Next on my project list was to fix my rotted out core support. Like a lot of these, the mounting holes were totally rusted through. My also had the luxury of being rusted through where the battery tray sat as well. I believe this was likely due to battery acid leaking on it for the past 50 years, as the other side was in great shape, but who knows for sure?
I started by cutting out the rusted areas using an angle grinder. This was pretty straight-forward on the mounts, but a little trickier on the pinch welds. A little creative grinding, a punch, and a hammer ended up getting it sorted.
The mount spots were just normal squares I cut in some 16 gauge sheet. That seems to be around the same thickness of the stock support in that area. The other repair used 20 gauge sheet, as that material seemed to be much thinner. I only had one bend to make, which was pretty simple on the bench brake.
Finally, it was just a matter of welding in the new plates, grinding it back, and hitting it with some weld through primer. After that had a day or two to dry, I did a serious rust removal job on the core support, hit it with some rust converter, and then to end it off a spray with some semi-gloss enamel.
