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1970 1800E Driver Restoration

It looks like Eastwood is your friend. I've seen at least one product
they offer that you may be using (the Eastwood Mig Spot Weld Kit). It looks like it works very well. What are your impressions?

I need to finish workin' on my '73 ES. You my friend are an inspiration!


So far I've only used the Eastwood "spot weld" kit and their frame sealer product. I've been happy with both. The spot weld kit has been handy and I'd definitely recommend it. I also like the frame sealer; it sprays well, doesn't clog, and seems to do a good job coating hard to reach interior spaces like unibody frame sections, rockers, etc.
 
More bagging and tagging. Delaying crawling around on my back and welding for a bit longer....

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Finished gutting the engine bay, hauled all of the parts up to the hell hole parts hoard upstairs in the barn, and did a little bit of cleaning and straightening so that I don't feel like I'm working in a dump.

Welding starts again tomorrow....

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The mini fridge is being defrosted so I can haul it to work next week. The one in the group cubicle crapped out and this one has been running for a couple of years with nothing more in it than a 5 year old 16 ounce can of Chelada (Budweiser with Calmato) and two PBRs.

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And a random shot of some other guy's vehicle hoarding illness. This is a collapsed wooden garage next to an old (I'm guessing 1930s) dealership. In the collapsed part of the building there's also a 1940s Caddy coupe and a Lincoln. Inside the dealership proper he's got a handful of 60s T-brids, another Lincoln, a Chrysler Imperial, and more. I fell better about myself now....

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Probably should have named this thread "Project Millennium" because it will probably be a thousand years before it's done. Made some progress this weekend on the passenger side sill, frame, and floorboards:

Here's the rot on the passenger side frame rail. It's right where the frame rail extension ties into the frame; seems that a lot of the rot areas are where there was heavy welding done during production (or maybe that's my imagination):

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Rot cut out:

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Inside of the frame extension heading toward the back after blowing out the loose crud and hitting it with Eastwood frame sealer:

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Here it is patched up. Still a bit of welding and grinding to do up by the floorboards:

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Patched up the inner sill. Was too busy welding and grinding to take any photos:

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Putting the floor board back together:

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The frame rail extension is just dry fitted in here (going to weld it after I have the rest of the floor patched.

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Next steps: finish patching floorboard, plug weld floor board to inner sill, weld in frame rail extension, repair small weak area in aft frame rail extension. After that it's probably on to the headlight/directional signal area (got the parts I need from VP Autoparts in yesterday's mail).
 
I can accept that the Chelata is gone, but did the PBRs make it? Those cans were from before the Russian takeover!
 
I can accept that the Chelata is gone, but did the PBRs make it? Those cans were from before the Russian takeover!

They're all still down there (including the Chelada). And I am mindful that those are pre-Soviet PBRs. I'll save 'em for you.
 
I'm burnt out on the floorpan and frame rail repairs; probably another 8-10 hours of work to finish those and I've been avoiding it because it's so miserable.

On the advice of a friend I decided to change it up and start working on the rust around the headlights/directionals. Strangely enough, having my head stuck inside the wheel well while I media blasted away undercoating and old scale was actually preferable to working on the floor pan and frame rails.

Driver's side after drilling out and removing the headlight retainer ring:

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Ditto the passenger side:

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Directional signal retainer removed and outside of passenger side blasted:

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I am noticing a very strong correlation between rot and factory welding. You can see that there is a spot to the right of the headlight opening that is perforated from the inside. The corrosion here was all in close proximity to the welded joint between the fender and the nacelle:

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Same deal here; the corrosion is right next to the weld joint:

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My plan is to weld in the two retaining rings (headlight and parking light) so that I'll have a solid structure to work from to patch up the small areas of rot on the passenger side.

Only other progress to report is that I finally hauled the rear axle to the welding shop to repair the cracked bracket for the trailing arm (I broke the weld between the bracket and the axle tube trying to beat out the old bushing). Also brought the vintage IPD lowering springs there to have the spacer on one re-attached and to make sure the other one is properly welded on.
 
