MARTS-PL310

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Misc Repairs in 2025 (and earlier). Catching up. A photo essay collection about the little restoration things that happened in 2025 and late 2024. Including: Door jamb paint and latches. Underside roof insulation. Sun visors. Rear package tray. Upholstery on the rear inner rear tubs. Window regulator. Door seals. Door key replacement and ending with my personal odd Bluebird lock out story. Door jamb paint and latches. Door latches, as removed. All the paint was later removed and latches cleaned up. Not the original method as the latches were painted on the car by the factory. I just elected not to do it that way in order to get paint underneath on the jamb and I like the clean look of bare latches. Only the rear latches had shims installed, no idea if the fronts ever did. Installing underside roof insulation. The jute pads are similar to the insulation material I removed a long time ago but perhaps a bit denser. I brush applied Weldwood vinyl top contact cement. Two coats on the jute pads and one on the roof. It can be sprayed also. Pro cement that supposedly resists heat better than the aerosol can material. It stuck the pads on really good! I did the main pad in three sections for ease of install, plus a couple of smaller ones on the sail panels. Notice the under dash heater control panel. This was before I overhauled the heater. I had a little blue diaper soaking up the leakage from the valve. Fixed. The sun visors looked badly worn. So I quickly fixed them up with fresh cardboard and extra matching material that came with the headliner. Not perfect results but much improved. Might do them over again or not. Repairs made to an original and broken package tray. Body filler and glued thin slices of oak backing across the broken area. Painted a close color to match. Repair is not too noticeable. Not shown. Later on I grooved and textured the repair to try and match the imitation leather surface. Insulation padding and vinyl upholstery applied to the inner wheel well tubs. I want to redo the rear lower seat cushion as the edge piping is wavy, out of control and ugly. That was my first crack at upholstery work and not great due to using the wrong size piping foot on the Consew machine. I haven't made the new rear backrest yet as the old top section is vaporized by too much sun and thus not a good pattern. I'll figure that out eventually. Just showing it for kicks and style comparison. The factory original red vinyl sure did color fade. I busted the door regulator by trying to adjust the tight angle the crank handle made against the door card. My bad. Not easily repairable. Luckily I found a replacement regulator on an auction site. Doors seals. Not stock. Modern hollow type, thicker and has higher friction than original low friction skinned over soft foam originals. It seals, but the door closing force is much higher than before. Okay for now. Lastly, the door and trunk locks. There's a background story to this lock as it has some unusual operating characteristics on the Bluebird, I'll get to that later. So the key has been missing for years and since I'm doing a few local drives I wanted a key made to secure the car. Odd discovery, my Craftsman toolbox key fits and with some wiggling it turns the lock. I brought the lock to a long time in business locksmith and had a real key made. Routine job. Unfortunately, I also have to carry separate keys for the aftermarket ignition switch and fuel filler cap locks. Not much I can do about that. NOS ignition switches and matching locking fuel filler caps are very expensive, if you can find them. This is unusual, although I believe some British cars of the fifties operated the same way. You cannot lock the driver's door using the inside handle in the manner of the other three doors. Nor as I discovered, can you unlock/cancel the driver's door from the inside handle but you can open the door from the inside even when it has been locked from the outside! My weird story. This well intentioned special driver door locking feature, designed to keep you from accidentally locking the key in the car, created a problem. Many, many years ago. One day it happened that I figured I could outsmart the system and lock the car fully and take an uninterrupted snooze in a sketchy place by opening the window, reach out and lock the door via the outside key lock. Roll the window up and all is good right? No! I had taken a little nap after driving 300 miles overnight across Washington state to the Idaho border. Got it fully locked up by my special method beforehand, woke up forgetting all about it, took a drive out into the beautiful early morning countryside of rolling Palouse Washington wheat fields, hopped out to perform a bio relief on a remote one lane dirt road, engine running, windows up and my door shut behind me. After finishing my business, to my surprise, the door was still locked, even though I had just opened it from the inside latch but that did NOT cancel the earlier outside lock action. So there I was out in the middle of nowhere, locked out, key in the car and engine running. I solved the dilemma by scrounging in the ditch and found a thin piece of wood that I thought I might fashion into a facsimile of key. And so, after a bit of carving with fingernails and stones, trying other pieces of wood, it worked! Crude as it was, my wooden facsimile key, with a bit of wiggling, unlocked the door and I learned my lesson, just leave it alone and don't try and outsmart the anti-lockout system. Bluebird owner's manual (from a P311), page 11, regarding the driver's door lock operation. If anyone wants to verify this stupid thing I did, Then I suggest leaving the other doors unlocked and windows open.