Darryl's 1966 Porsche 912

FEBRUARY 2006 PROJECT JOURNAL ENTRIES (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

Entry: 2/1/06 - Today I moved to a new section, the suspension pan below the front nose panel I just finished. Here's a shot showing the parts involved and the rotten areas outlined in red:

Since the front torsion bar pivots are anchored to the ends of the box section formed by the front fuel tank support spotwelded to the front suspension pan, structural integrity of this section is critical. I did some exploratory surgery on the box section between the two front torsion bar mounting points. I found some rot but it was limited to the flat portion in the bottom of the channel, where water had pooled over the years. This rot was even more evident once I had stripped the heavy undercoating off the steel and wire-brushed it to see where the sound steel is. I decided to replace this section one side at a time and preserving the original front towing loop which is still very sound steel. I cut out the rotten sheetmetal, first on the passenger side, and made sure there was plenty of overlap into the sound steel higher on the channel walls by using my flanging tool to create a flange that I'll weld a replacement panel into. I made a pattern from the rotten piece I cut out and fabricated a replacement piece from a sheet of 20-gauge steel. You can see the rotten panel and the replacement panel side-by-side below, as well as how the replacement panel looks being held into place using a drift punch. I think I'm going to get another nice clean patch that won't be detected once the Wurth high-build underseal is applied over the repairs.

Entry: 2/2/06 - Today's labors continued on the front pan box section. Final fitting of the passenger side piece went quickly and it was welded into place using a series of hundreds of MIG spot welds sequenced around the panel, closer with each iteration. This technique allows good weld penetration without heating the panel and warping it. Quite tedious work and requiring a bunch of grinding to dress the weld but the result is a very strong weld due to better weld penetration into the overlapped flanges instead of a thin butt weld. Once the passenger side channel was welded-up, I wire-brushed the drivers side down to bare metal, cut-out the rotten section of the bottom of the box channel and made a pattern from it. As you can see from the following photo, I'm well into shaping the replacement panel and should be welding it in within a couple hours of work. Next project will be doing the last bit of collision repair on that lower, front passenger side corner.

Entry: 2/3/06 - This day was spent finishing the driver's side front pan box section repair. After a couple hours of snipping and hammering the replacement panel into a perfect fit (compare today's patch panel photo below with the how it progressed from yesterday's entry), it was welded in and the front side welds dressed. The back side weld is still just tacks and will need to have the final weld and dressing work done there before the external part of this project is complete. The top of the box section, the fuel tank support pressing inside the front trunk, needs to have some rot removed with some replacement sheetmetal fabrication and then the whole panel welded back into place. Then I will address the final details of that front nose clip, that lower front edge of passenger side. Big winds are supposed to hit here tomorrow and Sunday is the SuperBowl... looks like I'm taking the weekend off.

Entry: 2/6/06 - After surviving both a windstorm that knocked-out power and a heartbreaking Superbowl loss by our Seattle Seahawks on TV powered by portable generator, it was nice to get back to work on the 912 today. First job this morning was doing the final weld and dressing of that weld on the inside (trailing) edge of the box channel patch panels on both sides. As you can see in the following picture, they come very close to the original pressing pattern and will be totally undetectable once the "chunky" undercoating is sprayed on them.

Once the external repairs were done, it was time to deal with the small section of rotted metal on the backside of the tow loop reinforcing panel I had welded the patch panels to. I had already attacked the rust by grinding, chipping and wire brushing it to get all the scales removed, then neutralizing the remaining pits with several coats of SEM Rust Seal. Final step was sealing the Rust Seal surface under several thin coats of JB Kwik Weld epoxy to strengthen and seal out any water that might stand on it. The sheetmetal is rock solid on thicker outer layer of the tow loop reinforcing panel so sealing the surface rust on the thinner inside layer seemed like an acceptable method of preserving the original tow loop. Days earlier, I had cut and bent the lip of the fuel tank support panel that forms the top of the box channel back to get access to the inside of the box channel so today I bent it back into position and prepared to patch it. I've started making a pattern for a patch panel to completely replace the rusted front edge of the fuel tank support and need to decide how much of more of the surrounding rusted areas need to be cut out. Other than one small rust-thru area the floor of the front panel, the majority is all healthy metal to spot weld to so this should be a nice clean patch. I should have all the remaining work on the entire nose repair completed by the end of the week.

