FRAMED

In the five plus years it took to get to this point I had investigated what to do with front and rear brakes, a modern suspension and steering including power steering. During the course of the deconstruction of both cars we also found that the "good car" had been given a back yard repair. Cheap angle iron was welded top and bottom to the driver side frame rail just behind the rear wheel arch. 

At least part of the solution was sitting right in front of me. My Dodge Dakota pickup truck. No, I did not cut up my truck! I earlier mentioned many hotrod builders were using S-10 and Ranger truck frames and suspensions, as well as Mustang II front subs to upgrade their builds with more modern components and more readily available parts.

I crawled under my truck many times dreaming, measuring and figuring and just as many times measuring the DeSoto frame. As near as I could measure, a Dakota front sub would fit within a fraction of an inch.

I sort of half searched leaving my name and needs at a number of junkyards. After the body became viable I found a 2000 Dodge Dakota frame suitable for our project. The yard cut the frame extra long at my direction and I hauled it home. The sub-frame included the frame, front suspension and power steering rack and pinion. It did not include the disc brake components. All Dodge Dakotas used a six (6) bolt wheel pattern. It just happened that I had spiked snow tires and wheels for my truck.

Somewhere along the line and researching, I also found a few interesting facts about the Viper and Dodge Dakota relationship. It seems that Chrysler used parts from from existing car and truck lines to build the early Vipers. Depending on the source, some suspension, brake, spindle and wheel parts were used from the Dodge Dakota Truck line.

Knowing my welding skills and my 130 volt welder capabilities on heavy metal, I decided it would be best to seek outside help for the modifications. I found a local shop with many years of racing chassis repair and fabrication who was willing to under take the work. I gave him my sketches and dimensions and towed the frame from the parts car to his shop along with the "sub". I used a homemade tow-bar set up to bolt up to the bumper bracket frame horns.

The shop let me watch, but no pictures. First, he created a level support frame shaped like a capital "I". The top and bottom wings of the "I" caught the frame and acted as a table. "Devil's Horns" were added at the top of the "I" catching the DeSoto frame horns. We dropped the rear end so there be no imbalance when the front was cut. Then we measured everything making sure the wheel base would be correct. After layout, we decided that the Dakota section would best match up the DeSoto frame just about at the fire wall. Both frames were cut to length and positioned on the table

This location forced the removal of the transmission and frame support cross member. The cuts were made and the sections ground, joined, clamped, butted together and TIG welded. The inside frame rail weld was ground flat. For additional strength, a diamond shaped plate was heated, hammered to shape and overlaid (fish-plated) on the inside frame rail over the weld and TIG welded in. With the removal of the structural cross member we decided to add an X member of smaller heavy square steel tube with a drive shaft loop to maintain frame strength. A modified S piece was also added on the underside of the frame rails following the DeSoto/Dakota frame curve for reinforcement.

The radiator core support was removed from the DeSoto frame and welded into position on the Dakota frame. Lastly, the Dakota frame "horns" where the bumper brackets would attach were "Z" cut to avoid structure and provide strength and the corresponding DeSoto "horns" were cut to match and welded into place  

 Seen leaning against the garage wall is the homemade draw bar I used to tow the car frame to and from the shop. The modified frame is lifted for initial cleaning and temporary rust proofing, The frame alterations were done the summer of '06. I am the person pointing out features of the rotisserie to my wife's brother-in-law.






What is left of the parts car and the frame. Note: I have not yet removed the A frames from firewall when this picture was taken.

 The driver side frame joint. We were all taken by surprise at how well the Dakota frame matched up to the DeSoto frame. Note the forward most body mount "ear."

 Looking carefully, you can see the diamond plate reinforcement on the joint. This was after primer was applied to the frame. Looking just to the left of the rotisserie leg two (2) large holes are visible. That is the radiator core support pad.
The shot also shows some of the Dakota suspension and steering rack.

