Loving the tinwork. Nice job of merging the two along the scar-line.
Pete
Loving the tinwork. Nice job of merging the two along the scar-line.
Pete
Thanks!
I'd like to finish it so the casual observer can't tell it's not the stock bulkhead. Not sure I'll be able to pull that off though.
Great progress....sorry you're outside 
sucks ......what metal prep will you be using on the cowl patch?
I'm trying to spend a few hours on it every day. Today, not so much. I've been huddled by the furnace all day while fighting off a cold I probably got while freezing my ass off yesterday. 
Trying to get some rest, bouncing around between YouTube, Star Trek, and the forum.
Metal prep will be my SOP. Wire wheel, Ospho, epoxy primer. I'm not going to bother with trying to remove rust until I'm ready to paint. Even indoors with our present humidity it will flash rust pretty much every night.
How would you rate epoxy primer to something like por15? Seems like people doing the coolest work always use epoxy primer, just wondering why.
In reply to Rufledt :
Epoxy sticks like crazy and prevents moisture intrusion. great for covering fresh clean metal before you do more work.
POR is for metal that was rusted and got cleaned off "as good as possible".
Where it gets sticky is that I would not put epoxy on top of POR or POR on top of epoxy, cause I know for a fact that it peels right off.
Pete
In reply to Rufledt :
I've never used POR-15. Epoxy primer has just been habit since I was 12 when I started first started painting race cars.
One of our sponsors was a high-end custom boat trailer shop that let us use the fabrication shop/spray booth.
They used epoxy primer on everything, and if it held up under those circumstances who were we to question.
The main draw for POR-15 seems to be functionality in less than ideally prepared surfaces. However, in researching their recommended preparation it's basically the same procedure I use for epoxy primer, so I don't see the point.
POR-15's "Metal Ready" is basically the same thing as Ospho.
I'm led to believe that POR-15 has a very durable surface, but for something that's going to be topcoated anyway, I don't know why that matters.
So I still feel like recycled dog excrement but needed to do something quasi productive after being essentially non-functional for the last week.
I figured I'd toss some of my scrap on the truck, and that led to mocking up the HVAC box to see how much of the cowl parts I need to save. That led to my first big snag in the build.
Yeah, the blower motor housing wants to occupy the same space as my lower door hinge.
Undeterred, I cut the blower housing off with a pull saw to make it fit.
Like a glove!
The keen observers among us will notice I have the wipers mocked up as well.
Lots of space!
To bother NOHOME a little more, it looks like I can even reuse the inner cowl and factory HVAC mount. Oh, and my defroster outlet lines up perfectly too.
Of course, I do have to do some work to reclock the blower motor now and fabricate a new duct for fresh air, but I think I can still make it work.
However that's all going to have to wait as I'm already exhausted and need a nap.
In reply to Crackers :
I better go home and do some welding so you don't get ahead of me! Very real chance seen how you are moving along.
For those following along, the whole point of the chassis swap is that once you get the two bodies mated, the rest should just bolt together. Maybe even be running if the donor chassis was running when you started. I did not do it the smart way.
I love opening this thread to find pictures of the same old Lexus parts I have piled up around my own project. Looks like that HVAC belongs there!
In reply to NOHOME :
I *might* get the fab work done on the chassis/body before you're done, but I'm definitely not going to be *done* first.
In reply to machinenbau:
I like looking through your thread for the same reason.
Hopefully I haven't shot myself in the foot cutting up the box.
Where in the world could you possibly put that blower box......err in the engine compartment with a smidgen of galvanized duct work perhaps???
Pssh... I have almost 8" between the box and the door post.
That should be plenty of space. 
Crackers said:Pssh... I have almost 8" between the box and the door post.
That should be plenty of space.
So he said...........stay tuned y'all.....
Scope creep is a mother-berkeleyer.
I can only work for about 30 minutes at a time before I run out of breath. Between seasonal allergies, asthma, and having been sick on/off for the last couple weeks I currently have the lung capacity of a shi-tzu.
Inbetween sweating and gasping for air, I've come to the conclusion that in order to properly reinforce the pillar I have to completely tear it apart.
The stock Rambler only had a GVWR of 2700lbs and after seeing how much of it is made from tissue paper, I can totally believe it.
