bustednuckles

And I’m paying for it like a sonofabitch right now. I expect tomorrow is going to be even worse.

So what praytell did I do?

Here’s a clue.

What is that you ask?

That is the rotten driver’s side floor board of a 1964 Austin Healey Sprite where the seat mounts, complete with Cherry tree blossom petals.

This is a long story so settle in.

I saw this was going to be an issue years ago. I have already cut out and replaced the floor in the foot wells on both sides of this little bastard. Last Summer I cleaned up and primered the entire passenger side floor board and ordered up a replacement for the driver’s side, which I saw was going to be too far gone to just clean up and paint. That piece has been sitting in the box it came in out in the garage just waiting.

I saw the weather was going to be decent for a few days last week and called the almost last friend I have to see if he could come over and give me a hand with this.

I say almost last friend because I didn’t have many to begin with and my oldest friend that I had since I moved into this state 34 years ago passed away in his sleep last week after suffering several strokes over the last year. RIP Steve.

So I called my buddy Bill, who I worked with for 9 years and we have remained good friends.

He builds things in his spare time and one of the things we used to have to do was make cardboard templates for wrapping heat treat furnaces with Molybdeum sheeting.

I asked him if he could come over and make me a cardboard template for this floor board section I need to replace. he said he could come over today as he took a day off. he had other things to do also but he swung by and helped me out. Well when he told me he could come over, I started getting things ready and I opened up the box that had the entire floor pan patch kit in it only to find that they BIGGER THAN SHIT, shipped me the wong fucking side.

I TRIPLE checked that i was ordering the correct side as the fucker cost me $200 So anyways, After a short session of cussing, I took a closer look at exactly what I needed to do this job and figured that there was just enough material there to do what I needed to do with some creative trimming. So Bill came over this morning after I drug out of bed and started in taking measurement. I had plenty of cardboard from the box the patch came in and threw a hunk of plywood across a couple of plastic sawhorses to make a work bench out of.

It took him a good hour and a half to get the cardboard trimmed up but when he was done it was a great fit.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention while I was waiting on him, I fired up the riding mower and mowed the lawn. I also forgot to mention the very first thing we did was to back my truck up into the driveway across the street between the garage and a storage shed that has one of those PVC and a tarp carport things in it. There was a fiberglass bed cover for the Big Red Dodge that has been hanging up by ropes under it for the last 2 years since I bought the truck that the lady finally asked me to get out. It took a half hour but we got that on the truck and strapped down, It’s going to the dump. I ain’t even messing with that fucking thing. They look nice, it’s painted the same color as the truck, but they are a giant pain in the ass if you actually need to haul anything in the truck that sticks up over the top of the side rails. So there is that.

Anyways, Bill got my template made for me after all that and then he took off to finish his projects. That left me to to start cutting the sheet metal.

It may look rectangular but there are bends, cut outs and and nothing is truly square. Which is exactly why I wanted Bill to do it. I would still be playing with the 4th hunk of cardboard if it was up to me to do it.

So after he split I started in with the angle grinder and this funky cut off wheel I bought just for this job.

It’s called The Indestructable Disc and they are supposed to cut anything. Steel, wood, brick, concrete, you name it.

I think I paid $25 for 3 of them. I gave 2 to Bill, one for him and one for his dad.

It didn’t cut real fast but that picture was taken at the end of the day after cutting non stop for 2 hours.

I would have gone through a half a dozen regulat cut off wheels doing the same job easily.

So this is what I did in pictures, first I cut the sheet in half because I didn’t need the front section. No, I didn’t throw it away either.

It took me about 4 hours of cutting, test fitting, grinding, test fitting, grinding some more, test fitting, over and over and over again, to finally get the patch piece to fit in where it needs to go.

This, is just the beginning of this adventure.

Now I need to cut out the bad part of the floor and there are things in the way, there is a rail welded to it underneath I am going to have to cut, then drill holes every inch and a half all the way around my patch piece, clean up to bare metal the lip I am going to leave around the hole and then spray everything with weldable primer. Do a final test fit and then weld the chunk of rail back in and then spot weld all the way around the patch. This is going to be a very long project and just what I did today is kicking my narrow, flat, ass.

I am obviously not 100% healed up yet anyway but it never fails I gotta overdo shit.

Then I am going to have to spread Seam Sealer all the way around top and bottom.

After that, I am going to have to clean up the entire driver’s side of the floor from the pedals to the Roll Bar behind the seat, spray it with Primer and clean out the passenger side, make sure it’s still covered in primer and the spray paint the entire tub of this miserable little bitch of a car. Then I have to find some junk yard seats I can throw in it. I have a brand new carpet kit in a box I have had for at least 7 years also.

Then the outside starts. sand and paint the motherfucker, IF, I live long enough.

Then there is the matter of interior panels etc..

Like I said, IF, I live that long. I’ve had this thing since 1988 and I would love to be done with it.

Probably will never happen but it does keep me out of the taverns.

Damn I am a Hurtin’ Unit right now.