1969 Imperial progress thread

Another weekend of work is over.

It was laborious but successful. It took me 12 hours to remove the trunk pan with extensions from the car without bigger damages.
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Next is to remove all the unwanted remains of the surrounding panels, clean up the edges and so on and also remove the old trunk pan from my car.

We also fitted the first replacement panel in on the rear right floor pan. Ready to be welded in.
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But unfortunately, the weekend was over and I had to drive 3 hours back home.
 
Another weekend of work is over.

It was laborious but successful. It took me 12 hours to remove the trunk pan with extensions from the car without bigger damages.
View attachment 336138 View attachment 336139 View attachment 336140 View attachment 336141 View attachment 336142 View attachment 336143 View attachment 336144

Next is to remove all the unwanted remains of the surrounding panels, clean up the edges and so on and also remove the old trunk pan from my car.

We also fitted the first replacement panel in on the rear right floor pan. Ready to be welded in.
View attachment 336145 View attachment 336146 View attachment 336147

But unfortunately, the weekend was over and I had to drive 3 hours back home.






Wow...... She's starting to look like Virgil. Major surgery.
I'm up here with my 67 Polara right now. A 5 1/2 hour drive. It was 72 and sunny at 8:30 this morning when I left. Got to 80 degrees south of Montgomery. 300 miles north and it's 45 degrees. Hope to have the car down home by the end of the month.
Looking good Julian.
 
Ok, another laborious 3 days are over and we made good progress again! :)

The rear Floor pans are in and welded. New "old" sheet metal (thanks to @mr. fix it ) for the right side. The left side is now flat and straight. No factory waves and holes anymore. :)
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Next was to cut the old floor out of my car. piece by piece.
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Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos the entire last day...

The old floor pan and extensions are out of the car now.

The donor floor is completely prepared for welding now. I removed the remainings of the old frame rails on the supports in the middle, cleaned off all old access sheet metal around the edges, took off the extensions (the floor still don't fit through the trunk opening :( ) and repaired the damage the leaf springs did when the shackles flipped at the accident.


We also fixed all the pin holes in the "trunk edge molding" Is this the correct name? idk.
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These two on the edge were hard to weld and need a little more attention but I ran out of time. The rest turned out pretty nice!
 
You going to be able to flex the replacement trunk floor in through the trunk opening? On B & E bodies you have to remove the sheet metal tail light panel to use the one piece trunk pans.
 
No, I can't flex it that much. It's approx. 4" too wide. The best plan we came up with would be to cut it in two pieces above one of the frame rails. That makes it easier to weld it back together on top of the frame.
 
I faced the same issue and didn’t want to cut more than I had to, so I made two cuts along the edge of the pan and folded one side. I was able to slip the pan in, unfold it and then weld along factory lines.
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I'm still not sure what's the better way. I thought about folding it, but I think it's easier to get back to original shape by welding and grinding then by folding and hammering that sheet metal.
 
I faced the same issue and didn’t want to cut more than I had to, so I made two cuts along the edge of the pan and folded one side. I was able to slip the pan in, unfold it and then weld along factory lines.
View attachment 344697 View attachment 344698View attachment 344699
And you welded through two layers of POR15? Or is it other, weldable stuff?

I searched a long time to find a product that's good for applying before welding and came up with a product called "zinc lamellar spray" (that's the direct translation)
 
I'm still not sure what's the better way. I thought about folding it, but I think it's easier to get back to original shape by welding and grinding then by folding and hammering that sheet metal.
The fold is more of a curve. The photo shows it upside down. Once it was in place, it was easy to step on one side and bend it back into shape. As for the welds, I only ground away the small spots to expose metal, the heat from the welder took care of the rest.

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It also helped to have a porta-power to hold the metal tight while I welded each spot. I rigged up a piece of angle iron which acted as one end of a vise.

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The fold is more of a curve. The photo shows it upside down. Once it was in place, it was easy to step on one side and bend it back into shape. As for the welds, I only ground away the small spots to expose metal, the heat from the welder took care of the rest.

View attachment 344701

It also helped to have a porta-power to hold the metal tight while I welded each spot. I rigged up a piece of angle iron which acted as one end of a vise.

View attachment 344702
I like that press idea! Thanks :) Good idea to press the sheet metal down for welding!

I will see what method we choose to get the floor into the car.
 
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