Looking from underneath to the passenger side, suspension components, steering rack and etc. Center left, on top of the cross member, the underside of the radiator core support with one bolt hole visible.

This picture, taken at a later date, shows the body mounted on the modified and painted frame. Shown is the transmission support cross piece and the permanent X cross member and drive shaft loop.














Later on I towed the frame to the sandblasters using the draw bar. Everybody asks me why a silver frame. Remember what I said about painting the '88 Sable? I Por 15'd the frame after the sandblasting and had a quart of left over silver poly from the Sable.... silver frame!!

CAN U PUT A PIG ON IT?

A couple of years into this restoration now, I saw something on one of the TV shows about a rotisserie for turning and manipulating car bodies. I wrote away for the brochures and pricing. They came, and of course, they were EXPENSIVE and a ton to ship! I kept looking at the pictures and over the winter investigated steel tubes and shapes. I decided I could build one, so I drew up a plan and bought the necessary steel.

Using my trusty hand grinder with cut off wheels, I cut up the pieces per the plan, laid them out pieced them together to be sure of fit and function. After I was sure of everything, I proceed to weld them together. I then assembled everything and drilled holes for safety stops, different locations for height adjustments and of course spots to attach the car to the lift. To rotate the unit/car I bought an extra heavy duty six (6) foot piece of pipe. I simply raised the car, stuck the pipe into the open end of the lift and levered it over, dropped a bolt through the hole to keep it from further rotating

As it turned out the first thing I noticed was that using my floor jacks to lift and lower would not work real well.  I made a jack extension using an axle and hub welded on to give me a total lift height of 55 inches.The hub sat neatly in jack saddle.

I had a large boat and trailer. To get it back on the trailer required a winch and heavy duty rated cable. My son, by now old enough to work after school, was working at a local outlet of a marine supply store. I had him get two (2) heavy duty winches, cable and pulleys. I added them to the design. They worked okay with the jacks and were more than able to support the entire car shell. It was just kind of a pain going from one end to other alternating lifting or lowering each end and keeping everything in balance and keep everything from binding.

The next thing I noticed was that the entire unit was very stable on soft soil in the yard while I was working on the frame. On the hard garage floor it wobbled a little due to the slip fit of the removable leg extensions. It was just slightly unnerving!

The next flaw in the design was that with all the attachments bolted to the car I could not close the back overhead garage door as the unit stuck outside the garage door/house frame. To keep the weather out I put a tarp across the door opening.

The last flaw was easily overcome. The design did not rise high enough to completely invert the car body. The best I could do was 90 degrees. Good enough for all that I needed to do. I later sold the unit to a young guy who like wise could not afford what was on the market at the time.

We live in an area with a lot of different ethnic peoples. Many of them struggle with the English language. When I sold the CAR ROTISSERIE on Craig's List I got several calls about the rotisserie and whether it could handle a pig or side of beef! It was a hoot trying to explain what I was selling!!!!!!!
A couple of pictures follow of the rotisserie showing key sections of it's construction while being used to manipulate the frame of  the parts car.

LOOKIN' UP

As I said earlier, as soon as we started disassembly, it became readily apparent  that I may have been taken. As soon as the front clips (fenders, hoods, inner wheels, etc.) came off it was VERY glaringly apparent that there was MAJOR rust damage to what is called the A post base on both sides of the "good car".   As nearly as I can describe it, the A post is the lowest most forward section of the body extending up to the roof. It is usually a boxed section where doors, rocker panels, floor, any body mounts, firewall, and windshield connect.  Due to it's complex connections, and location it was practically impossible to see the base and damage. The fenders wrapped down and around the "foot" or base of the column and the rocker panels extended forward partially hiding it too. It was very disheartening to see.

Trying to be positive, that's why we tackled the previously described repair and replacement work. All that work took several work "seasons" as told in Y ZZt TAKEN SO LONG? We were also salvaging the parts car, keeping what we might need and trying to keep the neighbors happy. Each time the season ended the car was rolled out of the garage and tarped for the winter. As fate would have it, the passenger side base of the A post sat right in front of the laundry area basement window. That meant every time I was near the sink, or helping with laundry, my eyes were drawn to and LOOKIN' UP with disgust at the damage.

