(Click on pics for larger view!)
First thing we had to do was remove all the top body parts off our good frame and find out what we had left. So, the back deck was removed, right down to the top of the frame. About 18" up from the very bottom of the rear valance was retained (the part of the back deck that goes around the bottom of the decklid) and the "cut" was made just above the original factory lap-weld. All the excess metal left over from the upper-removed section was cleaned up, and the new joint that will mate the original bottom valance and the "new upper deck" will be put back just like the factory originally did it. The original lap welds were leaded in, and all the old lead was carefully melted out.
Also, the cowl had to be removed right at the top of the frame. Rear wheel wells were removed, as they were too rotten to save. Front floor pans, rear floor pans, and upper rear deck floor pan (underneath the well wall) were all removed. The only floor pan we saved was the trunk pan. Only some minor repair work was needed there. In the 2nd & 3rd Pic, the back floor pan has yet to be removed. The square hole you see close to the middle of that pan is the convertible top pump well.
The rear floor pan was really bad, so the whole pan was removed. Some of the "L"-channel had to be re-fabricated and put back (see top pic). The "new" floor pan will be spot-welded to these.
