Saturday, January 7, 2012

RH front floorpan out, more underneath

After spending so much time removing that mystery goo from the passenger side front floor it turned out I needed to remove the entire patch panel. That's what I did today, and that piece of sheet metal will not be going back in.

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As I was drilling out pop rivets I realized the seat had to come out. One 10mm bolt at the front of each rail, one on the outboard rear, two on the inboard. So many things are missing a fastener on this car I wonder if there should have been two on both sides. Note bracket on inboard bolt that goes up from underneath.

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It is the nature of allure that what is hidden under a skirt is much more intriguing that what it is visible. I could say the same about this floor panel. When at last I had peeled off the patch panel the exposed surface seemed at first to be in terrible condition. After a few minutes poking around it turned out to be rather basic, if a bit rusty.

I was surprised to find so many layers of stuff underneath. A layer of rubbery plastic, reminds me of tar paper. Thin foam rubber. A thick layer (1/8 in.) of a black plastic that was poured on wet, looks like Bakelite. Under that is the original floor pan.

Have to find an efficient way to remove that coating.
posted from Bloggeroid

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