I finally resolved that it was time to work on the A post situation. If I couldn't make the repairs the project was doomed. If I could, it was viable. I very carefully laid out the cuts on what remained of the parts car and salvaged the sections including the floors, frame braces, body braces and rocker panels. A picture of the remainder will appear under FRAMED. After removing them, and given the season, I decided to work on them all winter in the basement. It meant countless hours of careful disassembly, sketching and measuring of the part making up the base of the A post. And remember there two (2) sides, in mirror image ( reverse position and angles).

The base of the post had multiple layers or pieces of metal. Remember what I said about metal flanges, overlaps and moisture? I could identify the interior floor, floor of the A post, flange of the rocker panel, one body mount structural member and one piece that served some kind of structural purpose.

The original body mount has flats at both ends with  raised center somewhat like a small w about 2 inches wide with a 3/8 inch raised sides. It narrows from its base at the rocker to the frame mount. It acted like a trough holding and feeding water to the entire joint. I added a small drain hole on each side of the channel at its base.To duplicate the body mount structural member required me to make thirteen (13) separate pieces and edge and butt weld them together to get the necessary shape and fit. That was for each side! I was going in and outside all winter to cut and weld the little pieces. Of course I couldn't always go due to snow and cold etc.

Picture a large tube. Then cut it into quarters. That yields an odd shaped "D". Then notch the edges and bend a 1 inch flange. Add to that a back section  and you have  the unseen section of rocker panel. I made several paper and art board patterns to make a one piece "D " shaped tube. Since the rocker panel had no end cap . I added a slide in end cap with vent to reduce water intake into the rocker panel.

For the floor I cheated. I thought replacement floor sections for a chevy truck might fit so I ordered a pair from LMC. When they came, I test fitted them and they were about perfect. I put them upside down (bend up) gave them a light "stomp" and they were perfect! They do have grooves and steps which caused minor problems when it came time for carpet. I set them aside until the A posts were ready to be installed.

The left and right floor
pieces from LMC. Note
I have already punched
the holes for spot
welding.







Come spring and summer the hard part started. I had to very precisely lay out the cuts for "good car."
But before that, I had to reinforce the body of the car to made sure that it did not bend or collapse when the A post was removed. We had a damaged heavy duty bed frame made of 1 1/2" angle iron. I measured for length, welded on feet or ends, drilled them for bolts and bolted them to the door hinge locations and door latch bolt holes. I added a swivel leg with foot extending to the floor. That gave me angled and vertical body support. Then the old rule, with extra caution, Measure 3 times cut once!!!!!!!!!!

With  me in the background working on the bracing. The passenger side brace is visible in the fore ground with the vertical brace not yet deployed.









The passenger side floor rot and the masking tape layout for the cut.










                                                                                 The passenger side A post and floor removed.

The underside of the passenger side A frame shows the rot of the brackets, rocker and floor.

The passenger side A post from the parts car rebuilt. Note the rocker and the water shield I created. The body mount underside is unpainted and shows the complex shape. The floor is not installed as it had to be spot welded in two (2) planes.

From inside the car, passenger side after the floor plate was welded from inside and from the under side to the A frame.

The passenger side fully welded in and welds ground out. I intentionally left a little weld showing to show the "scars" of the repair.
Clearly visible is the vertical and horizontal body
supports and how they meet the frame "ear".

The driver side floor and A frame removed. The hole appears overly large as there is a plate removed which accommodated the steering column pass through.

The driver side A frame removed. Note the large missing section of floor and exposed structural supports. The hole further up the floor section was for the headlight dimmer switch.

The under side of the repaired driver side A frame. Note the visible "layers" of the structure: floor, brace and structural cross member.

The driver side A frame laying on it's side showing the rocker, support and structural cross member.

