Here I’m fitting the left outer floor and tacking it.
Here it is after grinding out the welds, they actually came out nice.
I installed the outriggers and jack points.
Some of the welds look OK, some not so great. I promise nothing will come apart.
Hey Kirk! Here’s about 2 inches that actually looks good! I’m getting better!
Next are the crossmembers underneath and the long heater tube. Here I’m fitting the front crossmember and tube together. They need to be set in place as an assembly as the tube is trapped in by the crossmembers. The crossmember is actually scooted back a few inches while I weld the center pipe to the front dogleg pipe. Yes that's Will in the background checking his email, he came down one day to watch. After getting my stuff done I gave him some scrap and a few tips.
I used 2 ¾” Napa truck exhaust pipe, half of a 10’ piece that was left over from Bus 1. You could also use 2 ½” but 2 ¾” fits the holes better in the x.
The rear actually necks up from 2 ½” to 2 ¾”. Here you see a small piece of 2 ½” I sleeved together through the x to make the transition.
Here it is all done.
On to the front floor. I decided not to weld this in but to use panel bond, which is basically epoxy in a caulking gun. New cars use this extensively in assembly so it must be OK.
I used Sem 39747 panel bond, they have 2 kinds, regular and quick set. I’m pretty slow in my old age so regular it is. It has a 90 minute working time and 24 hour cure vs. 15 minute working time and 2 hour cure. The tube is about $35 shipped but you have to have the special gun.
It’s pretty straight forward, grind any paint from the attachment points, squirt the stuff on, plop it in place and clamp it. It only took about 30 minutes for me to do it, including cutting the wood and propping everything in place. I still had an hour until it set.
I didn’t go crazy with the bead, just ¼-3/8” or so like it says. You can see it squeeze out of the joints from below.
The magic marker marks are so I knew where to grind the paint from the pan, there’s about a foot on each side where it sets straight on the frame rail.
Here it is installed. Yes I cheated and cut a "U" around the heater pipe so I wouldn't have to remove and replace it. Shame on me.
Next: Prep and paint the undercarriage. All welding and panel replacement is pretty much done right now, I’ll do the cargo door bottoms at my convenience next winter or something. Yeah!
I'm trying Flikr now. I use a host because I like nice big pictures in my posts.
