Project: 1982 SX/4 Turbo Stroker

[jonb8]

Great work....I love unibody's, there's really nothing you can't replace/fix. I just hate how my welder welds when I'm underneath.

[eaglefreek]

Impressive!

[rollguy]

Looks like a similar project to Priya's SX4.  A lot of metal replacing and rust repair.  Looks like a fun project, and we will be watching it closely.  Keep the great photos coming!!!

[priya]

That's some fine looking metal work.  I love seeing a rusty car being fixed up right.  These are more extensive repairs than what I needed to do.

[ISOAR]

I'm impressed! Nice work!

[cyclops231]

Almost forgot this little spot on the Passenger side




Cut out


14ga


*Missing photos* Think my camera died or I left for the night or something. This was finished though

FRAME RAIL!
I looked over the mostly rust free 1979 4cyl Spirit body and thought about what a nice car it probably was at one time. Then thought about how rare a 4cyl spirit probably is, never being at a show, especially in Metallic green. That's when I squeezed down the trigger of my plasma torch, shot an inch long spark of blue light out the tip, and proceeded to cut through everything that was holding that amazingly rust free frame rail into the shell.


Success!


Back to the studio with this:


The Eagles floor and rail was pretty bad, probably caused by a combo of leaking brake and clutch lines through out the years, or at least since I've owned it.





During the mock-up I found out the frame rails are different


so I went on to patch the replacement floor panel.
Removing the floor from a... ummm... nother Eagle that may have been in better shape. (If you noticed 2 different black battery trays that was some foreshadowing)


87 spot welds, I remember each one well


Some 19ga, Torch welding this in so I can planish it smooth


Done. Just going to set that off to the side for a bit



Back to the Frame Rail

Decided the best way to make it work was use the back half of the Spirit rail and inner support but cut it forward of the shock tower. Then weld in the front of the Eagles.  Add a weld nut inside where the Eagle's Front cross member bolts up, add a weld nut that goes to some mystery part and drill a hole/add a weld nut for the manual trans cross member. This took a while to think up how to approach so here goes:


Lining up the Eagle sheet metal


Better view:


Clamps!


Test fit #1 (it wouldn't stay in place)


Test fit #2 (used the old "conduit in an alignment hole" trick)


More clamps!


Even more clamps!


and... a few more on top of that


Lots of welding and grinding and call it good enough.


Next.... Onto the Floors! Rockers! <- getting ahead of myself with the floor even though it was mostly cut out while patching the rail. Someone told me when you're doing rust repair do inner rocker, outer rocker, then floor. It'll save having to go back over work.

[eaglefreek]

I'm speechless. 

[cyclops231]

It gets better 

[mach1mustang351]

Wow.  Now I feel like a turd for not puttign in more effort on my SX4... you win

[Baskinator]

Please tell me you finished the thing and are just teasing us with awesome metal work. Can't wait to see what could be "better"!

[cyclops231]

It's not done yet but it's getting there. I'll try to put up another post tonight when I'm back at the house.

Next update will be drivers side rocker and floor install. I ended up reshaping the floor to fit the AX-15 and NP242 combo, lowered the seat 1" and added a high/low z-gate 4wd selector from a Cherokee.

[Baskinator]

Now you've really got my attention. I am very interested in putting an NP242 with a Cherokee shifter in my Eagle as well, eager to see what you came up with.

[cyclops231]

Driver side rocker


Cut out the rust and took a look inside, the rest of it looks to be in pretty good shape so I'll only be patching the front.


Total area that's getting patched. Inner rocker is already done here.


*Missing photos*

Onto the Floor and Trans tunnel!
Comparison between AX-15 (top) and T-5 (bottom)
note the difference in length, the AX-15 is about 3" longer


Comparison between an NP-242 (top) and NP-129 (bottom)


Fitting the floor and shifter, The transfer case sits a little further back. I cut out the floor to see how much room was needed, flipped a section over to lower the seat 1" (planning for some future stuff), ended up shaving town the transfer care a little to get more clearance. I'll be using the Novark transfer case cable or making something similar.





Test fitting the seat


Seat clearance





The new floor, Back angled section is completely new and moved back 1", seat area was lowered 1", Cherokee z-gate shifter added and drivers floor patched in.

[Baskinator]

I hope you can still see out the windshield, that seat looks awfully low. Real nice job with the shifter, looks like it could've been stock (except that it probably doesn't leave enough room for the stock seats). Do you have a plan for the speedometer? I forget if the back half of the 129 fits for the gear. Keep up the good work.

[mach1mustang351]

Awesome progress.