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Exhaust Build Follow Up Rattle Challenges. I'll call this the rattle fix. I'm really not into custom exhaust systems at all. No experience. So I messed up. Don't laugh too much please. Back in Jan. '25 I conceived what should have helped fix the rattle at the crossmember pipe narrow diameter through passage. It did not. A contributing problem is I am missing the OG design restraint here. So as a substitute I made this lateral restraint but that was no help for up and down movement. Eventually a solution was found. What I would really like to do is copy the original design except I lack an old OG part to dissect. The pipe crossmember pass through. You can just faintly see the diamond footprint and threaded holes of the missing restraint system. Internet screenshot captures of the OG pipe design restraint. A bit complicated but I guess it worked until the rubber isolator donut fails. I'm thinking the tricky part is understanding how the rubber isolator is situated inside the metal cylinder-diamond plate assembly. If anybody happens to have one of these things laying around maybe they could examine it and explain the inner details. Or maybe if rotted and unusable just crosscut it and take a photo. In the meantime, what I did. Problem was the pipe would sag after a quick drive around the neighborhood and rattle at the bottom. This was due to the clamp on the other side slipping a bit. I had inverted the way the pipes were flared out at the joint just ahead of the cross member. That's with respect to connecting the front header pipe and aft connecting pipe. I did that because I didn't like the exhaust flow potential leak with the female end on the header pipe. After that joint configuration swap mistake, female (front to aft), I regretted it because the pipes always slipped away from each other. Bad fit up resulted in the downward sag. Anyways, after numerous attempts to get a tighter clamp up, I finally gave in and hit the joint with some tack welds, rather than fully weld the OD, just in case I want to separate it in the future. That fixed it. A bit of oil leaking down from the rocker cover gasket. Noted and fixed. Slippage at the clamp. As witnessed by the high temp silicone trace. Tack welded the bad clamp joint. Might have overshot the upward bias a bit but it doesn't slip loose and rattle anymore. Part two of the exhaust saga. Looking for suggestions for getting a leak free join at the exhaust manifold outlet. The end has a lot of rust craters and the stock clamp doesn't seem ideal. I can see traces of soot no matter how well the manifold is aligned and clamped to the down pipe with the stock clamp. I don't see enough clearance to insert some sort of custom cut exhaust gasket ring in there but maybe? No noticeable exhaust noise, but perhaps risk of CO poisoning? Looking up at the pitted exhaust manifold outlet end. Looking up at the flared end of the exhaust header down pipe attached to the manifold end with the factory clamp. That may be all of my catchup posts for now except maybe some misc little accomplishments such as door jamb final paint, locksmith help on the door key, insulation, door seals. I gotta get back at it and piece the right front fender back together, move on and build some more "test" miles driving around the neighborhood.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Front Suspension Repairs. A little diversion and background before jumping into the suspension nuts and bolts. So I confess bumping/sliding hard into a curb one dark and snowy morning, heading into work with the '61 Bluebird, sometime back the early eighties. Afterwards, there was little use for the Bluebird as the suspension was damaged and steered rough and "irregular." Normally I would have driven my 510 coupe (see old pic scans below) to work but the Bluebird had the better traction tires, "Goodyear Tiempo." Around that same time, I had modified the 510 with Z-car 14 inch wheels and wide low profile tires which didn't play well on snow. Floated and hydroplaned really good! In the dry the wheel and tire combo was super. Anyways, after a long delay the Bluebird suspension bump damage is fixed. A couple of historic pics to supplement the above story for the curious. Datsuns 510 ('71) and 310 ('61) side by side at my parents house in 1979 at Bellevue, Wa. What a huge improvement by the Nissan company over just ten years! The 510 got a huge amount of serious road tripping all over the Western USA back in the day when I was single and could just take off whenever. Second pic of 510 in primer crisscrossing Colorado. Sometime later that summer, I finished the 510 