When the A frames were cut out it exposed more lies about the repairs of the rocker panels. The first picture of this page shows a little of the backside of the rocker. It is loose at the top. The back side of the panels were laid in loose and tarred in place. None of the structural floor supports were welded in to the vertical back side of the rockers. I had to fabricate new back sides for the rocker panels and top of the sill plate, then slit the top of the rockers open across the door sills, remove part of the door sills and drop in modified T's. The top of the T was offset so that the vertical backside replacement met the lower flange on the rocker panel and the structural floor supports.
I had to spot weld the rocker panel flange and the T and the structural supports in place. While I was at it, I added an angled drain hole in he rockers as they are known to rust due to lack of drainage. Then I had to continuous weld the top sill of the rocker.
Further compounding the situation, my sheet metal bender is to short to accommodate the length of the pieces required so I had to butt weld them into a single unit. You can see the welded seams.
One complete T is seen along with the pieces necessary for the other.

At the end of the summer I knew we had a shot at a viable car for a complete restoration!

HEATIN' & BEATIN'

To the best of my knowledge Chrysler Corporation was the first American manufacturer to introduce "unibody" construction in 1960. The vast majority of today's cars, SUVs, CUVs, vans and a few trucks are are unibody. That means the bodies are stamped pieces of sheet metal welded, spot welded and even glued together. In essence they are one (1) large piece! They gain strength with stamped in lines, channels, and shapes. Some brands even stamp in shapes to help with sound deadening They have a short sub-structure or frame of steel, and recently aluminum, bolted to the pan (body) to support the engine and suspension components.

Being a 1956 build, the DeSoto has body on frame construction. That means the the body was a welded structure with internal and external brackets, braces and channels similar to the unibody but with fenders that bolted to the body and frame. The body was then bolted to a separate frame.

The exposed steel structure or frame underneath the body supported the body and ran nearly the full length of the car. They were usually rectangular in shape with "horns" for the front bumper and upward curved sections in the rear to accommodate the rear axle and wheels.. There could also be one or two cross members for support of the transmission or engine adding additional strength.A few GM models had an X shaped frame. The engine, suspension, steering and rear end all bolted to the frame.

With all the work in the "stern" I couldn't miss seein' the trunk floor near the wheel wells and the body mounts rusted out. They were thicker metal than the body panels, fenders and etc. I had to get really creative to duplicate replacement mounts. What I really needed was a 10 Ton stamping press! Which wasn't going to happen. SO...I created one.

I took a log, used a two inch (2) hole saw and drilled a hole about a half (1/2) deep. I used a couple of wood chisels and a gouge and cleaned out the center. As luck would have it, an eight (8) pound sledge hammer face was exactly the same size as the depression for the body mount. The depression helped keep the stud and nut  flush or recessed below the floor. I used a borrowed oxy-acetylene torch to heat the metal to red-hot, laid the piece on the log over the hole using pliers and welders gloves, and centered the sledge hammer over the piece. Then I used a two (2) pound hammer to drive the sledge hammer into the metal overlaying the cavity. After the second blow the piece edges began to wrinkle so I had to heat the metal all over, transferring it to a concrete block and hammer it flat around the forming depression. This process usually took eight to ten cycles of heating and beating to get the desired depression and flat surface.  I made 5 pieces this way. I needed 4. As the log burned in, the hammered recess actually became better and more like what had rotted through You've already seen the "stern" where two pieces would be welded in. In the flattening process I also destroyed two (2) concrete blocks.

There are two (2) other types of body mounts which will be described in later sections.

 The oxy-acetylene torch, the stamping press consisting of the 8 lb. sledge hammer and the 2 lb, hammer and the "die" consisting of the log..

                                                The under side of one of the "stampings."


The face of one of the body mount "stampings."












The driver side trunk floor/wheel well with the rusted section removed. Note that the frame is exposed and the body mount stud bolt can be seen.

