Got some garage time yesterday and started looking at the hinge reinforcements. The first pic shows the bottom hinge reinforcement. Not pretty. The second pic shows that the bottom weld nut was gone and where I did some grinding to see what metal was left. It wasn't until I did that grinding and shown a light into the space that I realized that the bottom of the reinforcement was mostly rusted away. All that remains is an elliptical portion that was around the weld nut. It's difficult to see, but possible if you zoom in on the pic.
Well, I guess the old saying is still true: no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. It would seem that I'm back to replacing that part, after I make one. Remembering back to earlier advice on thickness of the metal and using metal that is as close to what the factory used as possible, I went with 16 gauge sheet metal. However, this time, I did not include the wings. Now that I'm becoming more confident in my welding, I figured that I could do it the same way that the factory did and add the bracing after the reinforcing box is welded into place. I've attached a pic of my first attempt and what it looked like with the correct hinge bolted into place. Not bad, but not what I want to end up with, so I'll try again.
Where to go next? So the battle plan is now to finalize the fitment of the inner cowl piece. Once I'm happy with that, I'm going to permanently attach the rocker panel, under floor brace and floor pan. Then attach the inner cowl with sheet metal screws. Then, work on the lower hinge reinforcement and lower hinge pillar. Once those are correctly fitted and attached with screws, I'll remove the outer cowl. That piece is so rusted that I think a complete replacement is the best approach. Removing the outer cowl will allow me access to the upper hinge reinforcement, which requires a new weld nut, at a minimum. I may have to replace it entirely, but I won't know until I have good access to it.
So, I'm getting to the heavy lifting portion of the passenger side restoration. Wish me luck!
