March 2005

Here's the driver's side. I've installed the old carpet and trim around the doors. I still have to rebuild the pedal cluster and there's a section of carpet that I won't be reinstalling.

Here's the passenger's side. The wire hanging loose will be attached to the interior light once the back pad is reinstalled.

Here's the money shot. I was able to start and run the motor today.....Woohoo...

This is the view from the driver's side showing the new Optima 34 red-top battery.

Here's a close-up of the driver's carb and some wires.

Here's a close-up of the coil and distributor. I still have to mount the coil and install the throttle cable, along with a thousand other minor issues.

Here's a shot of the transmission and starter from the driver's side.

Here's a shot of the transmission from the passenger's side. Notice the new tranny mount and speedo cable?

Here's the holes created by the dealer installed A/C. This is the rear section behind the rocker panel.

Here's the after shot.

Here's the front hole, in the passenger's front fender. I cleaned the dirt and rust from the interior, treated with Ospho, painted with primer and then black paint. After the interior was completed, I bent the metal back into position and welded them back together. Finally, I covered with AllMetal putty, sanded and primered.

Here's the after shot.

Here's a close up of the top of the shocks.

Here's the shocks disassembled.

Here's a full shot before repainting.

Here's the after shot.

Here's the inside view of the rear contol arm after painting. There wasn't too much to clean up, only minor rust.

Here's the outside view of the rear contol arm after painting. You'll notice that there are only 2 wheel studs pressed into the rear hub. I'll remove the hub and have the others installed later.

Here's the hole left from the dealer installed A/C.

This is the donor trunk floor.

I began by measuring the opening, then transfering the dimensions, plus 1", to all sides. Here's the marks on the donor floor.

Before I began cutting the floor, I supported it with 2 bottle-jacks.

I used a cutting wheel to start the cuts, then switched to a sawzall. Be very careful when you get the the edge of each side. When I was close, I switched back to the cutting wheel.

Here's the new hole...

Here's the piece removed. This is the top side.

Here's the bottom side.

Next, I spent the next 2 hours removing the paint and seam-sealer. Here's the top side.

Here's the bottom side. I also removed the tow hook.

Here's a shot of the panel fitted to the hole. The gray is AllMetal putty. I aligned the small hole at the top, along with the ribs. I then used a felt pen and marked the new floor. This also shows some of the c-clamps that I used.

Underneath, I also used a bottle jact to help support the front section.

This shows the floor tack-welded in. Between this shot and the previous was about 4 hours worth of work trimming and fitting. Don't skimp on this fitting section, it will make welding that much easier.

This shows the panel completely welded in and prior to any grinding. Again, this was a 2 hour process. Between each spot-weld, I butt-welded the seams. There was times when I used the bottle-jacks to help with alignment of the panels.

Finally, here's the 'trick' to the welding process, backing up ALL of the welds with copper plating. I again used the bottle jacks to hold the copper against the panels from underneath the car. When welding, only weld a very short section, I did about 1-2", then move to another section away from the newly welded area. You need to allow the welded section to cool before continuing to weld.

This shows the copper pieces I used. The center one I bent to follow the contours of the ribbed section.

This is a shot after grinding all of the welds.

Here's the bottom view.