[V8TV]

The actual construction of the body shell started with the rear frame rails which we obtained from Classic Industries. We bolted the rails to the corresponding stands on the fixture. Next, we obtained a replacement front floor and firewall from Year One and attached it to the fixture. These were spanned by a Year One full length floor, and then we added the full trunk floor pan. Everything was set and bolted in place for measurements before any welding takes place.

Although the panels come with braces and brackets welded to them, we elected to supplement these with additional spot welds. We used a Blair Rotabroach spot-weld drill to cut the top layer of steel, then plug-welded the pieces together for additional strength.
Once the dimensions were checked, we welded the trunk floor to the rear rails, then the trunk floor to the floor. This is as far as we can go until we mock up the rocker panels, add the cowl section, the doors, and the quarter panels. The rear section of the car is non-adjustable, so we must make sure the door gaps and quarters all fit now before we move on.

The last shots show the new floors spot-welded together. The factory used a giant spot welder which applied tremendous clamping force as well as the welding current to fuse the panels together… we obviously don’t have a GM factory in our shop, so we’re approaching the job differently to achieve similar results. Again, we’re using the Rotabroach spot-weld drill, a hole punching tool, and standard drills to put holes in the panels where they will weld together. Then, we clamp them with Vice-Grips, C-Clamps, and even devices consisting of Porta-Power hydraulics. Once they’re in place, we fill the holes with our HTP MIG 200 MIG welder. The welds and resulting joints are as strong as factory with no seam welding to crack. However, they produce small “mushroom heads” on the welds which need to be dressed. We’re not really going for a perfect concourse restoration, nor are we going for a Rad Rides perfectly smooth structure, so we use 3M Roloc wheels to grind the welds to a semi-factory like dimple. These will be body worked to remove the grinding scratches, but we like the look of the dimple. In our opinion, if it’s too smooth, you wonder how much filler is hiding under there.