Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Welding Holes in My Rear

[Davedacarpainter]

Damn, lot of work being done! Good way to pass the summer. Or pass out.

Dang Drew, this is nothing so far.

Tomorrow the real fun begins! I'm going to love this engine bay redo. Now that I have approval from the shop to bring it down there to paint it, I'm having green engine bay dreams! lol

BTW, the heat isn't that bad, the humidity lately is like being in southern Alabama though. The first week of real heat of the summer has always made me feel a little woozy.

 

[02 281 GT]

Don't forget to hydrate.

 

[droopie85gt]

Where I used to work, one of the guys put the "Pee color chart" in the bathroom to help prevent hydration!
It's always bad humidity here. I had to go out to a high school construction site (is $120 MILLION really a high school) and measure all of the field houses locker room to verify the plans. I must be the office wuss now. In about 50 minutes, I completely sweated thru my t-shirt and was soaked! Up until I was about 30 this crap didn't phase me.
Now, if I want to work in my garage, I have to arrange enough fans, it looks like the fan aisle at Home Depot.

 

[jrichker]

Dang Drew, this is nothing so far.

Tomorrow the real fun begins! I'm going to love this engine bay redo. Now that I have approval from the shop to bring it down there to paint it, I'm having green engine bay dreams! lol

BTW, the heat isn't that bad, the humidity lately is like being in southern Alabama though. The first week of real heat of the summer has always made me feel a little woozy.

Alcohol dehydrates you, water hydrates you... Therefore drink more water and less beer or booze...

 

[droopie85gt]

Alcohol dehydrates you, water hydrates you... Therefore drink more water and less beer or booze...

That's no fun! If you drink enough beer, your pee is clear....hydrated. Of course, you can't get any work done because you have to pee every 5 minutes and you'll probably trip over an air hose and break your arm!

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Alcohol dehydrates you, water hydrates you... Therefore drink more water and less beer or booze...

That's no fun! If you drink enough beer, your pee is clear....hydrated. Of course, you can't get any work done because you have to pee every 5 minutes and you'll probably trip over an air hose and break your arm!

Joe's right Drew, alcohol does dehydrate you.

When it gets as hot a as it is Joe, i don't drink any beer at all while working. I don't even like Gatorade in the heat. I've got six bottles of water in the fridge right now cooling off.

I understand dehydration pretty thoroughly guys. I have the family trait of sweating like a bear, I take precautions.

Also when I was the Cubmaster for my son's cubscout pack, I used to teach the boys before our camp outs the three C's of peeing: Clear, Clean and Copious.

Plus I may have picked up a thing or two while in the Army concerning hydration! Lol.

I have an old fan that puts out quite the storm as well.

Last night I was just pooped because I had spent the previous eleven hours in the heat working fairly hard with the addition of having a paint booth that heats up to 160* after each paint job. My pee was the 3C's and I had no symptoms of dehydration this time. I was just tired.

I did let my self get pretty hot while I painted that Impala, but that's a whole different story that I won't be repeating anytime soon.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So begins the scrubbing.

 

[droopie85gt]

I used to ride dirtbikes and do hare scrambles. I got so dehydrated one time (went thru my 42oz camelback in 40 minutes) that my groin started cramping....from gripping the tank. I started getting light headed and realized I was in heat stroke area. I pulled over...or crashed according to which witness you ask and went and lay down in a creek. Some bystander gave me a bottle of water. That could have been toilet water but that was the best liter of water I have ever had. After about 45 minutes, I gingerly rode back to the truck. I think that might have been the last race I attempted.
MY fat ass is on BP, cholesterol, blood sugar meds and I think the combo of being almost 50, fat and on all those meds, it is nothing for me to get hot and light headed now. I thought I was going to pass out last week spray bombing my wrought iron fence.

That was the wakeup call. I bought an elliptical and I am starting with 30 minutes a day on it. But it is just freaking hot out there. I looked and at 930 it was already 90 outside on my patio in the shade. Thank God for 2 teens to tackle most of the yard work now a days!

@Davedacarpainter If you lived just a LITTLE closer, I'd come help you out! Maybe when it's in the 60's though.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

K, first wave of scrubbing is finished. It's degreased.

Next scrub will be with this stuff. It's a gritty soapy paste that i'll use on a scotchbrite and give the whole eb a good scrub-down, this stuff is great to prep a clean panel for paint using a grey scotchbrite, btw. Just remember to scrub the hell out of the panel.

I don't have any scotchbrite pads like I thought i did, so off to the store. I needed to pick up some spot weld cutters anyhow.

 

[droopie85gt]

Is that just a fancy version of using Comet and dawn to make a slurry?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Is that just a fancy version of using Comet and dawn to make a slurry?

Not really, it's like a specific grade of sand paper that's liquid with a gentle soap for cleansing as well.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Off I went to get the spot weld cutter bits because every store has them, right? No, that's not true.

I didn't want to go to HF because that's about six miles from my house, so I went to another four stores closer to my house to try to find them, driving about fifteen miles in the process..... Then I went to HF and bought some.

I did get about an hour in my nice air conditioned truck.

Anyhow, got back home and scrubbed the entire bay, its real clean right now. I would say pretty clean, but it's not going to be pretty for awhile yet.

I'm going to go do the measurements next. I got to make a little drawing first. If my printer worked I would just blow up this picture and write the measurements on it.

 

[droopie85gt]

Soooooo, expensive Comet and Dawn? Just kidding. Looks pretty clean. SO what's the deal with the passenger frame rail? Battery acid?

As long as you bought 3 times as many spot weld cutters from HF as you would have bought name brand, you're ok.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Nah, not comet at all, I didn’t have to pay for this stuff.

Battery acid is really all that I could come up with. Unless the rats that used to live in the engine bay just used that side as a urinal.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I’m getting some of it cut out now, I just need to work on the spot welds on the backside.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Yowsa. Youre balls deep now!

 

[Bossed]

I’m getting some of it cut out now, I just need to work on the spot welds on the backside.

Rust absolutely SUCKS !!! I know it'll be pretty when you're done

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Here’s a spot weld to piss a person off, it’s behind the bracket!

 

[Davedacarpainter]

This side is loose now. A bit of rust, but not as bad as some I’ve seen.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Where to start.......

How about the end and work my way back a little. Here's a picture or two with the rail out.

For those wanting to do this, be patient and work slowly through it. I cut 52 spot welds doing it this way.

The shock tower was interesting to me, the bottom is folded under and becomes the base for the crush tubes. It also has two tabs on the sides that are folded and pinch welded twice on the front and back of the tower. The factory crush tubes are welded to the shock tower, not on the bottom or top. I don't know because of the rust there if the bottom was welded to the frame rail or not. The pitting was too deep to tell. It may have been bonded by the rust. One way or the other I had to cut the bottom off the shock tower to get the rail out.

Speaking of the shock tower, it has a little rot issue.

I'll need to cut off about four inches of the bottom and replace it with new metal. That'll have to be the next thing I do. I can't put the new frame rail on until that's fixed, obviously.

The crush tubes weren't terrible, hard to believe though. Here's the pile of rust that came from around the shock tower area. Amazing how much there is. That's mainly ex-shock tower metal I guess.

Only five pictures to a post, so I'll make another one.