TheSamba.com :: View topic - Northeast fatty rustback- Noobie 'How To' time

Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:35 pm

Got here today! Its going in storage like all the other parts until that floor is done.

Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:34 am

So I'm working on the metal flooring today and I decide to take a break and go look at the car. I'm looking at the engine looking for the engine number and oddly enough, it starts with a Y... hmmm, I wipe a little grime off and find a nice big GEX logo on it. So of course, I come on here and find all of the "awesome" reviews of GEX products. I know that the engine has been in the car for at least 5 or 6 years. It's running great (as little as I've driven it because I parked it shortly after buying it to start the work) but I have a feeling it won't be in there to see it's 7th birthday. I'm looking to beef the engine up a notch or three for next season.

Updates on the metalwork to come a little later.

Sat Apr 05, 2008 5:12 pm

So the rain stayed away and it turned out to be an awesome day.

I started out with this. I managed to remove the big support bracketing on the far side of the picture and the support piece in the middle.

With those gone, it was time to cut off the main bracket from behind the rear seat. I found this lovely rust...

After lots of trimming, although far from done, the donor piece will sleep in the car for the first time. =)

And the pile grows...

I'm actually really glad that I haven't thrown any metal out. I'll be using the panels on the upper left hand part of the picture to make a backing plate for the rear seat area. The rust was a little worse than expected and I needed to cut the hole about 3 inches bigger than the donor piece. Onward!

Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:31 pm

The donor piece is all mocked up. Fits like a glove! and not the OJ type either... After flanging and punching out the holes for the well welds, I went ahead and treated the underside with Rust Encapsulator. Here it is still a little wet. I'll wait til tomorrow to apply it to the top-side.

I cleaned and prepped the lower metal piece as well.

And the rear upper area in the background.. again, still wet.

And started to put a coat on the area behind the rear seat.

Unfortunately (or very fortunately) I needed to cut a little more of the pan than expected. You can see that there is going to be a gap in between the donor piece and the existing good metal. You also note the little bit of sag on the middle piece there. Thats sagging because its originally spot welded on a piece of metal that had to be removed. My idea is to weld in an L bracket upside down on the inside the main rails effectively giving that piece a lot more support than the two spot welds and give me a backing to fill in the gap.

I'm just glad its finally ready to be welded in. 8)

Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:09 pm

Looks good! No reason to live with rust if WE just get "motivated"!

Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:55 pm

What the hell are you talking about Mike? :lol:

Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:47 pm

Installed the passenger side's door glass today. Its in but the window isnt cranking right... I'll work on it some more later. The passenger side scrapper made up for how easy the driver's side went in. :lol:

Possibly welding the rear pan part on Saturday (depending on the weather). Here is where it sits right now. It still needs some sanding off of the anti-rust stuff where its going to be welded but there it is... nice and snug.

I'm taking Sunday off from working on the car and hitting up SnG in Englishtown on Sunday. Swap meet!

Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:42 pm

Its crappy out and work owned me so I only managed to start the clear coat stripping on the 7slots...

You can see the 150 "tooth" in this picture...

So I'm going to shoot for a 1000, maybe 2000 grit, shine for these. We'll see how that goes.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:38 pm

Today's rain held out so it was full on welding day. Welded in all of the holes on the new pan and the support brackets behind the seats. Although there is still considerable amount of work (grinding and fabbing a brace for behind the seat to seal out the elements, I'm very happy with what got done today. 8)

This needs a bracing to be welded in but I haven't made it yet.

Needs some grinding but otherwise came out awesome (for the first time doing it)

And the rear shot where the bracing needs to be welded on... once I make it.

I'm glad I have friends that know how to weld... and have portable setups.

Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:57 pm

Looking good raf!

Nice job memnuts on the welding haha.

Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:22 pm

Heck yeah, they did a good job...

On other fronts... I bought a decklid badge that is too small... again. The part number for the piece I bought is 113853687B... Does anyone know which part number I'll need?

Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:15 pm

Saturday update... bought a grinder at HF, face shield and ear protection and went to town on the welds...

Two hours later, I was all done grinding and after cleaning up the area with that marine clean stuff, re-painted the pan with the rust control paint stuff. It still needs another coat but I felt like I needed to cover up the bare metal.

Here are the up-close shots of the seams...

Not too shabby for never done this before. I plan on letting it sit overnight before applying the brush on seam sealer.

The support bracket for behind the seat still needs to be welded on. Once that is done, the dynamat goes on... part of me wants to leave the pan exposed to show off my hack work but nah, it'll be nicer when its nice and quiet.

Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:37 pm

wow man! i saw this thread when you first started, and you've come a long way! great job. I like the t3selecta plan for your ride. those porsche wheels are going to look awesome.

i want to put dynamat in the back of my square. how much are you going to order?

Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:29 am

Curt_vw wrote: wow man! i saw this thread when you first started, and you've come a long way! great job. I like the t3selecta plan for your ride. those porsche wheels are going to look awesome.

i want to put dynamat in the back of my square. how much are you going to order?

Thanks Curt, I can't wait for the wheels to be done being polished. I already have the dynamat, I have 20 12x24 sheets so 40sq/ft.

Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:01 pm

Small update today. More to come within the next few days. :D

Thu May 01, 2008 8:49 pm

All welding should be done by tomorrow. I'll be able to coat the rest of the pan with the rust treatment stuff over the weekend and the exhaust and dynamat/carpet will start to go on during the week. Oh and now that I have the tires mounted, I'll finally lower it. 8)

Fri May 02, 2008 5:28 pm

Luckily, the weather held off and my buddy Nick was able to finish the welding of the rear flooring gap. Here he is in action...

Since we had daylight, we decided to do a little lowering. We managed enough time to only do the fronts but I'm happy with the results. This is what it now looks like with the stockers. It is a 2 spline drop on the inners.

Oh and since it was low, we couldn't help but to test fit the shinnies. I am very happy with the drop. Although it looks to be more, the gap is about an one inch. The pictures were taken with the camera practically on the floor so it is a little misleading. The wheels/tire combo is a 205/40-16 on a 7" wide wheel.

Good day. :D

Tue May 06, 2008 12:35 pm

Had a few minutes during lunch today...

Don't know if I'm keeping the eyelids yet.

Tue May 06, 2008 12:43 pm

I kinda like the eyelids.

Tue May 06, 2008 3:04 pm

Finally! The wheels! YEA!
I'm diggin it!
Ya gots a nice looking fatty there, my man!