Entry: 2/7/06 - Spring fever struck today, it was sunny and beautiful and all the storm clean-up work was done so why not bag the 912 project for the day and take "the Mrs." out for a nice long ride in the country in the 911! Returning inspired to bring the 912 back to the level where I have my 911, I attacked a sheet of 20-gauge metal like a man possessed. I finished the paper pattern, traced it onto the blank sheetmetal and after a couple hours with the Bosch jigsaw, hammers, vise and pneumatic air hammer, I had that hunk of tin formed to fill the opening perfectly. Tonight the resulting patch panel sits vise-gripped into place, ready for the next step, grafting each end into the remnants of the original fuel tank support panel. Now I need to figure out if I can somehow configure the tongs on my spotwelder to attach that front flange of the patch panel to the front suspension pan, just like it was originally. The weather is supposed to be back to the normal rainy gray tomorrow so no distractions.

Entry: 2/8/06 - The fuel tank support sits welded in and sporting a coat of a black product called Rust Encapsulator sold by the Eastwood Company (no relation to Clint), and waits for the coat of the Wurth high-build underseal to blend it back into the surrounding undercoat. The decision to use the Rust Encapsulator was intentional, since I was spot-welding a new piece of steel to an original and slightly rust-pocked pan floor. The Rust Encapsulator will seep into the gaps between the spotwelds and seal them from further rust. The top-coat of high-build underseal will insure the 40-year-old rust will sit dormant as long as moisture and oxygen cannot access it. I ended-up doing spotwelds by drilling a hole in the flange on the fuel tank support and filling it with a small, round weld bead that was actually in the floor pan metal. As you can see from the picture of the floor pan from under the car, I got almost perfect, uniform weld penetration across the spot welds... sometimes I even impress myself! :^D.

Entry: 2/9/06 - Up until today, the bottom seam of the nose graft, where the lower, passenger-side's front panel met the floor of the front pan, was not attached. I wasn't sure how much of the front pan could be saved so I just left the seam unwelded until I was sure. Today, much hammer-and-dolly work was required to straighten and flatten the floor of the front pan back to the original form, matching the drivers-side. Material was cut out in some places and added in others to get the various panels back into the correct position. By evening, I had finished all the welding and dressed the outside beads with the goal of making a test-fit of the front bumper to see if the gap between the front pan and the bumper was even and in alignment across the lower edge. As you can see from the photo below, mission accomplished. Just some very hidden cosmetic work remains on the front panel and spare-tire well, then a coat of Wurth high-build underseal and the collision repair phase of this restoration project is finished... on to the rust repair phase!

Entry: 2/11/06 - It was so warm and sunny yesterday I had to take a break from the 912 project and take my WWII jeep out for a long drive. Today it was time to dive in and wrap-up the last of the outside sheetmetal work on the collision damage. The passenger-side lower front panel edge was straightened and a patch panel added and shaped to match the drivers-side. All that remains to the all the outside work on the nose graft is spot-welding the front weatherstrip lip to the front panel, sealing the weld seams with 3M Ultrapro Autobody Sealant, a thin layer of filler over all the welds and grind marks like I did on the latch sill above it and then a thick coat of Wurth high-build underseal will hide all traces of the repairs. On the inside, in the front of the spare tire well a small amount of patch work and weld dressing remains, probably another day's labor, to get it to the point where it's ready for the Wurth underseal there too. Bottom line is there is good, solid metal everywhere that has been repaired so the BONDO detectors won't go off on some future pre-purchase inspection. I'm quite happy with how this repair has turned-out, the quality of which was a decision factor for how much work I was willing to put into the rust repair on the rest of the car. If the collision repair didn't go well, I would have cut my losses and parted-out the car. As it sits now, this I feel that this car is going to be a very solid and road-worthy car, not some patched-up piece of junk. Another old Porsche will be saved from the junkyard!

Entry: 2/13/06 - Things are quickly starting to wrap-up with the nose collision repair. The last of the patch and weld dressing work is completed on the inside of the spare tire well and a coat of black Eastwood Rust Encapsulator covers all the repairs. The wiring harness clips, seam sealer and underseal steps I've mentioned in detail in earlier entries are all that remains inside here. I'm quite pleased with the 2" x 3" patch that was cut-out and replaced with new steel to fix the rot where the spare tire rested on the floor of the front pan. The patch really went in well with absolutely zero heat warpage from the weld. I can't see the patch from the outside and from the inside, only a very small, dressed weld bead that will be even harder to see once the underseal is applied.

The Evercoat "Rage Xtreme" lightweight self-leveling filler was applied over the dressed welds on the nose clip. As you can see in the following picture, I tried to limit the use of filler to as thin of coat as possible and only in limited areas only as needed to blend in the weld seams and a few of the shallow sandblasted rust pits.

I decided to use regular red-oxide primer instead of weld-thru primer as I have before in this case since the next step is the Wurth high-build underseal. If this was a regular painted panel, the next step would be using spot-putty and high-build primer to fill the pin holes and sanding marks, but not in this case. Since the splatter-coat of underseal will fill any small surface irregularities, it shouldn't be necessary to do any more cosmetic work on this panel. This area is hidden under the bumper and fender, there will be lots of opportunities for spot-putty on the doors and rocker panels! I can't explain why but I'm reluctant to spot-weld the front weatherstrip lip to the front panel just yet. I think I'd like to just leave it clamped there until I'm absolutely certain the trunk latch alignment is OK and I'm happy with the final look of the latch sill. It's time for a change of scenery, to work on some other section of the car for a bit.

Entry: 2/15/06 - With the nose repair all but some minor "mop-up" work remaining, it is time to strip down the car and "prospect" for unseen rust. Besides removing all the glass, doors, headliner and sound-proofing insulation in search of pockets of hidden rust, I'm looking at the big picture and deciding how to best approach the replacement of the rotten longitudinal channels and the cabin floor. Overall the car is as it appeared, no surprise rot. Close inspection of the flanges for the floor panel determined that everything is pretty much intact with the only exception of the area just inside the rear torsion bar mounts. The rear torsion bar tube looks to be very sound where it joins the rear panel under the rear seats and only has rot issues under the outside longitudinal panel. I'm thinking that I'll start by cutting out the rear portion of the floor panel first and see what things look like inside the center tunnel and under the front seat mounts. The pinch weld seam on the replacement floor panel where they join the side longitudinal channels is looking to be the "foundation" from where all the other panels will be welded to.

A UPS delivery arrived from AutoGeek.net with my Wurth high-build underseal and I applied a test coat to the fuel tank support panel patch. I think a thin coat of the new underseal over the original stuff will further blend in the repair. It is almost impossible to see where the 2" x 3" patch was made just ahead of the passenger side drain in the spare tire well. You might recognize where it came from when you see the following photo:

I'm kinda motivated to weld in the three wiring harness tabs and give the passenger side cowl a coat of the underseal just to enjoy at least one portion of the car looking finished.

Entry: 2/16/06 - Today I attacked the rear half of the cabin floor, cutting out the floorpan between the left and right longitudinals and inside the center tunnel. As you can see from the picture, remarkably little rot on the flanges and inside the center tunnel. The extreme rot in the floor of the longitudinal channels under the rear torsion bar tube on both sides is also clearly visible. This explains why I'm replacing the rear floor first, as the "foundation" panel because those spotweld flanges under the torsion bars of the floorpan have rotted away and I need something to measure from to fabricate their patch panels.

In the second photo, I placed the rotten sections cut from the car on top of the new replacement pressing to show the amount of sheetmetal still needing removal between the inner channel flange and the outer rocker panels. One good thing is the inner and outer rocker panels are to be replaced all new metal so there really is isn't much more flange trimming required, only the inside flange needs to be cut-down to a ¾" wide strip like the one on the center tunnel channel. Between cutting sessions I welded in new wiring harness tabs across the front of the spare tire well and cleaned-up the passenger-side headlight conduit and painted it. I'll hold-off on any more nose section photos until it's ready for its unveiling after the Wurth underseal is applied.

Entry: 2/17/06 - Today I decided it was time to wrap-up the work on the nose so I spot-welded the front weatherstrip lip into position and gave everything a couple coats of Wurth high-build underseal. To commemorate the milestone, I put together a before (vorher) and after (nachher) flip-book of how things looked when I bought the car and look now bearing the fruits of my many hours of labor. I have to admit that I do wish the Wurth high-build underseal went on just a little bit thicker so it matched the original factory-applied undercoating's "blob size" just a fraction closer. I have used Wurth SKS Stone Guard in the past and may have to experiment with my "Schutz Gun" to see if lower air pressure could deliver a bigger blob size than the aerosol can delivered. Regardless, because the Wurth SKS Stone Guard is water-based, the Wurth high-build underseal is the best first layer.