paint in dark metallic blue and swapped in the Z-car wheels (last pic), which looked really cool but was a detriment in bad weather as noted. A couple more historical 510 pics, circa 1981 at Bellevue, Wa. & 1985 at Dallas, TX. Paint job was a quick backyard lacquer spray. The 510 was a nice car that I had upgraded with other things such as a full complement of SW "Stage III" gages and a 5 speed OD trans from a 200SX. I sold the 510 somewhere near Everett, WA. around 1987. No idea what happened to it after that. I kept and still have the SW gage package. Alright back to the topic at hand. I had saved a complete PL311 Bluebird front suspension unit, and full drivetrain mechanicals, from my parts car back in the late seventies when Bluebird parts availability began to dwindle and it seemed like a good idea. It just took awhile to pay off in this case. I started the repair by removing the assembly of left side of car control arms and spindle from the donor front suspension unit. Not shown in the pics and discussion are misc. small things such as bent tie rods swaps, bump stops, reuse of my existing spring, brake backing plate and related. This work was done in Feb. '25. Began a rough clean. Found the use of factory lock wire interesting. Pressure washed it and wire brushed some more. More wire brushing and degreasing, and repeat and repeat, then hit it with paint. Preservation. That should last awhile. Installed the swapped parts. A little more buttoning up and job done. I reused my Monroe shocks as incredibly they are still good, no oil leaks and good ride. Only issue was the shock OD is slightly too big to fit through the lower control arm as intended, I just hung the shock and coil spring before raising and bolting up the lower control arm. Keeping the car garaged and coating the piston rods with light oil spray once in a while probably helped preserve the shocks. Next up, some minor tweaks to my homemade exhaust system to try and stop the rattles back in Jan. '25.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Wheel Restoration. Going back to March and April 2025. View of the existing mismatched and very old wheels and tires. Plus a couple of spare wheels. Two of the wheels don't belong, can you pick them out? I believe those two oddballs would have been fitted to a 410 originally. Those 410 wheels were actually better and stronger from the looks of it. Anyways, I wanted to assemble and restore a matching set of at least four 310, 311 or 312 style wheels which are kind of hard to find now in useable condition. Tire history. Here is couple of close ups of a Sears Allstate branded tire, the one on the lower left above, DOT date coded 42nd week of 1972. Used as a spare only back in the 1970s when the car was last in daily service. That was when only a single digit in the DOT code defined the year of manufacture, current DOT code includes the last two digits of the year of manufacture. All the tires were dismounted and trashed except that one, lower middle, mounted on a 410 wheel since it was only eight years old. The prepped 310 style wheels after being completely stripped to bare metal via hand labor. I used paint remover, knotted wire wheels, rust remover, and metal etching chemicals, all very time consuming. I wish we had nearby and economical sand blasting service but don't. One of the wheels was bent and had to be straightened by a wheel shop that does that very professionally. It just costs. Epoxy primed. Base coat black on the insides and Eastwood 2K Rally wheel paint on the outsides. Then clear coated both sides with PPG catalyzed paint. My trusty Binks Model 7 spray gun was used. Tires all mounted and balanced. Spare mounted on a 410 style wheel is on left. My spare residing in its place with the original cover and plastic trunk liner. Showing off the freshly installed rubber at the local park. My hubcaps are really beat up, curbed, rusted, etc but I might just give them a scrub and pop them on anyways. Same pic as in the thumbnail from the June video. Posting again tomorrow about repairs to the left front suspension control arms and spindle performed last February.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Carburetor Rebuild. During my initial drives around the neighborhood several months ago, the Nikki 2D-30C carburetor was not healthy. Problems were; hesitation, not able to rev fully, and stalling under full throttle. So it was time to deal with it. My objective was to make it perform with little attention to cosmetic appearance, its pretty beat up, although I still need to replace the stainless steel plate float bowl cover with OG glass for monitoring the fuel level. I make do setting the fuel level for now by installing a clear plastic plate temporarily then reinstall the steel plate. Below photo sequence. Pulled the carb off and took some before pictures so I could stand a better chance of reassembling it correctly. I also made a copy of an illustrated Nikki 2D-30C type from an ancient Datsun repair manual. Some years earlier, I had bought an old carb kit that looked like it might be useful, unfortunately it was not a match to any of the 2D-30C parts other than a few washers. There probably are a few correct old stock