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  #41  
Old 12-13-2019, 07:15 AM
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123pugsy 123pugsy is offline
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Good stuff on the cowl repairs. Rust sucks.


The one driver floor pic looks like the whole floor is shifted to the right or the rocker has shifted to the left.
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  #42  
Old 12-13-2019, 07:34 AM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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Thanks Steve,
The doors aren't coming off and I will start on the rockers this weekend. Even though there is only about a 6" strip holding the passenger side floor to the sill I will leave it until the rockers are done.
This short strip of the wire channel is all that is attaching the entire length of the floor to the sill...

It amazes me, with all of the work that was put into making those crappy "patches", why the effort wasn't put into using steel and doing a better job...
Both rear inner fender wells are patched as well but a heavy gauge steel was used and they seem to be well done and are very solid. I will not disturb these as they are doing the job.
Passenger side. Even though these are just screwed in they are very solid. I will check them out on the bottom side when I get the car up in the air and the wheels and tires off.

Mark
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Name: Mark
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BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-13-2019 at 07:38 AM.
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  #43  
Old 12-13-2019, 10:23 AM
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Steve Hamilton Steve Hamilton is offline
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Hi Mark
I have worked on some cars that had been done poorly and nothing fit. I am not questioning your ability. If the floor and the whole rocker are removed things can move a lot. Bad body mounts or braces can allow the body to twist or droop, and the car needs to be supported by the wheels rather than stands that support the weight in a manner that allows the Whole car to sag or droop. Once the new panels are all welded in the droop is locked in. Hope these point help you plan out a successful process.
Steve
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  #44  
Old 12-13-2019, 09:05 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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Thanks a lot Steve, you can question my ability as much as you want... I am not a pro but I have done enough of this type of work to be dangerous.
I put the car on stands this afternoon. The stands are under the rear axle and right up front, under the frame, near the lower control arms.

I judge any droop by how the doors shut. After I got the car I spent almost two days adjusting them until they click shut from about a 6 or 8 inch open door distance. Getting it up in the air today the doors still click shut so I am hoping there is no droop.
When I start the repairs I will trim away enough of the already gapping floor to gain room to work on the inners and outers.

Once the inners and outers are solid I will fit the new floors but they won't get welded in until the car is sitting back down on the floor. (and the doors click shut...)
Mark
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Name: Mark
What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-18-2019 at 09:14 PM.
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  #45  
Old 12-14-2019, 10:29 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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I made a plan on how to attack these repairs and I wanted a second opinion. I called a friend of mine to come look at the floors to get his input. He agreed with my thoughts so we started cutting... This is where we ended up.

I ordered the two short braces and a couple of outer rockers tonight. I will save the seat braces and start rebuilding the inner rockers tomorrow.
All of the ugly will get trimmed off the seat platform. The new pans will get trimmed to that edge and plug welded on top of what's left.
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Name: Mark
What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-18-2019 at 09:36 PM.
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  #46  
Old 12-15-2019, 07:33 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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I got a lot "undone" today!
The seat brace and rusted short floor brace is out.

The rear seat riser is trimmed off.

I got the rusted stuff cleaned out of the rear floor area.

Trimmed off the rusted flange at the lower rocker.

Trimmed off the rusted flange (wiring channel) at the bottom of the inner fender that mates to the inner rocker and floor flanges.

Trimmed off the rusted rear brace.
Got "most" of the rocker flange cleaned up. This is mostly rusted away. I will probably be fabbing a new channel to get the new inner rocker attached to the old outer.
Cleaned up the bottom of the foot board, front brace and the intersection at the foot board to rocker area... This area is still pretty solid. I will be doing a lot of rust cleaning but the inner rocker and outer rocker joints are both still good. Getting the bolt out is next on the list.

The front brace and middle brace are still attached very well to the inner rocker. I will leave these two sections as I cut out the original and just piece the new one around these areas.
Tomorrow night I start drilling out spot welds at the bottom flange.
Thanks for watching!
Mark
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What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.
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  #47  
Old 12-16-2019, 09:24 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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Here is my plan to repair the rusted flange for the inner fender wall. Being that it was all rotted out I cut the whole thing off to make the repair simpler.
This is what's left of the inner wall. I cut the rusty wiring channel off right at the bottom of the wall.

After cleaning up the sheet metal I will make a new "J" channel to plug weld to the old inner wall.
This is my "plan" sketched out on that same pic. The black is the new channel, the blue is the new inner rocker.

Here is a hand drawn pic of the assembly before cutting off the flange.

With the new flange plug welded in and the rocker/floor relationship.

I will build this assembly with screws and Cleco's before anything gets welded in.
Tonight I will get rest of the inner rocker removed and start CLEANING all of the rust and junk out... I also have some patching to do on the outer so that will get done before I do the inner.
Mark
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Name: Mark
What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-18-2019 at 09:49 PM.
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  #48  
Old 12-16-2019, 09:38 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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I got the inner rockers removed tonight. Dug about a lbs. worth of crap out of the rocker once I got the inner off. The lower flange has been cleaned up and de-rusted, the upper flange is going to have to have some sections replaced. Mostly from the middle of the door back...

Looking from the inside out, this is the inside of the outer skin. The outer is thin but it's still serviceable. This is after I had sprayed some rust converter inside.

After the inner was removed and before any cleanup with the grinder.

Here is the front corner with an initial cleaning and getting doused with rust converter. This corner is cleaning up nicely. The floor was the worse rusted piece and the inner rocker is solid as well as the brace. This will get some more derusting and it will be ready for the floor to go in.

I did a lot of cleaning with the grinder and a flap disc. Tomorrow I will start getting the new wire channel fabbed up and cleaning the inner wall and inside the fender.
The whole back half of the lower rocker will need to be rebuilt, I am waiting on some patch panels to start that process.
Mark
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Name: Mark
What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-16-2019 at 09:42 PM.
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  #49  
Old 12-17-2019, 09:34 AM
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Hi Mark
You are doing nice work!
The inner for the quarter panel will work perfect.
Keep checking door alignment.
Your plan is working out great
Steve
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  #50  
Old 12-20-2019, 08:13 PM
astroracer astroracer is offline
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Thanks Steve, the hardest part is taking my time and removing the old junk correctly rather then just hacking and whacking... The reward is in how it all goes back together, as you will see in the catch up pics below.

The new inner rocker is fit in, I did a lot more clean up with the flap wheel and the body mount bolt that goes through the first floor brace is out.



I modified the inner to slip behind the front and third braces. They are still attached to the old inner with very little rust so I saw no reason to cut them apart.
Notched to fit over and behind the brace. This will weld in fine with some more clean up in the joint.

The middle brace. I also notched the new piece to slip behind and over this. The new piece will get welded to what is left of the old inner on both sides of the brace and along the top, under the rocker flange.

I will also be replacing a section of the outer flange that you can see here is pretty rotted.

I still have a lot of clean up to do before any of this gets welded in.
The rear seat area is cleaned up as well as the side wall. I hit the wall with the flap wheel and ground what was left of the old wire channel down flush with the wall.

This edge will be what sets the height of the new J channel piece when that gets welded in.
Here you can see the new inner in place. I can't set the width on this until the new floor is in place. I will start trimming that up tomorrow to see how it fits.

The new inner fits pretty well. Once the rest of this mess gets fit up I will rebuild the lower outer rocker to meet the new tin at the bottom seam.
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Name: Mark
What I am building:
BadAst. A Pro Touring style 1988 Astro with a full custom chassis, 509 BBC, TH400 w/ a gear vendors and a 9" w/ 3.75's.

Last edited by astroracer; 12-20-2019 at 08:17 PM.
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