17 Nov 2013
More Pass Floor

Apparently "complete" has a different meaning for me, the floor is obviously not complete.
I didn't really get a good picture of it, because it's explicitly in the areas I can't see... but I put seam sealer on the inside of all the seams inside the cowl sides.
A coworker gave me some "Qurox Polymeric Rust Convertor" to try.  They use it on the building's chillers when they show a little rust and apparently it works well for them there.  I used it on the inside of the cowl where I can't spray primer, and I used a brush to put it there.  It's green here, but it dried more brown-greyish.
I ground the welds on the pass floor.
The hole I'd made for the crossmember, too.
Next step was to take a wire wheel to the rest of the pass floor.  I found more rust (shown here with a drop light under the car for clarity).
What do we do about rust?  Cut it out and put in new metal.

A little regret on not replacing the whole pan now.

I've seen folks be meticulous with masking tape to ensure that their seam sealer is even and straight.

Apparently I fingerpaint.
So I don't like spraying epoxy primer in the garage - it permeates the whole house.

This time, instead, I used a brush.  Yeah, it still stank,
and I ended up making a second batch and spraying it after all.
The goal was to get some primer on the pass floor after sealing it.
The brush is sloppy and uneven but it met the requirements.
Protected from the elements.
I ground down the giant weld bead blob on the firewall, and then I got to looking at how much room there was at the back of the engine.

I am not entirely sure why I cut this chunk of the tunnel away - it looks like I've got plenty of clearance with it in place. 
See, it's a good 1/2" above the transmission all through this area.
I'm not even convinced - other than the area at the shifter - that this part of the tunnel couldn't have stayed.

I suspect this is from when I was thinking I needed to be 3 degrees up rather than 3 down, but that doesn't explain the front cut.
And all that's with the 45 year old body bushings that look to be ~ 7/8" tall; the new poly bushings are about 1" so there'll be a little more clearance too.
It's going to suck to try to clean up the welds on the firewall side when I put the tunnel back together.

I've got one small rust hole in the front on the pass side that I found when I was brushing on the primer. I'll need to fix that still, and then work on the tunnel and driver's side.

It will be ironic if the tunnel goes back to its starting point, but I have to raise everything behind it for driveshaft clearance.

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