Well it's been a couple more days of "deconstruction" certainly no metal shaping going on yet, but these are all important tasks none the less.
I rough trimmed some more out of the cowl and finally trimmed all the inner quarters, wheel wells and rear sub-rails from the body.
After everything was rough cut out the weather was beautiful here so I took advantage and set the body outside to sandblast all the structure since we are possibly supposed to get some snow in the double digit depths this weekend. The sheet metal I'll eventually blast with crushed glass as it's very easy on the panels.
Once blasted, I was able to see the factory seams / spot welds and carefully drill them out to remove the previously rough torch cut panels back to the factory seams.
I've finished rough trimming the top of the cowl out. I've basically just left the exterior wiper portion remaining.
With the inner quarters and wheel wells removed I had good access to scrape away the thick old undercoating.
A view from the trunk with all the inner structure removed.
A view through the windshield with all the inner structure removed.
Took advantage of the nice weather and sandblasted all the structure inside and out except for the roof skin (inside and out) quarter panels (inside and out) rear panel below the decklid (inside and out) and the top of the dash.....those panels I'll blast with crushed glass in the near future.
The 60 year old body is in pretty decent shape overall. Here is an example of some rust on the top of the wiper / cowl panel and door post.
The other side is not as bad, but will still need the same areas fabricated and replaced eventually.
Other areas of rust (on the body) are:
~Front and rear portion of the passenger rocker panel
~Front edge of the quarter panel at the rocker joint
~Both quarter panel tops under the rear side glass and along the trunk
~Under the driver tail light.
Overall....not too bad. Certainly not in the grand scheme of things. I'm not certain about the doors / fenders yet.
Drilling out the spot welds for the floor to rocker panel seam.
Here the floor seam is completely removed from the rocker panel. Pretty certain they used enough spot welds on the car!
Drilling out and separating the cowl from the inner door post structure.
A pile of the scrap "edges" as I worked my way around the vehicle and all the joints / seams.
In this picture you can see some significant damage to the passenger rocker panel as well as the rust at the front I mentioned (the rear has rust holes as well)
Unfortunately, with that damage to the rocker as well as the rust I've decided I'll need to remove the inner structure inside the rockers. This will give me good access to repair the damage, it will also allow me to completely sandblast the inside of the rocker panels to completely rid them of any rust (and possibly expose more) and lastly will give me good access to front and back side for welding in patch panels for the rust.