rebuild kits somewhere, but quite scarce. Not a problem making gaskets but making the accelerator pump cup seal is. In above pic, there is a clip missing that ties the plunger shaft to the lever. Other than some of the washers, these parts were useless. Breaking it open and examining the three main bodies. Making some gaskets. In the middle is my embarrassing accelerator pump "rebuild" where I disassembled the permanent assembly with a bit of heat, removed the press fit retention collar, and replaced what little was left of the original leather cup seal with a thick bit of leather from one of my ancient leather hiking boots. The "new" cup seal resembles a pleated mini skirt due to tiny pie cuts made, looks a little ugly, but surprisingly it still works quite well. Inner views. This was the root of the problem. Float bowl, main jets and the power valve are all dirty, some clogged and corroded. Cleaned up everything but couldn't get the very corroded power jet out. Eventually, after soaking with various concoctions, heating, tapping and repeating eventually got the power valve unthreaded and cleaned up all the corrosion. Functions restored. All the little bits and passages cleaned and ready for reassembly. Using some spec sheets to double check the numbers on the various air bleeds and fuel jets. Trying to prevent mixing and matching mistakes. Building it all back up. I did the lower module first and separate because it makes it much easier to install the vacuum line, and the stacks to keep them clocked and not fall out from the middle body. This is the fun part! I used a bit of stainless steel safety wire to replace the missing clip that keeps the accelerator lever and plunger in contact. These two photos were just taken today, several months later as I didn't capture this earlier. I also gave the engine a good run up as its been sleeping a few months whilst I traveled around the USA a bit. As I concluded the carb job, I already knew the rocker cover was leaking oil, dribbling down the back of the engine and beginning to contaminate the clutch. I just needed to make a new gasket for the cover and all is oil tight again. A very quick and easy job. A sharp eyed viewer will notice the cylinder head is a later unit with the six threaded cover retention bolt holes. The head probably came off of a later model 410, 320 or something similar. It also has the dual valve springs, you know, for high RPM operation. Unknown history. I've filled the six holes with sealant since i'm using an OG "E" 48 HP engine early style cover. That's it for this catch up post. Backing up even further, the next post will probably be about the wheel restorations or maybe the front suspension repairs, haven't decided yet.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Cooling and Heating overhaul & maintenance. So a couple of long outstanding and neglected issues were old hoses and a leaking heat flow control valve. This led to pulling all the hoses, radiator and cabin heater assembly for replacement or repair. And since all that was removed, I gave the engine head and block a good flush with the garden hose. It was remarkably clean though because I had always kept it full of clean anti-freeze. Routine stuff. The heater hoses were 53 years old and the lower radiator hose was the original with the OEM braided sleeving. The heat coolant control valve is integral with the heater core, a brass faucet style with thick washer, which was cracked and leaking onto my new floor. The removed parts all laid out. I cleaned up this hose to read the date code. Since it was never changed in my ownership, beginning in the seventies, it was manufactured Dec. 26, 1972. Not leaking but long overdue for changeout. This is the method of connecting the heater hose to the lower rad hose. I had some trouble taking this apart but some heat from a torch got the hard parts loosened up for reuse. The heater core flow control valve bits. New washer fitted, old one is cracked. After unscrewing the retainer, the valve is supposed to be gently driven out from the back of the core with a drift. The knob end was gouged up pretty bad and it appears someone struggled to pull it out the wrong way with pliers or something previously. They also stuck that ugly sheet metal screw in the knob, which I removed, tapped the hole with threads and installed an internal hex driven pin. Back side of heater housing as it was. I had painted over most of the original gray years ago with black except this side. So I cleaned and prepped it to paint with gray this time around. The ventilation unit which mounts above the heater assembly. Left as is. Rubber duct between ventilator and heater assembly. In good shape fortunately. Rotten rubber firewall tube pass through grommets. Replaced with new of course. Original lower radiator hose. I had some difficulty locating a molded replacement. I bought a hose off eBay that was listed for a 320 pickup but it was 1/8 inch ID too large. I managed to find some rubber adapter sleeves and installed the new hose. Original radiator. I tried to reuse this as it had never leaked. I cleaned it up slightly, made a new pad and then picked all the little rocks out from the fins and tubes. Then it