Some of the sections removed needed some patch work, or complete reconstruction, 1st time using shaping hammers .


Made some small lill support vertical brackets hard to see in pics (below)
Really helps when lifting car I no longer see any flexing on that side.


All the rust is removed

And I restore my destroyed pinch weld seem , finally after 15 yrs I was able to care take of this.

Great job on the repair! I'm still staring at mine waiting for it to just disappear on its own.
Luckily I have my rust free parts car so I don't have to be Mr shape shifter.
Absolutely zero time to work on it which has been depressing.

jesse12345 said:

Great job on the repair! I'm still staring at mine waiting for it to just disappear on its own.
Luckily I have my rust free parts car so I don't have to be Mr shape shifter.
Absolutely zero time to work on it which has been depressing.

Click to expand...

So envious, I noticed that’s what many do chop a donor up, I decided I wanted to try and learn how to shape metal so it was a nice experience.

Looking forward to seeing your progress as well.

I'm not going to lie seeing your progress literally made me make some time tonight to work on my car. I made quite some progress so I'll have to post an update soon. Thanks for the motivation it was seriously needed.

Small moves…

Scrubbed / scuffed the belly - factory red came off easy leaving a clean primer’d
surface.


Painted




Sanded the exhaust system clean, added a high flow kitty and a ultra- quiet resonator, and gave the exhaust shield a new look.

unfortunately I lost a few weeks, old injuries had me bed ridden for some time. But I’m still working on it

I used this stuff it’s great did the rear frame, drive shaft and axels. It’s not satin at all but w/e, I also sprayed this in the cavities that I sand blasted


I’m still working on shaping the last outer layer of skin on the rockers


I found some surface rust UNDER the factory rubber coating on the wheel wells, so it’s looking like she is gonna stay on stands a lill longer …………all of this just so I can go back to slaving on the interior/exterior once she comes back down.

—————————————————————

In more pleasant news, look at how cute !!!! My lill peaches are - they started growing after the last Florida winter that killed my garden !!!

Looking great! I'm still in heavy shock that a Florida car has this much rust, I didn't think I'd ever see that.

jesse12345 said:

Looking great! I'm still in heavy shock that a Florida car has this much rust, I didn't think I'd ever see that.

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I’ve seen so much worse DSMs here in FL

So much worse !

That's wild to me. Is it from the salty water or just humidity that does it?

jesse12345 said:

That's wild to me. Is it from the salty water or just humidity that does it?

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I’m thinking it’s both.

A teany tiny post

Been moving alot slower now that all the Florida pest are in full bloom



I wear overalls and protective gear and I either let them murder me or die from heat stroke

Circled back to the removeable trunk added more latches and tried to match the interior paint with duplicolor ……….. terrible idea, I decided to use bolts and gaskets vs re -welding the center brace / windshield wiper tank mount also added some rubber coating to aid with sound proofing under neath the trunk rustoleum also disappointed as it seems to remain wet and sticky days after even with several light coats .

Man it's been so nice here lately I don't know if I could handle Florida. Hot and humid with a dose of mosquitos kind of sounds fun when wrenching on your favorite car.

Having a hot day here today but temp just dropped to 85 so I'm going to finish off the day with a nice little mountain bike ride .
Want to get a good look at Mt Rainier. I'm reading that snowpack there is well below normal for this time of year. Trails at mid-elevations are melting out a month or more ahead of schedule. Stuff like that. We had a "snow drought" this year. Rain up there when there should have been snow.

We're on Boost said:

Having a hot day here today but temp just dropped to 85 so I'm going to finish off the day with a nice little mountain bike ride .
Want to get a good look at Mt Rainier. I'm reading that snowpack there is well below normal for this time of year. Trails at mid-elevations are melting out a month or more ahead of schedule. Stuff like that. We had a "snow drought" this year. Rain up there when there should have been snow.

Click to expand...

