Once I had the front fenders off I could see the amount of front damage the car has sustained in the past.. well not only in this AREA! you can see the rad craddle held ready for a little MIG!

To make room for items like power brake booster and the pieces for the 5.0L and AC I decided to go without the braces for now. I will purchase the bolt on ones in the future..

I mocked up a little block to replicate the placement of the 5.0L to check for driveline and tranny placement... With a little more cutting I will have some room for the AOD down under!

Here is a shot of the 5.0L EFI that I plan to power the comet in the future. She is out for machining right now but in a few months will be back together ready to rOAr!!

once I started to cut it was hard to STOP! Here are the wholes ready to recieve the patches...

I was practicing some MIG skills on this portion.... As you can see some PRACTICE is required to perfect this skill. The floor is at least water tight now!

A lot of forethought went into the placment and arrangement of all the supports to eventually support the pans in this area..... You can see in this shot just what was required.

After a few days and a lot of head scratching, we accomplished what I thought was the impossible. From a flat sheet of 20 gauge to fit .. what a pro!

I fabricated the rear floor boards from some pretty heavy guage steel.. about 14 guage to provide support and stiffen the structure. Not a bad fit eh?

This is a full shot of all the pieces in place. Still learning how to use that MIG but I am getting better at running a bead.

I am extra proud of how this part came toghether.... one heck of a lot of angles and such and she plug welded in place like a dream. Just about ready to start on the BODY SOON.......ya right!

After finding the rust in the top of the gas tank, I also found one where a bit of leak was in the trunk floor.. Just a little dab will do it......

With the aid of an acetylene turbo torch and body hammer I put in some stress points to aleviate the tin canning in the pans... They are sure stiff now let me tell you.....no BOING!

Here is a shot of the exterior colour for the car.... I know it is a little bright! With a tan interior and tan convertible top this is going to be one cool cruiser.

I thought I would let you see what it is going to look like under the front of the car for suspension.! From blasting, to new bushings and a few new parts, it is time to get these MOVING!

I bit the bullet and started to work on this fender filling holes for trim that I cant seem to find a complete set! So I am going the Cyclone CLONE route..... I hope it works... !

I tried out the striper on this fender and I think with a little time the rest of the car can look this good.! If you look close you can see I have my work cut out for me with hammer and dolly as I found a pile of bondo under the paint..... !

The Fender from the parts car that I took off last weekend had a touch of rust in the lower corner that I thought I could take out. Here is the spot..... cut out and edges cleaned.

With the rust out.....fitting in the new piece was a little tricky to get lined up and fitting ..umm almost properly. The piece is ready to tack in.

I think I get a little impatient when it comes to this part... I warped the metal a bit and hope that once GROUND down and hammered a bit things will fill pretty good. Kind of looks like bird dung to me rather than a weld.

After grinding and conditioning.....this is the result.... you can see I need a little practice when it comes to this type of work.. I need to slow down and let the metal cool better I think.... next time. This one will need a little plastic to smooth out the edges.

I have been looking at this job for a long time wondering how I am going to fix this MESS that someone left for me. Here is the shot of the rust and angles cut out on the right side... now that I have some practice I should be GREAT on the left side.

Of course no job is as simple as just welding up a little surface tin... All of the inner fender had to be rebuilt in this area. Here is the shot of the clamping and test fitting the inner fender piece.

Well my skills as a welder need some practice but......here is the evidence.. Inner fender welded in and ready to accept the outer skin.... umm rocker and fender well extension.

Although this seemed like an insurmountable job, you can see the pieces are fitting pretty good. Here is the shot of the piece clamped in ready to welding.

I had things almost lined up but couldnt get a good fit to the sheet metal at the top of the patch... Another test fitting session...

All clamped and ready to MIG..... Wait a minute.... I had to add some reinforcement behind the patches to help with alignment, due to not being able to hold the panel on the inside.

Here is the completed job, all welded in...just a few plug welds along the well area and I should be good to GO! Here is the shot of the finished product...... minimal warpage as I took my time to ensure things cooled down before adding more wire.

I set the patch for the top of the fender on the car to see if it she would fit. Here is the shot of the piece sitting on top..... a lot of work ahead here I think..