Heater Channel Fit Up

I got smart this w/e and cut the left side off my extra chassis and used it as a jig to get my new heater channel and floor to fender well support fitted up properly to the body.

I also bought an 8mm 1.25 pitch tap and a 10mm (can't remember the pitch) at Car Quest. I have been looking at tool stores for metric taps for awhile and could not find any. I used the taps to chase all the bolt holes on the new heater channels. I also bought a dozen 8mm bolts to use for the jig.

This is a view of the left side of my rotted out chassis (yes it is THAT BAD) bolted to the new heater channels.
The inner rear wheel housing comes out of the box with 2 seams that need to be welded up. I was looking for something a little les s thought provoking to work on, so I stitched it up.
This is the whole heater channel and fender well to floor dog leg assembly clamped into place and fitted up. I still have a bit of work to do to get the convertible stiffener buttoned up inside the rocker skin, so these pieces will go on and off another half dozen times before I start welding them up permanently.

The green car is from someone's ebay listing. The car is in bad shape, but the top is folding properly. I am posting this for a guy on the airheadparts.com forum

Don't know if you can see the detail or not, but the red arrow is pointing toward the skinny piece that often gets bent when someone sits on the apron right in front of the engine cover. It already has a bend in it and if it gets messed up it prevents the top from closing properly.

Fender to Well Part II

Today I made and installed a patch panel to replace the rotted out section below the bend in the fender well. The piece is about 2-3/4" tall. It took about 4 hours to fit, weld and grind this piece.
This is a pic from inside the front driver's side wheel opening. It is of the patch and the fender well after I ground everything down to fit.
From the wheel opening again after welding and grinding
From inside the passenger compartment after grinding and welding.

Fender Well Supports

I cut out some rot and cut this patch to fit. This is on the driver's side at the front end of the dogleg. This should give me a solid welding point for that end of the floor to fender well piece. I'll be welding on a 4" patch all the way around the curved piece to the right of this.

I used the old floor to fender well support to make a cardboard template of the bottom plate that attaches to the pan. I stabbed holes in the template where the bolt holes were so everything should line up. I built a cage for the regtangular floating double nut at the front end of the plate. I also traced the old piece to make a patch that I welded into the front of the dog leg piece (left side of the picture). This wound up a very smart thing because the dog leg didn't match the template and I had to do some reshaping. After the reshaping, everything fit really well. I used M8 flange nuts to weld on. They tend to be easier to weld then standard hex nuts.