some of the work on the floors was delayed until the body was off the frame, as those parts would then be more accessible. The main tasks were welding the floor panels in the front and fabricating patches for the corners of the footboards where rusty metal was removed. I didn't photograph the welding of the front of the floor panels, as it was pretty straightforward: simple plug welds along the front. The patches were more of a challenge; the left-side patch took two tries to get right. I was also able to grind down the welds on the underside in the few places where it was needed.

Patching the Holes

The following pictures show the patch in the left footboard; the right was similar. First, I made a template for the hole and transferred it to a piece of 18-gauge sheet metal. I then cut it out and formed its flanges in a vise.

After a seemingly interminable process of trimming and checking the patch, it finally fit.

I held the patch in place with vise-grip pliers, stitch-welded it, and ground the welds flat.

Final Floor work

I had left a few odds and ends to finish after the body was off the frame: welding the front edges of the floors, welding the floors near the footboards, and touching up and grinding some of the other welds. When that work and the front patches were completed, I coated the weld seams with body sealer, as the welds were not completely water-tight, and the seams had some water traps. I also used sealer on the flanges and patches in the pictures above. Below are the completed floors.

Inner Sill Repair

The sills on both sides had some areas of rust, mostly (and predictably) adjacent to the low areas of the floor. The worst was on the left. There was also a small rust-through area in the forward end on the right side. These areas were rebuilt from stock 20-gauge steel, formed by hand. I saw no need to buy new sills.

I prepared the areas in the left sill, fabricated replacement pieces of sheet metal, welded them into position, and ground the welds flat.

Forming the piece for this area took a fair amount of time, as it was more complicated and it had to fit precisely. Welding the lower flange, instead of trying to bend it accurately, gave me an extra degree of freedom for adjusting the curved part. I also patched that strange hole above the sill.

The sill on the right side was similar, but not quite as bad as the left side. I found a little more rust in the forward corner of the right sill, extending into the floor. That had to be fixed. After removing more paint, I found some rust penetration in the floor nearby, along with large corrosion pits. Because the deep pits thinned the metal, I doubted that I could weld in replacement pieces without burning through. I finally decided to replace the floor.

Below is the repaired sill; the new floor is in place as well. As with the left side, the front edge of the right-side floor was welded only after the body was removed from the frame.