Quote:
Originally Posted by chiboy002
i have no idea how you have enough motivation to do it damon, enlighten me
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lol, I don't know to be honest man. I guess it keeps me somewhat sane in the winter months. This is the point where I get really bummed that I took the car apart and wish I had left it alone though- happens about this time every winter, haha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottie
I commend you on not settling and taking the time to do it right. Looking great so far. I definitely want o hear your impressions of the brakes once she is running again.
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Thanks man, doing what I can haha. I'll for sure post up as much as I can about them when I am done. Should be interesting if nothing else!
I've been able to make some solid progress in the last few days, pretty much all thanks to my good pal and FD extraordinaire (lol) Mike. Mike came out on Friday night last week and we started on welding up all of the holes in the bay. We mostly focused on the small holes for the night and started to make larger pieces to fill all of the bigger holes. This was, for the most part, my first experience with any sort of welding or metal work- interesting to say the least.
Tomato suit is recommended for welding:
Here's how it sat after the first session of welding and grinding Friday night:
On Saturday I did some more grinding and started removing the seam sealer. I found a few areas of surface rust under the sealer in spots, so I am glad Mike told me to consider removing it. Hoping to get that all sorted out before paint:
The strut tower rust was too bad to leave the factory spot welded plate in place, so I ended up completely removing it and clearing all of the rust from underneath out and making a new one out of plate steel. I've still gotta grab a shot of the finished product welded in place:
Where I ended up on Saturday evening:
Last night we had another welding session and made some pretty significant progress. We welded up the openings for the engine harness, AC components, brake lines, fuse boxes/wiring, and welded in a new sheet of metal where the battery tray was. We ran out of wire before we could finish welding, so Mike will have to make one more trip out to help get it all squared away:
In the mean time, I have a lot of grinding to do. Then I'll need to do some research to find out what I need to use as far as filler/sanding materials and seam sealer. Can't wait to be done with the welding and really get this thing ready for paint! I will be so relieved when it is home with the bay all painted and ready for reassembly.