2548's Restoration

Next I’ll show some of the work needed on the floor pans and under chassis stiffeners. This was damage from rust and some improper jacking. I also repaired holes left by the installation of some non-stock seats.

Here is inside left floor, after removal of carpet and pad (well, what was left of them; what a nasty job that was):

Outside, same area:

Most of the rust through was in these two areas:

Fortunately, most of the damage was out in the open, areas where there is only the one layer of metal. Not here, however. This rusty patch extended across one of the stiffeners, so I had to locate the spot welds and cut them out:

Here you can see the one area repair tacked in, and the other yet to do. Also see the jacking damage to the outer stiffener:

The right side does not look quite so bad from outside, but it has a lot of pin holes.

Here is a series of pics of the jacking damage on the chassis stiffeners, and the work needed to repair them:

I used the plasma cutter for most of the work removing the rusted patches and the bent stiffeners. Since I wanted to reuse the stiffener pieces after straightening them, I had to find a way to cut the damaged bits out more or less cleanly. Here is how I guided the cutter along the corners and bends. A small piece of wood, a hole drilled through for the cutter tip, and a groove ground along lengthwise guides the cutter tip. Obviously they don’t last very long, but so easy to make, just throw away the burnt up one and make another. Works surprisingly well:

Here is a little patch to cover some holes from a prior seat installation:

I could have fixed this on the inside of course, since it will be covered with pad and carpet no one would see it. Just decided to do it here while I had access.

Here is more of the stiffeners repairs in process:

I’ve cut out the rusty patches on the right side; funny how the rust damage is almost a mirror image of the left side. Must be low areas where water collects: