Week #21

Got out in the shop Saturday and just plain didn't feel like staring at that trunk area all day so I moved up front to finish dismantling the front
suspension and dash related areas.

After all my gabbin' about windshield removal, I finally got to it. Cut the lip that held the glass in place and out she came, easy as whatever. I was a little anxious to see just what condition the front window channel was in. As stated in an earlier post, it looked real good with the glass in place with only the common stress crack at the cowl on the drivers side. Once I yanked the old gasket from around the frame I was able to confirm it... the front window channel is near perfect all around... nothing but blue paint along the entire lower edge!

After the steering column was removed the dash frame and blower housing came out easy enough. The frame on this car has been severely hacked up for for an old radio installation and will not be used. I have a replacement that only needs the correct color applied. The underdash wiring harness looked very good with only 1 splice that I could see. The bulkhead connector looked questionable. The blower housing is also in excellent shape and will require little or no work... even the insulation behind it was nice. The steering box was no problem along with the K member. I'm still a little skeptical about this car being manual steering. Everything was good and dirty and appeared to have been in place for a long time but the bolts holding the steering box on just didn't require that little extra 'umph' to break them loose...

Question: Would PS absolutely be on the fender tag?

Sunday had me welding on one of the rear lower window channel corners that I had repaired/built. Things when pretty smooth using butt weld joints but I think I'll quit trying to use them on things other than small repairs like the corners. All the posts and direct correspondences I've had with you people, combined with the fact that the two areas I've done so far on this car have taken a lot of extra time and didn't turn out as
good as they could have, brings me to the conclusion that I need to get my head out of my... the sand... and use lap joints with the offset flanges.