Less fabrication and much more marking, trimming, and repeating but this was also very satisfying to get done.
This was one of the most hideous rusty areas of the car and it was very satisfying to see it gone.
I made a jig to hold the new piece in the same spot at the old one, since measuring it would have been really tricky.
Bolted in in and out about 20 times to trim everything.
and finally welded in
I still need to fabricate the 2nd layer and put the heater tube mounts back in place, but I'm going to line up the panels around the torsion tube before I finish welding this piece or shape the other layer.
While I am looking at this, a thought occurred to me: why didn't they make the heater tube a solid steel tube, rather than the flexy tube? Seems like it could help stiffen the chassis, since they use a pretty substantial tube and more substantial mounts could easily be added.
Anyone know if that's been done before or is a terrible idea?