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Ha . . . lack of posting due to much working!
Spent yesterday installing Ron's alternator conversion and brake light switch. Both worked great, as expected. Took a couple trips to the parts store to get the proper battery cables and belt length, but that's the advantage of living a 90 second walk from the store! Replaced the fuel filter, fuel hose, and some suspect vacuum tubing this morning.
I've spent a bulk of my evenings this week trying to get the floors cleaned up. I've got about 95% of the factory sound damping material out of the front and rear floors. Just need to pull the front seats to get the remainder of it. It's a tough job, which is actually a GOOD thing, as it seems like the areas that are in better shape require a LOT more effort to scrape off. Areas where water has been generally come up easier.
As for fixing the floors, I've decided to go for a good, not-great solution. I struggled with the choice, but at the end of the day, I'm not restoring the car, I'm making ice cream runs and trips to get coffee with it. Areas with perforation in the metal (about the size of a dollar bill, each rear footwell) are getting patched with POR15 and fiberglass, a very, very strong and hard combination. I have far, far more experience with fiberglass than I do with sheet metal, and am very comfortable working with it. The undersides of those areas are being scraped clean of undercoating and treated with POR15 as well, then re-undercoated. So far I have one side done like this.
After both sides are done as above. I'm doing the ENTIRE floor from back to front with two coats of Zero Rust paint. It's similar to POR15 but requires much, much less prep and cleanup is much, much easier. I'll also be doing the INSIDES of the structural members down the sides of the car with zero rust and some wool/wire paint "daubers". insides of the trunk and hood supports will be done in a similar fashion.
I know the above isn't the "right" was to fix the rust problem. But hopefully should prevent the known issues from progressing (much) further until I can justify welding in new pans. Should also help prevent any new trouble spots from popping up, even though the car will see much less action in rain or snow going forward.
Since picking the car up, I've sort of felt like it smelled a bit like a zoo, but chalked it up to being an old musty car. While working on the floors, I decided to pull the rear seats, and found what is pretty clearly evidence of a former critter making his home there. Droppings, a little nest made out of seat stuffing, but luckily no dead animal or chewed wiring. The rear seat belts were literally STUCK to the floor with excrement and filth. That was a significant clean up job in and of itself, but smells the lingering smell of citrus degreaser is much better than than the aroma of what was there before!
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