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by **Badsunbird** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:54 am

More Pictures of Final Installation.

by **Badsunbird** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:57 am

And Still More Pictures of The New Floor

by **Badsunbird** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:00 am

Still More Pictures

by **Badsunbird** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:05 am

And the last of the series of New Floor Pictures!

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that this part of the project is complete and I can move on to something else! I can just about imagine that everyone else is tired of seeing floor pan pictures as well !!! They always say that good things can't be rushed, well I sure took my time getting this part of it done. Atleast it turned out very well and isn't just some "hack job" that you often see people do because they don't actually have the skills to perform a job of this size and magnitude, but I can say that it will definitely be a long time before I tackle another project of these proportions. LOL!

by **patrick1151** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:05 am

Wow, looking awesome. Sure am glad I dont have to do that to my cars.

by **gerbsinmd** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:41 am

That is an awesome job. I can't believe how good that turned out!

by **bill1978v8** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:47 pm

Any updates? You've done an incredible job!!

Bill

by **Dannyboy** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:11 pm

My hat's off........
what an effort!!
did someone dare you?
so much work to save that heap of junk
I would have tried to save the donor car
instead.

by **Badsunbird** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:55 am

Thanks Everyone for the compliments once again, it was alot of work and I think that it will be worth it! And No it wasn't a dare by any means. This little project is something that I had to prove to myself, prove that I can still do this kind of work of this nature. I have been out of "Building Cars" for almost 17 or 18 years and have missed it tremendously. I used to do this kind of stuff for a living and got burned out on it and gave it up, (not to mention that my Ex had alot to do with that ) thank goodness I kept all my tools. I then went into the commercial construction industry and have been there for the past 16 1/2 years and is what I continue to do.
As I have mentioned in my past posts, this car was actually in really great condition except for the floor pan. There is NO rust in any of the rest of this car,(except for surface rust), which is very rare considering where this car was purchased and where it has spent it's life geographically. Had "I" considered it to be a pile of junk, I wouldn't have went through all this effort and performed this repair! Had it not been for this site & Bob Gumm's site, I wouldn't have been able to get the information and the resources to locate the floor pan and other parts that I was in need of! So actually I am thankful to all of you for YOUR help!
Here are a "few" more updates since I have neglected to to so for some time now! LOL! :lol:

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by **Badsunbird** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:48 am

My mechanic has been hard at it and has gotten alot accomplished in the past two weeks. I did have to finally break down and pay him though. Thank Goodness he works for a reasonable price and takes "Cookies & Milk" as payment, for a bonus I did take him out for Ice Cream though, he really loved that!
If I'm lucky I'll be able to talk him into sticking around to do the transmission as well ! :lol:

by **spyder_xlch** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:32 am

Are you going to leave it black or paint it body color? My Spyder is in the same shape. Very bad floor (and one front frame rail) but nice other wise. I have a donor and was going to do what you did. I've been talked into swapping the parts from my Spyder to the donor. I'll give you lots of credit for taking on a job like that. And a good job you did.

by **Badsunbird** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:11 pm

Hello Again Spyder_Xlch,

I plan on leaving the underside black as you see it in my pics, it is too much work to try and paint the black to orange. If I was going to do that I should have bought the bed liner in color. I am going to paint everything from the firewall/floor pan seam forward in body color ("Box Orange") inside and out.
Besides, the only one who is going to really see it is myself and the darn ants! LOL!
I took another look at your garage pictures and I see exactly what you are talking about and why "they" have talked you into transferring your parts to the Buick "shell". With the kind of rust damage that you are showing on your Spyder, about the only logical thing to do with it would be to go to a complete tube chassis and front suspension as long as your rocker panels are in good shape (meaning solid) inside and out. Jegs has a tube chassis kit for these little cars at a pretty reasonable price really, but you are talking about ALOT of TIME & MONEY when you get into a project of that nature!!! It just all boils down to if it is worth it to you or not, that's all.
Thank you Very Much for the compliments, I am very grateful and they are appreciated very much as well !!! Good Luck with your project(s) and I look forward to seeing and reading about your progress !!!

by **Badsunbird** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:35 pm

Well Once Again, I have been at it, tearing the front end down with my camera in hand. I got quite a bit done in a short amount of time, but not completely tore down. I still have to mark the bottom control arm bolts before I take them off and I also have to remove the cross member, master cylinder & brake lines.
I should then be able to sand blast the front sub-structure and weld up the control arm area for added strength. Also bead blast the control arms and paint them, get the new ball joints & control arm bushings installed along with the new V8 springs. Then I can mount my new G-body spindles with the adapter bushings, rotors and brakes. I also have an S-10 master cylinder, but not sure if I'm going to use it yet or not since the original is still in great working condition.
I would have to say that the sand blasting has to be the worst part of it, it takes forever it seems like, but is better and quicker than any other way of prepping the metal. This is still a fair amount of work, but in comparison is nothing compared to the floor pan ordeal !!!
Once Again I have attatched some more pictures of the progress that I have made. :roll:

by **Badsunbird** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:37 pm

And a short time later, this is what I ended up with!

by **Badsunbird** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:40 pm

It is simply amazing how much room you end up with once most of the suspension components have been removed.
Note how good of shape all of the sheet metal and the frame rails are in, No rust repair is needed here at all.

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