leaked since one of the tiny now removed rocks had hit a tube and penetrated it, plugging it like a cork. Luckily I still had a spare radiator stashed away and it was leak free. Cleaned up thermostat and housing. Glad its not made of corroded aluminum. Cylinder head coolant passages were very clean before flushing. Some sediment but negligible corrosion. Ran water though with the garden hose in every opening and reversed directions, plus with the engine running. Reinstalled the 160F thermostat with an artfully crafted gasket and aviation sealant. Heater parts ready to assemble. Fully assembled heater. I saved the faded original reflective decal and just inked over the cold and hot. Cleaned the backside but didn't paint because no need. Firewall pad view and protruding new hoses ready to connect. I did clean up the insulation pad a bit before the heater went in. The seal around the fresh air inlet duct from the cowl is new. Heater fully installed. Windscreen defog hoses are new. My functional yet bastardized engine bay with all kinds of substitutions over the years. It all works very good but looks like a mongrel of sorts. My current long term wish list for restoring various components to correct OG somewhat: Carb bowl glass cover to replace steel plate. Generator to replace '59 Chevy generator. Voltage regulator to replace generic unit. Four fuse box to replace incorrect six fuse box. Starter solenoid to replace the Ford unit. E1 engine specific distributor (yellow code) to replace E engine distributor (blue code). Fuel pump heat shield (missing). Coolant temperature electric sending unit. I'll probably post next about the carburetor tear down, cleaning, gasket making and fabricating a leather accelerator pump cup seal out my old hiking boot. It was clogged up very bad with gunk and corrosion. No repair kits are available for the two barrel Nikki 2D-30C carb apparently and interchange info on the various internal bits is sketchy at best. Anyways, I made do without a kit and the carb now functions very well.

Part Two of the Datsun Bluebird fender restoration. Repairing the trapped rust between the headlight ring and fender. Cool view from inside out. Spot welds drilled. Surfaces cleaned and the ring is welded back in. Simple yet very time consuming anyway. Fit Check of headlight assembly with my 53 year old Cibie lamps. All is good. Backing up a bit to the inner support. Viewed after rust removal. Just had to later on cut some small areas out and weld in fresh metal. No perforations in the outer skin though, that eventually got sandblasted locally and cleaned up well. Views of the completed metal repairs. Not shown are hours and hours of hammer and dolly work on the numerous panel dents. And I still have to prep and weld the inner support in. My plan for these exterior repairs is to leave them in bare metal until I'm ready to move on to filler and primer work. I'm giving them a temporary preservation via chemical etch and zinc phosphate coating in the meantime. The lower rear quarters are slightly rotted out and ought to be worked next. So the little project prior to this was an overhaul of the engine cooling and cabin heater repair stuff. I'll post that next.

Posting more Datsun 310 Bluebird progress updates, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Right front fender (or guard, wing, whatever) restoration. Part One. The background on this starts with an incorrect replacement P312 fender fitted decades ago. Probably due to the same T-bone crash damage that destroyed the A-post. The difference compared to the P312 is the lack of a concave recess for the unique P310 (and P311) style grill. As is, the grill can't bolt into place on this side and rattles. Anyways, I've always wanted to remedy that and restore the other bits including the rusty inner support and headlamp retaining ring. As it was before I messed with it. Early 2018. I made a masking tape pattern off of the body contour lines from the previously repaired left fender, flipped it over and attached to the right to rough out the cut, leaving a little excess for final trim. And did some localized sand blasting while I had open access. Next, a metal blank of 20G sheet was cleaned up and clamped between a couple of pieces of plywood to form the part. Once beat into shape it was trimmed and tacked in for fit check and final cut marking. Tacked in for good. Had some gaps and the MIG filled those in ok. Welded both sides to allow grinding a nice radius along the body line. Also welded shut the form clamping holes. Moved on to removing and restoring the aft inner support structure. The paint and filler was ground away to locate the factory spot welds and then these were drilled out. In spite of appearances, It eventually cleaned up fairly well starting with an electrolysis bath, chemical rust remover and various abrasives. Some small areas of perforation were cut out and weld repaired. I made a start on the exterior paint and filler removal with chemical paint stripper, covered up to keep it active and not dry up. Alright, I'm about at my photo upload limit. Part two will resume with the headlight ring removal and restoration. I couldn't leave that crusty ring and trapped rust there.