Jelly 🫩

Now that I’m finally done working under the belly and the rear end, I’ve moved to the front

And unknowingly stood face height to a swarm of hornets that made a home in my front bumper waste gate exit hole.

I was viciously attacked and it hurts in ways I haven’t experienced pain…. In some time.

Anyway i notice the rust under the factory rubber coating appears to be only along the seem.
You can see the pitting is only an inch from that seem.

And additional I was able to confirm that am I am leaking bewteen the mating surface of the rear to middle case for the transfer case.



But wait : theres more - I also found that I am leaking from the mating surface of the transmissions rear case

previously i thought it was leaking from this one bolt, but I realized that’s just were the oil would pool.


If not for the lift/ tall jacks, i really would have never really been able to diagnose this.

I always had a sweaty drivetrain …

My goal is to just address any and all issues related to being under the car- I hope to never have to come back so Im still looking for things to resolve.

Just a lill more and she can come back down.

From old to new, once "done", it will be like having a "new" car.

OCD got a grip on me
Other side - some areas look fine but theres subtle hints, some areas i just do at random , pays off sometimes.



Im purdy sure this is how struct tower rust gets started, it has to be coming in from the wheel well.

The thing is all of this is hidden and looks perfectly normal with the factory coating / sealant…

Not bad though easy to primer- paint , reseal and …… idk maybe re rubberize ????

I know exactly how you feel when the ocd kicks in. Best to get it now then deal with it later. This is how a short project turns into a long one. Great job so far!

jesse12345 said:

This is how a short project turns into a long one. Great job so far!

Click to expand...

thanks
But yeah it’s been a few months since I started.

Split the Tcase up to add new RTV to prevent leak - no more leaks.
And added RTV around the AN fitting to finally stop the last tiny engine leak.

Exhaust finally back up - interested to hear how she shounds with the Cat and Resonator



From this view we can see the rockers have been fully repaired and restored and all the rust has been removed- saving the chassis. You can’t even tell it was all gutted chopped and blended back.

Painted the tow hitch as well

And fished out these bolts I bought in 2014
It only took me 12 yrs to get around to fixing the broken cross member bolt!!!
After some drilling i finally got it out, to be fair this is the first time she has been up in the lift so it makes sence I never had a chance to get underneath.



Finally I can add the sub cross member bracket.

( mostly because I mistakenly thought that bolt needed repair to add this, this could have been installed the whole time)


Finally the undercarriage is restored and the leaks in the Tcase and engine are fixed.

That thing is looking awesome! Super pumped for you, great job on all of it.

It is like watching someone cut alternating lines in a lawn... soothing to see.

I finished up the wheel wells, painted and resealed . So I thought it might be a good time to freshen up the brakes a lill.

Rather then brembo stickers, I wanted something more unique so I got these.

This is what i thought as soon as I read the lill sticker on the bag full of stickers.


“ Hey guy “

But I really liked the way these look on the listing so I was willing to try




Before and after - went from a gun metal grey to a dark grey metallic.




Also bought new fender liners from “fisher “ AND new upper control arms
On eBay for cheap

It’s been about 6 months now she has been in the air with this restoration.


Finally !! - ready to drop her back to the ground…after so many times of removing installing re removing and re installing things ect………………………………….








Right at the 90* bend on the bellhousing
Were cracks love to propagate ️

So much for getting of the jacks……..
I was hoping this could be repaired in the car, seen so many successful videos on YT doing the same. But unfortunately I have to drop the tranny now.

Another thing that happened during the 8 years of sleeping - idk maybe before that , maybe partly due to shot rear diff bushings, aiding in stress, maybe it’s the insane amount of torque. Does look like Tcase was tearing away from tranny.

I looked at images from 2010 the same crack, same length was visible then

:/

We're still going for a drive tho right?

Wait a sec though, the one picture where the crack has been welded and then it cracked again through the weld - is that somebody else's miserable experience with the same thing?