Project clean machine?

[The86manche]

Happy 4th everyone!

I had nothing going on today so I decided to put my nose to the mj grind stone!

Ive been peeling back the unibody rail to clean up the rust and I had one last spot to remove for total clean up and clean out. This little guy.

It wasn't too far gone thankfully so I didn't need to make any more patches

and the ugliness behind it.

 

[The86manche]

Broke out the hand held sandblaster and worked away. Blasted the piece i removed and cleaned up scale on the crossmember where it bolts to the unibody. Will need that installed when I need to weld in my patches and don't want rust touching my work lol

 

 

 

 

And everything ive been cleaning up ive been coating in rust converter primer. 

[The86manche]

And then clean up time. Whatever tool i  could fit in the rail went in to try and clean up any rust.

 

Underside.

I battled with a lip I couldn't quite see.

At the start of the clean out.

after.

 

[The86manche]

Gave it a good vacuum clean, blew it all out, wiped it doen with brake clean and then a nice thiiiick coating of rust reformer primer.

 

And this is where i have left it for today.

Letting the primer set up and dry and then the patch pieces will be going in!

Will likely brush on some epoxy and after that sets up enamel over that to complete this side of the unibody... uh.. in the cab at least.

[The86manche]

Finger painting with epoxy!

I brushed on a coat on the backsides of the pieces I made.

 

 

And up in and around the rail. Its okay that its not perfect, it will get an enamel coating when everything is pieces back together in there.

 

[The86manche]

Happily burned away my saturday!

Gave that epoxy plenty of time to dry and went right to putting that uni-rail back together.

Reamed out some holes, dremeled the notch at the top center, and punch some plug weld holes.

Preparation! And I sprayed pink weld on all weld spots too.

Dry fit the crossmember and everything lined up nicely.

 

 

Sandwiched it all together with the correct M10-1.5 hardware and some clamps for extra support.

[The86manche]

Cleaned the metal around the nuts and burned them in to the top plate and it back in to the unibody

And definitely had to dial in the welder... new torch handle really brought the welder back around.

A nice dry fit of the bottom plate. Spent a lot of time marking and smoothing and notching and cleaning..

[The86manche]

A little motivation to keep me going. Burned in that small little piece and dry fit the rest of the sections for the inside. I also finished welding it, cleaned it up and coated it in enamel.

Prep work for the bottom plates including the one that helps support the crossmember.

Zink weld and tacks.

[The86manche]

Wrapped up the inside

smoothed out the bottom and put the crossmember brace back on.

Welds aren't perfect but if the factory welds held this long then mine will too.

 

And thats where I left it for the night.

Will come back another day to smooth it all out fill the frame rail in enamel till its oozing out every seam.