I'm very much looking forward to seeing all of those gauges jump to life for the first time Yukon Jack.
My posts might be a little sporadic for a bit because I'm in the middle of prepping my Z for paint right now.
Here's a little bit about everyone's worst enemy, Rust!
Not pictured in the last installment was the hole behind the gas pedal which I welded shut. Seeing as I was in the mood to fuse metal, it seemed like a good time to start in on the rust repairs my Suburban would need. Luckily this SUV had spent its life in the western United States. As far as I can tell it was manufactured in California, originally sold in Idaho and then made its way to Utah with a possible stop in Nevada along the way. The rust that did exist was only in the “usual” areas. Bottom of the quarter panels, the front corners of the floors, kick panels, floor supports. bottom corners of the doors and the little bit that I had already repaired in the fresh air boxes. Before anyone from the rust belt complains, yes, I know that my rust is minimal compared to some others.
Before any cutting began things really didn't look that bad on the surface. This is a view of the passenger side floor pan:
Here's the driver's side:
To begin, a few easy patch panels for the thin areas of the p-side.
I happened to have a fender from a '78 DeVille laying around. The thin old piece of floor was used as a pattern so I could trace the outline for a new one on the Cadillac fender.
And then another piece following the same pattern.
Years ago I had ordered brand new dogleg patch panels so I went ahead and cut the old one out to see how hard it was going to be to get the new piece in place.
It spent quite some time looking back and forth between the hole I had made, the shape of the dogleg patch panel and the rusty bottom section of the old dogleg. After deliberating and contemplating a while I theorized that the area I was looking to replace really comprised multiple layers of metal that fit together in a tight overlap. In order for me to recreate this layered effect some more metal was going to have to be excised to create an access hole. The innermost of these layers was the floor panel. At its edge the floor pan folded over and integrated into the inner rocker panel. Next layer in was the dogleg itself. The piece of the dogleg that is visible from inside the cab extends down a ways and folds between the other two layers. The outermost piece of the puzzle is the bottom of the door support / front A pillar. I wasn't sure about this layering effect until everything was sliced apart though.