Driver's Side II

I've been hitting it pretty hard lately. I got the floor pan on the driver's side removed and the rust holes in the bulkhead and inner rocker panel repaired. The bottom of the rocker is a flat sheet that has nuts welded to it on the inside that the floor pan bolts to. Where the pan itself bolts up to it is in pretty good shape but the couple of inches sticking out that's exposed to the elements has some serious rust issues. I'm going to grind out the spot welds on the outer edge and then cut that part out. I'll fit a new piece that I'll weld in along the outer edge but will just lay over the top of where the pan bolts up after punching some holes in it for the bolts. The floor pan will squeeze it all together nicely and with a big gob of silicon caulk between the floor pan and the bottom of the rocker, I shouldn't have too much of an issue with water getting in where it doesn't belong.

Here's the bracket for the jack. I cut it off the old pan and ran it through the bead blaster. Cleaned up nicely, but more importantly, even though it was pretty humid out when I did it, no more problem with water in the lines since I put the better water trap on the blast cabinet. 

I knew I was going to have to patch some things but I wasn't planning on replacing the bottom of the rocker. Might be a little tricky for me to get the floor completed this week with the extra work but I'm making good progress. As I mentioned a couple of posts back, the last time I did any work on the floor was right before I had the heart attack - four years ago - so it's definitely time to get crackin'. I've got one more spot on the outside of the body that needs some replacement metal. Actually it's a spot about six inches tall from the rear edge of the door back into the inner fender. So it's more than just a little patch but after that, mostly mechanical things. There's a lot of that, but again, I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished of late - especially with what's gone on around here the last four years. Heart attacks, broken bones and cancer have a tendency to slow production down a bit.

My buddy, the Ducati singles specialist, brought me a little work to do. Primary cover off a 250. You can see the scuffed up spot in the photo. There's a couple of spider cracks that need a little T-L-C with the T-I-G. This will be an easy one. They use a good grade of aluminum in these things. Cut a little groove with the die grinder, fill it back in. Nothing to it.

School is going well, the Missus is getting stronger all the time and I'm getting things done on the projects. Life is good around here. Seems like all hell has broke loose everywhere else, however. Might be time to string the concertina wire around the perimeter and just hunker down - probably get more done that way anyhow.