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The floor front foot rest gets some serious metal smoothing done before it is fit to the cowl and welded.
Before being welded on to the body, the inside of the cowl section gets flipped upside-down and epoxy primed.
The cowl shown here, welded on to the floor. The front foot rest panel has been positioned in preparation for welding to the floor and cowl fire wall. The doors now fit between the "A" and "B" pillars.
After positioning and fitting, the foot rest panel is welded back on at the fire wall floor and kick panels. Note that the center automatic transmission tunnel cover has also been temporarily fit into place. (center bottom of photo)
The rivet holes in the cowl support brackets are welded up and re-drilled to the proper 1/4'' diameter, the bolts are replaced with the original type rivets. (see white arrows)
Rebuilding the trunk tool tray area involves taking many measurements from the parts car in order to fabricate the different shapes from scratch.
The tool tray is first built in sections, then welded together. The completed unit is then test fit to the rear floor before adjacent areas are built.
This is very time consuming work since there are several oddly shaped pieces that make up the tray area and the entire rear outer sheet metal must also be fabricated and fit before any of it can be permanently welded.
The white arrow points to the left side rear mounting bracket for the convertible top. Located on the "B" pillar, this bracket was modified by the previous owner, but unfortunately is in the wrong position and will not properly align the top to the doors and body. The right side has the same problem and will also need repair. These brackets will be cut loose from their current position, repaired and aligned properly so the top will close.
This complicated looking photo is of the right side convertible top mount undergoing relocation. (black arrow). The bracket has been attached to the conv. top frame, (white arrow) so it can be located in the proper position for re-welding on the "B" pillar. Clamps are use to hold everything in place and check the fit of the top frame.
This photo shows the rough metal work on the right side jam of the "B" pillar. The two white arrows at the top point to an old weld where the jam was once cut apart. The lower arrow points to the crooked edge of the pillar and another old weld. This entire jam is in such bad shape, it will need to be completely remade.
The left side is in better shape than the right but the top of this jam was also once cut and welded back together at the wrong angle. (white arrows) This area will need to be rebuild and set at the proper angle. |
