Colossus - the 1970 Concours frame replacement project

After straightening the panel some by applying a floor jack to the underside and jacking it up into the cribbing the car body is sitting on, I had a piece I could start fitting to the body:




Trimmed the panel and the hole in the body for initial fit-up. Hole is just about final size:



Pre-trimmed panel. Paint shows how far I can continue to pre-trim the panel:


My wife and son helped me scrape all of the undercoating off of the panel, looks pretty nice:



Next steps are final fit-up…

 

Covered up the interior a little in prep for sandblasting the remainder of the well on the car. Coulda saved my time and skipped this, as the splatter paint in the well was up to the task of resisting my sandblaster. Oh well, must have gotten some loose stuff of. Will probably do something like this after I tack in the panel and go for full on welding...




Edges somewhat cleaner:


Also hit the panel that will be going into the well:



Getting closer...

 

Like the rear quarter, I am using the trick of aligning the panels together for best fit, and then cutting the patch to fit the hole by cutting both together.

Did the pre-trimming of the panel….


…but left little tabs at the front corners…



…and larger tabs at the rear…

Both of which were cut away later in the welding process. I also left the entire rear flange which under lapped the rear panel in the body. Tacked it 3-4 places across, and cut out the flange on the panel between the welds. Once it was stitched part way across, I then cut out that portion with the weld, and tacked that seam point.

Got almost all of it tacked before I ran out of fine cutting discs, daylight, and stamina, as well as having my auto darkening weld mask poop out.



Next stop, finish stitching the welds on the inside, weld the outside, grind the uglies off, and paint.

Regards,
Tom

 

A little aside here about the idea of using a panel cut from a 68-72 GM A-body coupe-sedan fuel tank to form part of the floor of the load well on a 68-72 A-body wagon. We have discussed this over at Team Chevelle Wagon forums as a donar piece for these cars.

I think it would work, but I didn’t do it because I got lucky and was able to get a correct panel. If I hadn’t been able to I would have tried using a tank. I think it would work but there are some issues with shape that make it a bit more than a slam dunk.

Here is the well panel placed onto a tank. The tank is longer front-to-back than the well floor to the first kick-in, but looks to be close enough to the same overall length that it could be made to work:


Side-to-side the load floor is narrower, so one would have to cut and narrow the tank. To me this is ok as you end with one weld line instead of 2 where you have to widen something:


Rear corners of the tank are faceted to clear the rear exhaust pipes. Wouldn’t be a deal breaker if I had to use a tank for a floor:


Side view showing the front-to-rear length again:


I am wondering what the metal thickness of the tank is, as the load floor seems pretty thick, and looks to be thicker than that of the tank. Don’t know for sure. If your well is for storage, might be OK, but if its a seating area, may be too thin if you run over something. Wouldn't want road debris to come up into someone feet!

Hope this helps someone, maybe for grins I’ll cut up a tank and see if it can quickly be turned into a passable floor.

Best would be buying a rust free car...

Best regards,
Tom

 

Great work Tom, thanks for the update and the pictures!

 

gebuz Tom....ya trying to make us look bad????

thats some freekin beauty work going on there!!!!!!!!

 

Hey Tom...this post looks familiar Great work BTW

 

Hey thats some very nice work, the one thing about coming across your story, is i could read it all at once, very impressed, are you done with your wagon ? I have a 1970 Ford LTD Country Squire Wagon

 

Mike,
Thank you for following along.

Rev,
Dunno about beauty, the welds look like they were made by a mud-wasp!

Hey Steve,
Tryin' to share with all who might be interested. 2 places on the net for stories like this about a car like this, here and "there".

Hi Mac,

Oh, man, I sooo wish I was done! Lotsa welding and grinding and then the body goes CRASH! back onto the frame. Then I can start putting it back together. Have you posted any threads on your LTD? Let me know so I can take a look.

Best,
Tom

 

.....but its gettin done!!!!!!!

.........more that i can say for all my crap

 

Rev
you should see all the crap I'm not getting done working on this...
Tom

 

ya...I think i'll retire next year...just to have some free time

 

I know people that retire and then go back to work again cuz they say they're bored at home... If I could retire tomorrow I would be so not-bored, it's amazing!!!

OK, left off last week with the panel spotted in and one corner left to fit.

Had a productive weekend!




Rough welds but it is in.

Had a damaged spot where the well was backed over something and rusted thru:


Found all the holes and weak spots...


Found a scap from the donor well the matched the curve...


And figured out what size the patch needed to be...


Cut to size...


And fitted in place...


More...

 

Patch welded in and ground out. Other welds were also ground down some by this time.



Overall...



I figured if I got all of the floor done this weekend and still had pinhole search-n-weld as well as the little corner to do next weekend, I would be good. However, got all of that done today, so it's a bonus. Need to do a pinhole search tomorrow night in the dark (easier to see light leaks that way), and the super clean the whole well area, and then I can paint it.

May get the body onto the frame before Thanksgiving.

(there, I've jinxed it now!)

Best to all,
Tom

 

looks good pal