Started panel prep and drilling. Nothing to major to report, but thought I would point out a few areas that I wish I had done differently for those of us doing this for the first time. So far, not much fitting has had to be done. Minor fitting of f-panel and upper trunk floor was accomplished with a file and/or grinding a weld or two down a little bit. So far so good, all panels drilled and cleko'd in place except for DS foot box. I have decided to break down and order the Willwood pedal box, so will wait until I have the modified front panel before mocking that area up and then send all panels off to Powder coat.
So up first, some areas I would do a little differently starting with the f-panel:
Pay attention to where the upper control arm mount is. I marked my panels and then drilled them while not installed, so I did not pay attention to interference that one hole will have that will prevent me from drilling. I will call it a speed hole done for weight reduction.
ps fpanel drilling.jpg
Next up was the upper trunk floor. A couple of areas here I would do a little differently. First, I should have moved the line of holes on the front of the trunk floor forward more. the trunk hoop prevented me from using my regular drill, so I had to use my 90 degree cordless, which is just not as good. Also, I think it would look better, as now I am contemplating adding a second row further forward, which may be overkill. The second area for improvement would be to ensure the holes are spaced far enough from the roll bar attachment tubes to allow you to get a drill on them. There is one hole in the panel that I will not be able to get a drill though. None of these really concern me as they will be covered.
front trunk drilling.jpg
roll bar drillling.jpg
On the PS foot box, I added a couple of speed holes in the frame. The floor panel will be riveted to the frame tube (red arrow), but the side panel will only be mounted to the floor panel (green arrow), not the tube. I drilled the first couple of hole here through both panels and frame before realizing that the gap between panels and frame is a little too large to use a rivet. Plugged those extra holes with some JB weld and moved on.
ps lower fottbopx drill.jpg
Last, I should have spaced my rivet holes evenly on the lower trunk floor step. Don't even know if both the horizontal and vertical holes are even needed, but I should have at least spaced them apart evenly. Oh well, carpet will cover.
lower trunk drilling.jpg
So I think bottom line is that if I had to do it again, I would have drilled the panels while they were on the car. It may have prevented some of my mistakes. Using the drill press after marking the panels was nice, but I probably should have just drilled while mounted to see some of these preventable issues. Hopefully this helps others think a little more than I did about drilling
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Originally Posted by Dagwoods
Started panel prep and drilling. Nothing to major to report, but thought I would point out a few areas that I wish I had done differently for those of us doing this for the first time. So far, not much fitting has had to be done. Minor fitting of f-panel and upper trunk floor was accomplished with a file and/or grinding a weld or two down a little bit. So far so good, all panels drilled and cleko'd in place except for DS foot box. I have decided to break down and order the Willwood pedal box, so will wait until I have the modified front panel before mocking that area up and then send all panels off to Powder coat.
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