After seeing the images psoted by John and David I thought I should show some progress also:
Still need to tackle the passenger side bottom, portions of the front tunnel, and the bumper rail but I think I see an end to the madness in the next several months. I hope to start assembly sometime this summer if all goes well!
A couple things we (me and the welder) have learned is that the spot welding (we have to do rosettes) on the L-shaped portion of the panels is really important as it provides the strength. The other items are as follows:
1) After having sand blasted the hull before repairing I should have painted it with a primer. It has taken way to long to repair and even a little humidity will cause it to rust. The white color is from use of phosphoric acid to stop the rust and convert it to a more stable form.
2) When ever we can, we paint the inside of the L-shaped panel (where the rosettes are) to try and prevent rusting from occurring (on the inside) when invariably moisture get into these seams. We paint with a copper-based primer so that it welds easily.
3) we found that Eastwood makes a hole punch air tool that makes 3/16" holes for the rosette welding. A heck of a lot easier than drilling.
4) Lastly, trying to make everything accurate is difficult as when we go from one side to the other they are not exactly the same as you cannot use dimensions on one side of the vehicle and expect them to work on the opposite side even though they look exactly the same only mirrored.
Hopefully, we will continue to try and finish this little complicated monster!!!
Yes, we are going to put the ribbed panels on but decided to make sure the hull was repaired initially and then add the piece as it was originally done (we could see when we removed the back section that there was an inner and outer hull). Although, this time, we intend to primer the inner and outer portions to try and prevent rusting.