The photo below shows the before and after on the front suspension box channel rust repair after a coat of Wurth high-build underseal:

The final photo below is the finished spare tire well with the new wiring harness tabs installed, the Wurth high-build underseal applied and the wiring harness ("relieved" of the added wiring and antique aftermarket fog light relays) threaded thru the wiring harness tabs. I did some more "prospecting" for rust on the drivers-side longitudinal under the rear torsion bar tube and see the biggest challenge is to figure out how to replace a long section of the heater duct tube that runs inside the longitudinal channel, which is also rusted thru. I'm walking through all the tasks and trying to decide the work sequence and what needs to be braced, and where, when the rocker panels are cut out.

Entry: 2/19/06 - Repair strategy time... over the last couple days I've been pondering how best to attack the rockerpanels, longitudinal channels and floor replacement tasks. My first idea was to replace the rear floor first because I need to see the mating point of the floor and rear longitudinal flanges since they are currently rusted away and the new floor pressing would provide that measurement. Well, I've thought things through and now I think the floor replacement should be the last step. I think I need to concentrate on one side at a time and complete the rockerpanel plus their inner wall's extensions forward and back which form the longitudinal channels. The whole inner wall needs replacement to remove the severe rot under the rear torsion bar tube, so doing it in phases isn't possible. Since the drivers-side of the car is easily accessible on the 4-post lift, I decided that will be the side I start with. I also decided it would be best to cut away the entire lower section from wheelwell to wheelwell at once, leaving only the interior panel of the longitudinal section that provides the flanges to spotweld the new floor and rockerpanel sheetmetal pressings to. In order to do this without the longitudinal channel sagging, I needed to make a sturdy brace to hold the door opening in place. I fabricated brackets by using 1/8" angle iron stock, cut to size and welded together to form a "T" cross-section and then sized to utilize the upper door hinge and the door latch mounting bolts. Between these brackets is bolted a nice thick-walled piece of 1" metal electrical conduit with the ends crushed in my shop press and drilled precisely to size for zero slop. I think you could lift the car from that conduit bar!

I also thought I had better make a wooden template of how the rockerpanel currently fits to insure the lower door gap can be maintained as closely as possible. I am planning to replace the rust-bubbling sheetmetal across the bottom of both doors so this gap can be "fixed" but I thought having a template would save time as I'm fitting the new sheetmetal rockerpanel pressings. Since the interior panel of the longitudinal channel will remain, I cut a 2x4, notched for the weatherstrip lip to lay along it. I used some aluminum foil and three good-sized blobs of BONDO (finally a good use for real "BONDO" brand filler!) and layed the 2x4 on top of it so it made a perfect "casting" of the inner panel surface. Once that was dry, I measured and cut the 1/16" plywood profile pieces at the front and back end of the door opening. The plywood pieces are glued into shallow channels cut across the 2x4 so they will remain secure... as long as I don't drop the fragile thing!

Entry: 2/20/06 - Here she sits with the left outer rocker panel and rear quarter panel cut out, heck, the smoke hasn't even cleared yet! My cut across the rear quarter panel was straight but not quite horizontal... once the blade started cutting, my focus was on clean and straight and I didn't worry much about keeping it on the dotted line but rather how the weld would look when I put it back together. I also laid out all the new sheetmetal pressings that will be going into the repair. Some sheetmetal at the base of the door hinge pillar will be reclaimed from the donor clip to make that area solid again.

Here's a reference picture I took of the donor clip's rocker panel showing how the various sheetmetal panels are spotwelded along the flanges. The interior longitudinal panel is the only original panel that will be left in my 912, all the other ones are new pressings. You can see from this picture that the door hinge pillar is in very good shape on the donor clip but the nose of the clip was rusted almost beyond use... go figure!

Entry: 2/21/06 - After staring at that rear longitudinal channel for the last couple days and poking around inside of it, I realized a simple patch to the bottom edge wouldn't do the job because I need to cut away enough of the steel to replace the heater tube inside the channel. There are a lot of compound curves in the pressing and it would be very difficult to fabricate to match the original appearance. Instead of spending weeks trying to make the patch panels for both sides, I bit the bullet and ordered the complete replacement pressing kit (in the picture below) for both sides from Stoddard's website. I'll probably trim a good bit of the replacement pressing's steel away to graft in only what's necessary to fix the rot and access the heater tube, but bottom line is the car will be like new when I get done by taking this approach to the repair. While I was ordering from Stoddard's, I added new inner and outer rubber spring plate bushings to the order to replace the worn ones I noticed yesterday.

