Stripped Down

This post will only partly show how bad the rust is (only showing rust visible from above). The following sequence of shots are self-explanatary............

Here is the Fastback with some Simmons wheels just before the engine came out - not too bad.


Check this out! See the pop-rivet holding the rear guard in place? The last major repair on this car was that both rear quaters were replaced. The repairer obviously didn't have a welder so the skins were riveted in place and a great slab of filler used to cover the rivet heads! Bugger.


See the welded-in patch panel for the lower forward cowel. The upper cowel itself isn't too bad.



Front frame under the battery was eaten out by rust. It was very nice of the last repairer to "bog in" a decent piece of plastic to hide it!


Now this is one old fuel tank. I need a new seive - this may come in handy.


Both rear fender aprons were patch welded back to the shock towers - dodgy job though.


Now this is a bigger problem. Notice the kink in the (American) passenger side fender aprons when compared to the driver side. The passenger side shock-tower has moved in half an inch or so. No doubt due to years of the underlying frame rail being eaten by dilute acid from corroded battery terminals.... The shock-tower support (to the firewall) was probably supporting it more than the frame!


All empty!


Lots of rust in the rear torque-boxes. Both will need replacing.


But everthing around the windows, doors, roof, etc is fine.


Now this is a very ugly floor/sill/cowel/firewall junction (well, what used to be a junction).


And here is a shot showing the seat supports are rusted thru too. However these will be replaced with 50mm box tube to tie the chassis together - so they are getting chucked out anyway.


Now it is time to build the rotissiere so I can get to everything easily.....