Early 850 Coupe rebuild

[ramona300]

The rust you have is pretty much exactly the same as I had and pretty much all coupes. I cut out and tossed that little bulkhead in the sill on both sides. I think its there to separate the area ahead of the rear wheel arches and the sill and probably isolates the road noise a bit. I had a local firm roll up a set of sills from a wooden template I made. I welded the outer sills on completely before cutting out that rust in the inner sills where the seat frame work causes rust. Keep at least the inner or outer sill intact to retain the shape. I was very fortunate to get both doors to fit well after lots of welding.

 

[kmead]

And, of course, we end with the obligatory floor-sweeping photo of the day... :laugh:



This reminds me all too much of many projects from my past, a few Peugeots for example. Or the new house I am in the process of redoing...

Two steps forward, three steps back some days

Keep the stream coming please, very educational and worrisome

 

[ramona300]

I should also add that I removed all the sound proofing from under the car with an air chisel. It was fairly thick in places but fairly brittle. Just holding the chisel blade flat against the panel and the vibrations removed most of the stuff. Well over a bucket load of the stuff and it's heavy.

 

[Jeff Stich]

Sills...

I cut out and tossed that little bulkhead in the sill on both sides. I think its there to separate the area ahead of the rear wheel arches and the sill and probably isolates the road noise a bit.

That was my thinking on its intended use by Fiat as well, & I'd like to retain this feature. Though the bulkhead is not a piece that's available separately, I've found that it comes already spot-welded in place on the NOS replacement inner rocker panels, as well as on some of the replica panels available. Some of the replica panels out there don't have this piece, but they also cost less, so it's a trade-off. I'm leaning towards getting the inner panels with this piece already included; it will cost a bit more, but it will save me the time/effort/expense of fabricating & fitting 1 (or most likely 2) of the bulkhead pieces for this car.

I welded the outer sills on completely before cutting out that rust in the inner sills where the seat frame work causes rust. Keep at least the inner or outer sill intact to retain the shape.

I've already removed the driver side outer rocker panel on this car, & I'll need to replace most (not quite all) of the inner panel as well, because most of the lower lip where it meets the floor panel (edge) is also rusted through (not really visible in my photos, sorry). My plan is to use most of the replacement inner panel, basically cutting off the ends as needed, so I don't have to struggle with the other overlapping sheetmetal sections at each end (which surprisingly escaped having any major rust issues). Seeing as how the bottom lip of the inner panel is what gets welded to the floor panel, with the outer panel being welded to the bottom outer lip of the inner panel, I don't see any way to weld the outer panel on first; without the inner panel already fitted in place, there's nothing to weld the outer panel onto except at each far end of it (where it meets the lower A-post & the lower front edge of the rear fender/quarter panel).

The good thing about doing one side of the car at a time is that I can see/learn how all the separate panels are fitted/welded together, making it easier to dismantle (& then reassemble) the other side of the car as needed.

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 4

A peek inside the rocker tunnel (facing the front of the car) shows the inner reinforcing structure that I almost blindly sliced through before stopping; on the left you can see the outer skin (folded over on the edge from my cutting), with the reinforcement structure/channel right up against it, & in the center of the pic is the very front wall of the rocker tunnel (basically the rear wall of the front wheelwell) with a nice rust hole in the center...



Here's the same area, but from the outside & looking in the opposite direction, with the previously-noted rust hole visible to the lower left. At the upper left, you can also see the poor job the previous owner did on joining the upper end of the rocker panel with lower edge of a (used) replacement front fender; alignment is about 1/4" off with big sloppy glob welds (brazing?) at the corners not even ground smooth, just bondo'd right over it all (bondo was removed in my earlier post). I despise laziness...



At this point, I've stopped work on the rocker panel area until I can go buy a good drill bit (or 2) made specifically for cutting spot welds. The drill bits I have are a bit dull & it would take forever to do the job with them. Once I have the right tool(s), I'll be able to cut all the perimeter spot welds that hold the remaining outer rocker panel remnants on, with no damage to underlying reinforcements or adjoining sheetmetal.

I now focus on the floor support crossmember that runs across the underside of the floor, between the back of the front seat mounting perch area (inside the car) & the rear seat floor footwells. This area has really taken a beating (literally) from a previous owner - it's dented & smashed-in all over as if the car was driven over boulders or something...wtf? A few rust holes were noticed on the driver side end of this crossmember when I was working on the car earlier (as mentioned in post #11), which became larger holes after I poked it with a screwdriver. Hrmph.