Today's most time consuming task was to break out the "Sawz-all" and cut the remaining pieces I need off the donor clip and get it out of the shop to free-up space for work on the left side of the car. You can see the "chunks" of front ends of the rocker panels and door check strap brackets liberated from the clip. I also removed all the bolts, wiring harness, fuel lines, etc. from the donor clip, just to have the spares on hand. You'll also notice in the following picture, I used my favorite purple "SuperClean" biodegradable degreaser and scrubbed the left rear wheelwell with scalding hot water, it is amazing the original undercoat still has a shine to it!

Once I got the wheelwell cleaned-up and dried out a bit, more rust prospecting was the last task of the day. As you can see in the following photo, all the undercoating has been scraped from the back side of the lockpost using a heat gun and wood chisel. I'm happy to see there are only a few deeply pitted areas and the majority of the steel is sound. I have replacement lockpost pressings for both sides but plan to only use the bottom 5 inches or so to preserve the unique early engine lid release handle recess. I will do a little spot sandblasting on those deeply pitted parts and weld in a patch if necessary. Even with being able to stand and work on the inside of the wheelwell with the lift, tonight will be a two pints of Guiness and three ibuprophen night as my neck and shoulders are killing me from twisting to get up into that lockpost. However I'll sleep great knowing that there's no place for rot to hide up there now!

Entry: 2/22/06 - Most of today was spent visiting my buddy Jack Morris at his shop, Wolfsburg Motorwerks down in Ballard, to show him how the 912 is coming along and discuss how he handles replacement of the rusted-out heater tubes that run inside the longitudinal channels. His approach is to use flexible marine exhaust tubing, which is galvanized steel, and welding it into place so it cannot rattle. I'll start checking out the local marine supply houses to see what I can find. When I did get back to work this afternoon, my objective was liberating a usable patch panel for the rotted left lower front wheelwell and lower door hinge pillar. Cutting these pieces out of the clip is just plain nasty work involving lots of cutting and grinding to get to the pieces, removing spotwelds and then removing the undercoating with a torch and wood chisel before media-blasting them. As you can see in the following picture, The patch for the wheelwell is great and lines-up perfectly with the flange on the front of the inner longitudinal panel for an easy graft and it only needs to have a 3/4" hole filled before it is usable. The door hinge pillar on the otherhand was so rust pitted that after media-blasting is a piece of lace which will serve as little more than a pattern for one I'll have to fabricate from scratch. Considering this piece is about 80% hidden inside the rockerpanel, the objective will be strength over beauty. Fixing the front section of the left longitudinal channel should keep me plenty busy until the additional sheetmetal panels for under the rear torsion bar arrive from Stoddards.

Entry: 2/23/06 - Today the inner rockerpanel from the front wheelwell to the jack post came under the knife. The inner longitudinal panel's flanges are the points I would like to perform my grafting welds at to join the "used" replacement panel I cut out of the front clip yesterday. I inspected for rust depth with my spot sandblaster and found the floor flange in the forward part of the interior longitudinal panel to be very solid with only surface rust. Rot will require some floor flange fabrication in the flange at the rear footwell area as it gets closer to the torsionbar tube which will be a relatively easy piece to make. A brace under the outer seat rail is almost completely rotted away but this is an easy sheetmetal brake job to fabricate. I'm in a holding pattern to proceed with any cutting on the rear of the longitudinal panel until I see the replacement pressing on order from Stoddards. I cut the drivers-side floor out all the way to the pedal cluster and then removed the pedal cluster to inspect the sheetmetal under it. Amazingly, the sheetmetal up in the front of the floor is rock solid so the graft into the new floor sheetmetal pressing should be a matter of fitting and welding with no new fabrication for rust repair.