The passenger side trunk floor section removed. Again the frame is exposed and the body mount stud, washer and nut can be seen.

STERN FIRST

Through the fifties and most of the sixties cars just kept getting bigger and bigger. In automotive magazines and driving reviews the cars were often referred to as yachts or land yachts. Time to fix the stern of this one.

The outer skin across the bottom edge of the trunk panel had numerous small rust holes where the trunk floor flange joined the outer body skin. On the upper right near the beginning of the trunk lid curve a large rust patch and small holes are visible. What did not show until disassembly was the entire lower edge which joined with the trunk floor pan was rusted and loose. When the spot welds joining the quarter panels (rear fenders) to the trunk panel were cut the entire lower truck skin fell off.

After inspecting both cars and looking underneath I decided that salvaging the section from the parts car would be the "easiest" way forward.  The good car had heavy rust damage to the trunk floor supports, trunk floor and where the trunk floor pan joins the exterior taillight/trunk panel. The parts car panel had been in an accident and required light hammer, dolly and fill work. The boxed section supports on the parts car were less rusted, and a section of the floor above the box support was gone. In all it was major work. 

In salvaging the parts car panel I had to lay out cuts across the lower taillight openings, sloped body panel and separate the outer rear fender panels from the trunk skin. The cuts to were placed to minimize the seam to be welded in the visible body sections. Follow the old rule; MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE!

As described in the trunk lid section the trunk lid and floor are longer in the good car. This meant I had to measure and cut the floor on the salvage piece to be long enough to fit while keeping all the raised sections, angles, bends, reinforcing brackets and trunk lid latch bracket to match the two door. The good car floor had to be cut and still have enough good metal to join to the salvage section to maintain the overall length and structure. It also meant I had to cut the width  of both floors while avoiding some sub-floor structure and the main frame rails. In reassembly, it also meant welding the entire width of the trunk floor one spot at a time to avoid distorting the sheet metal.

The rear fender quarter panel to rear trunk vertical panel spot welds  had to be split using a home made panel splitter and a machete hammered up to and through the spot welds without bending, distorting or drilling through the outer fender skin.  When spot welds proved too tough the more reliable method was to drill the welds partially then the splitter or machete.

Look carefully at the bottom edge and at the lower right curve of the trunk lid. Rust and holes can be seen.

The salvaged section from the parts car. Note the large rust patch center right There was light collision damage there.

The trunk interior side of the of the salvage section. Note the three vertical panel/ trunk lid edge braces.










                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

     The underside of the lower trunk body skin is     shown. Note the heavy rust and holes in the       ends of  the boxed reinforcing structure. The afore mentioned picnic table is also seen.

                                        

The center of the salvage section reveals the corrosion and the license plate light  wiring holes.                                         

The interior floor rot of the salvage section shows above the boxed channel.

The newly fabricated replacement boxed channel.

Boxed patch positioned and partially welded in place.

The long boxed patch previously shown now welded in place.

Y ZZ'T TAKEN SO LONG??

Short explanation weather! Long story far more  complicated! We live in Northern Ohio. Anywhere from mid-September to mid-April it's too cold to work. Remember, I am doing this restoration in our garage. No heat, no cooling or climate control. That all by itself eliminates approximately six (6) months per year. That cuts the restoration time in half

Then you have to add in family needs. As the kids got older they needed transportation for college and school. Since we're not rich, that means used cars and trucks and lots of maintenance as the vehicles age and the kids beat on 'em, they need more work.

I would have never attempted what follows without the sheet metal working knowledge gained working on the DeSoto and having a MIG welder.

One summer was devoted to prepping and painting a 1988 Mercury Sable. That car was originally a used car, which was the family "good" car and was primarily my wife's. It became our daughters car for a couple of years and had well over 135,000 miles on it when I gave up trying to keep it going. I suspected the transmission was going and the steering rack was leaking for the second time.

My wife got a "new" extremely low mile used Mercury Grand Marquis. I got a new Dodge Dakota Club Cab Pick up truck.

