[Scarebird]

29 pound - got it. I should probably know this!

[gtohurstjudge]

I agree on the new seat foams that it is a bad idea. I deeply regret ever changing mine out because it makes you sit up too high in the car. I'm a tall person and with the new foams the top rail on the windshield is in my line of sight. I have original foams in my 70 Chevelle SS and the seats sit way way lower like they are supposed to. As a future project I'm going to put original foams back in the front seats on my car. The seat back foams also cause you to sit too
close to the steering wheel........I despise them.

[roger1]

Were they ACI brand?
I can't remember if it was this board or the gtoforum where an interior guy posted that ACI were good and he had installed many. He also had experience with the other brands.
I guarantee the guy I use will get them right and have the sitting height they way they are supposed to be.

[roger1]

Done with using the discs. Next I will blast the undersides, door jambs and anywhere else that wasn't practical to use the disc on. Everywhere that I did use the disc will get sanded with 80 grit on a D/A before priming.



The metal looks really good.
No surprises other than a so-called body man drilled 3 holes in the passenger door to hold his filler skim coat to a couple of small door dings.



A few hail dings in the hood but good other than that:



Just need a good day for an outside blasting session soon. There's rain in the forecast for the next several days so it may be awhile.

[roger1]

I removed, disassembled and blasted the door hinges in the cabinet. They are in perfect condition but and the bushings had very little wear. The d/s detent roller had just a little wobble in it but the p/s was good but decided I should replace them both. I ordered a kit from Inline tube that includes new pins, bushings and the rollers.

https://i.imgur.com/3dELgr4.jpg

Got the holes in the doors welded up. I was able to hammer and dolly the area to get smoothed a little better too. Hit it just a tad with the shrinking disc as well.



I started on repairing the core support today. It was more complicated than I thought to remove the braces at the frame mount area than I thought it would be. There's a flange on both sides of the brace and on side if it is sandwiched between 2 other flanges and spot welded on both sides.





I couldn't get my spot weld drill bit into this area so I had to grind them out.



The other side:



Most people would probably opt to buy a replacement core support but I'd rather repair it and have an original part. I like to keep original parts when I can. I don't have to worry about the fit and quality that way.

[roger1]

Oops. I didn't link the first image of the door hinges:

[bluejudge]

Originally Posted by roger1

I removed, disassembled and blasted the door hinges in the cabinet. They are in perfect condition but and the bushings had very little wear. The d/s detent roller had just a little wobble in it but the p/s was good but decided I should replace them both. I ordered a kit from Inline tube that includes new pins, bushings and the rollers.

https://i.imgur.com/3dELgr4.jpg

Got the holes in the doors welded up. I was able to hammer and dolly the area to get smoothed a little better too. Hit it just a tad with the shrinking disc as well.



I started on repairing the core support today. It was more complicated than I thought to remove the braces at the frame mount area than I thought it would be. There's a flange on both sides of the brace and on side if it is sandwiched between 2 other flanges and spot welded on both sides.





I couldn't get my spot weld drill bit into this area so I had to grind them out.



The other side:



Most people would probably opt to buy a replacement core support but I'd rather repair it and have an original part. I like to keep original parts when I can. I don't have to worry about the fit and quality that way.

Please post a picture of the core support when you are done. If your car was in good condition and the core support looks like that, I hate to see what mine looks like. Thanks, Marc.

[Sidponcho]

I think you might be onto something with regards to the original core support. Instead of a complete incorrect assembly maybe the aftermarket could make pieces such as the 90 degree brackets that could be used to repair an original

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Sidponcho

I think you might be onto something with regards to the original core support. Instead of a complete incorrect assembly maybe the aftermarket could make pieces such as the 90 degree brackets that could be used to repair an original

It would help if they did that especially if he areas were worse than mine was. On mine though, I would have repaired my brackets anyway.
There's really no way around not having a good mig welder to be able to repair one and have it look original.

