latoracing

The majority of the holes were 1/4", but I had my welder set on nuclear fusion, so they ended up around 3/8" diameter when all done. Overhead welds are fun, one of my favorite ways to weld. Turn your wire speed down a little and do not stop once the arc is started, welds just like a flat weld. Takes a little practice, if I can do it, anyone should be able to. Mike

Have plasma cutter, will travel...

You would hate me if you ever had to remove one of my floors lol... The dash came out nice. Sounds like you need to build another rotisserie, (much like myself) to keep all the projects flowing.

Using a 1" crimped end brush in my drill, I hit all the rosette weld holes, then came back with a specially ground 1/4" drill bit to finish off the bottom of the hole. Both steps didn't take too awfully long, but makes a huge difference welding. I did all the prep work last week, so today I got to go out and do nothing but weld this in place. Can't say I did nothing but weld, but you get the idea. I had very few holes that didn't want to weld due to paint. There were the few that didn't want to get close to the sub structure, but I convinced them to go where they were supposed to. The rear of the pan came out nice as well. The butt weld seam I planed over the frame rail also worked like a charm. While I was back there I also installed the rear seat brackets. The under side welds on the inner rockers went fairly well. Some of the holes didn't want to cooperate towards the torque box, nothing a little grinding will not take care of. Need to do some grinding, then fit the seat risers and under floor structure.

Been busy with all the little details of installing a very large piece in this car. All the scuffing and wire wheeling takes a little bit of time to get it all nice and neat. Once everything that needed cleaned in the floor pan area, and the new pan was all scuffed, the wax and grease remover came out to get rid of the contaminants. A little SPI mixed up in the gun and everything was sprayed. Let all this stuff dry over night, came back in today and put the pan back in place for the final time. Everything is all screwed in place, and a few clamps to help get some corners tacked down. Up next is the exciting rosette weld hole cleanup routine so all the welds will have a clean surface to melt some metal together. Epoxy primer is great for rust protection, but sucks to weld near / through.

That patch looks nice, wish they had them when I was fixing mine. The torque box replacement is coming along nicely, one day your car will not rain rust particles all over your floor.

Took a brake from prepping the convertible to get this header completely welded. I was so close, I just had to get it finished lol. Once I got it removed from the car (that was fun) it went back on the manifold. The first section of tube (first one I cut) was welded to the mid collector. Once it was all welded up, the second tube was welded up, then the main collector was slid in place, tacked and permanently attached. Once the collector was all welded up, the tubes were welded to the header flange. I used a larger filler rod along with adding a lot of filler material to the weld, they came out much better. I let everything cool down, then removed the assembly from the manifold to weld the inside of the tubes to the header flange. A little shaping of the tube to get it fit nice and snug, they were all fried. I added just a little bit extra filler wire to ensure a nice flat gasket surface, once the welds are ground flat. I'll get all this cleaned up and put back on the car for the upcoming exhaust portion. Now all I have to do is make one like this for the other side. There are a few loose ends I have to tie up before I can get the legos back out. One down, one to go...

Congrats! Would have journeyed up to G-boro to check out the show but had to stay around the house. Maybe next time. Car looks good.

Spent a few minutes cutting and fitting the remaining two pieces of pipe for the "2 into 1" portion of my header. Once I had the first piece trimmed to fit where I wanted, it was tack welded in place. The second piece was a lot easier as the first piece held everything in place. Once it was trimmed, it was tacked in place as well. I stuck my under floor convertible pan supports in place, knowing that the pipes were going to run right into them, so those will not be going on the car, it should be OK without them. I would rather have the headers the way they are anyway. I'll get them back off the car and completely weld them up (some day...)

They should call it "Less Dust Blasting" as the spray goes everywhere. It does a good job, just make sure you get it dry as the rust inhibitor in the water solution isn't all that great, least from my experience. Good luck getting all of it out of the frame and crevices as the wet media sticks like glue. Looking good!

Got the pan all screwed in place, without a bunch of drama. Working mainly from the bottom side, I could verify how everything was fitting up, and how many gaps needed to be closed. Once happy with the fitment, I outlined the areas that will need to be drilled / punched for the welds and removed the pan. Back on the saw horses I laid out the patterns in their perspective areas. As this is a convertible, I went a little bit tight on the weld spacing, for a little better connection. With the holes located, they were punched on the edges, and drilled in the middle areas, all with 1/4" tools. Now I have a bunch of cleaning and scuffing to do to get ready for some SPI primer. One step closer to getting this in the car for good.

