Undercoating removal is a messy job. The loose areas were quickly removed.
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Underneath the original undercoating we found
the factory primer base.
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Time for the harder scraping.
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The car had dealer air conditioning at some point, then was removed.
One hole to patch.
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The old welder is giving out and making ugly welds.
Time for a new welder.
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There was a dent in the firewall that would need to be fixed as well.
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The inside of the firewall, driver side.
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The passenger side of the interior firewall. There
is some surface rust that will need to be cleaned up.
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The end of the rocker panel is now accessible
for fixing.
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Patch panels in the floorboards. There is still
rust to be cleaned out of the wheelwells at this point.
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The transmission access panel from the firewall.
It doesn't look too bad from this angle.
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However, edge on, the transmission access panel
is warped and will need much work.
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The cleaned up clutch and brake pedal assembly.
Since this car is an automatic, Kurt wants to use the clutch pedal to
trigger something else, just not sure what.
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The spare tire well cleaned up very nicely.
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All the undercoating was removed from the bottomside.
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Another angle of the bottom side.
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Laquer thinner was used to help remove all the
grease, oil, and grime.
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At times, when other people had time, other
steps were also done. The roof and body were stripped while the floorpan
was being worked on, just not as quickly. For clarity of the story,
those steps and pictures are in the Body section.
Yes, this is a bit disjointed in time sequence, but it shows the progress
better than having a single picture scattered among the pictures here.
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Tape marks the areas on the firewall that need
welding up.
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More weld markings. Looks like a bad case of the measles.
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A pitted corner that will need to be patched.
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Patch area removed. You can really see the pits
now.
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The gas tank in the wagons is an odd shape, squeezed
in between the spare tire well, the shocks, and the cross brace.
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A front drive shaft retainer loop was added, as
it is required for racing safety.
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The POR 15 and Chassis Black coating on the front
suspension has held up well.
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The back half of the frame will need to be cleaned
up before it can get the same POR treatment.
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The frame gets a power blast.
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To make the frame easier to handle, the front
suspension is dismantled - again. We also replaced the original upper
A arm shaft with an offset shaft to correct the alignment issue inheriant
to '56 Chevys.
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The steering is removed and checked for wear.
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"Dad, I don't think that Chevy rear end will fit under my Ford
Ranchero.".
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Scraping the frame to remove the gunk on the frame.
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The frame is ready for POR. Unlike Betsy,
there were no holes to weld up.
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The frame was coated in POR 15 and Chassis Black.
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The bottomside of the frame was coated first, then the frame will be
flipped to coat the top side.
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No, this picture was not "doctored".
Chassis Black is very thick and dries slowly, causing runs and drips
that solidify in place. Since the bottom side of the frame was coated
first, then allowed to dry, we had several drips to cut off when the
frame was flipped over.
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One frame completely coated in POR 15 and Chassis Black, ready for reassembly.
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Caster and camber were set close as the front
suspension was reassembled.
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Reinstalling the front springs, with the help of a friend, a jack, and
a homemade spring compressor tool.
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The spring compressor tool makes the job easy
enough for a kid to help with, under adult supervision.
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The new welder made all the holes on the firewall much easier. Once
the holes were filled, the firewall was stripped.
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The stripped firewall, ready for body work.
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The bottom corner of the firewall required a patch piece. We started
to replace the piece, then discovered more extensive work, so the piece
was never used.
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