Driver’s Rear Bulkhead Repair

The one benefit of having to do an identical repair is that the second time you are much faster at it. It doesn’t necessarily make for riveting content, but perhaps an image or insight here will help someone along the way. Thankfully, the driver’s side was not nearly as corroded as the passenger side. It even had the factory bulkhead jackpoint still intact. The passenger side one likely fell out onto the road at some point.

The process on the driver’s side was very similar, however, much less new metal had to be grafted on.

I started by opening up the forward bulkhead skin. What I find in here is mostly solid except for the outer portion of the wheel well where there is a hole penetrating the bulkhead cavity. I got to work drilling out spot welds and mangling the spring hanger box to get it removed. The downside of the area being more solid is that the parts require more effort to separate from one another. With enough persuasion, the spring hanger box was out and I was ready to install the new one.

The new spring hanger box was installed and welded into place. Next the bulkhead skin was prepped for the opening and welded up. It’s important at this step to mount the forward leaf spring shackles with its four bolts. Doing so now, will ensure when all is welded up the bolts will find their respective holes in the mounts. Finally, a new piece was grafted into the wheel well to close up the cavity. Unlike the passenger side, this cavity will be painted with POR-15 from the bottom prior to installing the new floor. The suspension structural work is now complete!