Now the car was supported and back from the waterblasting. It was time to tear off the rest of the rusted-out parts. I decided to start on the driver's side. First I removed the rear floor pan which did not take long. It almost came out with bare hands. Then I drilled and grinded the seat platform. You can see the diffence between the waterblasted metal and the part of the floor which lyed under the seat platform.
I still left floorpans connected to front frame rails. I wanted them to remain as long as possible to give the body some support. The floorpan doesn't even touch the inner rocker any more. After removal of the seat platform the inner rocker is practically in two pieces. The front and rear are connected only by the outer rocker. The inner rocker was removed piece by piece.
Note that the car is standing on only four jackstands. The subframe appeared to be so stiff, that only three would have been enough. I patched the front frame rail, removed the remains of the rust and primered the new torque boxes and inner rocker before fitting them in place.
I still left floorpans connected to front frame rails. I wanted them to remain as long as possible to give the body some support. The floorpan doesn't even touch the inner rocker any more. After removal of the seat platform the inner rocker is practically in two pieces. The front and rear are connected only by the outer rocker. The inner rocker was removed piece by piece.
The pieces of Boston railway track do not support the car if they are separated by the rusted out rocker under the seat platform. Eventually after working a couple of evenings the most of the parts are off. I took some measures of the body just in case to control if it will be bent. So far it seems that the supporting structure is solid enough.
The front torque box is off. The frame rail needs to be patched. In this picture below you can see that the design of my "subframe connector" is incomplete. The frame rail can not be replaced as the car is standing on it. In this case only patching it was enough, so this did not bother that much. The second disadvantage is that the new torquebox does not fit in it's place. I needed to cut off the front extension of the outer rocker to be able to test-fit the new torque box. Well, it was shot anyhow...
Note that the car is standing on only four jackstands. The subframe appeared to be so stiff, that only three would have been enough. I patched the front frame rail, removed the remains of the rust and primered the new torque boxes and inner rocker before fitting them in place.
Front torque box above and rear torque box cover below.The phase of drilling and cutting the left side floor is over. It took longer than I expected because I wanted to make sure I won't do any irreversible mistakes. I'm sure that when I get to do the same on the other side I'll do it much faster.
Not much left of the inner rocker under the seat platform area.
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