After scraping the entire crossmember clean of all undercoating (today), then going end-to-end carefully tapping on it with an awl, I was happy(?) to find that the rust was confined only to that one end - the rest of it is solid across to the other side of the car. That means I can just cut the rusty end off, fabricate a replacement piece & have it welded in place.

I then spent some time scraping the old undercoating & other crap from the underside of the car. Not going for perfectly clean, just getting rid of the heavy stuff before I roll the car into the sandblasting "booth" outside & blast the entire bottom of the car from nose to tail. I also wanted to see if I could find out why the previous owner had installed "custom" (sic) tin panels over certain parts of the interior floors, since after removing them, I couldn't find any major holes or rust damage underneath to justify their installation. I started on the driver side at the crossmember & slowly worked my way towards the front of the car, stopping right at the front leaf spring assembly.



I then walked back & started on the rear footwell, when I realized it was getting a bit late (trying to be courteous to the neighbors about the noise) & I was getting pretty hungry anyway (yeah, food motivates me). So I packed things up for the night & cleaned up my mess...



I had a few more hours free the next evening, so I headed back over to the shop to continue scraping the underside of the floors clean(ish).

I started in on clearing off the passenger side front floor, from the crossmember all the way forward to the leaf spring assembly. It was a bit slow & tedious to do, mainly because of all of the small perforations (holes) left over from the previous owners' overzealous use of lots of sheetmetal screws to hold the old carpeting down. I'd already removed all of the screws when I pulled the carpet out, but each screw left a small circular ridge around its hole (like a tiny volcano shape). When running the chisel over the underside of the floor, it would hit & snag on each of these little "mounds", dulling the tip of the chisel just a bit every time, so I had to keep resharpening the chisel on the grinder to get a nice working edge back. Like I said...a bit tedious.

With that floor section done, I then started in on removing the roofing(!) tar applied to the rear footwells by the previous owner to seal up the big holes there. With that done, I continue scraping undercoating/etc. from the driver side rear footwell & then continue on to the large box-crossmember located behind the rear footwells (ie: at the rear end of the floor structure).

At the front, looking towards the rear of the car:



Same shot, but looking forward from the rear of the car:



The driver side rear footwell; with the way this area was smashed upward & torn (peeled?) rearward, I think this damage was actually caused by the previous owner running the car aground, with something snagging the center drain hole & tearing the sheetmetal back & away. Rather than fix it, the PO just slathered an inch or so of roofing tar over it all (inside & outside) & called it a day. After removing the tar patch, I pounded this area back out a bit with a hammer & a short block of 2x4 prior to taking the photos.



The passenger side footwell, after removing the PO's tar-job & a little hammer-and-dolly work. Damaged by rust, plain & simple. This is one of the most common rust-hole areas for 850 Coupes, & pretty straightforward to fix.



I had to cut things short as my allotted work-time for the day was up & I had to get home & get cleaned up for dinner with some friends. Feeling pretty good about making good progress so far on the car, so of course, we end with the obligatory floor-sweeping photo of the day...



(To be continued...)

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 5

While doing much of the work with this side of the car tilted up, I had stashed a few of the other tools I was using inside the driver side rocker panel tunnel, since it made a handy "tray" to keep things in nearby. I accidentally dropped my small chisel when pulling a different tool out, & the chisel fell straight down into the inner rocker panel & stuck in perpendicular. Oh, crap. I knew what that meant - rusty metal too thin to support anything. I pulled the chisel out, then got my screwdriver to tap the area looking for any other too-thin spots. Hoping it was just a small, confined spot, I found it wasn't. 7 spots in a row, & 2 more a little further forward, the screwdriver went right through the rusty metal as I tapped. Almost the entire length of the lower edge of the driver side inner rocker panel is toast. Dammit!



This find will definitely set me back a bit in time & $$. I've seen repro inner rocker panel replacements available, so getting one isn't really a problem, just costly. But in order to replace this panel, or even part of it, the entire driver side left (outer) seat rail mounting perch will need to be removed first. And of course it's spotwelded to the floor and the inner rocker, so all those welds will need to be drilled out first. Not much I can do about that area right now. I'll have to put the car back down on its wheels before I can crawl inside & inspect that seat perch & see if there are any other options (though I'm thinking there aren't).

