79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...

[SRD Art]

I bought a heavy duty wire wheel for my electric grinder and hit the driver's floor. Under the flakes I did find some holes, so I decided to go ahead and replace the area marked out.



To protect it from any stray sparks I covered up the rear window with some heavy butcher paper doubled over and cut the floor with a die grinder.



Here's the hole left for the passenger side. Yikes!



Once I got the rust cut out I sheared off some 18 ga sheet metal. I got basic dimensions traced on the sheet stock and did a rough cut with beverly sheers.






I used a machine called a Pullmax to duplicate the factory reinforcing ribs, here I am working on the passenger side.



You use an upper female and lower male die, and the machine's up and down action beats the metal into place. I made 3-4 passes raising the lower die each time to get the correct depth imprint.



This is the end result of trimming and using the Pullmax, here's the driver's side tacked in place. Notice how the formed ribs line up with the factory floor ribs. This was as far as I got today, tomorrow I'll finish up the passenger side. More to come...