More Trunk Removal

More action shots of removing the trunk floor.  You can see I have some patching to do before I can install the new floor.

 

  

Here's a little bit of the original paint color, 50 years old.

And on we go...

 

All gone now.

 

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Our Grumpy Cat

I love Grumpy Cat.  I understand her humor.  We have our own grump, named Millie.  She's really sweet but has her moments, like this one.

GO AWAY.

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Junk In Mah Trunk

Time for the next big job--replacing the trunk floor.  The replacement panel (BMH) comes as one LARGE piece.  So the old floor has to come out all at once.  Or in many little pieces.  Which is mostly how it happened.

The driver's side structural member was rusted out at too many key points to be salvaged, so I bought a replacement.  The passenger's side member was in fine shape, so I'll reuse it.

There is a lot to disassemble when removing the trunk floor.  The bumper stops have to come off.  The structural members that hold the trunk to the inner fender wells is attached underneath where the bumper stops go and all along the fender wells too, and of course to the floor.  The floor is also attached to braces that hold the check straps and rear dampers.  It's attached to braces inside the trunk and to the closing panels on the lower fenders (which I didn't care about, since they were trash and got cut off--it's easier if you just resign yourself to replacing them and the bottom of the rear fenders).  Finally, it's attached to the back of the car to close out the seam between the trunk and the rear body panel (fascia?  I always wanted to say 'fascia'.).

Here's the trunk, before and after some of the removal.  The center of the floor came out in one big piece, and the rest in little pieces, after hours and hours of drilling out those wonderful spot welds.

 

Here's an example of the fun removing the structural member from the inner fender.

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So THAT'S Where It All Went

The closing panel under the steering rack was all beat up and I had more 16 gauge metal to replace it with... but I didn't expect to find what I found when I removed it.  Maybe I should have.  It's only been 50 years, after all.

  

Mmmmmm.  That was about 5 pounds of crud.

It looks MUCH better now.

I took some beauty shots of the work I completed on the bottom of the car after cleaning up and filling some holes...

 

 

 

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A Little Shop of Horrors

The Midget had been in a front end collision at some point long ago.  I'm starting to wonder if it was used in a demolition derby.  Not only that, but the front frame rails where the bumper and radiator are mounted take the worst punishment from the weather, so everything was a mess.  My dad had brazed the bumper mounts on, and I ended up patching them a couple of times over the years.  But it was finally time for the whole mess to go.

I ended up replacing the front frame rails (you can buy them as a patch, so I can't be the only one who's had to do this) and the radiator mounting brackets.  This was another critical job, as it determines the alignment of the front fenders to the body and bonnet.  So I measured many times and kept the angle at which the front frame rails exit the front cross member.  I think I got it right as everything still fit in the end.

I had ordered new radiator mounts, but only one came in.  The other was backordered for 19 weeks.  19 WEEKS?  Who orders one radiator mount and not the other?  So I managed to salvage the passenger's side (it was still straight and rust free) and reused it.

Here's where I started.

  

 

Look at the lovely rust.

  

All better now.

The bumper mounts were rusted but salvageable.  They aren't expensive, so I may just replace them outright.  But I wanted to try to fix them.

  

  

Time to replace the other side...

 

And after much careful measuring and test fitting...

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Kicking Some Plates

I finally get back to the Midget in early January of 2015.  I know I could buy the kick plates for the foot wells, but I'm running a bit low on car cash and I wanted to try my hand at fabrication anyhow.  I bought a large piece of 16 gauge sheet metal, and I've got a template--the kick panel I cut out of the driver's side foot well long ago.  So I give it a go.

Measure five times, cut once, and some bending... and I think it looks pretty good.  It fits, too.  So I made the other one.

 

 

I say, "Not bad".  I even installed the nut on the back of the driver's side plate to hold the high beam switch like it should be.  Before, it flopped around a bit because it only had one nut holding it to the car.  And that nut was NOT me.

Believe it or not, that finishes off the middle of the car as far as sheet metal replacement goes.  I might be nearing 50 percent complete.  But there's plenty more to come, so stay tuned.

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