Priya's SX/4 project

[priya]

I've competed another part of the rust repairs.  Its the driver's side area at the front of the inner and outer rocker panels that joins the two.  Here's the area ready for the new pieces:


The original factory panel is a rather complicated shape, with presses they did it in one piece, me...that was well beyond my abilities.  I was really nervous about this when I first found the area rusted away as once again it has to be fairly precise to get the fender and fender liner to line up and go on properly. Here's the jigsaw puzzle pieces I finally came up with to duplicate the factory shape.  It took several attempts to get these to fit together right in the repair area.


And here's the completed repair.  As you can see I had some trouble (as I usually do) with the overhead welding at the top of the repair.  It may be ugly, but its solid.  Despite my initial misgivings when I found this area rusted out I'm fairly confident I got it right, but I guess I won't know for sure until I try to put the fender and liner back on.

[IowaEagle]

Is that the part where the fender bolts on with the two little screws at the bottom rear edge of the fender?  Another fine job!   

[priya]

Thanks Iowa Eagle.  Yes, that's the place where the lower edge of the fender bolts on with the two little screws.

[TLC87Eagle]

Wow, that is some top notch metal fab work. Do you guys use a press brake to get such nice bends on those pieces?
Something I find ironic about rust repair and body work is that you spend hours and hours of hard work just to make it look like nothing ever happened. 

[priya]

Thanks TLC87Eagle.  I use a sheet metal brake whenever I can however on this latest repair all the bends were done by hand with a flanging vice-grip.

[TLC87Eagle]

Yeah, sometimes its hard to get small pieces like that in a brake. I usually just use the vise and a pair of flanged vice-grips too, and a hammer helps too with heavier metal. It seems whatever method you use, it always turns out great.

[timsamc]

Hey there Priya!   Wow, once again, your work is just STUNNING!   You make me want to weld something and I haven't the FIRST clue how to even do it!   Bravo!!!!!!!    As I've said before...once you get this car back together, you will KNOW without a doubt, that it is truly one RUST FREE Eagle!   

[priya]

Thanks Tim!  You always give me such great encouragement, I really appreciate it.

[priya]

I found a couple of spots of rust bubbling up on the floorboards.  This is ahead of the front driver's seat where the floorboards make a 45 degree turn to join the firewall, right where the "frame" joins the floorboards.  Turns out the part of the "frame" that flanges to the floorboards was rusty as well as that part of the floorboards.


Here's the area after a new "frame" flange was welded into place:


Here's the patch panel for the floorboards:


And here it is after it was welded in:


The same area on the passenger side was rusty as well:


Here it is after the new "frame" flange was welded into place:


Here's the passenger side floorboard patch:


And here it is with the repair competed:


With a little luck this completes the rust repairs on my SX/4 - WooHoo!  There's some of what appears to be minor surface rust around the windshield so I have to remove that and sandblast it before I'll know for sure if all the rust repairs are completed, but it looks like it at this point.

[IowaEagle]

I hope you got it all as well.   I can't wait to see what you tackle next.

[TLC87Eagle]

Very nice repair on the floorboard and frame rail edge. Mine rusted out in the exact same place right above the frame rail on the driver's side. I noticed it when the carpet would get wet under my feet when it rained lol. I think water and salt gets between the floor pan and sub-frame and around the spot welds and just stays there until it rots everything. So when I fixed mine I filled that outside seem of the floor pan and sub-frame with roofing cement.
Keep up the awesome work.

[priya]

Thanks TLC87Eagle.

I hope you got it all as well.   I can't wait to see what you tackle next.

It'll be my '80 280ZX.  I'd like to document it here in one of the project threads if that'd be okay, I haven't found any Zed sites where people do project threads.

[IowaEagle]

If it can teach us some more about fixing stuff then that would be fine.  rust is rust and paint is paint no matter what it is on.

[priya]

Oh goody!

[68AMXGOPAC]

GEEEEEeeeeee Does that mean the 1952 Minneapolis Molines I am restoring fits in here too?? LOL , then again I should do some shots of the sand blasting booth I made and the blasting work , it would fit in I think.
 I have been working on it now for like 4 months.......arggggggggggg