Outer Wheel House Does Not Fit!

Reproduction GTO Wheel wells do not fit convertibles. modifications made to outer wheel well. I only cut out the top portion saving the side lip because they fit.

IMG_1178[1]

test fit of wheel well. the top needs to be flat. i plan to fill the top with a flat piece of sheet metal.IMG_1179[1]

Swiss Cheese Rust

The passenger outer rocker had a lot of rust holes. Almost like swiss cheese. The panel it self was in good structural shape. it would have been a lot of work to cut and weld so many smaller patches. I decided to fill these holes with the mig welder. On the right side of the image you can see i already filled some holes.

After a little wire wheeling.

As a backing i used the a copper ‘welding helper spatula spoon’ thingumabob. Steel weld does not stick to the copper so the spoon comes right off. After a little grinder the final result was to my satisfaction. i held the spoon on the outside of the rocker and welded from the inside. i only need to grind down the outside since the inside will no longer be visible once the floor and inside rockers go back in.

holes filled and finished off with sandpaper flap disk on grinder.

the two holes on the left were too big. had to fill with a metal patch.

End result. almost perfect but once some primer goes on and a little filler to cover. the work will not be noticeable.

i am not sure how ‘correct’ this type of repair is as i have not seen it done or discussed in the forums. But i like it!

Inside Rocker

Getting the rust out of the inside of the rockers would have been impossible without sandblasting. With the new compressor sandblasting was a lot smoother. No need to wait for the compressor to catch up. Only downside is that sand gets EVERYWHERE. Between the sand and the paint fumes the garage wax toxic. I had my respirator on until the last minute before running out the door.

After blasting i spray painted with eastwoods rust encapsulator.

Cut, Weld, Grind

cutting, welding and grinding. installing fresh patches on rused out locations.

First Rust Repair!

This is my first attempt at an actual repair. came out pretty good i think!

Complete Floor Removal

The floor section on the GTO was too far gone. not worth patching in so many places so i decided to buy a complete floor replacement. From the firewall to the trunk area. The old floor had to be removed carefully so the drilling of spot welds begins. It took about 10 hours of work to get 100+ spot welds drilled out.

I decided to order a complete floor piece that included the floor braces but without inner or outer rockers. The outer rockers i left on the car and will repair them soon (minor rust damage). Trying to replace the outer rockers would have left no support between the front and the rear of the car and i was not going to risk having the car come out of alignment.

The inner rockers are going to be replaced. There is abosultuly no way to remove the inners without damanging them. much easier to buy new. it would be a good idea for the complete floor plan to also be offered with inner rockers already attached as it would save a step in the restoration.

i am not going to put the new floor section in yet. it is much easier to work on the car with the floor out. i will finish all work leading up to the trunk area before attaching the floor. Stay tuned!.