wheee!

The most damage is in places that someone did a poor job repairing previously. I plan to repair/replace a lot of those spots on the car.

My son in law is a B Pressure professional welder. He will be doing the difficult stuff. I have access to a lot of good tools, so I imagine I will be fabricating new patches on good thick steel and prepping them as you mentioned. I plan on making it stronger than stock but with as little evidence of a repair as possible.

Wow.... I'm almost at that stage now... It looks like you left the seat rails in place, cut underneath them, then tacked the floors in from the bottom with a slight overlap. Then welded thru from the inside thru weld holes, then spot welded around from the bottom. I assume you then seam sealed or did you do a complete seam weld? I was almost thinking of doing a butt weld for the whole pan but that seems a little overkill for this job; too much risk of warpage etc. Thanks for the pics and ideas! I am still torn about doing the zip cut butt weld method too though.... arrggghhh!

I think my plan for now is to clean the bottom of the car like I'm doing, by hand, then wipe off most of the remaining undercoating with isopropyl alcohol, then tent the frame in the garage and sandblast the remaining rust and paint off. This is not ideal, I know as I don't have a proper blasting facility, but I can't justify the (local) cost of blasting at around $3000... I guess my plan might change as I go. I am still unsure how to treat the metal after blasting and before painting. Do I coat it in Zinc Mate to prevent rust? Do I go straight to POR 15 and seal it right away? If I do that do I have to coat it in self etching primer within the tack window so it can be painted body colour later? Can I leave the exposed metal sit as is until the entire car is prepped and then go to Marine Clean, Metal Ready, then POR 15, then primer, then paint? A lot of questions and everywhere I go, someone has a different method as to what THEY would do... My first thought was to call you....

I'm always up for a good discussion..

Battery compartment looks good though! One old patch near the top and pretty solid elsewhere.

Yeesh...! Passenger side sway bar and crossmember area. Not pretty...

Nice!

Patcon, I thought the POR would help prevent future rust too. I know I don't really need it on good metal, but i thought it would be a good way to hide the rust protection under a finish top coat... I don't want an under coated finish on the bottom of the car. I suppose I could get away with just a standard epoxy primer and body colour/ clearcoat. The car will not be a daily driver.

, I am playing catch up all right... That will slow down once I finish the labour part and start having to shell out big bucks for parts. Paint and refinishing supplies too.... Arrrgh. I am counting on your posts to help me with finishing mine for sure!

All good tips, thanks!

I was a little surprised to see it myself as I did not expect the yellowish primer look. Not only that, it looks like it was a polished finish, almost clear coated. I am torn as to whether I will need to go to bare metal or just light sand and then POR the bottom of the car. I plan on painting the bottom of the car 240 green as well, so the POR will just be a base coat, followed by a primer, then the 240 green. Maybe a clear coat to help keep the grime from sticking. Thoughts?

Very nice products!

Slow progress on the underbody..... and yes, I am getting better pictures on the real camera, this is just a cell phone quickie...

If I was in the states, then I would definitely do that. Being 6 hours from the border and a local shipping (US) agent, the shipping alone to send a tank there and back would be 100's of dollars, plus the price of the tank, plus the extra assessed core charge as mine really is not viable. I am trying to stay under a couple hundred dollars for a replacement tank or I will just rebuild mine. So many other parts need money, I can't justify spending $5 or $600 US on a tank, especially at the current exchange rates.

Very Nice! Don't mean to hijack, but it reminds me of a trip we made to the Reynold's Museum in Wetaskiwin to see Sandy MacTaggart's BRE racing Datsun! Still exactly as it was when he donated it to the museum; no restoration, still full of parts and pieces!

Sounds like what my mother in law said to my wife....

Awesome thread is filled with awesomeness...

It might be a gamble but I don't have a lot of good inexpensive options to me.

Have been in discussions with a member from the HybridZ forum regarding a new fuel tank.... Hopefully I can muckle on to it and get it here for a decent price. There is a small hole in the top that can be welded (dime size) and one of the vent lines looks to be snapped off. Other than that, it is dent free and solid.... fingers crossed!

Feels like I'm in a lecture hall at a technical school when I read this thread! So many years of experience to benefit from here...!

5% GST (Goods and Services Tax) No provincial tax. That is added to all sales in Canada and by Border agents. Import fees, duties and brokerage PLUS exorbitant shipping costs PLUS 30% exchange rate on the credit card make it a huge hit.... Keep in mind, in Canada, there is no Free Shipping like in the States....

Shipping to Canada should NOT be such a ripoff. I guess us Canadians are just too polite to complain... But I'm getting tired of being ripped off by shippers and now eBay.

Ack. I have the fresh air intake in the ceiling for the downdraft paint booth, plus the rear shop exhaust fan on the wall near the floor. I am taking extra steps to be safe as I also have a gas furnace in the shop a couple feet from the car...! ... plus an organic vapour half mask.