AFU!

  How am I feeling on the project lately? Actually, Sammy Hagar outloined my current feelings pretty well:

90 days on the road is what I need
When my axe cuts me deep, I let it bleed
On the stage, off my strings, down my face
And all over me
Pumpin' up for the show
Feelin' like something's gonna blow
S'got me all fired up
Yes, I'm all fired up
Through the ice into the fire
Blowin' steam
North and south, east n'west, right n'left
I'm always extreme
Don't like the middle squeezing me
I don't like nothin' in between
Yes, I'm all fired up
Got me all fired up
When the rest have packed it up
I'm alive, I'm electric, inspired
I, I'm naturally wired
Wired, naturally wired
Wired, wired
I'm naturally wired
Naturally wired
Wired, naturally wired
Wired, naturally wired.

  Why am I fired up and feeling invincible? I AM FIXING RUST, that's why! As a car guy, I hate rust. We ALL hate it- we're conditioned to hate it. But, I've come to realize something about myself in the past couple of weeks: I LOVE fixing rust. Absolutely love it. It's a huge rush to see myself fixing something that most people would give up on. It's a bigger rush to enjoy it so much!

  Blah, blah- enough touchy-feely stuff, let's show what we've done, what we've found, and where we're going next.

This area was of special interest to me. The day after I brought it home, I pulled the rear seat bottom out and noticed that in this corner, I could see daylight through the car. That bothered me, so I saw fit to attack this area first. What you're looking at is the rear seat riser and driver's side rear wheelwell from the inside of the car. Notice that through the hole, you can see the rear tire. I almost got ahead of my photography- you can see the cut mark made with my ever-present Sharpie.

Bad metal on top of the riser cut away. The rusty piece running from side to side is the body brace, and will be replaced. The part running up and down is the frame, and it has only surface rust, which is easily dealt with. I expected to find the top of the frame to need some serious repair, but I'm finding nothing worse than minor surface rust on it.

The first piece of new metal tacked in place. I'm starting to feel good.

And, a couple hours later, the whole corner and seat riser is rebuilt. Still needs finish welding and grinding, but I'm starting to feel REAL good! The car now has less rust and more solid metal than it's had over the past 3 owners!

  Of course, there's always more rust to be found in a car this bad. I expected that.

No, I'm not pointing to something with an abbreviated digit. I still have all my fingers in their stock length. What you can't see is sticking through a rust hole. Gonna have to make a new trans tunnel.

  I also decided to take the door threshold plate and trim off the rocker. Once I'd done that, I was able to remove the inner and outer rocker with my bare hands! Yes, the rust was bad, but a little detective work showed that there was more than just rust at work: When it recieved the botched "bodywork" by the jackweed previous owner, they had actually installed a replacement rocker panel- with screws into rusty metal underneath.

With the inner and outer rocker off, it makes for a somewhat graphic and frightening picture

Yee-haw! This is gonna be fun. Seriously- I'm gonna have a blast with this!

  Next steps are to replace the trans tunnel, and duplicate the rear seat riser repair on the passenger side. After that, we'll rebuild the body brace under the seat riser and then replace the rear footwells. Tomorrow is going to be a blast- Coolest nephew in the world is coming over to help work on it. A year ago, he stood in my garage and told me he'd probably never learn to weld. A month later, he owned his own welder and was doing heavy work on his pickup truck. Tomorrow, he becomes guest welder #1 on the Chevy!