Rust restoration/suspension up grade

Do you have any pics of where you welded in the braces? What gauge and type of steel did you guys end up using? I read somewhere in the 22 gauge for the floor board and 18-20 for the body panels and they suggested using cold roll steel? Im still pretty novice at this but figured id see what you did to compare to what ive been reading.
 

AtracYota91

New member
littlemissalltrac":iz7nojkz said:
Do you have any pics of where you welded in the braces? What gauge and type of steel did you guys end up using? I read somewhere in the 22 gauge for the floor board and 18-20 for the body panels and they suggested using cold roll steel? Im still pretty novice at this but figured id see what you did to compare to what ive been reading.


I just used rockers off a st coupe. The braces I was talking about come factory spot welded into the rocker. Once I drilled out all the spot welds the bracing is located between the outter and inner rocker panels. The first piece we welded in was the inner rocker with the floor still connected to the rocker. By doing this we where able to weld the inside and out side of the (inner rocker). Once that was lined up and in place we welded the stock flooring that was outta the st. The logic of doing this was to keep everything not looking like shit by butting up factory body parts to make it look like it's never been touched. Another reason is the stock floor is more than Likly going to be stronger than a flat piece of sheet metal. The only way to make that flat sheet not flex with out a bunch of Inpractical brakets is to make creases just like the stock floor is. That's a lot of work that's y I just bought a whole shell of a car and used what was needed. So now the inner rocker is in and the floor is in now we started the middle supports/braces.. All that consists of is spot welding them in. The only thing we did was run beads of weld across all the braces. But ya cold rolled for body work if u don't decide to buy a parts car. I paid 200 dollars for a ST cut everything out that I needed and got 284 dollars when I took it in for scrap. So honestly it's a very good Ideal.
 
So the ST floor board worked for you? There not idential are they? Ive been looking at diagrams and reading and from what i could tell they were different because of the driveshaft clearance needed on the alltrac? I know the rockers seem to be identical but i was having a hard time finding anything to use for the floorboard (tho mine is not nearly as bad as yours. Did you have to redo your front swaybar mounts as well? Ill have to do those on mine and the rear /rear subframe mounts, any suggestions for those sections?
 

AtracYota91

New member
littlemissalltrac":2o8rrnv3 said:
So the ST floor board worked for you? There not idential are they? Ive been looking at diagrams and reading and from what i could tell they were different because of the driveshaft clearance needed on the alltrac? I know the rockers seem to be identical but i was having a hard time finding anything to use for the floorboard (tho mine is not nearly as bad as yours. Did you have to redo your front swaybar mounts as well? Ill have to do those on mine and the rear /rear subframe mounts, any suggestions for those sections?


The ST/GT floor is not the same but they are very close before the tunnel for the shaft. The st rockers are the same that's with out the flares tho. All that matters is that it's the same structure as the all tracs. Yes my front sway bar mounts are shot. I'm not to sure what I wanna do about the sway bar. Well I do know what I want to try to do but I'm not sure if I will have enoff clearance cause of the tail shaft. I would like to have the sway bar mounts connect to this.
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I want to run this tube from rocker to rocker as far forward as I can get it without having clearance issues. Basically I want to counter sink it through the floor. This support ( drop section ) will be flipped so the drop section will go with the contours of the shaft tunnel. I will weld it soild to the bulk heads of the rockers.
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That will be super strong. As far as your subframe mounts. Are you talking about on the frame of the car?
I don't have any repairs to do on the rear chassis. Surprisingly
 
Here is my thread i have going (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=40532), has some pretty detailed pics through out the thread. You can see the rear subframe mount in question, the bolts that go from the body to attatch the subframe are gone as well so i need to figure out a way to attatch it now as well.

Here are some of the high rez shots i have, any suggestions you have for any of this would be helpful, ive never done body work before and i picked up a cheap mig welder and plan on doing it all myself slowly (and doing it right, im a firm believer in "if you want it dont right, do it yourself")

Once i get it in the garage its getting 100% gutted drivetrain/ engine wise and im going to start grinding down some areas to see what i really have left of the car. worst spots really are the front drivers floor pan area and the rear subframe mounts, the rest looks more like outter body panel type stuff thats just going to have to "look good".