More time put in working on the Coupe; a few hours Sunday evening & a few more on Monday night. I finished scraping the undercoat from the rest of the passenger side of the floor, as well as most of the underbody section just behind the central floor tunnel (where all the cables & coolant tubes exit the tunnel). I left some of the passenger side rear footwell alone, since I'll be cutting out that piece of rotted metal anyway (this is the dark rectangle with the big hole in it seen in the photos below).



I also re-surveyed & marked the areas where rust-perforated metal needs to be removed (cut out) from the floors; these are the areas seen outlined with a black marker pen with a big "X" drawn through them:



Floor rust-through spot at the front corner of the driver-side left seat rail/support (with the rusty end of the floor crossmember seen to the right). Most of the holes here are due to the OCD previous owner drilling 9(!) screws through the floor in order to hold down this corner of the carpet & the homemade floor mat. They were crappy, non-galvanized screws that rusted heavily, spreading their cancer to the floor itself. Some of the rusty sheetmetal crumbled away when I was removing the screws earlier, causing the larger holes visible here:



Close-up shot of the rusty end of the floor crossmember, which I'll be cutting out & replacing with a fabricated replica. In this photo, I've already drilled out almost all of the spotwelds as needed, with the remaining single spotweld at the top left corner yet to be drilled. After that, all that's left to do is to cut straight across/through the crossmember along the horizontal line (black marker pen) seen near the bottom of the photo, then pull the rusted end piece away & replace it with its new (yet to be fabricated) twin. I'm hoping the floor rust won't be too bad underneath this area (fingers crossed)...



Another rust-perforated spot, this one just behind the driver-side left seat rail/support (with floor crossmember visible on left). Besides the 2 obvious holes seen in the center of the X-ed area, there are lots of tiny pinholes here that can't be seen in the photo. This spot was rusted through from the inside of the car (due to standing water), with the metal being so thin & weak that I could push it in & out with just a finger.



The 3 spotwelds seen drilled out on the right side of that particular section are (I later realized) a possible mistake - I probably shouldn't have drilled these yet, as I might need that part (the thin, shiny vertical strip of metal) for floor support when I remove & replace the larger rusted section of metal just below & to the right. I re-drew the vertical black line slightly to the left afterwards, to remind myself of the overlap/interplay of these panels & their future replacements.

The previously-noted section seen at the upper left, with the driver side rear footwell in the lower center of the photo. Besides having the large gaping hole in it, this footwell also suffered from interior rust-through & lots of tiny pinholes everywhere (again, from standing/pooled water, a common issue in this area on 850 Coupes). I found it would be far easier to just replace one large piece rather than make a bunch of small repairs, so I'm following the original factory lines of the panel for ease of replacement & a cleaner repair afterwards.



Rough horizontal cut-lines are marked, spotwelds are all drilled out along the left, spotwelds on the right are either cut with a chisel or have already been rusted/torn apart. The 2 large triangular holes to the left are factory floor drain holes, with 1 of the triangle cover-tabs broken off. I found it stuck in the tar I removed from the floor earlier & saved it to be welded back in place later. The crumpled/folded rear wall of the footwell (seen on right) will be straightened back into OEM shape before fitting the replacement floor piece.

At this point, my back was bothering me a bit (unrelated injury earlier in the day), so I opted to leave the passenger side rear footwell for another day and work on something a little higher on the car (so I'm standing up while working). The front end of the outer rocker panel still needed attending to, so that was my next job. I needed to remove what was left of the outer panel (the rest of the panel being previously cut away), but had found some unknown-to-me support structure behind it inside the rocker tunnel. Looking at various diagrams in my factory parts book, I found that this "support structure" was actually the lower part of the A-post/door hinge support panel - I definitely don't want to cut that out!

I first drilled out the 4 remaining spotwelds holding the lower lip of the outer rocker in place, then carefully trimmed a horizontal line at the top, next to the seam joining the rocker panel & the lower front fender corner. In theory, this should have released the outer panel remnant with no issues, but alas, no. After a bit of investigation, I found there were 3 more spotwelds to deal with, these holding the outer rocker directly to the base of the lower A-post support. With these 3 spotwelds drilled out, the outer panel remnant came right off, revealing the hidden structure beneath it.

Before:


After:


With the day's allotted work-time now run out & the dinner bell ringing loudly (in my head), it's time to clean up & head home for the night...



(To be continued...)

