box clever

Just before the inner sill goes on I thought I should show these views of the rear box section/radius arm mounting panel as it will be hidden forever once the sill is on. This view shows how, per factory, there were 3 spot welds on the inner vertical face - these are quite hard to reach, to drill out, when removing the old box section. I resorted to cutting a flap in the bottom face and pushing it down so I could get the drill and spot weld cutter in. It also has 3 spots at the very front connecting to the seat pan vertical face, these can be reached from inside the car. Not visible are the 4 or 5 spots on the top lip which weld to the rear seat pan, again these can be cut out from above. As mentioned before it is vital to get the radius arm mounting boss situated in exactly the right place on this panel or the rear suspension won't locate on the body properly. I also found that the new panel was too 'bold' (becase of the thick metal used) to slot perfectly into the space occupied by the old panel. This isn't too important structurally but small adjutments were made all round to ensure all the edges met up neatly with the original body panels.

this shot shows how lip on box section (effectively an extension of floorpan outer edge) outer is larger than original dimensions

this shot shows where the box section welds onto the original chassis leg and some spot welds on the top lip where it meets the rear seat pan.

this shot shows the two spot welds which attach the box section to the rear of the floorpan area and again the deeper lip at the interface of the floorpan, intermediate panel and box section. front lower edge of inner wheelarch also needs to be plug welded to box section rear lip.