One summer was spent replacing the front fenders on our Chevy S-10 extended cab. The truck got a front end overhaul and I two toned the body. Pearl white on the upper half and original maroon on the lower. I used the body line and painted in a contrasting maroonish pink pearl in the stamped body line. That became my daughter's college car. She hated the stripe and truck. It lasted the remained of her college years and then some..

My son was coming close to driving age! So..... My daughter got a super clean low mileage Ford Contour Sport. About a month after we got it our daughter was out of town, a woman tried to across a 5 lane road and our daughter T-boned her. Damage to the Contour was mostly plastic and the hood. Insurance took of that.

Shortly after that the S-10 got new partial rocker panels and club cab rear corners. That took most of a summer.  Then to I had to repair a door. It got caved in, by me, not paying attention while launching our boat on a crowded 6 lane boat ramp. I forgot about the monster pipes set in cement to protect the docks.... from people who can't back-up the trailers.... like me!

A summer or two later the S-10 bed came off to clean and paint the frame and patch several holes around the bed wheel wells and rework some of the finishing work on the cab corners. When we finally parted company with the S-10 it had over 150,000 miles on it. I saw it 2 years later and it still looked good.

My son inherited the Contour as my daughter had moved to New York City after graduating from college. Ever tow the biggest tandem axle U-Haul moving trailer has through downtown NYC over the bridge to Brooklyn? Then empty, back out.  I have!

By now the Grand Marq was getting long of tooth. It needed work but I didn't touch it. We sold it with about 130,000 miles on it and bought a rental fleet car., a Ford Crown Victoria. Our son inherited the Contour.

He off roaded it in the snow hit a rock or a tree, story varies by who told it. One of his buds creased the side new years eve in a drive way incident.Plastic bumper and paint in the spring.  He backed up into a brand new pick-up trying to keep from being backed over by a school bus. No damage to the Contour. Our son went to community college and we shared the Contour for a year. He attempted to go see his girlfriend away at college, lost control of the car on an interstate bridge in the snow and tore up the driver side rear quarter. I drove an hour and half checked him and it out then he nursed it home. I paid for the repairs and did the paint work to keep from turning it over to our insurance.

Then the Contour went to college too. Bumper took a beating hitting snow and ice banks.  Then he became a pizza driver. It caught up to him . He got rear ended, the other driver paid out of pocket 2k.
By now the body was starting to rust including the repaired hood. In all over about three years (3)  I did the rocker panels twice on each side. Front section then rear section and middle and paint each time.  Then middle on the driver side and then in the cold and wet of early winter welded a fairly long crack in the rear subframe adjacent to the gas tank. Damage from the spin out or being rear ended??? When he traded the Contour for HIS first car it had about 150,000 hard miles on it. The Contour proved to be one TOUGH, roomy, little, reliable car fun to drive car!

Breaks over! Now it's time to back to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PAINT'n & PATCH'n DEUX

The trunk lid proved to be problem in it's own right. The 4 door car and the 2 door car have different trunk lids and trunk floors. The 2 door car trunk lid and floor being about 3 inches longer overall. Both trunk lids looked to be in good condition so when it came time to sandblast the 2 door lid was the only choice.

After sandblasting things weren't quite so good. The trunk lid is composed of basically 2 major components. The outer formed skin and the inner stamped "skeleton" or reinforcing frame.
One section of the frame and larger sections of the outer skin were found to have extensive elongated rust holes. Of note, they were all in the lower portions of the trunk lid where moisture would be most likely to collect and in "channeled" areas.

As previous described, the preferred operations are prime the cleaned rust free metal, then make the repairs.  The skin area to be removed required carefully shallow cutting of the skin while not cutting the underlying frame. The skin is wrapped around the edge of the frame.  The small lip had to be notched to allow removal. Then it had to be carefully bent up to unwrap and remove it from the frame.  All the exposed metal then had to be straightened as necessary, treated and primed.