Due to some rust issues in the top portion of the passenger side torque box area, the PO had removed a section of the toe board and left the crunchy hole in the torque box lid. Those needed to be patched, so some filler pieces were made and shaped into small patches. These were welded in place, and prepped to be covered up. With that all ground flush and primed, a patch for the toe board was made, welded in place, and ground smooth. There were a few other areas that needed a little fixing up, and some pin holes to weld shut, which all came out nice. I had wanted to get the floor in the car over the weekend, but it didn't happen the way I planned (which is actually a very good thing), but it went in this afternoon. This particular pan went in and fits like a glove. Very little issues, and no prying, nice and neat. I will get it screwed in place, starting at the tunnel and working outward. This is starting to look like a car again, YEA!!!

As someone who lives in a machining environment, we use LOTS of 303 stainless, trust me when I say it is not fun to weld, but machines great. For all practical purposes 308L filler wire still works quite well, you just have to feed in more rod and watch you heat input. When I bought these parts I specifically asked if the flanges were 304 or better, and not 303, live and learn. The sales person will hear of my disappointment in being misled on the flange alloy. 303 is not impossible to weld, it does help to know why it acts like lead and not stainless lol.

My project has been collecting dust for the past couple of weeks. I needed to pay it a little bit of attention to get some welding done. I gathered up all the little pieces parts that I needed for my back purging "kit" in order to get these tubes properly joined. I had an old regulator lying around (actually new in a box...) and brought home another bottle of Argon that will basically be vented to atmosphere. A few 1/4" barbed hose fittings and a 1/4" ball valve, along with my 1 3/4" I.D. cap (welded it up several weeks ago) and the purge was ready to go. Filling the stainless tubes full of argon helps keep the inside of the tubes nice, and the welds much stronger. With the cap connected to the hose, and a piece of tape over the "square" end of the tube, a small hole is cut in the tape to keep the pressure down. I was running between 4 to 5 PSI to displace the oxygen in the tube. Allowing the argon to flow for a few minutes ensures a complete purge, and it's ready to fry. Welding each section of tubing really didn't take that long. I haven't welded smallish round tube in a while, so it took me a little bit to get back in the swing of things. I was using 308 .030" stainless filler wire for all the weld joints, 1/16" tungsten, 60 amps, pulsed. Once the tubes were cool enough, a little red scotchibrite was used to clean the HAZ and inspect my welds (as I had missed a few places... oops...) Once all the tubes were fully welded up I needed a way to purge multiple tubes while welding collectors on and the flange attachment areas. I grabbed a piece of 2 1/2" square 3/16" wall tube and transfer punched the flange attachment holes on to it. These holes were drilled 3/8-16tpi and openings were cut for the tube openings. I made two plates to cap the ends, one with a piece of 1 3/4" tube to connect my cap to and welded them in place. The flange was bolted back on the car, and the tubes installed. Once everything was in place, the front tubes were tacked to the flange, and the collector was also tacked in place. Checking one more time on the car with all the tubes in place, just to make sure, it was removed, which is not fun. (I had to remove the head to get it back out, weeeee...) Bolted back on the manifold, everything was welded to stay. I think the people whom I bought these parts from lied to me. The header flange acts like it is 303 Stainless, it didn't weld very well at all. 303 has sulfur in it, which is helpful for machining, but sucks to weld. The welds do not flow and they are quite undercut because of the non flowing condition. They will be ok, but I hate finding out material composition that way. The header was removed from the manifold again, to remove the tape, then bolted back down. The rear tubes were put in place, ready for the next time I get to work on it. These tubes will not be welded to the flange just yet, as the 2" secondary tubes have to be butt welded to the collectors. (can't get all the way around them) The collector will be welded in place, then all this goes back on the car. More tube cutting / fitting to come....

