Made a bit of progress on the 'Cuda. Bought myself a new Miller 140 (thanks for your help on this board members!). Got started welding by chopping up some tire racks at my shop and rewelding them. Seems waaaaay easier than I thought it would be. I've just done it a few times and it's not a terrible process at all. I'm using 75/25 argon co2 and .030 non-flux core welding wire. I'm about ready to start on my floor pan but i've gotta figure out if my panels are correct to go in the car cause I think the guy who I bought the car from bought this metal 10+ years ago. The floorpan looks correct but the trunk pan doesn't. Also, I see both one and two-piece floor pans, which should I get? Gotta still buy spot weld drill bits but I got my grinder pads and wire wheels. Also, should I spot weld the drivers and passenger floor pans or butt weld them??? Gonna try and search some threads to figure this out.
I also took my dash pad out, steering wheel, plastic surrounding pieces etc in an effort not to mess them up when welding, but I don't think i'll go much further with deconstruction of my dash area. I want to cleanup the metal in the area, get the floor pan in, prime it, paint it, and get the car on the road as a driver. When i've got 60K in the bank 5 years down the road maybe i'll do a more comprehensive restoration.
As far as the dash goes, I learned a few lessons, like how everything comes apart with 3/8" or 7/16" sockets/wrenches. Also having only worked on chebbies and fords, it's awesome to me as an engineer that this car's plastic dash pieces are screwed in from the back side instead of the front. Sure it's tougher to get them out, but they're extra solidly held in place and the plastic isn't cracking like my '72 Riviera's junky junk panels. All in all, the cuda dash took me a solid 6 hours to get out of the car. Here are some pics of where i'm at:
