Progress Thread Down For A Decade - Got The Job!

Honestly, that's not too tough.

It just takes time since you have the donor. It really is just a matter of drilling out the spot welds on both cars and swapping over the good parts. I assume you have a welder?
 
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Do you have the option of having the a pillar sandblasted? The outer a pillar is wasted, obviously. get it cut out and out of the way before sandblasting.
I'm glad it looks like I know what I'm doing, because I'm in way over my head! I bought a set of spot weld cutters on Amazon and dove in. I don't have a welder but I have a welder friend. He's a welder/fabricator at Joe Gibbs Racing, so he's legit. He told me to take too many pics and measurements and he'll stitch me back up. As far as my fabricating skills, I was a metal framer/drywaller so I can work a pair of snips but I don't have any real experience on cars or any fabrication tools. I think I can handle this but I don't really know, lol.

I was thinking about renting a sandblaster or buying a cheap one from harbor freight. As far as the cutting goes, just try to cut slowly and peel it back layer by layer?
 
Do you think I need to cut away the whole outer panel? I was thinking about cutting at the lines to start and see how it looks.
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Do you think I need to cut away the whole outer panel? I was thinking about cutting at the lines to start and see how it looks.
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That's about right, I'd go maybe an inch higher on the top area. I assume you have a good cut off wheel?

I bet you'll find a bit of rust lower in the pillar. But what you marked is a decent starting place to see how it looks.

Just do like you did on the inner fender and cut out the spotwelds for the outer a-pillar.

A welder/fabricator friend is a good friend to have right about now!

Keep posting pictures as you go. Be sure to measure locations of the upper hinge bolt holes to make sure you put the patch Panel back in the correct spot.
 
That's about right, I'd go maybe an inch higher on the top area. I assume you have a good cut off wheel?

I bet you'll find a bit of rust lower in the pillar. But what you marked is a decent starting place to see how it looks.

Just do like you did on the inner fender and cut out the spotwelds for the outer a-pillar.

A welder/fabricator friend is a good friend to have right about now!

Keep posting pictures as you go. Be sure to measure locations of the upper hinge bolt holes to make sure you put the patch Panel back in the correct spot.

What should I reference when measuring the hinge locations? The first thing I'm going to take off is the locating tab for the fender. Then I can get to the rest of the spot welds for the outer hinge metal. Do I need really accurate measurements to put the tab back in place? Drilling out spot welds is one thing, I'm freaking out about actually cutting my car open. I have a couple of air cut off wheels and an electric one so I think I'll be good.
 
I was able to get the passenger inner fender off last night. It's looking a lot better on that side. A couple tips for spot weld cutting: don't spin the bit too fast and always use some type of lubricant. I was trying to be a hero and make the bit last as long as humanly possible, but it was starting to walk really bad every time I would touch it to the car even with a center punch. I changed it out for a new one for the last 8 or so and breezed right through them. You can buy more tools, just use them up!

I think I know what caused the cancer on the driver side. The original owner lived in a townhouse and parked near a well water sprinkler that went off every morning. I had a hell of a time getting all of the hard water stains off that side of the car after I bought it. There wasn't a spot of rust underneath the car and the cowl area is good, so once I fix the hinge and trunk corners I think I can finally move on to the fun stuff.
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What should I reference when measuring the hinge locations? The first thing I'm going to take off is the locating tab for the fender. Then I can get to the rest of the spot welds for the outer hinge metal. Do I need really accurate measurements to put the tab back in place? Drilling out spot welds is one thing, I'm freaking out about actually cutting my car open. I have a couple of air cut off wheels and an electric one so I think I'll be good.
Just to simple reference points like the lower hinge bolts (though be careful of using them, I would suspect the rust might go a little farther down than the outside visual shows) and maybe the distance to the striker on the b-pillar. Anyplace that you can make notations of the original distance of the original part so when you're lining up the replacement part you'll be pretty darn close to where the old one was. It doesn't have to be ultra perfect, you have a little adjustment to play with. Not much though.

Cutting it out is the most fun part of doing this! You'll get rid of the cancer.
 
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Just to simple reference points like the lower hinge bolts (though be careful of using them, I would suspect the rust might go a little farther down than the outside visual shows) and maybe the distance to the striker on the b-pillar. Anyplace that you can make notations of the original distance of the original part so when you're lining up the replacement part you'll be pretty darn close to where the old one was. It doesn't have to be ultra perfect, you have a little adjustment to play with. Not much though.

Cutting it out is the most fun part of doing this! You'll get rid of the cancer.

