Fred's 73 2dr 510

[Fred_L-P]

nicely done

Thanks! doing my best

[Fred_L-P]

Small update, I finished refreshing the fuel tank.

I removed all the surface rust and gave it a fresh coat of paint.









Better than new! It's now ready to receive the fuel pump and sender unit.

I finally bought a mig and got my gas bottle last Wednesday. I'll start on the floors and rails as soon as I have a bit of spare time.

[eastbaysolo_73]

Looks great!

[Fred_L-P]

I literally spent 2.5 hours writing an update and I closed chrome after clicking Preview instead of Submit...
I'm kind of pissed at myself right now! So this update is probably going to be shorter with less details than originally intended.

I finished my fuel tank soon after the last update.







Lesson learned, You really don't need much sealant on the gaskets... I made quite a mess, cleaned up what I could...

Now that I have my welder ready, I started on the metal work.

I decided to cut my spare tire patch panel first to get rid of a big chunk on sheet metal so its easier to move the sheet around.



I started with the floors to practice on areas that are going to be hidden.

The first area I tackled was a bad patching job done by the previous owners.

As you can see, the original sear bracket mounting points are plugged with bolts. The old bucking seat was mounted further back on custom brackets.



You can see the whole patch from underneath, but where are the mounting points???
It looks like they just patched the floor without cutting the old one out first.



So I started cutting!



Stacked floors...





There they are!



After a good clean up





And the patch



Tacked in, pretty tight fit all around. I'm happy with the result for a first time



And grinded smooth



There was a similar situation on the right hand side. I forgot to take a picture before cutting.



Stacked floors again



I found some major rust under the right hand side seat mounting bracket while cleaning up the paint around my patch. Similar to the driver's side.



Cleaned up and ready to patch







I ran out of flap discs for the angle grinder, so from now on I did not grind the welds smooth yet.

Since I'm cleaning up and repainting the whole floors, I decided to plug the factory drain holes.
M12 washers fit quite nicely into the holes. It's a lot faster than cutting small patches, but requires a good amount of grinding







Finished result



While I had a second pair of hands to hold the copper backing under the floors, I plugged all the unused small holes.



There were quite a few on the tunnel



The next suspicious area was the driver's side (LH) center lap belt anchor point.







Surprise! (or not...)



I decided to cut it all out and weld a bigger patch. I'll clean up the backing plate with the nut afterwards and re-weld it in place.

Reading through your previous post, what did you decide on fixing the trans tunnel cover? I would agree that a structural glue would suffice, if you could get the panels to fit close enough. Or making a gasket and riveting. Or maybe rivets and seam sealer... In any case, as long as the seam is completely sealed. Personally I would weld it in as it would add a little to the structure.

Keep the post coming, great to see progress.

Byron

Here's the final answer Byron. I decided to cut open the tunnel and weld the cover in with a butt joint.







After a lot of effort, I got everything to line up quite nicely.



I cut the 4 corners open to rework them and fit the original tunnel radius better.



Tacked into place. The corners just need a bit more work before welding everything in, but I had to stop for today.



I really like the cutting, patching and welding process. But I realized how much I hate grinding. What a pita
It is a very time consuming process, but I really want to do everything right.
Here's a list of all the known problematic areas, I only scratched one item so far... I seriously don't know how long it's all going to take. It's in frenglish sorry, and yes I list everything on my walls. Can't lose it this way.



To be continued... and I'll try to hit Submit this time before closing the browser.

[Byron510]

Wow, you’re getting into some significant surgery!

I like the fully welded tunnel... now where is that two thumbs up button....

Great work, and congrats on the new welder. It’s nice to have tools.

Keep the updates coming. Progress is good.

Byron

[andrew.lori]

looking good Fred....nothing better than drawing a line through a listed task.

[Heinrich]

nicely done, cool trick with the washers to fill the hole's.
i like how you joined in the trans tunnel cover.

[Fred_L-P]

I am still welding the floors... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaking of tunnels, I finished welding the transmission cover







And lap belt area







Cleaning up the lap belt nut bracket before welding it back into place











Positioned and welded into place









Next I tackeled the rust under the seat bracket I found before the last update









Then I started cutting the whole front right hand floor pan and rail. It was in really bad shape.











More hidden rust





A nice clean and flat sheet metal patch









I bought a 2"x3"x.100" steel tube to make the new floor rails. I think it turned out pretty good.
Here's a step by step of how I made it.





Test fit to make sure it matched the original rail's profile

















It feels good welding thicker gauge after all this thin sheet metal work.

Final test fit, it looks good to me.



Side by side comparison with the original rail



Grinded the corners smooth





Cleaned and preped









Tacked and welded into place





I will add a lip all around to mimic the original rails. We are not allowed to weld on the "frame" and I don't want to take any unnecessary risk to fail the inspection. I don't want to end up with a track car after all this work...

Penetration looks good on the top side



Finaly, the seat bracket patch







The right hand side is almost done. I only need to clean up the welds and add the lip. Then I can start on the left hand side. It needs a similar floor pan and rail job.

I also recieved my new seats, seat rails, steering and hub. I'll be able to test fit my driving position and adjust/offset/redrill the seat mounting holes if necessary while working on the floors to make sure everything fits perfectly! It will also give me the opportunity to weld the harness bar at the right height with the new seats. I can't wait to move to the engine bay, I need a break from laying on the floor...

To be continued!

[Fred_L-P]

Here's a teaser

[Fred_L-P]

Last night I didn't sleep a single minute during the whole night. When I got to bed I felt something scratching in my right eye and I wasn't able to keep it shut. I spent 2 hours trying to find the debris without succes. This morning I wen't to the optometrist and he found a microscopic metal chip embeded in my cornea right in the middle of the pupil. He said there's a tiny rust particule stuck in there, but he can't remove it.

In conclusion, I now have a bit of the 510 stuck inside my body.

[JasonLee]

WOW! Great reminder about wearing eye protection. As my eyes start failing with age, I find myself taking off my glasses constantly so that I can see what I am doing up close. But by doing this I am losing my eye protection without really stopping to appreciate the risk. When the glasses come off for up close viewing, a set of clear lens safety glasses should take their place. Thanks for posting this important reminder for us all.

[DADZSUN]

Fred, you work looks really solid. Nice to make progress eh?

I hear ya on the Personal Protective Equipment, I usually have redundancy (glass and full face shield) and even a breathing mask now when there's heavy or sustained grinding.

[Fred_L-P]

I seriously don't know when it happened. I suspect it was in the shower afterwards with everything washing off my head. When grinding I wear my full face shield 100% of the time, dust mask, ear plugs, welding beanie, welding coat and leather gloves. I put the face shield on even when I'm just crawling under the car without grinding because of all the crap falling on my face. I'm taking every precautions.

I'll by a better face shield that covers the chin and sides better. I don't know what else to do!

[Fred_L-P]

Fred, you work looks really solid. Nice to make progress eh?

It feels nice indeed! I'm almost done with the floors. I'll soon be able to test fit the seats/steering for the driving position, install my handbrake on the tunnel between the seats and hook it up to the maxima calipers. Then I'll move to the engine bay to take a break from laying on my back.

[Fred_L-P]

It's official, I'm going to be a dad in May 2020.

The project might slow down... I doubt It could be worse than right now anyway since I've been telling myself the floors are almost done for more than a month now (and they clearly aren't)
But I swear I'm not going to abandon it. I've already invested too much energy, effort and money into it.

I changed my plans a bit. I'll try to get it ready for paint in February. I got a quote for the job and I think it's the right thing to do.