1964 Daytona Hardtop Rescue Effort

[StudeRich]

There is a very good reason for the NO V8 Emblem on the Canadian built 2nd. version '64's, they actually BUILT 6 Cyl. Daytonas!

[r1lark]

Next installment, still trying to get caught up with updates.

Cleaned up and primed the reinforcing plates, body outrigger, and the piece that the rocker panel attaches to at the bottom. The places where the floor pan will be plug welded have pieces of masking tape over the areas; these will get weld-thru primer later. The red primer is Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer. These parts with just some surface rust cleaned up really well with just a rust buster disc so didn't use POR-15. By the way, the underside of the car is really nice, and when the undercoating is scraped off most places still have the factory paint on them -- the floorboard rust came from inside (above) , due to water leakage into the inside of the car.


Here is the same area painted with black Rustoleum Professional paint:


.............and the masking tape removed and weld-thru primer over the bare spots where the plug welds will be. A piece of cardboard with a square cut out of it make a make-shift mask; the weld thru primer overlaps the Rustoleum quite a bit but that's not a problem. A lot of folks don't use weld thru primer, but I normally do. Weld thru primer is one of those things where everyone seems to have a strong opinion and they all seem different .


Went ahead and primed/painted the bottom of the floor patch before welding it in, since this one had more places where it would lay on reinforcing plates, outriggers, etc and would not be able to paint it fully afterwards. Weld thru primer is on the edges where it will be butt welded to the other floor piece.


Top of the same floor patch showing the holes drilled for plug welds:


Lousy pic, but shows the Harbor Freight panel butt weld clamps in used. Quite happy with these HF clamps, and way less expensive than Eastwoods. Eight clamps for less than $10.


Another lousy pic.......welding done, most of it was butt welded, still need to dress the welds:


Started dressing down the welds:


Another installment in a couple of days.

[r1lark]

Yet another installment, getting this thread caught up with what has been done over the last couple of months...........

Final part of the floorboard repair was to weld in the small piece under the cowl post. My opinion here: this is a critical piece, since it helps support the cowl post. I've seen other floorboard replacements where this piece is not replaced, and wonder if that is a good decision from a structural integrity standpoint. Anyway, here is the formed piece:


Here is the piece butt welded in, but before the welds are dressed down:

There is still a small piece that has to be welded in 'behind' this, towards the rear of the car.

This piece has to be welded to the floor outrigger, so that was plug welded. These plug welds will be dressed down totally flat since the cowl post needs to overlap here when it's reconstructed:

This piece will also be plug welded to the front of the cowl post, and to the side further forward when the cowl post is reconstructed.

Next step is fabricating the pieces to reconstruct the cowl post, but will leave that for the next installment.

[jclary]

Great work, Paul! Not many of us backyard tinkerers would be so bold to tackle such critical areas of structural integrity. When I was involved in my total restoration project, no matter how "cool" and calm I appeared when doing the work...my outward confidence was betrayed by my nightmares. I would have dreams where I opened the door and it broke off, or I would be about to show the car to folks at a car show and watch the paint crack & fall to the ground just before waking up! Not to plant seeds for your next bad dream, but if I were doing your car, I'd probably have a dream where an earthquake messes up and changes where you have that critical pillar area anchored to the ground!

One night, my wife wandered out to where I was working away. She made a statement kinda like this..."That's a lot of work, and yet so sad!" "What do you mean?" I asked. Her reply was, "No one will ever know how much work you put into this!" My reply was..."That's my goal!"

I have said it before and it's worth repeating here..."Now that I have done enough of this type of work to have earned the right to criticize the work of others...I wouldn't dare!
Stay with it, my friend...The self-satisfaction is worth the effort! I am enjoying what I'm seeing and I think your work is excellent.

[Noxnabaker]

I was lucky finding Josephine with a rustfree floor, but all 4 corners by the pillars were badly rusted! I only had to replece about one inch square / corner & I remember the right rear was a bit more tricky then the others, mostly because I did it without taking off the fenders since I was more in a hurry to get her on the road & drive her... I had waited 45 years for that!
Anyway; your thread is MIGHTY nice to read!

[r1lark]

Thanks for the comments and support John and Nox!

John, I think you hit the nail on the head - the satisfaction of doing it ourselves, and doing a good job, is what makes this worth it. It wouldn't be as fun just to write a check for someone else to do it (although it would be a lot easier and a lot faster ).

[r1lark]

Continuing to get this thread caught up with the actual progress on the Daytona...............