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 5.5

Trying to keep this somewhat of a weekly gig, I spent a few more hours working on the Coupe last evening. I'm actually starting to miss working on the car when I'm away, & find myself eager to resume working on it, so I guess that's a good thing, right?

First item on the list was to do more undercoat stripping, this time within the driver side front wheelwell. The green-gray color seen on the right is the factory sealer/paint found underneath the undercoating, with undercoating not yet removed seen on the left:



Pretty simple work, went by fairly quickly, too. I also scraped off the lower trunk diagonal support rail, & cleaned up some old bondo from the curved lower seam of the front body panel/spare tire well joint. No wonder the front view looked lumpy before! To be 100% finished with this area, I'll have to remove the front shock absorber & pull the upper A-arm away from the body (another day) in order to gain access to the whole "shock tower" support, which is hidden from view in this photo by the spindle/hub/rotor assembly:



Cutting time! I borrowed my shopmate's pneumatic mini-Sawzall & finally got busy with cutting out the rusty parts of the floors that I noted in last weeks' post. I've never used one of these before and, holy crap!, it's FAST! With the metal I was cutting being so heavily-dented, it was a little difficult at first to keep the saw going in a straight line like I wanted, but after a few "practice" cuts things got a little easier. I found the only real drawback with this tool was that, just like a regular large Sawzall, you had to have clear space on the other side of what you're cutting or else the saw blade will jam, bend or break if/when the tip hits an object. I ended up bending the blade just a bit when I inadvertently ran into the underside of the seat rail support, but no real harm done.

Here I've cut out the small square of rotted floor in front of the driver side outer seat rail, the rusty outer end of the crossmember, the large/main section of both rear seat footwells & a small square of floor just in front of the passenger side rear footwell.



These are rough cuts only; once I smooth out the dented areas of the floors a bit with a hammer & dolly, I'll go back & square up the sides of the cuts later with a grinder or hand file as needed. In their present condition, the floors are a bit too wavy to be able to cut nice straight lines in them. As you can see, I left the small "X"-ed floor section just behind the crossmember end intact, because I discovered that the wiring harness (which runs along the driver side inner rocker panel inside the car) was hanging down right behind where I would've been cutting - close call! I'll need to put the car down on its wheels to be able to crawl inside & tie that wiring harness up & out of the way before cutting this small area of the floor out (another day).

Driver side floor, just ahead of the outer seat rail perch. I just missed accidentally cutting the rear wiring harness here; it's on the other side hanging down about 1/8" above this hole. This is what led to my decision to not cut the area I just mentioned above for now. When I cut the lower right corner of this hole, a small base tab on the seat rail perch came with it due to being rusted out. I'll have to fab & replace that tab later after welding in new floor metal. In this photo, the inside front corner of the seat rail perch is visible through the hole I just cut (on right side):



Outer end of the floor crossmember now removed, revealing what I had an idea I would find here: heavy rust. I'll need to cut this "X"-ed area out as well & replace it with new sheetmetal before replacing the rotted crossmember end with a new (fabricated) piece. The wiring harness is just visible through the rust-holes on the right, so cutting this area out will require a bit of caution...



Driver side rear footwell with large rusted metal panel now removed. On the right is the formerly-crumpled rear wall of the footwell, now straightened & awaiting a smooth edge-cut to remove the remaining jagged bits. I'll likely tack a long L-profile strip of new metal along this edge (after trimming), in order to give the replacement footwell floor panel some extra support/reinforcement along that rear edge. (Sorry for the poor focus).



Passenger side rear footwell, showing the now-uncrumpled rear wall. It took a while to carefully unroll the metal & then tap it flat, with lots of P.O.-applied roofing tar having to be removed during the process. On the left, the reflected light from my work light shows just how bumpy & uneven (heavily dented) this area is - & this is after smoothing it out a bit! More smoothing will be done later. The small square hole cut at the lower left removed a piece of rusted metal so thin & perforated that it resembled paper mâché more than metal. I'll likely expand this hole another 1/4"-1/2" around its perimeter in order to get a more solid (unrusty) edge to attach the new replacement metal to.



Looking closer at certain areas known for rust in most 850 Coupes, I found 2 more spots that I'd like to take care of while doing all this floor-work. They're in near-identical locations along the bottom rear arc of each front wheelwell, just behind each front swaybar pivot mount, right where the floor panel overlaps the curved lower "frame rail" (box section) piece. I drew a quick cut-line with a black marker pen around these areas, indicating where I'll likely put in a small strip of new sheetmetal after carefully cutting out the old rusty piece(s).

