As I was working on the driver's underside, I noticed a few spots of rust-through on one of the hat channels. Now was the day to get them patched. You can see them below. I whacked the channel area around the two holes on the right to get a sense of how far the rot extended. As you can see by the dents, they don't go really anywhere, which is good. The channel itself is still structurally sound.
These three holes seem to have been intentional, especially when one considers the roundness of the upper left one. But the other two are torn and/or rotted, so I'm covering them all. I think there might have been a fuel relay between the two underseat fuel tanks that I removed in my initial teardown. What it was, it ain't going back there, so the holes need to go bye-bye.
The hat channel cleaned of paint, primer, and POR-15. Ready for welding.
Same for the three holes and two others that I just don't like.
I moved a little faster than the camera on this patch. Just cut a rectangle, welded it over the seam for added strength, and charged onward.
Realized I should take a few more "in-process" pics, so here's a patch tacked down on one side. I like to weld one edge of a small patch piece to get the entire piece heated up a bit. Makes it easier to hammer it to fit the contours of the chunk I'm welding it to.
Same over here. You can even see the little dimples from where I tapped the piece a few times.
All welded up. The two holes in the upper right area were welded over my copper pipe "spoon."
Closeups.
Rather than waiting a few days, I decided to hop right into the grinding and dressing of the repairs.
More closeups.
Primed.
Like a tormented turtle, this thing is stuck on its back for a little while longer. I'm ready to get the tub Herculined, flipped over, and mounted on the chassis. This work has been and still is fun, but I want to see if the engine runs and my tranny/transfer case rebuilds work and the seats fit and the lights shine and ...
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