Birdcage repairs

[1Michel]

Well today I took out the fiberglass that covers the rocker on the passenger side.

I needed to get this part out because the lower part of the pillar had a hole in it



I also took out this part out it»'s the cover access to the body mount in the rear wheel well





well the rust damage is a bit more than I tought.
Still not that bad but

turns out the lower part of the pillar is pretty much gone, I should be able to make some patches.

But the more I look at it, the more I'm thinking about taking out the frigin birdcage out the front end and firewall are removed sooooo like Clarckson would say "how hard could it be?"

Few rivets and some adhesive and the damn thing is on the garage floor ready to be sandblasted.

Would make things easyer to repair...... I think.

Funny thing is as I was pondering this, in the garage radio the song from Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w[/ame]

 

[stinger12]

If it were me, I'd do as much work as possible to the cage on the body. It isn't hard to mask off the body so you can sandblast the cage with it still attached. That's what I did.

Michel, I'm apprenticing under some amazing bodymen at work. One of the things they have taught me is that A LOT of shit changes when you remove too much of the structural integrity of a vehicle.

 

[1Michel]

I know that,I saw how you did, but rust if not repaired will do more damages.

I also seen a lot of restorations where that cage was pulled out and repaired.
At the point where I am, theres not much olding that cage in place

What worries me is that if I dont do it right this time, while most of the parts are out of the way, the rust left on it will come back to haut me later.

I hate rust LOL

 

[1Michel]

After thinking about it for a couples of days, I finally decided that I'll pull out the birdcage.

Tonight I took out all the rivets and the cage is loose now, the only thing holding is the top section.

Tomorow, or friday someone will come and help me separate the rear section.

After doing this, I was surprised how easy it came loose, I think it's more work to get the front end and firewall out than the rear section.

Anyway, as usual, I forgot to take pics, :crap:but I'll take some when I get this thing out of there.

Lots of work but at the end I think it will be all worth it.

 

[1Michel]

I'll need that part,



it's in the birdcage inside the rockers and it support the seats.

this is not mine, mine are far worse than that, I think I could make some new ones but want to know if it's worth it.

Anybody know where to find those, I heard about Caledonia but cant find anything on line about what they make or sell.

 

[JeffP1167]

Why dont you just buy a rust free bird cage?

 

[1Michel]

Why dont you just buy a rust free bird cage?

Because the cage is not that bad.
this is about the only area that she's rusted, windshield and front cowl is good.

 

[1Michel]

Did a bit of work today on the birdcage.
at first look, it didnt look too bad but Istill took out the cage out of the car to fix it.

After seeing the rust damages, I think I took the right decision.

First I had to redo the chanel near body mount No3

It didnt look too good


looks a bit better now.


then I went after the lower part of the door jam, this was worse than I tought


Next was cutting out behind the seat area where the door jam meets the back of the cage



this was going to be tricky since theres a curve lip in the part.



so once the part was out, made a carboard template



then cut and started to form it


Getting there


Had to form the round lip behind


check the fit from behind


Check fit from the front


then tack the part


tacked view from behind


As you can see , I ran into a bit of a problem, maybe I shouldve cut a bit higher so I decided that I would double part for more solidity.



Made a carboard template


then cut the part



I tacked it but ran out of wiring for my welder.
sooo Ill post post later.

 

[Fastphil]

Why dont you just buy a rust free bird cage?

I don't mean to speak for Michel when I say this, but he wants to keep the original birdcage because the VIN is attached to it. The local DMV apparently doesn't take swapped VIN tags too lightly. Add to that the fact that Michel's car is a numbers-matching big block car, so he wants to keep as many original components as possible.

 

[1Michel]

FastPhil is right, but like I said, the birdcage is not that bad, I've seen much worse cages be fixed so why not give it a try??

Then there s the question of budget,

I dont have any!

SOOOO I try to do as much as possible on the car without spending too much.

This is one of the reasons why it takes that long to do it.

 

[mrvette]

FastPhil is right, but like I said, the birdcage is not that bad, I've seen much worse cages be fixed so why not give it a try??

Then there s the question of budget,

I dont have any!

SOOOO I try to do as much as possible on the car without spending too much.

This is one of the reasons why it takes that long to do it.

Join the club on the budget stuff man, little along when we can is name of the game....and it's super nice to be able to weld, that is the key to this resto stuff, all else is almost nothing by comparo....the closest thing is body work....

:smash::smash::surrender:

 

[1Michel]

Heres a link where I'll continue the rest of the rebuild of the birdcage , and the car.

http://vettemod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7909