Got the underside of the floorboards seam sealed. Roughed up the seam sealer so it wouldn't look so 'slick' once it's painted and sprayed with undercoating (not that it will make much difference ):


I still have some areas of the 'original' floorboard where the undercoating was loose, so I scraped it off. Still need to clean off the surface rust and prime, so I can finish coat all of the primed floorboard areas at one time. Here is the area that still needs to be cleaned and primed (look at the body brace, sill had factory paint underneath the undercoating!):


Also, progress on the cowl post repair, getting it tied back into the new floor sections. Got the bottom flange piece welded to the post and to the floor flanges:


Got the top piece made too, here is the original rusted piece compared to the new piece:


This piece had some weird curves/shape to it, took some work with the leather shot/sand bag and hammers to get it right (sorry for the blurry photo, but you get the idea.......):

This floorboard metal is pretty thick so it's not just a matter of grabbing it and bending it with your hands, especially a short piece like this.

Here is where this piece will get welded in, went ahead and primed/painted below it for rust prevention (as well as the underside of the small piece):


I'm probably close to my limit on pictures, so I'll stop here.

On a (sort of) related subject, I'm thinking of getting an "inexpensive" bead roller to use for rolling beads in floorboards to stiffen them. I've got several Studes that need some floorboard work (my Champ truck is ready right now) and I think it would be easier to just make them myself. Here is what I'm looking at: [URL}https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performa...caAoKSEALw_wcB[/URL] These same bead rollers are sold by a number of different companies, the only difference being paint color. There is lots of info online on how to easily stiffen these up, and even how to motorize them. Anyone have one of these, and have you done the stiffening modification?

More catchup on the Rescue Daytona to come soon!

[Mrs K Corbin]

I'd like to get a class on those butt weld clamps.... how do they work?

[Colgate Studebaker]

Paul, I bought the Eastwood model a few years ago on a "super sale"(about $109 iirc) and I've used it quite a bit. It works ok but I still need more practice/experience with it. It doesn't like heavier material (16 ga. and heavier) but I've still used it on lots of things.

Mrs. K Corbin (Kim?) Those butt weld holders work quite well but take some patience using them. I bought the Eastwood pieces about 20 years ago and then made some additional ones myself from 1" square tubing. My homemade ones work better than the Eastwoods.

Hope you two get some help from my sayso! Bill

[r1lark]

I'd like to get a class on those butt weld clamps.... how do they work?

I'll try to put a few pics and a description together this evening on how these work. They are fairly simple devices, and have worked well for me.

[tsenecal]

I used the butt weld clamps from eastwood, with success, but later purchased the magnets that are used for the same purpose. They are very simple to use and hold the panel in place just as well.

[r1lark]

I'll try to put a few pics and a description together this evening on how these work. They are fairly simple devices, and have worked well for me.

OK Mrs K Corbin, battery in the camera was dead so couldn't get the pics a few nights ago. Here they are, blurry but hope you get the idea.

These are Harbor Freight clamps, $8 or $9 for eight (before the 20% off coupon), so they are not expensive. Here is a pic of one together and one taken apart:

The metal plate with the screw welded to the end is what spaces the two pieces of sheetmetal -- in other words, sets the gap between the two pieces. The thickness of the metal plate is around .038", and probably would not be any reason why you couldn't make a thinner plate to all for less gap for thinner sheet metal. The gap worked well for the relatively heavy gauge floorboards. Here is a pic showing the metal plate welded to the screw:


The square stock fits thru the square hole in the plate, and tightening the wing nut on top tightens the clamp together. Here are a couple of pics with two clamps on a couple of scrap pieces of sheetmetal:




As tsenecal mentioned, magnets can be used also, which I do use at times. However, in the case of the floorboards with the thick metal and some offset between the two pieces that I had to butt weld together, the clamps pulled them right together. The magnets could not have done that.

I like these clamps, and for the price they are almost throw-away items. I will try modifying a couple with a thinner metal plate for thinner sheetmetal welding. The hardest thing will be making the square hole.

[Colgate Studebaker]

Paul, as I said earlier I have these(Eastwood) and I made some of my own. On my units I used 1" square tubing as the body and I did not cut the bottom from end to end, but left the ends solid. The slot I did cut was long enough to allow the "gapper"piece to slide up and down for tightening. I also made the "gapper" out of thinner material (about .025) and instead of making a square hole I drilled a 5/32" round hole and used a 1/8" hardened dowel pin as the "holder". These actually work much better than the Eastwood units. Just an idea for you. Bill

[Mrs K Corbin]

I like that!

[Noxnabaker]

I wouldn't mind if those home-made was on picture... Interesting!