With a little bit of grinding, the repair was all blended into the existing structure. I wanted to get the floor pan in a pre-trimmed state before finishing up a little patch in the firewall area. Since this pan was for a Coupe / Sportsroof, the ears had to be trimmed off, and I opted to use the small original areas around the inner wheel houses (they are in great shape). For some reason, these pans always have issues fitting nicely in those areas, and I would have to modify it to fit the Convertible inner rockers. So those areas were trimmed off as well. The new pan will join the old portions in the middle of the rear frame rail, no one will ever know...

Lots of wire brushing and de-scaleing of the inside of the rocker has finally revealed a workable surface. I coated the inner portion of the rocker with several generous coatings of POR-15 and allowed that to completely cure. I got some scrap 12ga CRS (didn't have any 14ga) to make the repair section out of. A little bit of bending made the basic shape. I laid out the shape of the patch and removed the excess with the plasma. I also went ahead and drilled the holes for the lower lip attachment welds. Took a few attempts to get the gaps just right, but finally got everything all nice and neat. Removed the patch one last time and primed the inside of the part. It was all but dry (well, kinda, close enough) it was put in place and tacked. The usual skip welding, jumping around method, and it was all in place. Got some grinding to do to make it look one piece again. Along with patching the lower part of the firewall, more cleaning, it will be time to get this one piece pan in the car. More to come...

Been wondering what had happened with the Mach. Glad you are back on it. Breaks are good some times lol. The interior looks fantastic, very nicely done!

315's will like a 11.5" rim +/- .(assuming a 17 or 18 inch wheel) A 295 can be made to fit fairly easy, guess a 315 might squeeze in there, but there will be some major massaging of the inner wheel well. The bump stop will have to be relocated, and the lip will have to be rolled all but flat to the quarter. Rims will dictate how the 315's fit (as you well know) I am going to run a 335-35-18 on the back of mine, but I have a 2" mini tub, along with a SoT 3-link / coil over setup. They have enough room to work without worrying about hitting anything. Once you go past an 11" wide rim for a 17 or 18, hold onto your wallet, (if you haven't already priced custom wheels) Look at the different tire stores on line, most will have actual dimensions on different brand of tires, on recommended rim widths.

You are going to actually drive it? I thought they were just something to work on, not actually drive lol. Wow, that will be awesome! If I was that close I wouldn't sleep till I took it out. We expect lots of details. Congrats!!!!!

Keeps the smoke away lol.

I was amazed the '66 outer rocker was zinc coated. The outer rocker on the '70 is zinc, with the inside rocker being uncoated, pretty much the same, except a little different shape for a nicer looking interior. (I guess...) The flat panel that separates the two rockers took a pretty good hit, as it is pitted, but not totally compromised. The bottom of the inner rocker was toast (as seen before) and had corroded up the side quite a bit. I have a little more perforated metal towards the front to remove, and it should be to weldable / sound material. I had thought someone had filled the rocker with some kind of coating, turned out to be a bunch of beach sand. I cleaned it all out and ran the vacuum in it to remove the remnants. A little more grinding to finish removing the spot welds and a bunch more grinding to come.

I can see your point of not having the firewall in place, it would be a wet noodle with no floor pan to boot. Might have to make a few brackets for my fixture (using the convertible for referance) before it comes off. Might be of use for a scenario like yours if / when the need arises.

That looks like fun Ridge, very nice work. I haven't had the opportunity to attempt an entire front end replacement (yet). I would think that installing the torque boxes before installing the clip could make the job much more difficult. With that many contact areas, sliding it back / up would be difficult. Will be interested to see how that portion turns out.

Dejaview, but not as bad It is amazing how well the Zinc coated parts hold up. The inner rockers are non coated and will completely rot away, leaving the outer rocker basically untouched.

With everything welded up and ground smooth, the bracket was primed then welded in place I went ahead and cleaned it up, ready for more primer (a little later) I spent some time getting rid of the floor pan remnants under the passenger side rocker. The reinforcement pan had to be removed as well. Since this area is right above the chassis fixture rail I had to use an angle drill to gain access to the spot welds. Once all of the welds were drilled out and the pan removed... SURPRISE!!!! Our lovely friend, the rust monster had crashed the party and left a mess. Guess more Plasma Therapy will be needed. I'm hoping (along with Vic) that this area is localized and doesn't require a complete replacement of the inner rocker. Fingers crossed...