Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The little things add up.

   When last we left off, I had removed the dash and cowl, and was working on the a-pillar.  I know it has been a while since that post, but things have been progressing.  I just haven't managed to get around to writing about it.

   On to the meat of it.  The next thing was to get the drivers side firewall patched.  From there I moved on to the firewall flange, and cowl side flange on the passenger side.  Fixed the rust on the dash and installed the drivers side cowl panel.  I think I'll let the pics do the talking on this post.

Cut the offending piece out after lining the new side piece up with the cowl and firewall.

Here it is from the inside.

Fitting and sizing up the new piece.

Cut and welded in.

Little paint for protection.

View from the front.

Next piece of the flange.  The whole thing was Swiss cheese.

The middle piece.  I used the old pieces to create as an exact a pattern as I could.

The latter half of the middle piece.

Found a crack while I was there.  Drilled both ends of the crack and welded it up.

No more crack.

I missed taking a picture of the last portion of the firewall flange, so here is a picture of the first repair to the passenger side cowl flange.

All welded in and ground down.

Didn't have to replace the whole thing and I wanted to keep the edge if possible since it would have been more difficult to fab up.

Cleaned up.

Cowl repairs.  Started with a small one.  You can go back and see the before if you like. Before post.

Fixed.

Had to bend the flanges back to where they belong and try to make sure the whole thing was the right shape.  This actually took a while.  It wasn't easy getting a good angle trying to bend the top flange back.

Repair on the drivers side.

Up top near the windshield area, drivers side.

And passenger side.

Looks pretty good to me.

Had to rebuild this entire area, one small patch at a time.  Four separate pieces were needed in order to maintain the proper shape.  Sorry I don't have a before pic, but trust me, it was bad.

Didn't realize the focus was off on this one, but you get the idea.  Drilled and fitted for welding.

Cleaned up and painted.  Things are getting there.

6 comments:

  1. Great update Grant and excellent progress!

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  2. Wow Grant! You are a welding and fabricating machine!!! You're knocking out that out nicely. I better get my rear in gear or you're gonna pass me on progress!

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    1. Don't worry Dennis, there are still quite a few things left for me to do. Finish the cowl, the aprons, trunk floor, quarters, wheel wells, and roof just to name a few.

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  3. Loved catching up on your project. What shelter did you get for your project?

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    1. Just the harbor freight special while it was on sale.

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