Well...it's been a long weekend...literally and figuratively. Craig came up Thursday night and we spent the better part of Friday, Saturday and Sunday working on my 122, replacing rusty stuff...

Here are a few "before" shots.









The first step is to fit up the various panels to see what we have and to see if what we have is sufficient to replace the rusted panels.



Then it's time to start cutting...





We were often greeted with this on the outside...



And this on the inside...



It seems whoever did the body work on this car liked body filler and butyl rubber...

This is the inside of the passenger side rocker cavity. This was full of mouse droppings when I first got the car. There were still more is other cavities...



Test fitting other panels...





The section with the 1/2 holes is supposed to go from the top of the rocker cavity to the bottom. The driver side was completely rusted away at the bottom so we cut it away from the middle down.

Then we put in a length of pipe to add strength. I think we added significant strength...



After test fitting the rocker and rear rocker panel, it was time to affix the rear panel...temporarily...



Then it was time for Craig to work some magic on the rocker panel he fabricated to tweak the fit...





Artsy cutting shot...



The inner rocker section, all painted and ready for the rocker panel to be welded in place.



Before the main rocker panel gets welded in, the rear panel is welded in place.



Then the main section is welded in place.



An artsy welding shot...



And everything is in place. Notice how Craig's panel matches the "bought" replacement panel...





A similar process with the passenger side...





While we had the driver side rocker wide open, we noticed some perforation in the lower section of the "A" pillar. This will get welded up before the car is done...



More artsy grinding shots...



Craig performing more voodoo on a piece of sheet metal that eventually found its way to the bottom of the passenger side rocker section...



Obviously a few hours since the last picture...Craig is welding the rocker in place. Note the rear rocker section is already welded in place...



Once the rockers were in place it was time to get to the fender arches. Although the panels I have will cover quite a bit more area, we only cut out what we had to. No sense welding in a panel that's larger than we need. Again, some surprises greeted us...



That butyl rubber stuff is wickedly sticky. Here Craig is trying to remove a section of the driver side fender arch. He actually had to brace his knee against the car to get it off...



The fender arch is removed...



We'll also be replacing some sections of the inner fender although all those pieces will have to be fabricated...



There was also some repair done to the inner arch...



We had a little help with getting some of that ugly butyl rubber stuff from the inside of the inner fenders. My son Ben skinned a couple of knuckles...



So...that's where we are. Yes, it took the better part of 3 days to get to this point. There are likely a couple of days left before it's ready for some filler to smooth everything out and prime. I can't thank Craig enough for taking three days out of his hectic schedule to help me out. In the end the 122 will look so much better and will be soooo much stiffer, it will make it all worthwhile...

Thanks Craig!

More to come...

Pfft, hardly any work at all. How come it's not done yet?

right on Dale!

ciao

Awesome work Craig, and your apprentice Dale.
The car is going to look better than new when you two are finished

Very nice! Holy bondo everywhere.....this is already looking way betta. I almost swung by yesterday afternoon to see the progress, but wasn't sure if you two would still be there.

Nope, Dale was in my garage helping me hang my ceiling. You should have called!

When we picked it up, we knew it had a ton of bondo in it. Wasn't really a concern, 'cause it was just "supposed to be something to tinker on with the boys", right Dale? Things sort of got out of control, and now that the body is shaping up it's looking like the search for a better body has ended.

Yeah, I thought about phoning, but I couldn't have stayed for more than a few minutes. I would have liked to say hi. Laura and I were just on our way through from Edmonton.
You getting that garage insulated Matt? Sweet.

Glad this car is becoming a keeper...it would seem a shame to toss the body, despite its faults.
Respray?

I just noticed the discolouration of the paint on the rear brake rotor: got them brakes hot, I guess?

One more hard pull and we'll have it done except for the finishing touches (and there is some shrinking needed given the amount of stretch in some of the panels!). I'm very found of that car (it's always put a big grin on my face) and didn't want to see it go to waste - it is really not all that bad, in fact it is better than I expected. Always glad to be of assistance where I can.

I still haven't seen a mouse - but I promised to kick the stuffing out of the next one I see just to teach them not to use rocker panels as outhouses!

holy mouse droppings craig and dale! you boys have been busy!

lookin good and i cant wait to see how she does for the jasper cruise! cause come hell or high water, we ARE doing that!!!! if I have to go steal a semi, lock all you buggers in your respective cars and TOW you, so be it!

and shh, that's not kidnpaping. that's fun.

better be in the spring - then the car will be all pretty.

Yeah...I think that happened when I was bedding in the scalloped rotors. The backs were smoking a bit...

yes, spring or summer...sometime after i get the winshield done....i swear to jeebus my winshield is sexually attracted to those stones. that's the only explination.

oh yeah stone! crack me harder! crack me wide open!

...and i've officially lost it.

oh well. at least i'll have sassy endlinks by then! (and yes, they're still sitting in the bread bag by my door...they'll be put in eventually, i'm not in a real rush)

Focus sweetheart, focus...

We should start a "Random Off Topic" thread. Whenever you feel like posting something random, do it in there...

Anyhow...an update. Craig came back into town last weekend and we spent a few more hours working on the car. More progress was made although, again, not as much as we'd hoped. We had a minor (major?) distraction that took nearly a day to work out...

You remember the bulging spot on the passenger door? Well, we decided to find out exactly what was under that bulge besides rust and bondo...

What we found was rather astonishing. There had been a repair of some sort made. We're not sure if it was rust or damage. Regardless, it was repaired by welding in some random pieces of 14 or 12 gauge steel and then filling it with lead. The lead filling didn't go so well so it was topped off with bondo. After we peeled the bondo back we decided just to cut the offending area out and were left with this...



This is the edge view of the piece that came out...



That's how thick the lead was in some spots! And there was bondo on top of that!

Another shot of the piece we cut out, although this doesn't really show the mess it really is...



More of the nastiness. This piece probably weighs 3 or 4 pounds!



Since there was some pretty ugly work done to the door edge, we decided the only way to do it properly was to take the door off...



Then we welded in some support for the door edge and painted it...





Then it was time to cut out a panel to replace the ugly one...





We had to cut open the inner door panel to get access to the area.



Once the piece was spot welded in place, Craig formed the edge...





And then welded the panel in permanently...











Now it was time to shrink the panel to get some tension and strength in it...



First you get some heat into it with the metal disc. Then you squirt it with cold water to shrink...



Works a charm. Once we had the panel shrunk as much as possible. we welded up the inner panel and put the door back on. Very little filler will be needed to make this door look like new...





So...with that distraction out of the way, we went back to carry on with welding pieces in at the rear driver side.









A little tidying up inside the fender and it's ready for some seam sealer and paint...



Next time we'll be working on the passenger side. While Craig was welding up the driver side, I was mocking up the passenger side...





This side will go a bit more quickly because we're not tearing into the fender arch. However, we have to replace more of the trunk floor so there is a little more cutting and fitting of custom bits and pieces to be done...

One more weekend, then a little filler...should have took the car to the scales before and after - must be at least 10 pounds lighter!