Bulkhead

 What to do with the body and in particular the bulkhead?  My plan was to do only what needed to be done to the body to keep it functioning properly, and not mess with the patina.  That said, the left side A pillar has a rust hole and a dent which needs to be fixed.  After much deliberation I’ve decided to strip the bulkhead before getting that fixed.  This is a serious new “rabbit hole” I’m headed down; a lot of disassembly (and later reassembly) with a lot of chance to break things.  On the upside I can refurb the steering box while I have it off and clean/paint the peddle boxes, and give the engine side of the bulkhead a good cleaning.

I did hit my first snag though; what should have been a straight forward job of removing the steering are has not been.  Even though I have a great puller that has never before failed me, it is not popping off this arm.  After a lot of work I sprayed it down with PB Blaster and left it with max force on it.  Maybe it will pop itself over night.

No luck getting that arm off.  I could put a torch to it but I decided to just remove the complete bracket from the bulkhead and the. I can remove the steering box form the 2 brackets without removing the arm.  Seems like if I can avoid a possible deeper problem I might as well.  Besides, if I'm going to work on the bulkhead it all comes off anyway and while I have it off I'll clean and paint.

I took the cover off the steering box and everything looks good in there so I just put it back together with a new gasket and new gear oil.  When the bulkhead is ready I'll just put it back on in reverse order.

I've removed the pedal boxes (will clean and paint) and the throttle linkage. Next I will remove the clutch and brake lines and then pull out the dash and electrical parts from the other side.

Here is the bulkhead, stripped and ready to have the A-pillar replaced.  I'm going to take it to a guy named Earl that Les Parker knows and used to replace his A-pillars on his D90.