The entire pillar is only made from 2 sheets of 19ga steel roughly formed into a small box section with a small 16ga backing plate behind each hinge.
Needless to say, that is terrifyingly flimsy. I'll be adding in a section of 14ga rectangular tubing and a few extra gussets to stiffen the whole area, but that's for another day.
#inspiredbymadness
So I'm finally feeling like myself, so I spent a few hours on the wagon today.
I got a section of 2x4" 14ga tubing fit into the pillar and poked a bunch of holes in it with my baby drill press.
I cut similar holes in the backside of the new post as what can be seen on the driver's side. I'll clean up the slots with the die grinder after it's welded in so I can get the holes matched perfectly.
While I was laid up I spent a lot of my time and a fair amount of cash on eBay buying more hammers and some body dollies I can grind on. So I wasted a lot of time today playing with the dollies getting the post flat again.
Whoever "repaired" this thing after the hit to the RF didn't see it necessary to fix the damage to the post, so the hinge plates, and both bolt holes for the fenders were all tweaked and twisted in different directions. I don't think the door was involved, (don't quote me on that) but the post is so flimsy I think the fender twisted the post around the hinges.
Not something you can really photograph, but I spent close to an hour chasing ripples up and down this little strip of metal. Even worse, you'll never know it after all the panels are back on.
So with that done, let's patch that hole where the door harness would have gone through if it had a door harness, and warp it again!
I think this patch fitment will make some of you itchy...
Yes, I started welding with it as pictured. Yes, I did it just to be a troll.
A few tacks, a little hammering, rinse and repeat. Then when I thought I had it all welded up I had to look for a wire brush so could clean it up and take this picture. (Meaning I didn't brush at all between tacks.)
By the time I got this far it was starting to get dark enough I couldn't tell how many spots I missed until I looked at the pictures so I called it a day.
I also couldn't tell I didn't get all the galvanizing off until, well, now. I knew I wouldn't be able to get it all off the backside, and would have to fight with it a little. Although, I think flux core wire welds through galvanizing a little better than gas shielded wire does.
My hypothesis is the gas shielding gets disrupted by the off gassing of the burning coating more than the FC since FC wire doesn't get the shielding blown away. (Although, you can see the junk bubble to the surface, but I just wipe it off with my glove and zap it again.)
Tomorrow I'll try to finish the welding, clean it up and put the final shape into the corner.
Hi Crackers
I like your build, great progress made so far.
Do you feel alright today after welding galv?
Apparently the fumes have some lasting effect on your nervous system, but I’m guessing that takes a lot of exposure.
I was outside in the breeze. With FC I try to stay out of the fumes regardless, but I'm especially careful with any sheet metal welding on this because of the galvanizing.
Man, I haven't checked into this thread in ages! Awesome work.
OK I'll bite....crackers, the transition from the hinge post to the fwall bulkhead will be an angled execution or a right angled process ???
Honestly, that's all still up in the air. I thought I had a plan until I test fit the HVAC, now I'm trying to get the firewall-body junction solid so I can test fit doors and the front end without committing to the kick panel.
As far as the outside, I'm trying to keep the stock Rambler look. (You know, the part that will never be seen with the front end on...)
Awesome work man,I love this.
I ended up spending the rest of the weekend playing videogames with the GF, so nothing got done on the car.
I got started back on it today at the crack of noon and finished up the patch on the door post.
I ended up chasing pinholes for a while and ultimately gave up. I'm pretty sure the galvanizing was making it a lot harder to weld than it should have been.
With that in mind I'm going to change up how I'm going to do a few things, and scrap most of the stuff I've already cut off. At this point I'm pretty sure making a new cowl vent/drain channel will be quicker than trying to reuse the old stuff and I want to see some progress!
Waiting for my weld primer to dry while I have some lunch, then I'll weld the post in, tie it into the bulkhead with a bit of square tube, then I'll start hanging doors and mocking up the front end.
With a little luck it will look like a car again by the end of the day.
So I got the doors hung, but I ran out of daylight. I was so close to my goal for today too. I have the fenders sitting on the front end, but I need to build some bracing to support/square the nose so I can hang the core support in the right spot, and I didn't see a point to making any half-assed temporary attempts just to see the front end on it.
Side note: Holy E36 M3 I forgot how much I hate hanging/adjusting doors.
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