So I got off work and went out to the garage and drank beer and stared at the car. Then I called my welder friend over and we both drank beer and stared at the car. Then we talked about racing and looked at exhaust videos on youtube, lol. No cuts were made but I took a bunch of measurements and sketches. He seems a little concerned with the amount of rust, which makes me concerned, but I'm confident we got this.

The only thing I'm really worried about is cutting into the A- pillar. I don't know how deep to cut there or if I should cut all the way through it or what. I guess I should really start by cutting up the donor car and seeing how everything goes together in that area. There are so many freaking panels that come together right there!!! I know it will be fun cutting once I start, but I don't really know where to start. I should've just ignored the rust so I can do things more fun like engine building and wiring, haha.
 
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Your pretty funny.

Obviously you started correctly, open a beer and drink it first.

This will be very similar to what you've already done on the inner fender panel, you're just removing less than the whole panel. Think of how you pulled that panel off already, then think of just going halvsies on it. That's all you're doing. Easy peasy, really. You are just removing the outer skin of the a-pillar.

Do practice with the donor. This will give you confidence on your car. Cut just as deep as you need to get through the outer panel where the panels meet together. It's not that hard, really! You'll see. And so what if you need to go down to the rocker?

Which brings up a point. cut the donor car panel quite a bit larger than you'll need for your car. It's easier to trim off excess than to add back more.
 
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Your pretty funny.

Obviously you started correctly, open a beer and drink it first.

This will be very similar to what you've already done on the inner fender panel, you're just removing less than the whole panel. Think of how you pulled that panel off already, then think of just going halvsies on it. That's all you're doing. Easy peasy, really. You are just removing the outer skin of the a-pillar.

Do practice with the donor. This will give you confidence on your car. Cut just as deep as you need to get through the outer panel where the panels meet together. It's not that hard, really! You'll see. And so what if you need to go down to the rocker?

Which brings up a point. cut the donor car panel quite a bit larger than you'll need for your car. It's easier to trim off excess than to add back more.

Thanks man, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Having the extra confidence is going to get me through this crap. And I would have burned this car down a long time ago if it wasn't for beer!

It's storming pretty bad today so I'm off to harbor freight for a sand blaster and some cut off wheels. I might start cutting tonight after the liquid courage kicks in! One last question before I do: Since I don't really know the extent of the damage on my car yet, and you said to cut more on the donor car, do I cut the donor car a lot bigger than I'll need? Like a few inches larger all around? As much as I want to practice on the crappy car, I feel like I need to cut my car up first to see what I need. I'm probably over thinking everything as usual, I just need to start cutting...
 
If the passenger side is good on the donor car cut a section out of that side, both the door hinge areas are similar so it will give you an idea of what you will be faced with on your car. Then you can cut your car knowing what to expect, and if you need to go larger your donor car will still be uncut on the drivers side so you can cut a section out as large as needed.
 
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If the passenger side is good on the donor car cut a section out of that side, both the door hinge areas are similar so it will give you an idea of what you will be faced with on your car. Then you can cut your car knowing what to expect, and if you need to go larger your donor car will still be uncut on the drivers side so you can cut a section out as large as needed.
Great idea! Thanks man. I'm definitely not a body guy, got to learn to think like one, lol.
 
Use your cutoff wheel to cut out a rotten chunk and look inside the pillar to see what it looks like, especially going toward the ground.

Do me a favor and post a couple pictures of the rocker area below the hinge pillar.
 
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Use your cutoff wheel to cut out a rotten chunk and look inside the pillar to see what it looks like, especially going toward the ground.

Do me a favor and post a couple pictures of the rocker area below the hinge pillar.
Looking down into the rocker panel from the car:
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Very bottom (just flakes of rust from above):
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Directly behind the bad hinge:
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Looking up into the bad area:
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Hummm, yep, cut out a small portion where the rot is the worst. Stick a light in there and see what you got. Though I think you could safely cut out what we spoke of earlier with no issues. That will give you a fuller view of what the rust damage is.
 
I was able to get the passenger inner fender off last night. It's looking a lot better on that side. A couple tips for spot weld cutting: don't spin the bit too fast and always use some type of lubricant. I was trying to be a hero and make the bit last as long as humanly possible, but it was starting to walk really bad every time I would touch it to the car even with a center punch. I changed it out for a new one for the last 8 or so and breezed right through them. You can buy more tools, just use them up!

Don't know if you're using spot weld cutters from Harbor Freight, but if so. There's a tiny screw that controls the tension on the pilot point. I've found them to back out sometimes causing the cutter to walk. Tighten it a little, and you're back in business. I agree with you about lubricating the cutter, makes them last a long time. Another tip on that type of cutter, is use one of those toothbrush size wire brushes (Harbor Freight) to clean the chips out of the barrel. Just spin the cutter over the brush and it'll clean it right out.

Bossed
 
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