Originally Posted by bluejudge

Please post a picture of the core support when you are done. If your car was in good condition and the core support looks like that, I hate to see what mine looks like. Thanks, Marc.

You bet. I'll post photos of the rest of the repair steps and when it is complete. The only rust on mine is at these mount points. The rest of it is just greasy and dirty. Once done I will blast it and paint with black SPI epoxy primer like with everything else I've done that with.

[roger1]

I got the core support repair finished.

Opened holes to good metal and squared off and cleaned up of rust around the edges. I blasted the brackets in my cabinet. I then made the patches out of 16 gauge sheetmetal.





Patches welded in:









Ground smooth and plug weld holes drilled in bracket:





Welded in the brackets:





Ground smooth and holes drilled. Took a while to make sure I got them in the right place. The holes on the frame that they match up to are 39" apart center-to-center. I tripled checked my measurements onto the core support before drilling. I drilled the holes out smaller and used a carbide burr the rest of the way.









Next up is using a wire wheel to remove the undercoating from the inner fenders. I got a start on that today. It was put on thicker here than anywhere else on the car. I've already made a mess. Then I'll weld up the ugly access hole.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by roger1

...Took a while to make sure I got them in the right place. The holes on the frame that they match up to are 39" apart center-to-center. I tripled checked my measurements onto the core support before drilling.

I wish I did.

I measured the holes on the top of the frame - they were different center to center than the dimension on the bottom of the frame where the core support bolts to.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

I wish I did.
I measured the holes on the top of the frame - they were different center to center than the dimension on the bottom of the frame where the core support bolts to.

I measured from the bottom holes but when I looked at the top holes, I figured they would be the same. Glad I didn't make that assumption. I hope it didn't cause you too much grief.

[taf44667]

Roger, what diameter holes did you put in. We’re they the same as frame hole diamter.

[roger1]

No, I think they are smaller than the holes in the frame. I made them just big enough for the neck part of the mount rubber to drop through.

[roger1]

As I was prepping the core support for blasting using a wire wheel, I noticed this area was cracked:



That led me to check out the rest of it and I found some spot welds had broken loose and a couple of flanges the factory missed spot welding at all. Between that and the fact that one mount was completely rusted out, I'm sure the entire support was under a lot of stress.
Got the welder back out and got it all corrected.













Got it blasted today:

[Greg Reid]

Hmmm..... I can't see the pics in posts #290 or #295... Just me?

[bluejudge]

Another great job, thanks for the pictures. You can make a living if everyone sent your their radiator supports. Thanks, Marc

[roger1]

Originally Posted by bluejudge

Another great job, thanks for the pictures. You can make a living if everyone sent your their radiator supports. Thanks, Marc

Thanks for the compliment!

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Hmmm..... I can't see the pics in posts #290 or #295... Just me?

Try refreshing the page. Maybe my photo hosting service (imgur.com) was down at the time your page loaded.

[roger1]

Stripped the undercoating from the inner fenders with a wire wheel. Messy job.



Here's that ugly access hole:



Stitched up the wound:



Smoothed out the welding and then used a hammer and dolly followed by the shrinking disc. Took a while to get it right:



Underneath:



After blasting:



Underneath:



I had to do some hammer and dolly work on the valance panel. Used the shrinking disc too. It was pretty banged up all around the license plate area.



After blasting:



I now have everything blasted that needed to be done outside except for the convertible top frame which I will do down the road.







Got some good news and some not so good news.

The good news is that the guy from the machine shop texted this photo to me today:



Looks fantastic!
I'm guessing he will be ready to get it running next week. I'll find out tomorrow as I'm going over there to drop off a couple of parts he had me order.

The not-so-good news is that my transmission is delayed. Art said that I will take about 6 more weeks. The special clutches he uses are on backorder. His supplier says it's because of Covid.

[Scarebird]

Looks great - are you going to run the fuel inlet passenger front?

I hindsight on mine running Chevelle BBC lines would have been better, allowing the feed to go on the passenger side.