Cruising around in the '61 Datsun Bluebird. I've only been driving it local to sort out minor mechanical issues but its almost ready for the open road! Thumbnail is the fresh restoration of the wheels and shod with new tires last spring.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Glass and Trim. Bluebird is glazed! I finally installed the front and back glass. Other work happened as well. Here's a little photo preview with details to follow shortly.

@j.e.d. Here's a few recent exterior pics of my 63 from over the last four months or so in the Seattle, Washington area. My dad bought it in 1967 and passed it on to me in 1999. Stock except for dual exhaust and aftermarket radio. Rain or shine it gets driven. Cruises smoothly at 70mph on the interstate. Guzzles at 14 mpg. Paint is original Ming Green metallic except for spot repairs years ago to lower rear quarters, sills and hood. Interior, not shown, is a bit shoddy and needs new front bucket seat covers (currently t-shirts wrapped around the seat backs, that sort of thing). Most recent work was the replacement of the cam bore plug on the back of the 352 FE engine after it had come out, got tangled up between the block, adapter plate and flywheel and punched out a chunk of the bell housing...

Love those 63 Galaxies! Keep em rolling. I have similar, a 352, 2dr boxtop, 500 XL, family heirloom, 335k miles and still running smooth and strong. Engine pic from last overhaul 18 years ago. Watch out for that darn secondary hood latch. I painted mine striped but it doesn't help much to prevent the occasional ding on the scalp!

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Prime and Fill. The Pacific Northwest weather dried out a bit this month thus allowing the spray of a couple of coats of epoxy primer. So now I’m doing light filler work to make invisible the imperfections that would otherwise show through the finished paint. These are mostly weld joints and some small rock dings on the doglegs. Not too exciting stuff but I'm aiming for a nice professional look. Initial body filler applied and sanded back. I'll knock down a few high spots and continue with a couple of more thin applications.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Exterior Paint Preparation- Limited. Minor progress today. Bent and beat the previously rolled wheel opening flanges on the doglegs back to original, plus scuffed, cleaned and prepared the outer metal work for painting. As shown, the Bluebird is partially masked up for paint. Plastic wrap will cover the rest from overspray. I'm limiting the scope of the paint work for now from the A-post to the aft end of the doglegs. The rear lower quarters and numerous other exterior body items will be repaired sometime later, perhaps next summer. Each of these other repairs ought to be a lot easier than the monumental project that the floor was. Now I'm waiting for drier weather so I can roll the project outside and start the limited paint process. Just hope I don't have to wait for six months as it gets more rainy here for the next several months. Btw, the orange things are foam ear plugs inserted into all the threaded holes to keep them clear of paint. Applied a bit of POR-15 on the rust scarred forward face of the left A-post. Here I've just bent the rolled flange on the right side dogleg back to original. This leaves a lot of stretched metal ripples that then take a lot of panel beating to smooth it out nice. The remainder of the flange rearward of the dogleg is left in the rolled condition for now. Trouble is, there are two layers of metal (outer skin plus outer wheel tub) rather than the one on the dogleg so it will be more stubborn to restore. Slightly rust scarred on the inside of the flanges but not enough to require cut off and replace. The insides will get POR-15 coated once the contour is made smooth and prepared. It takes only about 15 minutes to unroll one flange using a lever and crescent wrench but then several hours working the dents and ripples reasonably smooth again with these various instruments. Definitely not an ergonomic position for panel beating, very bad for the neck and shoulders.

Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird - Sill Box Close Out Panels - Installation. Welded in the sill box close out panels using an electric spot welder, just like original. Cleaned, etched and weld through primered panels on forward faces. Last views of the prepped sill box insides. Right hand side sill box closure before any repairs were made. Photo taken several years ago. Somewhat rusty. Note PO rolled wheel well flanges on dogleg. Right hand side after lots of new metal welded in. Another old right hand side before for comparison purposes. Quite a rusty mess it was. And after. A couple more from the right side. And a couple of photos from the completed left hand side. Welds are all made by a very heavy and awkward electric spot welder from an ergonomically uncomfortable body position due to the rear axle and brake drum being in the way. I'll probably coat a lot of these inner wheelwell exposed surfaces with some kind of stone guard or lumpy underseal after its all edge sealed, epoxy primered and painted. Way better than original which was asphalt underseal on bare metal only.