In order to add the angle iron on the left side behind the front seat floor pans I will have to repair or more accurately, replace the metal that makes up the inner rocker panel (or whatever the hell this particular structural member is called) metal. The left side is worse off than the right side with a large majority of the metal just gone from rust. I had a couple large pieces of rigid sheet metal that were perfect for this application due to their being stiff enough to almost make a good frame repair patch. I cut a couple pieces of the metal to span the length of the rocker panel area going from just about behind the front seat floor pans all the way back to the rear quarter tire well. This stiff metal will provide a solid surface to weld the angle iron to in order to further strengthen the central floor area as well as fill in the areas that were vacated by the rusted metal. Connecting the new metal to the old metal also gave the added bonus of adding restored strength to the rear quarter/tire well/rocker panel junction, which will need some extensive repairs due to extreme rust and degradation from previous body repair, which incorporated a heavy use of body filler, all of which is pretty degraded due to the moisture and rust. Another area that I had to address was the little wire channel that goes along the top of the rocker panel area. The narrow molding chrome piece that sets on this area covers this channel. A section of this channel was rusted out as well and needed to be replaced with some more scrap metal. I welded in the replacement channel piece and some other metal at the rear of the corner of the door jamb. With this metal all done, I did another detour to the bottom of the rear quarter. This area is a train wreck just as well. The rocker panel to rear quarter area is extremely rotted out. Now normally this would've been replaced with a whole new rear quarter but this isn't a viable option at the moment so the next best thing is to weld in some sheet metal then fill the area with body filler to smooth everything out. I had to grind out some old body filler and rust to prep the area then cut a piece of sheet metal that I would install behind the rear quarter. I did a series of light welds on the lowest setting so as to not vaporize the thin metal. Of course as I super heat the metal, the body filler got even weaker, allowing me to peel a lot away, exposing more area that will have to be covered up afterward. To further reinforce the metal patch inside the quarter panel, I did a series of welds along the surface to have more anchor points. As I peeled away filler plugs, I exposed more area that'll require more metal patches on the inside. Of course when its all said and done, the inside of the quarter will look like a patchwork just like the floors. Of course the body filler will cover all this fuckery up to make things look at least somewhat decent from the outside. With the left side quarter panel all patched up on the front side of the tire well, I moved on to the right side. Of course this side was just as jacked up and needed all the bondo cut out and areas prepped up in order to weld in the patch sheet metal. I also took a minute to patch up the inside of the tire well, having to do the same thing with the prep work of grinding the metal down to give me some bare metal to weld to. I only managed to patch up the front of the rear quarter panel on both sides since I was in the mindset of trying to finish up all of the interior patching. I would get to the rest of the patching of the quarters and even the fenders and other body areas when I got to the exclusive work on the body later on. With the patchwork done, I can now get back to the interior and getting the rest of the floor made. I still have to make support members that hold the bolts that would be used to complete the final set of body mounts, in the interior of the body, near the middle. We're at about the halfway point on the interior/floor patching.
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