Ash's 69 R-code

[Ash 145]

Today for the first time I had a go at folding and shaping some sheet steel for a patch panel. The bottom of the firewall on the drivers side had been hacked by the previous owner while installing floor pans patches. There was even a grinder cut into the torque box and he had left it like that.

 

 

This is the start of the fold

 

 

After trimming I welded the top to hold in place and hammered the corner

 

 

I completed the weld and sanded

 

 

[Ash 145]

No I could mark where to cut away the crap

 

 

And then fit in and hammer in some of the minor shapes

 

 

I could now sand it up and brush on some epoxy

 

 

 

[Ash 145]

My wife was very unwell recently so all things in life come to a stop. She's better now, well getting better, and yesterday I was able to get back into the car. In the next 12 months or so I think we'll be making some life changes, I'd like to have this car running and driving by then so that when we move, I am not moving this car in boxes.

 

Yesterday though I got the previous patch panel welded in.

 

 

 

Then all sanded and blasted

 

 

Permanently welded in the trans cross member while I was at it.

 

 

I blasted the inner rockers while the blaster was going and then brushed on two coats of epoxy on all the fresh and overlapping surfaces for the next step which is welding in the convertible inner rockers that I had made.

 

 

 

 

Had a great full day, I got to the point where I wanted to be which feels great for a change.

[RPM 1,190]

Dang, sorry to hear about your wife, I do wish you all well. Priorities, these cars can wait. God speed mate.

[Ash 145]

Thanks, Bob. Much appreciated. She is ok now, all that matters is she is still here and my kids still have their mum.

[MAC390 327]

I am new here but so glad your wife is on the mend and i wish her a great recovery.

Nice work on the car, where are you in OZ

[Ash 145]

Appreciate that MAC, thank you. She'll be ok, just time and rest. It's the scare that shook us all up. But we'll definitely be moving house, to where I don't know. But most likely sometime next year.

At the moment though, I'm a couple of hours north of you, up near Barrington Tops.

 

I snuck in a couple of hours on her this arvo before the temp dropped and the rain started. I trimmed the inner rocker to fit, should look something like this

 

 

Definitely adds a whole lot more meat to the bone

 

 

Sat the pedal box in place to make sure there would still be plenty of feet room to the left of the clutch pedal. There is. I'm not going to use the factory E-brake pedal so that is not a concern.

 

 

I bought one these a few weeks ago to attempt as an adaption for the E-brake. Being from a Mini, I liked how small it was. As well as low height and horizontal mounting tabs. I think it should work.

 

 

[MAC390 327]

Hey Ash, i was reading how you took the engine out,did you remove the headers first or leave them on.

I have hooker super comp headers on mine and it looks like real pain in the butt to unbolt them on the engine.

Thanks

[Ash 145]

Hey MAC,

 

Mine were a nightmare, in the end I had to undo the left head and lift it with an engine crane to support it while I was then able to get to the header bolts. I tried removing the gearbox first and tilting the engine side to side but it wasn't enough.

Once they were out, I swore those Hooker Super Comps were never going back in. I now have a new set of FPA's to fit which really hug the block in comparison.

Other guys seem to have better luck with them. My tower braces though were fairly hacked up to give a little more room. Which there was still none, from memory 1.5mm on one side and 3mm on the other. Not sure if my car is slightly narrower across the engine bay bay?

 

I had also read that Edlebrock heads were wider and caused more clearance issues so thought that may be the reason. But after measuring both Edelbrock and stock heads, I proved that to be wrong. It was only the port position that changed, all dimensions and header bolt locations were identical.

 

Do you think you have enough room to slide the engine out with them still fitted? That seems to be the most popular method.

 

Cheers

[MAC390 327]

Thanks Ash.

[stangnet33 88]

Some great stuff Ash ! How much metal are you going to adapt/use from the convertible floor area ? 

[Ash 145]

Thanks Stangnet! Good to see you pop in. How is your car coming along?

 

I've done a little more each afternoon this week as well, it's feeling great to making some forward progress.

 

I couldn't buy any of the specific convertible parts here in Aus. And the cost to buy them and have them sent over was stupidly expensive due to their size. From what info I could find, the convertible have the extra inner rocker piece and a one piece seat platform unlike the coupe and fastback that had two individual seat platforms. So I had the inner rocker pieces folded by a local fab shop. They are not exact to the originals as I had nothing to go off. But I figure they should still add whole lot more structural strength. And instead of using the one piece seat platform, I'm planning to add chassis connectors. I'll make them as well.

[stangnet33 88]

I'll be updating my thread soon. That's unfortunate about the shipping though I'm not that far off with our exchange rate. Your resourcefulness will shine :) Have you seen the car related show called Cuban Chrome lol . I plan some convert updates also.    

[Ash 145]

No, I haven't seen that show. We don't get a huge range of car shows on tele and I don't have pay TV. I'll have to look it up.

 

At least you don't have a big pond of water to get parts across if you need them. Our exchange is not great. Hasn't really been since I bought the cars. I definitely got them at the right time.

 

Look forward to seeing some of your updates. Did you try out any SPI?

 

Any one know if it was common for inner rockers to be galvanised?

[RPM 1,190]

 

Any one know if it was common for inner rockers to be galvanised?

I believe latoracing has posted pics of the inners rusted out and saying they weren't galvanised.

[Ash 145]

I tried to google to see what I could find. I could find that some outers were. Am certain mine are galvanised.They looked like it in the areas that were not previously painted or primed. I got that wonderful white smoke and white stuff remaining after a weld.

[RPM 1,190]

All outers including mine that I've seen welded on were galvanised.

[Ash 145]

My outers are still coated in colour. I didn't know that though, thanks Bob.

[Ash 145]

Found a photo, not the best but you can see the colouring of the inner rockers. This area had no paint or primer over it.

 

[Ash 145]

I've been able to sneak a little bit of time every day this past week and had a full day yesterday.

 

After getting the drivers side to fit, I traced its shape to the other side which made the process much quicker.

 

 

After drilling lots of holes, heaps of fun......not really. I then welded them in.

 

 

 

I used a squared off drill bit to clean the epoxy from the weld area in each drilled hole.

 

 

Then in went the floor for a test fit. It looks like a car again, kind of. ha

 

 

Following Ridge's tip of pulling the floor down to the chassis rail with some scrap and thread bar, I pulled it down to mark out the rail and cross member positions. I know these floor pans need a little work but with the mods I've done it's going to need a little more massaging. With the top of the tunnel cut out though, this will make it a little easier. I rounded over the edge on some scrap timber, some hits with a rubber mallet and it was shaping the floor nicely into the curvature of the cross member and firewall.

 

 

Back out the floor came to start drilling many more holes. I'm going to weld the sides of the floor to the undersides of the inner rockers that I installed. This actually worked out well as when I test fitted the floor way back, it wasn't quite wide enough to meet the inner rockers.

 

 

I've only been mixing up small quantities of epoxy, using some syringes has been working a treat to accurately measuring this.

 

 

After cleaning up the surfaces, my wife walked in to find me painting it on.

 

 

And she passed me a beer. She's a good wife!

 

[MAC390 327]

It's a good feeling when you put something on and you don't have to take it off.

Nice progress.

[paulb 112]

Looking good

[Ash 145]

Thanks guys!

 

Absolutely MAC, it feels great to finally be putting some stuff on instead of taking it off. I just had a look and my first point of contact on this car was back on the 10th of September, 2010. Just shy of two weeks and it'll be 6 years. That's a little depressing. Nothing like a firecracker under your butt to get a wriggle on. My goal is to get the driveline in for good, on it's wheel and moving under it's own power. The final body work and paint can then be a slow job.

 

With this beautiful weather kicking back in though, I've got a few other favourite things to do in my spare time which may hurt this new burst of progress. And sorry to my old 69, this look on my little fella's face takes trumps. We had a great day out on the water last weekend, my Dad came out too.

 

 

 

 

And then a I recently bought this too, first bike I've had since my young two came along, about 9 years now. I can't wait to get back out with my mates and hit up Eastern Creek race track again.

 

 

 

[Ash 145]

I did do a little more today. Got all the holes drilled in the new floor pan

 

 

and slid it back in for the final time. Pulled it down tight on the chassis rails and is now ready to start welding in.

 

 

 

Here you can see just how much I had to move the trans cross member to fit the TR6060.

 

[MAC390 327]

Nice bike, i was at Eastern Creek a couple of weeks ago to watch a mate of mine run his Corvair race car.

Was allowed to run the Charger around the track for a couple of laps but not real fast, but it was fun.