Driver side:


Passenger side:


With it now getting a bit late in the evening to be using the drill, air saw, hammer & chisel or scrapers, it's time to clean up & head home...



(To be continued...)

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 6

Another couple of hours of work put in on the Coupe tonight...

Some folks had asked me (via PM) if I could briefly mention what sort of tools I used to do various jobs shown here, so maybe they could better understand how things were done, or perhaps to better-equip themselves for (or save time in doing) their own similar projects. No problem!

The tools I set out specifically for tonights job were the pneumatic mini-Sawzall (from yesterday), a pneumatic mini-grinder (like a large Dremel, but air-powered), my trusty hammer & chisels, some flat-jaw pliers and a small hand file. A photo might've been easier...? I'll have to try to remember that in the future...

Also, I know I hate having to scroll up/down & back/forth in other peoples posts to compare photos, so to make comparison-viewing a little easier in this case, I set up tonights pics in a "Before & After" arrangement, with photos from last night on the left & photos from tonight on the right. There's not really a huge, noticeable difference between the two, but the whole point of tonights work wasn't to accomplish major tasks, but to refine the small details on previous work done, in order to make future planned repair work cleaner & easier - just good, basic Prep Work.

For tonights work, I mainly just wanted to clean up all of the rough/jagged cuts I made last night, & get smoother/straighter edges on the borders in order to make sheetmetal replacement easier. I also still needed to remove the rotted floor metal that was found under (actually, on top of) the driver side end of the floor crossmember when I removed it, & investigate another spot possibly needing attention that I noticed just before leaving last night.

In this photo, I've already removed the rotted floor metal at the outer end of the crossmember, squared/trimmed the edges around all 5 major rust spots (repair areas), & cut out another small rusty spot on the floor in front of the passenger side left seat rail perch & squared/trimmed that hole, as well:



Close-up of the floor hole just in front of/below the driver side left seat rail perch (as seen at upper/left of previous photo):



Removal of rusty floor sheetmetal above the driver side end of the floor crossmember:



Squared & trimmed the left & right sides of the driver side rear footwell. I also trimmed off the jagged, rusty edge of the footwell rear wall, but not as cleanly as I'd have liked to. This piece of metal is really flimsy without its usual L-edge & side support (from the floor sheetmetal), so it kept flopping about wildly as I was trying to cut/trim it straight. I have an idea how to solve that & hope to try it next time I work on the car.



Same thing, but this is the passenger side rear footwell. The rear wall came out a little better on this one, but it still needs a small trim:



This is the "new" rust area I found in front of the passenger side left seat rail perch. I may need to trim another 1/4" or so off the upper edge in the pic, but it's really close to the right wall of the center floor tunnel (so maybe not trim it?). Like the similar spot on the driver side, the damage to this area was caused by the previous owners' (over)application of multiple crappy-quality screws within one square inch just to hold the corner of the shag carpet down. 7 screws all rusting in 1 spot.



With all the trimming work done (for now), I turned my attention to stripping the old undercoating from within the driver side rear wheelwell. It was a little tricky doing this, as nearly the whole arch is curved not only front-to-back, but side-to-side, as well. A flat chisel on a curved surface doesn't work too effectively! I finally found a good angle on it working from the lower rear corner of the fender arch (on the right) & following the upper arch all the way across to the left, ending at the lower front corner of the wheelwell.

Using a narrow (~1") chisel to better handle the curved sheetmetal, it took 6 or 7 full sweeps from right to left to clear away the heavy undercoating here. In this photo, I still have to clear a full-sweep 6"-wide band of undercoat from the area closest to the fender lip, as well as the thin white/pink/yellow spot of undercoat from the center area above the coil spring & shock tower support:



And now...we clean up & go home.



(To be continued...)

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 6.5

I missed out on having any time to work on the 850 Coupe last week, mainly due to my daily-driver Fiat 128 Wagon needing a bit of "attention", instead (wheel bearing replacement). So this week, I'm back in the groove with the Coupe. After already doing most of what could be done for now on the driver-side of the car, I set the car back on the ground, swapped the pivot-wedges of the car-tilter to the other side, & tilted the car the other way with the passenger-side now facing up. I only had a few hours available to work, so I immediately set upon removing the old undercoating from the front & rear wheel-wells.