.. Also brought the vintage IPD lowering springs there to have the spacer on one re-attached and to make sure the other one is properly welded on.

Huh? spacers re-attached to springs? I too have a set of the vintage IPD lowering springs that I'll be putting on my '71 1800E .. but I'm totally lost for what spacer you're referring too. Can you elaborate? Great project you have going on here, reminds me of my project.

Doug C
 
I traded some parts and got a pair of vintage IPD springs. They had a "C" shaped steel spacer welded to one end to adjust the ride height by ~1/2" or maybe a bit more. When I got them one of the spacers had come off because of the poor welding. I don't want the car to ride on the ground so I decided to keep them on the springs and hope for the best.

The only shot I have is this one. You can see the spacer on the bottom of the second spring from the left.

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Huh? spacers re-attached to springs? I too have a set of the vintage IPD lowering springs that I'll be putting on my '71 1800E .. but I'm totally lost for what spacer you're referring too. Can you elaborate? Great project you have going on here, reminds me of my project.

Doug C
 
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Still plugging away on the passenger side lights; decent progress yesterday and today:

Headlight retainer plug welded into place:

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Repaired the rust between the headlight and the grill:

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It looks rougher in the photo than it really is. This area will get smoothed out with filler so it should be more than good enough.

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Started on the rot around the front parking light. Started by dropping spots around to see how far back I needed to cut out the weakened metal:

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I was really concerned about matching the contours in the metal here but I think it turned out ok. I tacked one end of the patch in and then used body hammers to gently shape it section by section, tacking as progressed.

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The contours toward the outside are even more complex but I used the same procedure. Had to do a bit more tapping here to shape the metal and I also used a dolly on the backside. Once ground down and filled I'm hoping everything will look right.

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Work was closed again today due to blizzard cleanup, so I got some garage time after clearing snow.

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I ground down the welds to to a point where they were still proud of the metal and then used a coarse round file to work them down and get the contour more or less right. It worked ok but it was slow going.

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Directional signal backing plate plug welded in and then the plug welds ground down:

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Still have to patch up the bottom of the nose where it meets the fender just forward of the wheel well and then it's on to the driver's side. That one will be more challenging, but this was good practice. Worst part of it will be the media blasting :(

If anyone is interested in a 73 ES major project please PM me. This will be the last time I do something quite this involved (at least for a long time). The 73 is in rougher shape than this one in some places (outer rockers and mid sills are gone) and better in others. It was hit in the right front at some point and someone did a hack job replacing the fender. I paid $1,300 for it but will accept offers....will post a for sale ad on it as soon as this one gets out for media blasting (it's sitting in my third bay (no door) so it can't go anywhere until this one is out of the way.
 
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On to the driver's side headlight area. Media blasted and probed around with welder to see how much needs to be cut out:

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Started patching up the opening for the headlight backing plate

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There's a lot of lead filler in this area and in the process of patching up the opening near the top I removed a bunch of it, revealing more rot underneath:

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The plan is to get the headlight retainer ring welded in to give stability to this area and then probably do the same with the directional signal backing plate. Once those are in I'll start shaping and tacking in patches. Not exactly sure how to make sure that I get the correct contour/profile for the areas that are rotted away....open to suggestions.
 
Developed a plan to match the contours around the directional signal and headlight:


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Repeated this step 3x as the contour changes. Used the cutout pieces to help shape the patches and also to check the finished work.

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Had big plans for the weekend but they went with the new snow; spent most of it moving the white stuff around (there's hardly any place to put it now). Managed to get in a few hours of shooting electric at metal today:

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Just need to plug weld the backing plate for the directional signal and patch up a spot near the wheel well and it will be on to the next spot. Still don't have any appetite for crawling around on my back and finishing the passenger side floor and frame rail extensions so I may move on to the driver's side rear quarter. Got a very nice patch panel from VP and need to figure out how much of the existing metal I want to cut out. More soon.....
 
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