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AtracYota91

New member
littlemissalltrac":16s3of2q said:
Here is my thread i have going (viewtopic.php?f=44&t=40532), has some pretty detailed pics through out the thread. You can see the rear subframe mount in question, the bolts that go from the body to attatch the subframe are gone as well so i need to figure out a way to attatch it now as well.

Here are some of the high rez shots i have, any suggestions you have for any of this would be helpful, ive never done body work before and i picked up a cheap mig welder and plan on doing it all myself slowly (and doing it right, im a firm believer in "if you want it dont right, do it yourself")

Once i get it in the garage its getting 100% gutted drivetrain/ engine wise and im going to start grinding down some areas to see what i really have left of the car. worst spots really are the front drivers floor pan area and the rear subframe mounts, the rest looks more like outter body panel type stuff thats just going to have to "look good".

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In pic 3 is that your sub mount under the trunk? If so how many outta 4 are shot and is pic 3 the worst? The bolts You can order I priced them and it's like 30 some for the short ones and 60 some for the longer ones and that's each. Nuts where like 2-5 dollars I for get. But I can't stress enoff that if you buy bolts that are not oem they need to be grade 10 or higher. You need to check this out first http://m.ebay.com/itm/281195289966?nav=SEARCH&sbk=1 I would buy them if I was you. I hear ya on the do it your self thing. It's hard to find a good shop that will not half ass stuff. From 1-10 and compared to my car how bad is the floor? Don't mind the rust on the welds. It's from water putting out fires from under coating.
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Rember this was turned into this with a ST
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Is your driveshaft tunnel good? As for the rockers yours are good enoff for welding up new skins on the out side. If I was you tho the one side with the small amount of rust inside take that pannel off to make sure it's legit. That's me tho. Funny story I've also never done body work before untill I got the all trac last year. Quick learner I guess :shrug: :smokes: but yeah let me know about them mounts. Maybe get some pictures of the underside of that mount.
 
It does look like yours is quite a bit worse but its hard to tell from the pictures and i havent had the chance to get it into the garage yet to really have a good look at whats left of good metal. Maybe this coming weekend i will beable to get it moved. The plan is to 100% strip it down to the body and do a full restoration/ mild upgrade (mostly because stock parts are hard to find). Last i saw it looked like the tunnel is good its just the floor pan section itself, and i believe just the drivers side, passenger side looks to be good but im sure you know its like a iceberg. You only see 10% till you go looking for the rest of it. Im def subscribed to this thread and ill let you know if i have any updates on mine at all.
 

AtracYota91

New member
Just started the other rocker tonight before I went to work. It's coming out pretty good she will be ready in now time!! :D Here are some pictures I took comment and enjoy.
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Small hole to repair. Next picture is what I cut out.
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Old rocker lined up with new rocker.
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Spot weld before
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After
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Spot weld drill bits they are life savers
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Rocker skin off along with someone else's shit fiberglass job!!
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AtracYota91

New member
More rusted rocker
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This was the only peice of the outter rocker the rest was roofing tin fiberglass and wood screws??? :crazy:
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The line marked just below the door hinge mount will be cut out carefully. The goal here is to cut the first layer of metal. The main support is so close to that outer layer that I'm only cutting it with a hand saw to be safe and not cut through it. :cry: The tight areas I will use a Dremel.
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AtracYota91

