Hack Weld Solder Sculpt: Chassis jam

Cutting into the chassis to remove rusty bits - careful now

If you are wondering what happened with the rusty driver's side cowl sides and toekick panel rust I was knocking out, looks like the parts I need to fix that are backordered. We'll have that stuff in a week or two. Not like there's a dearth of stuff to do on this beast, so this week the TL;DR is I started removing front suspension and worked on completing some things we need to repair in the engine compartment. I found out that our front bumper struts were rusted clear through and need replaced. I fabricated some patches and began fitting a new inner fender on the passenger side. Oh, and as usual, I made a shitload of sparks with the angle grinder and cutting wheel for dramatic garage action

Springs, shocks, and bumper mounts

Springs actually look pretty good

I decided since lots of the front suspension is slated to be sent to the scrapper, no time like the present to get started ripping out things. It may not seem like it, but we're actually pretty close to painting the engine compartment, frame, and front inner fenderwells. Getting rid of the last of the cruft will help get us there. I removed the shock tower covers and spring covers, then the old, dead, shocks. Springs came out (with some sweat invested) next. The unexpected removal came when I discovered penetrating rust on the bumper mounts. A quick shove answered my question- the thing just crumbled. Luckily they are pretty cheap, so new ones are on the way.

Battery tray rust hole repair

The passenger side engine compartment where the battery tray is located got some love this week. Batteries powering this car's electrical system over 50 years corroded the sheet metal all around its home, including the radiator core support, the passenger frame box, and the inner fender. One of the previous owners had fashioned a so-so fix by riveting in some 22 gauge sheeting coated in thick black goo, which I noticed while cleaning out the bay. I removed it in favor of arresting and eliminating rust as well as welding in permanent repair panels

Traced locating marks around

Before I cut...

Although I have this nice new replacement inner fender from CJ Pony Parts, I noticed the "ears" spot welded to the backside (also rusted at where the metal sandwiches together) are not included. These pieces are mounting points for the headlight bezels, so I imagine they'd be missed if I tossed them! I carefully air-chiseled them off and set aside for re-use. I'll have to weld them back on once I weld in the new inner fender.

Removing the rust hole- inner fender

This path makes sense, honest

The joke is- to remove a hole first you need to make a bigger hole, which I did. I didn't need to remove the whole inner fender panel, just the damaged part. So I'll be using about half of the replacement panel, just cutting nice and casual-like while templating everything out carefully. The location of the fender mounts are critical, the correct mounting of the headlight bezel ears is important. The rest can slide around a mm here and there.

Fab time: radiator support rotten spot

Ah crap

I cut the inner fender, then elected to chisel off the spot-welded tab carefully with an air chisel. The patch where the inner attached to the radiator support panel unfortunately tore. It tore because rust damage at the attachment point created a perfectly perforated line. This tore really nicely when I hit it with the air chisel. Plan B: It didn't make sense to buy anything here, since the damaged thing had a pretty simple shape. I decided I could easily fab up a patch. I

Damage, cut out. Template, lookin good!

stopped, carefully traced the profile onto some cardboard, then cut out the damage. I made a patch replacement from some scrap 18 gauge steel and popped it in there. Easy

New steel patch. Fits like a glove!

peasy.

Next week?

Next week Hopefully I'll have my cowl patch. I'll be getting back to repairing the driver's floor and the lower firewall over there so that this hot rod does not have anything in common with Fred Flintsone's ride!