Scraped all the undercoating off the firewall in order to weld in the new inner fenders. When they removed the old ones they left some pretty big rips and tears in the firewall, luckily I flattened them out and was able to use them as a welding surface for the new pieces. Used some draw tight kleckos (spelling?) and was able to draw everything in good and tight. The goodmark parts Im using really fit great. I was then able to drop the K frame and torsion bars from the car. We didn't have a torsion bar tool so we let the tension off the bars from the unwinding bolt, then taped off a section of the bars. We knew we had to knock on the bars to get them out, but that clamping to the bar can damage it. So we improvised and used the vise grip welding clamp and placed a bunch of paint sticks around the torsion bar and clamped to the sticks. After a couple hits directly to the vise grips the bars popped out. From here we separated the upper control arm and the ball joints. The k frame then took a little coaxing but came right down, and was stripped down pretty easy using the pickle forks.
Now came the big project. From years of battery acid dripping and a big old rats nest, the drivers side frame rail had some substantial holes in it. I decided to go with a frame rail cap and bought one from Safe T Cap. The thing is great! The nuts for the K frame are already welded up inside and the things good to go, the only draw back is no other holes are drilled into this cap. So in order to make the thing fit, I had to take a cut off wheel and remove the old nut plates inside the frame rail. I found that there was only 2 welds holding them in, so I drilled them out and then cut a section for the new nuts to fit. All of the undercoating had to be scraped off the entire frame rail to make room for it to fit. We test fit it and its not too bad. It welds directly to the flat section of the frame rail (where it meets the floor) and to the upper shock mount itself. My next step now is to clean off the rest of the undercoating and get the thing welded in.....which will take some time, but well worth it! Then the plan is to bondo and paint the engine compartment, paint the k Frame and put it all back in. The motor is coming out of the shop in 4-6 weeks and we want it in there. The plan is to have the engine compartment totally done so we can tape it off and get to work with bondo and paint on the rest of the car. I really hope this thing can be done for summer!!!!!!!
Sorry this was so long but its some good reading I hope! I also included a pic of the Original Sun Super Tach that's in mint condition that was in my car when I bought it.
Now came the big project. From years of battery acid dripping and a big old rats nest, the drivers side frame rail had some substantial holes in it. I decided to go with a frame rail cap and bought one from Safe T Cap. The thing is great! The nuts for the K frame are already welded up inside and the things good to go, the only draw back is no other holes are drilled into this cap. So in order to make the thing fit, I had to take a cut off wheel and remove the old nut plates inside the frame rail. I found that there was only 2 welds holding them in, so I drilled them out and then cut a section for the new nuts to fit. All of the undercoating had to be scraped off the entire frame rail to make room for it to fit. We test fit it and its not too bad. It welds directly to the flat section of the frame rail (where it meets the floor) and to the upper shock mount itself. My next step now is to clean off the rest of the undercoating and get the thing welded in.....which will take some time, but well worth it! Then the plan is to bondo and paint the engine compartment, paint the k Frame and put it all back in. The motor is coming out of the shop in 4-6 weeks and we want it in there. The plan is to have the engine compartment totally done so we can tape it off and get to work with bondo and paint on the rest of the car. I really hope this thing can be done for summer!!!!!!!
Sorry this was so long but its some good reading I hope! I also included a pic of the Original Sun Super Tach that's in mint condition that was in my car when I bought it.
