Week 2 of 15 = body work

Washtenaw comm college.
i've mostly been taking auto service classes over the last 3 years, but I've taken a few body classes to kinda fill in since I've pretty much taken all the service classes now.

 

brought my old dig cam today figuring it was better than my phone. stupid camera won't take pictures working on right front side today. took tool box out and have no floor on right side now. hoping to rebuild the toolbox surround.
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These first 5 pics should be the removal of the floorpan(whats left of it) on the right side and the tool box surround. I also had about a 4" hole in the right side just in front of the door opening where there's a reinforcing piece on the inside. That was also rusted out about 2" up from the floor. I cut that back and bent up a new piece to extend it back down to the floor and cut a patch panel for the side. Glad I did that one first because I tend to work slower in the morning and take my time

I've got this week off so next update unless I do something here at home will be march 8th.

 

i wasn't sure what I was going to do with the toolbox surround, since it looked pretty bad. My main goal was to get it out of the jeep so it would be easier to put the floors in. Since i still need to get the metal for the floors, I had time and I started messing around bending up a couple pieces for the rear section. I managed to bend the lip where the seal goes fairly easily and had to make up a little funky peice to finish up the radius. Also had to add in about 1 1/2" to the front on one half were the surround meets the floorpan. it actually turned out really good compared to what it was. I just screwed it back in place for now so it would give some stability to the door openings while its in transit.

 

Last sunday's progress. Think I have 8 weeks left. Not sure if we have class on easter sunday or not...

Made progress on the passenger side floor.
First I rebuild the bottom 2 inches of the passenger side rocker under the door. Took most of the morning just to get the bent up and welded in. after that, I pulled the toolbox compartment out only to decide it helped to figure things out so I screwed it back in temporarily. measured up what I needed and made sure I had a square piece of metal for the floor before welding it in. Got everything lined up and it went in no problem.

about 3:00 I started on the drivers floor. Found that the riser piece between the front and rear floor was too low and I screwed up the wheel housing in the process. So I had to cut out what I had done a couple weeks ago so i can get the riser in place so the front floor pan under the gas tank will line up right. thats about as far as I got. The drivers side is pretty weak right now. 2 weeks ago before I left I had welded in a patch just to keep the tub from folding in half at the front of the door opening at the bottom it was rusted so bad. That 3" strip of metal is about all that is holding that side together right now. THAT is my first chore next sunday when I get there.

 

And here's the last pic I have. I want to play around with webshots or one of the other hosting sites and put all the build pics I have from start to finish so everyone can see the higher res pics. That and I'm planning on taking the good digital cam in next week to get some good pictures.

So far it looks like I have most of a 4x4 foot and a 4x5 foot piece of 18 gauge sheet metal used up. I have a couple foot by 2 foot pieces but they will be used up soon in the front floors as a new trans hump and new hat channels.

 

i think its a lincoln? red case ill check sunday. 115v co2 and argon mix. 25 wire. im not using the same welder each time but for the most part they're all the same models.
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bending my own since i have access to a brake.
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I had the other back tailgate surround piece bent up over a month ago, but never got around to putting it on. Well last week on the way home my temp weld broke so it was kinda wobbly. Decided to finally fix that. So both rear tailgate surround pieces are replaced now. I have one hole in the right wheel well I need to patch and figure out what I'm going to do with the left wheel well but the back is done now.

I then started working on the left rocker under the drivers door. This was the worst side. I had to replace 3 inches of the bottom.

early cj5 stickers unfortunately need to come off soon.

 

And more pics of replacing the left rocker and finally the drivers side floor pan went in last week.

Next week I have to get the front of the floors attached the the front part of the floor that rises up to the firewall. Got the transmission cover sheet metal to help line everything up.

 

got my paint today8)
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Here's 3 from finishing the repair to the left side of the body. One last patch at the front of the door opening, and ground all the welds down.

 

Here's the new floors going in. Had the majority of the floors in last 2 weeks but finally got to make up a transmission hump to connect them together today. I bolted the removable part of the trans hump in and welded some nuts onto the bottom of the new sheet metal to make things easier. Didn't quite get the left side of the hump right, but I'll mess around with that next week and should have it lined up better. Last major thing after I finish this next week is to make the hat channels for under the front floors. I might have enough metal. its getting close. I made up a template from wimpy's new tub yesterday out of cardboard so its just a matter of bending up the channel and cutting it to fit once I have the floors done.

Hope to be ready to paint next month. I'm thinking about getting the tub dipped once I finish the metal work. There's still some rust that I will never be able to get to and it would be nice to get rid of that before I do a nice paint job on it. i'd like it to last for a while after doing all this work...