You are doing a good job man keep the pics coming.

That would be the way to do it. The most important part of patch panel repair is the fitment of the panel.

Great to see you're back at it! Hoping life slows down a bit soon so I can get back in the shop too.

So true BAM! Don't want to see where the patches were after paint!

Thanks, me too!
I'm not traveling alternating weekends this summer so I should be able to devote some serious time to car projects again.



Speaking of devoting time...

Weather here has been funky to put it mildly. If you live in my area you know what I mean. Lots of time spent on weather related stuff so this is the first time in the shop since my last update. It was another short night but a couple hours invested is still progress. I should get more accomplished today.


http://www.downivlife.com/pics/1961I...orsupport1.jpg

The hole I made for bracket clearance.



http://www.downivlife.com/pics/1961I...orsupport2.jpg

Template and rough drawing on material.



http://www.downivlife.com/pics/1961I...orsupport3.jpg

Early test fit.



http://www.downivlife.com/pics/1961I...orsupport4.jpg

Partially welded and ran out of shielding gas. The rest will be MIG welded.



Until next time!

man i am such a hack compare to you Bry!

Mine did too, that's why I built the jig. The installation went so smoothly I got excited and forgot to take pictures before it was back on the ground. The car drives exactly as it did before only with better brakes and a different gear ratio.
Thanks man. :)


Thanks Doug!
I'm not too great at aluminum like someone I know but I'm working on it with scraps.

I'm seriously considering buying a 100% new in box TIG welder as this one is on loan from a friend with limited space who bought it used. It has some quirks plus I know he's going to want it back at some point so I need to plan for that reality. Biggest problems are it's a little inconsistent and very difficult to control on the low end. It's either a little hot for automotive sheet metal which is what I'm doing most of the time, I can't get full penetration or it won't HF start on the first hit. I even tried the pulse option a few times but I never got it set to my liking. On the flip side it's perfectly fine for heavier gauge sheet metal like the floor brace in the pictures above or thicker but still has intermittent HF start issues. Other TIG welders I've used were smoother down low and didn't act the same as this one. Initially thought it was me but now I know otherwise.

A blue or red machine with AC simply isn't in the budget so I may get a green or yellow one. I'm one guy in a home garage who takes months to go through a pair of gas bottles, not a production fab shop so I should be fine.

The car is looking good. Glad to see some update, now if I could only follow suit.

Thanks Wayne and happy late New Year. I've had a lot of stuff going on lately but I'm still trying to make a little car time. Hoping things are going well in your neighbourhood and can chip away at something a little each day or so. Last I saw it looked like you were getting pretty close.


I forgot about "the other red" company. I'm actually semi-actively researching alternative (hobbyist) TIG welder brands. I prefer Miller because I've always had them but my wallet doesn't and the competition is so much tighter than the past.

Bit more time today allowed me to finish the remaining welds on the first side plus fab and complete the other side using the MIG. The MIG is so much faster to lay down material but takes a lot more time to make evidence of your work disappear. The TIG just rocks for the detail work but the MIG hammers stuff out at a blistering pace.



http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impal...orsupport5.jpg

Finished welding the first notch and added a cap to the end of the brace.



http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impal...orsupport6.jpg

Second side and rough cut template.




http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impal...orsupport7.jpg

Test fitting template.



http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impal...orsupport8.jpg

Finished welding with the MIG.


Now I need to grind the welds and make them invisible even though this will be under the car, above the rear bumper, behind a valance and eventually covered with textured paint... So basically no one will see this once the car is assembled, WTF is wrong with me?

Just the normal hot rodding OCD.... nothing to worry about... for a while... lol

Thanks for the vote of confidence... I think.
Best thing is my friends and I can all plead insanity in court if something happens. I've got the pictures, videos and cars to prove it! :D

Odds and ends session tonight and the only thing photo worthy were the replacement floor plugs I made. When I replaced the floor for some reason I didn’t receive all the floor plugs. To make due I simply reused some of the originals but even the best ones were pretty crusty.

Shipping the ones I need cost almost as much as the product plus I have tools and metal… so I made a few with the bead roller.



http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs1.jpg

http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs2.jpg

These are the GOOD ones from my original floor… bent, heavily pitted and rusted through in spots.


http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs3.jpg

Quick tracing of the original with the inner circle calculated and stepped using the bead roller.


http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs4.jpg

Starting the paint process for the replacement pair I made.


http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs5.jpg

http://downivlife.com/pics/1961Impala/floorplugs6.jpg

Replacements installed.

Nice work man! That bead roller is paying for itself!

Now put some carpet over them so nobody will ever see them again! :D

Oh no! If he's a REAL hotrodder that floor will stay bare so they WILL be seen forever! LOL

You guys are crazy... and I like it!
The ones in the picture are in the trunk so no carpet. I had to make two more but they're under the rear seat and the other four go under the carpet. Best of both worlds. Haha!

...and I've been driving the car without carpet until last year when the wife was sweating her tail off so I added a bit of heat shield under us to keep the temps in check. I don't want her to pass out from heat exhaustion. Hard to get her to go to shows that way. ;)

It's funny how dead weight is harder to lift, isn't it? But you're strong enough you could still make it happen. Haha!