A friend of mine made me a new piece at his shop. It looks great and should fit just right. I had him make it long so that I could massage it back in place. There isn't much strength coming from here, its more to hold the torque box in place.
Here is a shot of the swiss cheese I had to make to get all of the parts out. It is a lot of work with a drill and pneumatic chisel. The old metal is kind of soft, so I have to be careful. I'm glad I started where a panel will cover and carpet will never show some of my learning. Other parts of the car when I get to them will require my A game.
Here is an under belly shot of the RH side. I got the old floor support out without too much hassle, and was able to keep the tunnel support in good shape.
My next steps are to clean up the area good / blast it in the necessary places, and get some primer and PUR15 rust paint on before I close it all up. Primer and paint won't get in here once I close it up. I have also found that a big wire wheel in the grinder is the best for dealing with the under coating. Trying chemicals, gas, paint stripper, thinner, etc just makes that junk like putty.In between the major metal work, I have been working on getting parts blasted and primed. Here is a shot of the fender apron braces. They had some rust pitting, but cleaned up pretty good. The picture below is of the parts sprayed with an acid etching primer. Most people say that is the best for this type of stuff. I am going to sand them down good and shoot them the engine bay black later on. Right now I want to get as many parts cleaned and primer as possible. I am having a lot of problems with humidity. My sand blast gun was shooting straight water one day, so I have added extra filters to my compressor, but even that is not enough. I can get maybe 30-45 mins of blasting in before the gun clogs from the media being wet. It's been near 100 degrees each day and almost that for humidty the last few weeks. Maybe that will back down some, or I will have to wait on fall.