This reconstruction was further complicated by the fact that the skin is wrapped around the edges of frame. This meant the repairs had to match outer curves and be bent a full 180 degrees back over the frame and sealed. The wrap bend also had to have clearance for the thickness of the frame. The folded wrap had to be carefully laid out and pre-punched for spot welds before it could be bent.  The length of the outer skin patch necessitated fabricating three (3) patches, bending and butt welding (end to end) them together. Three pieces were required as the trunk lid is not a straight line, but rather a gentle curve. This was due to limited bending brake size and the inability to form curves. The piece then had to be hand hammered flat and using angle iron clamped into place to completely flatten the wrap; then spot welded moving the angle iron and clamps to assure everything stayed flat on the back (inside lip) of the trunk lid.  Three pictures follow showing patches and welding.

After the work was completed, the trunk lid was reinstalled to allow secure outside storage. Not shown is additional work that had to be performed around the right hand curved lower section of the skin and lip which blistered and opened up a year later.

PAINT'n & PATCH'n

The stockings were hung.... OOPS wrong story!
I covered the entire garage floor in old boat tarps and newsprint to keep from painting the floors. Had to be done for each painting session whether primer, truck bed liner or finish coats.
The fenders and nose piece are hung from the overhead garage door tracks. An inner fender is on the floor. That's me in the pic, note the respirator. Catalyzed epoxy 2 part paints have caused chemical pneumonia! It took until '03 to get to this point!




   


A different view of the same parts.

The hood  outside after priming..

The fenders and nose piece outside after painting.

The doors after removal and priming. The doors and front fascia did not get this far until "04.
















Afterward, some of what you see was bagged in garbage bags or wrapped in old boat tarps and stored in our newly created, in the garage, rafters storage space. The hood would't fit anywhere so it went into the sun room. The doors were too heavy so they went in the basement. The fenders were too long so they went in the basement too.

IT FOLLOWED ME.........

As deconstruction continued we found that the parts car "front clip" consisting of: fenders, nose piece, hood, rock shield and inner wheel wells were less "holey" than the good car. As each piece came grudgingly off the cars they were carefully inspected and marked up for repair or disposal.

Depending on their size, the parts were often placed on a large old picnic table for ease of support and work. The picnic table was located on the back patio and was under roof out of the sun. A standard patio sliding glass door and screen lead from the house to the patio. I used the hand grinder with cut off wheel to cut out the bad sections and grind down my crappy looking welds and looking for holes. Late in the summer my wife decided to clean the windows and the patio doors. I heard about that almost immediately! Turns out the grinding and cut-off operations had splattered and burned into the glass creating mini metal specs on the glass. I spent considerable time using glass cleaner and a hard edge, single sided razor blade scraping and cleaning the door glass. A lot came off, quite a bit did not!

RULE NUMBER 1. When grinding, or for that matter welding, COVER ANY GLASS! Wear eye and hearing protection! Even better when sparks fly aim away from doors, paint and siding too. Yeah, I didn't do that either..... 'til the damage was done.

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My son Keith in 2001.

"Dad it followed me home!"   

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The driver side fender with a large rust section cut out. The underside reinforcing channel is visible along with already cut and curved patch laying on the concrete block

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The driver side fender also showing large rusted dents in two locations. These were hammered out using body hammers and body dollies. 

After all the obvious rust and dents were addressed all the parts were taken to a local shop for sand blasting. As is almost the norm for sand blasting, a few new unseen weak rusted sections opened up. At that point a there two (2) choices. Repair the holes, risking rust and oxidation of the bare steel, which necessitates re-blasting or; prime the part, then make the necessary repairs and re-prime the small section.

We learned something interesting during the initial round of sand blasting. Large pieces of sheet metal like our hood, with un-reinforced or unsupported metal bounce, dent or warp. The shop informed me that they could not do the hood. I scrambled around to find another shop and actually came up with a cleaner more experienced operation.

All the little parts were bagged, tagged and stored in the garage rafter storage space