[A. McGovern]

Quarantine has had me in the garage finally doing some repairs that have been long overdue. Ball Joints and body bushings. Trying to figure out why the fuel gauge reads 3/4 when full, 1/2 when 3/4, and so on. Replacing left and right rear floor pans (Removing bulk of the old floor pan. Previous owner used fiberglass to repair the hole), Dynamat interior and install new carpet and headliner. Also trying to figure out dash lights grounding issue. Pulled the dash down to check out lights. Turns out it's a ground issue within the plug that goes into the gauge. So now I have to figure out how to repair that, or try to find a good replacement on Ebay.

 

[78 Elk]

You have a nice looking 70 El Camino. Making progress on our projects is always a good thing. That's awesome.

 

[slick87gn]

Welcome to the club. While on lockdown I dropped in a new big block. Curious about all body mounts. Did they all come out without having to make access holes ?

 

[A. McGovern]

Welcome to the club. While on lockdown I dropped in a new big block. Curious about all body mounts. Did they all come out without having to make access holes ?

That's what I want to do. But I need to build the 396 first. It has no rotating assembly so I need to locate a useable crank and rods.
The body mounts were so much easier than I thought they'd be. There are access holes in the frame already so theres no need to cut any holes. I had the car up on jack stands so I could maneuver underneath. It makes it much easier especially once you get to the solid rubber bushings under the passenger compartment. Those ones only sit in a hole in the frame and get sandwiched between the frame and the body. You'll need a long pry bar and the inner fenders will need to be mostly unbolted and lowered enough that you can get your hand in. The mounts at the front of the body, just under the firewall are a bolt and a square nut. So you'll need to be able to get a wrench in there. Hence the unbolted inner fenders. I just used an adjustable wrench. All others (aside from the ones I mentioned under the passenger compartment) are secured with a bolt that gets run up into the body. The mounts at the rear of the body were the most difficult. Why, I don't know because they were the easiest to access. I unbolted all the mounts, and went through with a pry bar (sometimes with a thick piece of scrap metal between the body and the pry bar to prevent distortion and take up gap). It went relatively quickly. What took the longest were the two at the rear of the frame, and letting my bolts sit in a rust dissolver. I didn't buy new hardware because mine just had some surface rust on them and I didn't want to sit and wait for new stuff to come in the mail.

 

[A. McGovern]

Been busy working on my kids new giant swing set so I haven't had much time available to continue progress on the Elco. I have the floor pan "fit"and the rusted section cut out. This was my first attempt at floor pan replacement and let me tell you, it's been a learning experience. It hasn't been coming out the way I want it to. The gaps between the old and new metal in some areas are much larger than I want. I wasn't able to use the old section as a template to cut the new because it was so far gone. This made it much more difficult to get an accurate cut. Now I'm having to deal with 1/4" and 3/8" gaps in some areas.

I had issues when initially attempting to start welding it in place. I installed .023 solid steel wire in my welder in place of the .030 i normally use. When I tried to use the welder, the wire wouldn't feed smoothly. Every other second it would feed/stop/feed/stop. Didn't matter what the tension was on the wire, the spool was free and able to move, and the drive wheel was flipped to the .6 side. I couldn't figure out why it would not feed so I switched back to the .030. Low and behold, it feed perfectly. I began to weld, but with the larger diameter wire, it required more heat and is blowing through, especially in the areas where the gap is more than ideal.

 

[A. McGovern]

I was able to get more welding done on the floor pan yesterday. I planned on going out this morning but the kids woke up too early. I almost have the floor pan welded in. It's taking some time since I have to "stitch" it, being careful not to create more work for myself. It's slow and tedious, but it's getting there. Once I have this section welded in place, I can cut the section that will go immediately in front of it. Finally I'll cut out the rotted portion of the drivers side, which seems to be significantly less than the passengers side. I'm hoping that side will go smoother and faster.

 

[A. McGovern]

Got the next section of the floor pans cut out, trimmed up, and began welding it in place. Such a tedious process. This is the second area of the passenger side that needed replacing. After this I'll cut out the section of the drivers side and then begin putting the interior back together.

 

[A. McGovern]

Been real busy lately with a busted water heater that caused water damage all inside the heater cabinet. When I finished up that repair, the wife and I had to finish sealing hundreds of precut and drilled cedar to build our kids a large swing set/playhouse. I was finally able to get space back in my garage to work so I jumped back on the floor boards.

The passenger side is almost all ground down and ready for seal

Fitting the new pan for the drivers side

Cutting out the rusted portions.

Final trimming of the pan before install

Used the new pan to scribe a line to cut out the old stuff.

Old section removed, then I began cleaning up the floor brace.

Old section

Brace cleaned up and sealed with Rust Converter and Rust Encapsulator.

Fitting the new pan in place and clamping.

Began tack welding in place.

 

[A. McGovern]

A few plug welds and more tacks around the perimeter

New pans recess doesn't match up with the old one so I'll have to make some modifications there. Thinking of cutting down the length of the recess on both the new and old sections and closing up the gap on the old, while increasing the gap on the new.

New pan almost completely welded in. The gap on the tunnel I plan to fill with a small strip of metal. Evidently didn't have it fit up as well as I thought.

Rear of pan completely welded in as well as sill side.

 

[A. McGovern]

Went back out this afternoon and filled the gap at the trans tunnel where I measured/fit incorrectly.

Addressed the issue with the new pan not having the same depth to the wiring trough as the original. I cut both sides of the trough on both the old and the new, mated them together, worked the sides down to reduce the gap, and rewelded.

Gap on existing pan.

Gap on new pan

Lining up the two pieces.

Gaps welded up.

Pan is fully welded and ready to be ground down.

All welds will be ground down, and pin holes rewelded, and then I'll apply seam sealer to this and the passenger side. Underside isn't the prettiest, but I'll coat everything with sprayable undercoat to protect from future rust issues.
Once those steps are complete, I'll begin cleaning up the rest of the floor, and get it ready for Dynamat!