Great weather today!

Half of the replacement metal at the base of the passenger seat pedestal is in. Like the rest of the patches made so far the goal is to get a solid foundation that requires a minimal amount of filler to smooth. Creating a perfect surface at the sheet metal level is nearly impossible and of limited value except for museum vehicles. See below for the repair sequence: Cut-fit-weld-grind.

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The cargo rocker panel, jack point, and the rear floor are welded on.

Also the loooong weld on the cargo floor repair section is completed and mostly ground down. This weld turned out very well, it should look seamless once the primer is on. Some patching of the passenger side ‘B’ and ‘C’ pillars remains, but after that I should be able to move on to the front.

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Some patching on…

…the passenger side quarter panel, cleaned up in-between the floor and belly pan, a test fit of the floor repair section and rocker panel.

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Replacement parts have arrived!

Prepping the outer 11″ of cargo floor for replacement. Welded the gutter section and started patching holes around the ‘Samba’ windows. (lots of fine-tuning left with these welds)

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Getting ready for a front valance…

…that’s on a slow truck from Vancouver, BC. Also scratch-built a replacement gutter over the passenger side door and welded up the replacement cargo rocker

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‘Outrigger’ and inner rocker panel welded in…

…(with a scratch-built ‘tophat’ panel). The floor no longer sinks down when stepping into the back, das ist gut!

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Cleared out old metal…

…and test-fit the ‘outrigger’; the rest of the floor is in surprisingly good condition.

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Some improvement to the seat pedestal repair

Also, loose metal has been removed from the cargo rocker panel area.

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New front floor is in…

…and first ‘from scratch’ replacement piece made (will need some fine-tuning)

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More hardware removal, more floor removal

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