Footwell fun

Rust repairs are the worst part of any big restoration. They take forever if done properly and it looks like you haven't achieved anything. All you have is a slightly less rusty car. Nothing shiny or cool happens at this stage, and it can be demoralising!
 I've been fairly busy reconstructing the passenger footwell area and it's nearly done. I just need to finish weld some areas and repair the false foowtwell.
 It took me some time to come up with this final shape:

Also had to repair some rust around the forward end of the transmission tunnel, that patch took some time:

As you can see, I pulled the false footwell panel well up and out of the way for access, this was made easier by the fact it had rusted away from the floor at it's base, and the sill damage had also pulled it away.
 I also straightened the inner sill where it had bent in the impact, and cut a new piece to weld over it. This makes it nice and strong, and straight! Now the inner sill and floor are repaired, that whole area is very strong and I can finish the repairs to the outer sill with a good reference point. Panel repairs are all about doing a layer at a time, ensuring things are kept as they were:

I've also managed to find a good used radiator crossmember and weld that in. For some reason, the crossmember in this car had been removed, it looks like for another vehicle. I guess rust is common in these pieces, at least this one is rust free:

Floored

The replacement floor panels arrived last week, so I got to work and cut the old floors out. I left the seat boxes in place by drilling out their spot welds and cutting through the floors underneath them. pretty easy work.

There was a small area on the passenger's side seat box that will be replaced, I cut that section out whilst the floor was out, much easier at that time. The section will be replaced after the floor is in.
 Some photos trial fitting the floors. The support frame with casters I made is proving itself invaluable, allowing fast, easy access to all parts of the car. Floors were replaced without having to support or jack up the car at all, just sitting on the frame.
  The floor replacement panels are nicely made, very accurate reproductions and in a galvanised finish. I have to repair a small section at the corner of the driver's side where the rear seat bulkhead drops down, but that side is done apart from that.

The passenger's side needs more work. The front floor around the jack point is very rusty and the impact the sill took also caused some damage, so the jack point and front wheel well bulkhead/floor transition area will be rebuilt. I'm going to delete the jack point, they are ridiculously flimsy, I'll take some photos when I have it all apart to prove my point. Basically, all the jack point consists of is the floor sheet, a double angled bracket inside and the angled filler piece in the footwell. The sill is much stronger in this area and I'll be reinforcing both sills in this area to use as jack points on my car.
 I've also opened up the floor under the rear seat. I knew there was rust in there, but it's pretty easy to fix if it hasn't gone too far, all the panels in this area are either flat or have gentle curves, so it's simply a matter of cutting some well fitting cardboard patterns, transferring it to sheet and welding them in. I'll detail that in the next installment. I'll also attack the small amount of parcel shelf rust shown below as well. Again, a fairly easy repair. Both these areas rust on XJS and S1/2/3 sedans when the rear window leaks. The area below the seat rusts badly because water can get in but not out. All Jaguar had to do is use seam sealer on the floor in this area and provide a water drain hole (and seal the windscreens better!).