New member
I plan on cutting out the spare tire compartment and welding a flat bottom in its place. I will cut a rectangle around the circle in order to weld a nice sheet of 18 gauge steel in. I will use 1"x1" angle for supporting the 20 gallon fuel cell. :p
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Here's a ugly example of what she will look like.
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The bottles are for fun at a push of a button!! :evil: I won't have it hooked anytime soon. I will mount them and plumb lines while the car is striped. That way every thing can be nice and clean tucked away. Anyway one bottle is motor and the other is intercooler. I will use CO2 for that spray bar. Areas for my 2"x3"drop sections. I know I explained this before but here is a better ideal with these next pictures.
Once again this is the drop section picture it flipped with the drop pointing upward to clear the drive shaft.
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One section flipped and countersunk into the rear seats floor. Rite where the floor ends.
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Another flipped section butted up against the front seat mounts pictured here.
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And a flipped section up against the firewall countersunk into floor pan. This is critical there is a number of problems to run into. If to high it will not clear the heater/ac unit. If too low it will not clear the transfer case tail shaft. No matter what it will not clear the foot pedals. There's ways around that.
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Finally the paint. It's hard to tell what color it is in this picture. The color is pretty much a gun metal gray with almost a dark green haze to it.
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I didn't stir it all that well sorry. I am tossing around the ideal of painting it flat. :shrug: or the suspension painted this color but flat and the body gloss... I would really like some thought on the matter?
 

AtracYota91

New member
wakkjobb":1na5a35a said:
Holy hell, that's some serious rust repair there. :shock:

Ooo yeah it's for sure not the average body job. :bangshead: I can't let her go to waste. The good part about this repair is its 100% steel no fiberglass at all.
 

AtracYota91

New member
Pictures of last nights work. Drilled out spot welds on the ST rocker to remove the rear rocker/quarter panel. It came out beautifully.
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Rocker/quarter off. Picture of rocker supports.
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Before
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After ( This is just a mock up.)
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here's a shit ton of spot welds on the rocker drilled half way done with it. I'm going to finish it when I get home from work in another 2 hours. I will keep the pictures Rolling.
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AtracYota91

New member
Who needs to carve turkey on thanksgiving when you can carve rocker panels. :smokes:
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Once I sand off the surface rust and coat it I will weld it.
I have only 27 hours into this rocker and she looks great.
 

AtracYota91

New member
Main rocker supports cut fitted and ready to weld after they get primed. I been busting this out fairly fast for doing this my self. No help from friends on this one. Not bad for being my first body job. I have about 95% of the body work done. After I get all the sheet metal done I will be welding in the 3 drop section supports. I'm thinking about going over every main support of the car and welding full beads acrossed all the spot welded seams. We will see maybe.
Here's a picture of the rocker supports I'm just test fitting.
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Shaggz00

Active member
I really admire your dedication! You're doing a great job, keep it up. Here I am thinking to myself 'How in the hell am I going to fix this rear wheel lip?', and you're replacing whole rockers! Really makes me wish I had the chance to cut out the entire quarter panel from an 89 I saw at the junkyard. Anyways, looks good! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread...
 

AtracYota91

New member
Shaggz00":3dczc9bj said:
I really admire your dedication! You're doing a great job, keep it up. Here I am thinking to myself 'How in the hell am I going to fix this rear wheel lip?', and you're replacing whole rockers! Really makes me wish I had the chance to cut out the entire quarter panel from an 89 I saw at the junkyard. Anyways, looks good! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread...

Thanks is nice to hear good job on a project I'm so dedicated to. Most people don't understand why I'm doing repairs on a car that is just a rusted out celica.... ? They say. But thing is its a piece of history and not many where made. I do it for that reason and basically I don't want what every one else has. It's a lot of work but the 185 is just disappearing. I can't let it go to waste. But about your wheel lip. If I was you I would cut out the whole inner fender with the lip still attached off your donor car. That way it's one solid piece so you can over lap the inner fender with the donor piece. Then cut your lip in to your quarter. Easiest things to fallow as a templet are your spot welds. Spot welds and seam sealer are your best friend when doing stuff like this.
 

Shaggz00

Active member
Yeah, my donor car was at a junkyard, so it was half in the mud. I just took a sawzall to it, and got a section of inner fender and a section of outer skin. I'm a welder by profession, and I do it all, but for some reason automotive sheet metal intimidates me, haha.

Truthfully I really need a whole left quarter, because the back corner has been repaired before (and not well I might add). best thing for me would be to buy a cheap donor car, bring it home, do the sheet metal swap, and junk the rest of the car. I just don't have the time to dedicate at a junkyard removing a whole quarter.

Did you buy one of those special spot weld drill bits?
 
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