[TFoch]

Not used to seeing a header with 6 tubes on one side! Very cool!

[Essex_29]

Thank you 62131 It's fun to play with ideas for sure. And yes, TFoch, six header
tubes per side is a huge thing with this project.

Rust is also a thing, still, a few spots of that kind to attend to.  The bottom
of the cowl area is a bit crusty, so that's best taken care of now, because the plan
is for the floor in the front to attach to the new part. There's like a little shelf on
the inside to rosette weld the floor to.



Here's the "before" and the new part welded in. Actually parts, because I couldn't
make it in one piece. Then ground:



I'm pretty pleased with the result, but it alos took me quite a few hours.
The other side is worse, rusted higher up the side, so a bigger
patch part is needed.

[Essex_29]

 After taking a deep breath, I decided to make a whole new bottom part, bead and all. I don't have a bead
roller big enough for this kind of work, but got an idea, and cut out some 19 gauge sheet metal, then
made a bend in the break:



I then bent the bend back, and it rolled over to about the right shape. I put a tube in the vice, and
rolled a round shape to it, just manhandling it:



Two inches longer and I probably wouldn't have gotten it bent.

Another break in about the right place. It was a bit tricky to get the break tight enough, and in
the end I had to make the last break just hammering it into submission.



Finally the little shelf for attaching the floor on the inside, was cut to a suitable width.



The end result looks similar enough to the original, so for now, it seems I can use this patch panel.
This is a situation, where I think it paid off to decide to make a fairly big patch, instead of cutting
just barely the worst rust out, and make like five small patches. We'll see.

[chopper526]

That turned out real nice and well worth however much time you put into it.

[Essex_29]

Thank you for the nice words, chopper526

But:


 

[62131]

Your patch panels turned out nice. I was lucky I could buy all the quarter, rocker and cowl patch panels for my 32 Chevy. The only panel not available was the rear lower part of body. After looking at it awhile, I purchased two more quarter patch panels and welded them end to end to fabricate the rear panel.

[62131]

The 32 chevy patch panels look very close to what you made by the way

[sammons]

Essex it's looking great, nice work.

[sixball]

Great work. I'm afraid to grind my welds. They tend to disappear. 

[Essex_29]

Thank you 62131. I've never really had a car that I could get any patch panels for.
Except for the 1967 C30 that I got a brand new inner fender for. It was so thin, though,
so I dented it resting my elbow on it when I was working on the engine. Someone
ordered it super cheap from China for sure. I bought it from an American company, though.
Good thing you found some patch panels that suited your needs and could be used!
And you too, sammons and sixball. I try to avoid grinding off all my welds
too. At times I get a bit too enthusiastic, wanting things to look its best.
Shouldn't do that.

Anyway, the patch panel is welded in, and a couple smaller pieces added. luckily enough, I
had a pair of dies so I could make that thin vertical bead in my bead roller. The whole
thing looks a  similar enough to the other side, so I called it good.

[Essex_29]

Now that the rust in the cowl area is taken care of, work commences with things that have to be
done to get the floors in. Obviously the firewall has to be done first.
I cut out a piece of sheetmetal large enough to cover the opening in the firewall, leaving it
about ⁵/₈" over size in all directions, and then made a carbdboard template
for the transmission bellhousing.
The sheet metal piece had one edge bent about 45^o into a flange of sorts, to fit the
opening, and the bell housing hole was cut according to the template.



The opening for the transmission was cut pretty tight, as there's not too much space for
three pedals. A flange about ⁵/₈" was bent bith a tipping die on my little bead
roller, and using the stretcher I got it pretty flat. Same thing around the sides, the same kind of
about ⁵/₈" wide flanges.
Finally a bunch of holes were drilled in the flanges, and the whole ting was rosette
welded to the firewall.



Actually, the bottom flanges (red arrow) were bent before welding the panel to the firewall.
Now this new  flange has to be connected with the one that is part of the patch
panel I made a few days ago. This is fun and straight forward work, much
more fun than patching rust holes.

[62131]

The firewall looks great, are you using any weld thru primmer where you're lapping the metal?

[chopper526]

Thank you for the nice words, chopper526

But:


 

That is me for sure!!! You, not really, you have some nice welds. I too used patch panels that I bought, I don't quite have the skills of tools to do what you did.

[Essex_29]

No, I'm not using any primer, 62131, I don't like how it welds and how it smokes. Maybe
I have used bad primer. In any case,  as this is a car that will be used in the summers only, I'm
not too concerned about rust. I think the whole car has always lacked any paint on the inside and
it has held up decently for 92 years or so. I'll wick in thinned epoxy into all weld seams when
that time comes. It probably won't help anything besides my conscience.

Thank you, chopper526 for the kind workds, but really, the only tools I used was a
sheet metal brake, a hammer and a piece of 1-7/8" tubing. I think my best tool is youtube.
I've learned lots from watching fabrication videos.

So, today it was time to finally start working on the floor, or more to the point, the
transmission tunnel. Some people claim to cut sheet metal wothout ever using any
paper templates, but some card board really made my day!
The sides along the transmission tunnel are bent to little shelves, or flanges, that the
floor will weld to. The floor pieces in the pic are just more paper patterns made
from thin cardboard.



This is fun. Big pieces of sheet metal makes it feel like I get lots of work done.

[TFoch]

Nice progress!