Mav1970's Insane 69.5 Street Project

Yes Everett, the first photo was taken some time ago of the driver's side front torque box that had a lot of rot through. I think what happened was the car sat outside for many years on wooden blocks that got wet with the weather. There was some beginning of problems with the other 3 but they all cleaned up fine. Just this one was bad and I cut out all of the rot. The floor right above it still needs to be replaced but I'll do this all at once. Maybe best to remove the floor tomorrow for access to welding the new box in. You can only do a visual of your boxes since most are hidden in the layers of the frame, rocker and floor.

 

That's the great Texas sheet metal you keep sending up to PA for me - I bet the surface corrosion just started in the cardboard box as it crossed the Pennsylvania border - it just knew it had to rot north of that border LOL!

Did you rip any teeth off of your spot weld cutter getting this box out, Rick?

I know I used up a sawzall blade and shortened up a grinding wheel or 2 getting it to look like it does now - pretty intricate piece of steel

 

Just look behind your front tires. Pretty easy to see.

 

No teeth but dulled one. Floor pan metal is not as thin as it looks. A lot of work to remove any body metal.

 

The "magic" that hold those uni-bodies all together

 

Ok! Thanks. I have looked in that area and frm what I have seen it looks pretty gud. Im going to clean all that area up real gud this spring and repaint, if it looks ok.

 

As long as you're thinking about painting the outside surface of the torque box area, you might want to consider buying a can of the aerosol rust encapsulator that Eastwood sells with the plastic hose attachment for spraying the stuff inside of frames. You have the front access holes so you could give the unseen interior of the torque box a good coating of the good stuff

 

Did you cut the gusset off flush with the frame or did you separate the metal on the frame? Just trying to figure out if it's best to cut off flush and weld it to the frame or try the factory method which don't look easy!

 

Stang Column Now Connected To Rack

I bought my last needed Sweet 3/4 x 3/4 smooth steering joint from a guy on Ebay and wouldn't you know it, he sends me a 3/4 smooth x GM spline rack joint. Usless to me so he had me send it back for an exchange. Finally got it yesterday but I hate when something winds up costing an extra 6 bucks when you have to ship it back.

I got all of the dots connected today from the 69 Mustang steering column down to the Flaming River manual rack. It took a splined rack joint and 2 smooth joints to do it plus the 3/4 oversized support heim, which I had to make a bracket for. It came close to the headers and top A-frame but there is clearence all around. All I need now is gas for my welder and I can have everything tacked in place

 

Sweet!! Looks awesome!!

 

Nice work, looks Bullit proof from here.

 

Thanks guys - my feet and hands are still cold from my 3 hours in the garage but I'm glad I was able to get this part of it done.

As far as bulletproof - I would say so since this technology comes from my stock car days and we never busted a column in 26 years of paved circle track racing - broke everything else at least once though

 

I didn't have to cut the driver's side gusset off at all - Mother Nature took care of most of that for me. I just ground away what was left. I haven't taken the passenger side gusset off yet but I'm not planning to split any frame layers apart to make it go away. The Mustang ones that I bought just flush weld anyway do that will be the route that I will go

 

I totaly agree! I get the staples out of my neck on Monday so hopefully i can get back on mine. I think i need to invest in some heat though!

 

That looks nice!!!!