WTR388

Well, I have so much going on with the car all at once, I figured I'm better off doing a thread on the entire thing.

Car started off as a 305 T-5 car that I traded a snowmobile for after messing up my back racing motocross, and figured a car was a good plan for the summer since racing was out. I had no plans other than a nice cruiser...
As me and the car got acquainted, I found a few issues, nearly all of which stemmed with the 305. The valve seals leaked a bit, it was GUTLESS and it would vapour lock on hot days.
Long story short, it ended up getting an LS1 swap.
Just before I got the LS1 in, I broke my collar bone racing motocross, and I ended up with a couple months off due to surgery, complications and summer leave time. So since I was in a sling and couldn't do the engine swap, I ended up doing the body work with one arm. By that fall I had the LS1 T56 swap done and packed the car up for winter.

I had the summer of 2015 with the car on the road, and did an LS1 front brake conversion at the end of the season.

Come 2016 I had moved across the country in to my first home, and the car sat all summer as I got settled in and was busy racing motocross again. I knew the car needed floors so that's why it sat. I did buy reproduction pans from a fella who had some in his garage for cheaper than I could get them. So I epoxy primed them and then sprayed them in rubberized undercoating (not the asphalt stuff).



This is what I started with:



So I peeled that out of there. The frame rail was bad, I knew it was, as I had done a quick patch job during the engine swap. It had rotted away where the trans cross member bolts to. I'm trying not to cut any corners here, and I don't want it obvious that this work has been done so I went to a scrap yard and cut that section out of a really solid car. After peeling apart what I needed, this is what I got:




So, I drilled out all the spot welds to seperate the inner and outer frame portions:



And then I did the same thing to the car:



Then Lined everything up and tacked it back in to place. No evidence I was ever even in there!
While it was out I cleaned up the threads for the trans mount as well to make sure I have no issues when it goes back together. I held up my hawks cross member and all holes lined up great!



I then trimmed out the hole in the car, dropped the pan in place, marked the hole from the bottom side of the new pan, pulled the pan out, and trimmed it leaving about 1.5" of a lap joint for my plug welds... This is simplified of course, the pan went in and out numerous times as there was lots of trimming here and there. The pan fits really well.


I'm really surprised with how clean the rest of the frame is on the car, considering where this car spent it's life it should have rotted away a long time ago. I did have to do some inner rocker area repair from the firewall back about 12", and also along the outside in that area as well which I haven't finished up yet as I've been trying to get this floor in.
I initially took the car apart (engine out and trans out, fender off, bumper off, full dash) back in like March of 2017... So hopefully it sees pavement again in a couple months!

Street Lethal

iTrader: (16)

This is going to be sweet. Subbed...

- Rob

86White_T/A305

Awesome job so far,We thought about lining my floor before putting it in but since Im adding extra plates of 16ga in places and want to line the whole underside of the car once the finish welds are done underneath.It will be better to do it once the cage and everything is in place and make a full mess of the shop.

I also used a tar type of coating on the inside of the frame once we repaired it and added support plates.It has a shiny..oily feel to it.Your spray it on with and air gun and a very small tube to get into the rails.Its thick enough that it doesnt drip all over the driveway like a standard oil spray would.

Keep it up,you will probably be finished your floors before I am lol.Its a race..and Im losing.

2 Threads at the same time for the same thing on the same cars.Awesome

WTR388

I have about 30 plug welds left and the drivers side is done. Had to bring out the 5lb hammer in a spot or two, but for the most part the floor sucked right down to where it needed to be with some self tapping screws or some clamps.
I'm making my own braces for the seats to bolt to since mine were rotted out, might get to that tonight.
Once The car is back together I'll definitely be undercoating the entire thing, so that coupled with making sure any rust has been removed, treated and covered means I should be good to go for a long time.

Now the pressure is on to get that passenger side in, so thanks for the challenge lol.
I'll get some more progress pics up later tonight.

WTR388

Today turned in to a lazy Sunday, first day in a week where I haven't touched the car, but I did go in to town to get a couple things I need to seal it up anyways.

So to get my plug weld hole locations worked out, I laid the pan in, got it positioned and then drew the outline of the subframes and other notable locations from the underside. Then I took the pan back out, marked all my holes at approx 1.5" spacing and then welded it in.

For the welds along the rocker, I drilled the rocker from the outside before laying the pan in, measured the floor to the right height (at least I took that measurement before I cut the old one out!) and clamped in in and welded. The pan fit well enough that just lining up the bottom edge with the factory bottom edge it was at the right height giver or take 1/8th... Good enough for me.






I used all the factory spot weld locations on the firewall side, I had to move the brake booster in order to get the 4 or 5 welds right above the frame rail... Good thing because I noticed I have some surface corrosion on the shock tower below the booster to get to... I was planning on doing the entire engine bay anyways.

I still have approx 30 welds to do to finish it up, but I just couldn't get myself out to the garage today.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

You still got some things done, and didn't wear yourself out. Everyone needs break.

86White_T/A305

The cool thing about your car is that everything is out of it.In my case..everything is still in like the dash,engine/trans. Working around them makes things a slight pain lol

WTR388

Well, that's why it's project Might as well... I knew I had to do the floors, and it would be easier without the trans in the way... I hate messing around on my back under the car getting it in and out, so I figured I'll pull the motor and everything out the bottom.
Figured since the trans is now out, may as well pull it apart for a rebuild and upgrades.
And well hey, the motor is out, and my wiring isn't as perfectly tucked away as I wanted (because I'm picky) so I figure I'll just do that better now too... And hey, now I have all this access, so I'll re-paint the engine bay, and since I was given some 4thgen washer and coolant bottles I'll throw those in to ditch the stock ones.... And the list just kept on going.

Upsides, I figured out why I couldn't get the heater door to move beyond vent, there was a lighter that had fallen down the defrost vent in the dash, worked it's way down and jammed the door up, so that was an easy fix... And found a razor blade down there as well, which confirms that at some point someone was doing coke in the car at some point lol. Also freed up those little cable operated vents, which I wasn't sure if they were operational or just some fancy levers for looks.

If it wasn't for another season of motocross starting up, I'd be doing new steering components, weight jack set up, long tubes and all that. But I think just getting it back on the street will finally be nice.

86White_T/A305

How are things coming along now? I finished up my floors and under carriage stuff.Now its reassembly time of all the trim pieces and clean up wiring etc

WTR388

I've had a bit of a set back, dislocated my knee racing a hare scramble (dirt bikes through the woods) Was going way too fast in a tight trail and decided it was a good idea to jump a section of rocks... Only it was raining and the rock I used as a ramp was slick, immediately in to the trees which knocked my lower leg over to a 20 degree angle from my upper leg. Brand new bike too!

The bummer part of it, was for the day after the race I had planned to install the passenger floor and then I would have been well under way to having it finished up for our east coast nationals car show in July... I find out more info on Friday from the ortho doc, but pretty sure my MCL and ACL are toast so I'll likely end up needing surgery... Again.

If you have kids that want to get in to racing dirt bikes, prevent them before they are totally hooked. I have too long of a list of injuries from it, but even nearing 35 I can't friggin stop.