Right front wheel-well mostly done:



Another "pleasant little discovery", yes, but this is one of the reasons why I wanted to remove all of the old undercoating from these areas - to find & address any rust holes that may be hidden under it. This large hole at the front end of the passenger-side rocker tunnel had rusted from the inside out & was completely hidden by a thick layer of undercoating that seemed solid at first sight:



This rust spot will get cut out & patched along with the others. Onward now to the right rear wheel-well, shown here with undercoating already removed...



When the car was previously tilted with the passenger-side facing down, it was difficult to get low enough to get a good viewing angle & accurately cut the edges of these floor rust areas that were down low near the ground. With this side of the car now facing up, I can properly mark the irregularly-shaped borders of each repair hole with a black pen to indicate the straight lines that I would like to cut around each perimeter. I also found another potential rust problem spot just in front of the passenger-side outer seat rail perch, which I've outlined & "X'ed" with the black marker pen. I'll either cut this area out & patch as needed, or perhaps just cover it with a bit of POR-15-type stuff inside & out & move on to more important areas (to be decided after I take another look at the interior floor of the car later).



By this time, it's too late in the evening to use the (LOUD) air-powered cutting tools to trim the areas noted above, so I call it a night & clean up the mess of dirt & undercoat chips everywhere - it's a two-pile night tonight!



(To be continued...)

 

[NM850]

Thanks for posting this detailed thread. It's fun to watch.

 

[johnt]

Jeff,
I've been watching more cutting/rust removal and I'm wondering when you'll stop. Is the cutting done yet
I didn't think you were going to cleanup the coupe as much as you have from what we talked about. Maybe I misunderstood or you changed your mind and decided to do a "Sano" job of restoring it.
Are you fabricating replacement sheetmetal. :confuse2: That will be really nice to see.
Are you buying or already have everything NOS to replace the holes you cut :shock:
I know you can find pre-fab'd or NOS rockers and some other parts, but how about some of the floor sections :geek:
Whats next??? Are you going to cut more rust out...or start replacing steel...let us know. c:
Very curious...looks like it's coming along really nice :worship:

 

[kmead]

It's that slippery slope we all find ourselves in. Find a little, yeah I can fix that, find some more while you are at it...etc

At least he knows how to fix it.

Right?!?

 

[johnt]

It's that slippery slope we all find ourselves in. Find a little, yeah I can fix that, find some more while you are at it...etc

At least he knows how to fix it.

Right?!?

I just can't wait to see how he fixes it as Jeff probably has some nice parts and techniques saved-up to put his car together
I tried to fix the rust in my 850 coupes trunk (where the spare tire goes) and ended up with a front radiator instead of rust repair. mg:

 

[Jeff Stich]

"Are we there yet?"

Jeff, I've been watching more cutting/rust removal and I'm wondering when you'll stop. Is the cutting done yet I didn't think you were going to cleanup the coupe as much as you have from what we talked about. Maybe I misunderstood or you changed your mind and decided to do a "Sano" job of restoring it.

I think I'm about done with cutting, except for replacement of the driver-side inner rocker panel, replacing a 10"-12" aft section of the passenger-side inner rocker panel (see "Part 7" below), maybe the small rust area above the windshield & of course that left/rear corner section of the car (I'm intentionally saving that for last in case I come across a "donor" car, since that would be the most difficult piece to fabricate from scratch).

When we last talked, I had planned on fixing the outer rocker panels & general bodywork, but I hadn't quite had a good close inspection of the inner rockers & floors at that point yet. This will not be a concours "sano" restoration, I'm simply fixing what I feel needs to be fixed in order to have a good, solid "drivers car".

Are you fabricating replacement sheetmetal. :confuse2: That will be really nice to see. Are you buying or already have everything NOS to replace the holes you cut :shock: I know you can find pre-fab'd or NOS rockers and some other parts, but how about some of the floor sections :geek:

Yes, I will be fabricating all the various replacement panels needed for the floors from new 18ga. cold-rolled steel sheet. I haven't bought the metal yet, as I wanted to get a final tally of how much metal I'll need & what size(s) the various patch-panels should be (hoping to source some/most of them from the less-expensive scrap/odds-n-ends bin at the metal supply shop). The left & right outer rocker panels are being sourced NOS from Italy, the d/s inner rocker panel will most likely be a repro piece from Germany/Belgium (unless the guy in Italy with the outer rockers can find me the inner one, too), the center/rear body panel will either be NOS from Italy ($$$) or used OE from Mike (if we can work out a deal). imp:

Whats next??? Are you going to cut more rust out...or start replacing steel...let us know. c: Very curious...looks like it's coming along really nice :worship:

I'm hoping that most of the cutting is done (see above). Next will probably be to sandblast the entire underside of the car & the interior floors, then strip/clean the perimeters of the holes cut in the floors to prep them for welding-in the patch panels (those two steps might get reversed - I haven't decided yet). :confuse2:

 

[Jeff Stich]

Well...

