May 31, 2009 - It's been 3 months since my last post but I haven't been idle. I have finally killed and encapsulated the rust on the inside of the longs. Wheww!!! What a job that was. I had to remove the door sills (what a chore too!!). I drilled about 6 holes in each long evenly spaced; if you look hard enough you can see them. Through these holes and the rusted metal holes I cut away front and over each jack mount, I used a spray bottle with wand and sprayed Eastwood's Rust Converter inside. I then used a compressed air blower and blew air into the drip openeings in the bottom of the longs to coat the entire inside of each long. After two coats of the Rust Converter and a week, I then repeated the operation but with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator and waited another week for it all to dry.
I then welded two pieces of sheet metal, one over the front long hole and one over the jack mount as I won't be using it due to not having enough room to carry a spare. I painted the both sides of the sheet metal pieces with Rust Encapsulator as well to keep them from rusting.
Finally, I fit the clam shell over the long. This was very time consuming and took about 2-3 weeks but as you will see it fits very tight. I currently have it mounted with Vise-grips in anticipation of welding it in. I drilled holes every 4 inces along the top and bottom seams for spot welds. I'll probably drill additional weld spot holes along the middle of the clam shell for strength.
I should have both completed by next weekend but only time and the next blog will tell.
