1959 356A S/R coupe project chassis # 108625

[JTR70]

Stitching it all in.
Floor patch all plugged and stitched in. Couldn't throw as much heat at the seam weld as I wanted because its thin but its bonded well enough. I'll double check it once its ground back level.
The backside of the lap joint was a much better and hotter meld.
Now onto final trimming and fitment of the upper corner patch.
Trimmed and set screwed into best adjusted position.
Ready to weld in for good. A bit of a gap to the left side but its easily bridged with some weld. It just wasn't worth the time to add on literally a sliver of steel.

[JTR70]

Welded and begin metal finishing.
Tacking and tapping for a flush fit and shape as I went.
Just about there...
Welding all but complete. Now the unpleasant chore of grinding all this down smooth; both sides .
Completing a section at a time to keep my sanity. The face that will show the most finished out first. So happy I addressed this before adding in the floor pan, having unobstructed access made life a bit more pleasant.
Continuing on with more weld dressing.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[Scott B]

Great work. I always love when you can improvise to shape metal into a specific shape.

[JTR70]

Thanks Scott, I usually manage to find some piece in the shop that I can form off of.

[JTR70]

Little Stuff:
I have a lot of weld finishing ahead of me on these latest repairs so to break things up I made and installed a few final parts for this corner. Began with the reinforcement plate for the hand brake mount. A small square of 16 gauge to replicate the original.
Bolted into final position and ready to plug weld from underneath. I already had holes drilled in the floor from the removal of the old one and its much easier on my bits to drill the remaining holes in the floor versus this heavier stuff.
Last two items to install are the holding tabs for the windshield washer tube line. I harvested on tab from the floor remains that I had cut out but the other one was long gone. Copied and cut out a replacement.
Tabs installed with reinforcement plate plug welded on. Lower tab placed just over the weld joint of the floor patch to both conceal and support it.
Same with this plate it both conceals and supports the weld joint. Other than getting past the rot this is what helped determine my final cut lines. Okay , other than weld grinding this completes my repairs to this corner of the floor. Beginning similar repairs to the right side corner next.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

So many small fiddly bits that can take a lot of time but... will show the effort when finished ( or rather won't show the effort but just look original rust free !! )
Roy

[JTR70]

Agree Roy, a lot of tiny looses ends to address once the heavy lifting is done but no way around it. Thanks again!

Justin

[JTR70]

Begin unpeeling the right side upper trunk corner.
I found that left corner sort of unusual as to have rotted so badly and is such a concentrated area but to have both corners go?? Even weirder, a can only guess that the old tar paper peeled forward and created a nice pocket for rain water to settle down into.
Another small item to address while I'm under here is some tapping and welding to the bottom of the hinge pocket.
I want to disturb as little as possible so I settled on this cut line. It gets me past the rot while preserving that row of factory spot welds below.
First layer peeled away. A thick chunk of rust fell out and I was trying to figure out which layer of metal it originally was but I'll get my head around it.
Inside view. I'll have to cut away this outer corner and fabricate another as well but its far simpler than the left side and not as rusty either; the trunk floor is intact thankfully.

[JTR70]

Front floor pan pre-fitment :
By the next session I was sick of working in that confined space under the dash so I changed gears and began fitment of the front floor pan. Once I have it trimmed and dialed in I'll go back under the dash to finish up.
Dialing in center and best match against the corrugation shapes in relation to the leading edges of the mount flanges.
A peddle assembly was mocked up next to dial in the floors best adjusted position further.
Relief cuts where added to clear the longitudinal leading edges to allow the floor to lay flush for a closer fit.
Much to my great relief the initial floor position gave me this outline trace as to where the slotted mounting holes on the peddle assembly are in relation to that circular relief. Other floor installs I have done were nowhere near this close to being right and required a lot of messaging to fix. The final mount stud placement should be at the back end of the slotted hole when the peddle assembly is mounted flush to the wall highlighted in green. I'll end up pushing the floor just a touch more forward to ensure that the eventual bottom stud is out of the relief shape but its close.
All the while the shoulders of the corrugations are lining up nice against the leading edge.

[JTR70]

Dialing it in further:
Floor moved forward just a touch more to ensure mounting stud clearance.
That should doer...
Original reference the final confirmation I needed.
remounted to etch in the flange leading edge to dial in my final cut lines.
Etched and will measure backwards from the chassis at intervals for the final trim line.

[JTR70]

trim and trial fitments:
Basic trim line added and now onto cutting off the excess.
Excess removed and first trial fitment. I of course only got this far on the first try before it bound up.
A series of fine shaves and retries got it closer each time.
Just about home with only a touch further to go...

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Very interesting lesson there Justin. There is much more thought than you might think in completing a new floor fitment. I am thankful all my floors are original. Datums are so important to have, When guys buy rusted out wrecks with no floors or even pedal clusters how do they ever make a start!
Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks Roy, like I've said many times before I'd be at a loss without an original reference example...

[JTR70]

Front floor pan installation prep.

I was going to finish the repair to the right upper trunk corner next but access won't be affected whether the floor pan is in or out so I'm going to get the pan in first.
Repairing the flanges on the toe board mounts first. The lower runs at the tunnel are little short and torn away.
New sections added back on with a little excess for insurance. I left this repair for last on a previous floor and it was a PIA after the fact. Did not want a repeat so added them now.
Lower flange repairs: Not rusty but the remover of the original floor had ground these back paper thin. I tried a little gas welding to see if I could save them but they where just too weak now. Any plug welding attempts to attach the floor would just bow right through...
In process of adding some new flanges.
Repairs complete and now ready to accept the new floor pan.

[JTR70]

Front floor pan installation:
Most the plug welding will be to the inside but I drilled a few along the outside just to ensure the floor remains drawn tight to the flanges.
Eventually got all my plug-weld holes drilled both to the flanges and the floor. Primer cleaned off along the contact surfaces so my panel spotter doesn't short and blow out a hole during the detail follow up after the plugs are dressed.
Floor pan set screwed and installed for the final time.
Begin welding from the center outward.
Grinding rows of weld heads is very tedious so I like to do it a section at a time. All dressed and followed up with my panel spotter for its finished detail. Continuing down the sides of this flange next.

[JTR70]

Plug welding continued.
My OG reference shows a gas seam weld run at this intersection.
Added this detail along the bulkhead and pan but the lateral run will have to wait until the flange repair for the outer gusset is completed. That repair won't happen until the front beam is pulled out.
As plug welding proceeds I'll be bouncing between this last section of floor flange repair. Then I can begin fitting and trimming the rear floor section.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Looking good Justin A lot of holes to plug !!

Roy

[JTR70]

A ton of them...Thanks Roy!

[JTR70]

More front floor pan:
Went down both sides plug welding the screw holes first to ensure the pan stays tight against the flange.
Moving to the inside next to finish out the rest of the plugs.
Finished out the lateral runs with my panel spotter to complete the welding details. Lose ends being tied up a section at a time.
Bounced back to the last of my perimeter repairs and cleaned out the remains of this lower kick panel.
Torch heat used to destroy the remaining rust and scale along the reinforcement flange.