It's that slippery slope we all find ourselves in. Find a little, yeah I can fix that, find some more while you are at it...etc

Actually, once I got a good look at the underside of the car, I decided right then to just go from one end to the other & seek out anything that needed attention, & fix it as needed. Having use of John T's car-tilter apparatus has really made a big difference in being able to do just that! :thumbsup:

At least he knows how to fix it. Right?!?

I know some of the method(s), but I'm not particularly "skilled" at doing them by any means. For example, I may have to rely on a professional to replace that inner rocker panel & still have the car body in perfect alignment, or at least to show me how to do it correctly - I've never done that part before by myself. :sigh:

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 7

A little more time spent on Monday afternoon working on the Coupe.

The day's goals were to remove most of what remains of the passenger-side outer rocker panel (including the front "cap" piece & the rear internal baffle plate), cut out the rusty metal around the hole in the front end of the rocker tunnel, clean up/straighten the edges around a few of the holes previously cut in the floor panel, & mark/prep the 2 small floor areas to be cut just behind each front swaybar pivot mounting bracket (next to the curve in the lower "frame rails").

First I cut away the main portion of the outer rocker panel sheetmetal (where the PO cut a big hole), from just ahead of the rear fender seam (just behind the internal baffle plate), then forward along the lower rocker/floor seam, & ending in a vertical cut just rearward of the internal reinforcing structure near the front end.

Here the remaining front end "cap" metal of the outer rocker panel is shown being removed; 7 spotwelds are drilled out along the lower rocker-to-floor seam, as are the 3 spotwelds that hold the lower part of the outer rocker panel onto the reinforcing substructure that sits directly behind it. The upper edge of the rocker panel is cut where it meets the lower edge of the front fender, & that (very shallow) cutting of the metal is carefully carried further back below the corner of the door:



Metal "cap" remnant now removed, exposing the reinforcing substructure that is underneath it:



A "before & after" shot of the work noted above, & of my trimming the area around the rust hole in the front end of the rocker tunnel:



Internal view of the passenger-side rocker tunnel, looking towards the front of the car:



Same area, now looking towards the rear of the car; note that the D-shaped internal baffle plate has already been removed from the inner rocker panel. The rust inside the rocker tunnel on this side of the car isn't as bad as what was found on the driver-side. I went from the front end of the inner rocker panel to the back stabbing all of the rusty-looking areas with a sharp awl, & the only area I found to be marginal (with the awl poking through the rusty metal) was within a 2" perimeter surrounding the seat belt anchor bolt/plate visible in this photo. Since I consider the seatbelt anchor area to be an important item to have in top condition(!), I'll likely just replace this small section with new sheetmetal & a new anchor nut/plate, then treat the rest of the tunnel area with rust inhibitor (POR-15) to halt the rust seen & add a little strength, as well.



A little more trimming of the holes that were previously cut in the floor just behind the front seat, in order to get cleaner/straighter border lines for easier fabrication/installation of replacement sheetmetal:



Small floor rust hole found next to the passenger-side front frame rail; here you can see the PO's "fix" was to simply lay a strip of galvanized metal on top of the floor in this corner of the front footwell, then run a few sheetmetal screws in to hold it in place. I'll remove that "fix", cut out the rusty metal where I've marked with a black pen, then weld in a patch panel. The circles drawn at each corner note where I'll drill access holes first, for the tip of the pneumatic saws' blade to fit into.



Same area on the driver-side of the car, with lighter rust damage. After a bit more investigation, I think this side will likely be a much easier fix with just some clean-up of the metal, treatment with rust inhibitor & perhaps a small dab of sealant to keep any water from re-entering here:



Done for the day - time to clean up & go home!



(To be continued...)

 

[128kid]

I'm enjoying watching your progress, Jeff! Keep on pushing, you're making great progress! Half of the photos I look at and think to myself, "ah, yeah, I know how much that sucks to deal with!" or "man, I still have to do that on my coupe..." Just in a slightly larger, more 128-specific way

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 8

I managed to put a little bit more work in on the Coupe last week, mostly small clean-up type stuff as I only had a brief bit of time available...

Since I won't be needing to replace the entire inner rocker panel on this side of the car, I set out to removing the narrow strip of the old outer rocker panel along the bottom seam & the rear edge - this involved drilling out all the spotwelds that once held everything together along the lower & rear edges. Rather than just drill completely through the both layers of metal to separate the spotwelds (which would leave a bunch of holes all along the remaining bottom edge of the inner rocker), I managed to acquire a "feel" for drilling only halfway through each spotweld, effectively only cutting away the top layer of metal (the outer rocker remnant) at each weld point. When done, it left a nice wide, solid edge on the inner rocker panel for the new/replacement outer panel to be welded onto later.

These two photos show the 7 holes previously drilled completely through this seam when I removed the front "cap" of the outer rocker panel. I wanted to avoid drilling like this along this entire seam, so I opted for the other drilling method noted above. Here, I've just half-drilled through the first 3 spotwelds that held down the red strip of metal that I want to remove (this red strip of metal is what's left of the old outer rocker panel), & I'm lifting that metal strip to show what's underneath (no holes!):



3 more spotwelds half-drilled, then carefully chiseled apart as needed:



I continue working on down the line, half-drilling & lightly chiseling (if needed) all the spotwelds along that seam until I reach the leading edge of the lower rear 1/4-panel. With that strip of metal remnant now removed, I focus on removing the leftover bit of metal where the old outer rocker panel joined with the leading edge/vertical seam of the lower rear 1/4-panel. In this photo, you can see the thin jagged piece of metal which is what's left of the outer rocker panel, still attached to the 1/4-panel:



The spotwelds here were very randomly-placed & a little difficult to locate accurately, but I eventually got them all apart.



Lower & rear edges of rocker tunnel now cleared. After this photo, I went back & used a hammer & dolly to get this edge as straight as possible (within reason). I then used a fine metal file to remove any spotweld remnants & clean up any burrs/etc. that might prevent the new replacement rocker panel from sitting as tightly (flat) as possible against this seam area.



(To be continued...)

 

[kmead]

Glad to see the continuation, I know all about the three months of life later thing. Ugh.

Sorry to see further rust pockets.

Hope the next three months go better

 

[Jeff Stich]

Continued - Part 8.5

A little more edge-work done to the hole at the front end of the rocker tunnel. I intentionally left that little "tab" of metal at the upper left corner rather than just cut the top line all the way straight across, because that left corner's a bit of a complex shape with a rolled-lip edge and an uneven-height S-curve along the top (going from left to right). I'm thinking it'll be easier to only need to replicate half of that shape when making the replacement panel? :brow:



The inner rocker panel is fairly solid with mainly just surface-type rust, except for this rear section around the seatbelt anchor bolt (between the two vertical black marker pen lines). Not only is the anchor bolt completely rusted in place (which I need to be removable to install new seatbelts later), but the sheetmetal around it is heavily rusted, thin & weak (flimsy) with a few visible holes & lots of barely-visible pinholes in it.



Only 4 little rust holes, right?



A better look with a light source behind it shows quite a few more of the pinholes, which I've slightly enlarged for this photo:



Since the rest of the inner rocker is structurally sound, I'll likely just cut this rotted section out & replace it with a new formed piece, complete with a new seatbelt anchor welded in place. I'd rather spend the time & fix this area, than to ignore it & have that seatbelt anchor possibly break loose in an accident - my passengers' safety (or life) is far too important & definitely worth the few dollars & 1-2 hours of my time it'll take.

This next photo shows the underside of the passenger-side right footwell floor area, right next to the lower "frame rail" piece behind the front swaybar pivot mount. As you can see, I've already cut out the rusted floor sheetmetal, revealing the piece of (silver) galvanized metal that the PO had fastened on top of the floor with a few randomly-placed sheetmetal screws as a cheap fix...



I will, of course, remove this galvanized metal piece once I put the car back down on its wheels & can access the interior of the car again. The hole I've cut here will then be properly patched with new sheetmetal like the rest.

This concludes the days' work session.



(To be continued...)