Entry: 2/24/06 - Today it was time to clean-up the flanges for the floor and rockerpanels mating points to the interior longitudinal panel. Cutting out the old sheetmetal that was spotwelded to the interior longitudinal panel is slow going; grinding the spotwelds and hammering the seam apart with a panel separating knife like opening a can of sardines. I was able to get the spotweld flange under the door threshold weather strip channel and where the floor meets the panel cleaned-up and ready to use without damaging the original flanges. Once that task was done, I took the wire brush on my drill to the surface rust on the heat tube and inside surface of the interior longitudinal panel to prep it for a couple brushed-on coats of SEM Rust Seal. Since the rust accumulated on these hidden bare metal surfaces was the effect of 40+ years of exposure to the moist Pacific NW air, I figured a couple good coats of Rust Seal would be all that was necessary to preserve them. As you can see in the following photo, the result of the Rust Seal is a nice uniform black finish that can be left as it is. The floor mating flanges have some rust pits but the steel is very strong and should form a very strong seam using the MIG welder to tack them to the new floor sheetmetal. I will be needing to fabricate new flanges at the rear most 6" of the rear passenger footwell area and a new brace for under the seat rail mount before installing the new rockerpanel sheetmetal.

Entry: 2/25/06 - Today the patch panel I liberated from the donor front clip was trimmed to fit and welded into position at the front of the left longitudinal channel. I still need to do some minor fitting and rot patching on the seam at the bottom of the fender attachment lip but it is very close to welding too. Next I need to "sculpt" the bottom of the door hinge pillar using pieces and a pattern developed from the donor part from the clip which was "lace" after media blasting. Luckily almost all the sections that can be seen from the outside are solid enough to reclaim. The hidden sections will be a primitive "rendering" I'll "sculpt" myself out of 20-gauge steel sheet stock using the original as a pattern. Tonight the patch sits with a coat of 3M Weld-Thru primer showing welds needing just a bit more dressing. I was able to reach the entire seam from the inside so I "caulked" it with a strip of 3M Ultrapro Autobody Sealant. I vise-gripped the replacement rockerpanel pressing into position to determine how well the rocker / fender attachment flange mated-up, LOOKING GOOD!

Entry: 2/27/06 - Today's task was fitting and finishing the weld on the fender attachment lip and weld the top patch panel seam between it and the door opening on the back side. I made a pattern showing how the bolt holes on the fender were spaced and found the bottom hole on the fender retaining lip was about 3/32" too low, which would have made the rockerpanel that much too low. Fixing it required cutting some material out of the yet-unwelded seam cut and lifting it with a jack to bend and form it into position. There was also a small amount of rot on the part of the original fender retaining lip just above the patch seam that needed a ½" x 1" patch grafted in. After dressing the welds with my grinder, I chemically stripped the paint off the majority of the door hinge pillar and then filled the grind marks with JB Kwik Weld epoxy, which still needs to be sanded-down. I like to use JB Kwik Weld to fill small areas that might be subject to damage from rocks or road hazards as it is flexible and will bend instead of crack like autobody filler will. Now I need to fabricate a patch panel (outlined in red in the following photo) to fill in the area under the A-pillar base. The following photo shows the gap between the patch panel and the new inner rockerpanel pressing, the floor panel pinch weld flanges lines-up pretty well already. The patch will include the missing pinch weld flange and fill the gap. I would have probably finished that patch panel today but my MIG welder's 75% argon/25% CO2 gas cylinder ran out so I had to stop and run off to the welding supply shop to get a refill about mid-day which cost me a couple hours.

Entry: 2/28/06 - WOW! WHAT A WAY TO END FEBRUARY! The day started-out by making a paper pattern of the patch panel for under the A-pillar. A few hours later, a beautiful sight, a patch panel all snipped and flanged into a perfect fit and ready to weld in:

The panel was a snap to MIG weld into position and after grinding and dressing the weld, a thin coat of JB Kwik Weld over the grind marks and to fill blasted rust pits and it's ready for sanding. The seam between the bottom of my homemade patch panel and the "store bought" inner rocker panel pressing is all that remains to be fitted and welded. I'm waiting to decide how best to graft it with a strange recess in the manufactured pressing at that point. Anyway the following photo shows inner rockerpanel pressing clamped in place for a test fitting:

It was like my birthday, my order of shift bushings and new speedometer cable to install in the center tunnel while its floor is cut out came from Pelican Parts. But better still, the rear longitudinal sheetmetal pressings came from Stoddards today as well! The Stoddards order also included a set of new rubber bushings for the rear torsion bar spring plates. As you can see in the following photograph, the replacement pressing has quite a few stress wrinkles from the stamping process. I am pretty sure I can get by with using about 30% of the total replacement panel and most of that area is wrinkle-free. I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting some traction on this project and that I'll be out of this dirty "coal miner" rust repair phase before nice weather gets here! I look back over the last 2 months work and can really see I've made an impact but I try not to think about all the work ahead too much... UGH!